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Firefly/Serenity appreciation thread of You can't take the sky from me.
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DarkJediKnight
Member
GDJustin said:
Dude, it was only like 12 or 14 episodes. It never got its ball rolling where it could work on the plot. With a cast of 9, you have to flesh out the character first. And I think they did that.
DarkJediKnight said:
*shrug*
I still liked it. I just don't fawn over it. I think part of the reason I push back in the other direction is because everyone across the internet solely blames Fox. Yes, Fox airing the episodes out of order made it pretty much impossible for the show to develop a following, but let me ask you this:
If the episodes had been aired in the order intended, do you think Firefly would have had ratings high enough to justify renewal?
To me, the answer is very obviously "no," so I have a hard time being too upset with Fox. Firefly is a Sci-Fi Western with no big names. It was stillborn from conception on network TV. Even if it was pretty good, most of the time.
GDJustin said:
I think Fox is prone to canceling any show that isn't either a breakout hit from the moment it airs or dirt cheap. It's not a question of whether Firefly had ratings high enough to satisfy Fox executives, it's a question of whether the show could have flourished had they treated the show properly (read: aired the episodes in their proper order and in a consistent timeslot) and let it develop an audience. Considering the cult following the show now has, I think it's obvious that they threw away a Buffy-level success.
FnordChan
straydog1980
Banned
I want serenity on bluray!!!! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 
FnordChan said:
No, see it IS a question of ratings and potential; at least, that was the question I was asking.. Now you're trying to change the question
If you think eps 1-14 had been aired in the right order, and in the right timeslot, would enough people have tuned in?
The answer is very obviously "no." Firefly is good TV, but its incredibly quirky, niche TV. Buffy was a hit, but out of the millions that MADE it a hit, maybe (maybe) 10% know who Whedon is.
Firefly is just waaaay to niche to have ever made it, even under ideal conditions. The show is a cult hit now, but that's because people have had five years to wrap their head around it, and tell their friends about it. The idea of the show making it week-to-week, during its initial run when it was brand new and no one knew it... its incredibly far-fetched.
To sum up my stance:
1) Firefly was good, but not "omg amazing."
2) Fox fucked up and eliminated any chance the show had at making it.
3) The show wouldn't have made it anyway because it's a quirky Sci-Fi Western running in primetime time slots that are dominated by situational sitcoms and procedural police dramas. And ER shows.
GDJustin said:No, see it IS a question of ratings and potential; at least, that was the question I was asking.. Now you're trying to change the question
I'm changing the question in order to reflect Fox's history of canning shows left and right without giving them a chance. I'm not saying I necessarily expected their execs to do otherwise, mind you, but it seems to be that there are an inordinate number of Fox shows that just aren't given a chance to reach an audience. Considering the popularity of TV shows on DVD, I hope TV execs are starting to understand that giving a show a chance to gather an audience can pay off in the long (or, really, mid-term) run with box set sales.
Would Firefly have succeeded had it not been given the shaft by Fox? Hard to say. You could be right and the show was just too quirky to find an audience. However, quirkier shows have succeeded in the past, and considering the word of mouth Firefly has received since - and it was getting amazing buzz shortly after it's DVD release, not just in the past year or so - I think it showed the potential to sustain itself quite nicely.
Was the show "OMG amazing"? In it's best episodes, I think Firefly made for damn fine television, and even it's mediocre episodes were perfectly solid fare. However, what it's fans, myself among them, really mourn is the lost opportunity to see the show fully fleshed out and able to achieve it's potential over the course of a full season or two. Thankfully, we got the movie, which provided a short version of the two-season outline Whedon was working on, so in the end there's at least an ending. But, man, I would have been happy to watch a whole helluva lot more Firefly than that.
Of course, we should probably be thankful to get as much of the series as we did. Drive (also produced by Tim Minear) went from a 13 episode half-season commission to a 6 episode half-season, of which two episodes were broadcast before being cancelled, two more aired later, the last two were promised to reach broadcast, were delayed, were cancelled, and finally showed up on Fox's website briefly before vanishing for good. Now, that's a brutal shafting. I wonder why Minear even bothers to pitch shows to Fox anymore.
FnordChan
Cornballer
Member
...and this one, too:Des0lar said:
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