Author Topic: Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...  (Read 1265 times)

Risasi

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« on: July 01, 2005, 12:45:29 PM »
To ask if the majority here like firefly would be a stupid question.

I bought the whole series too (thanks for the peer pressure, BTW)

And to be quite honest I am SO SICK of hearing about Firefly/Serenity-Lord of the Rings-Star Wars-War of the Worlds-yada, yada-blah, blah...I'm sick of movies in general.

And frankly it's even worse when it comes to a TV series. I don't know, they are just to...unoriginal anymore. Anyway with that said now. I will admit, quite openly, that I think Firefly is clever beyond anything else I have seen lately, especially considering it's a TV series. It's original and fresh. I'll give it a thumbs up.  

BUT, I found as I watched all the episodes over the course of a week or so that I was tiring of the series. Something just wasn't right. Then I realized what it was. It started to turn into every other series. You always know they are going to get out of the jam they're in. They pretend to be ready to kill off one of the cast. Yet everything will work out. Eventually a series will run out of material, and they end up in a rut. It turns into a soap opera. I actually believe if Firefly had stayed around on Fox this is what would have happened to it. It would have faded into the past and you guys would think less of it about now. I say better to burn the show out in a blaze of glory rather than try to ride some dead years dead. (M*A*S*H, Night Court, Gunsmoke :groan:, Happy Days :double groan:, Magnum P.I. Rockford Files, Highlander...the movies or the series) I hope you see what I'm getting at. Some of these just fizzle and I don't think back on them fondly. Then you catch a rerun and you're like "What were they thinking"!!

 Okay, so it still just wasn't dark enough for me. Sorry. SOMEONE NEEDS TO DIE....and not some "the show is going downhill, star leaves to go into the movies" sort of thing. I am talking one of the main characters. Kill one of 'em off. And make it totally nasty. Something so horrendous, you get mad, sad or go into shock. That should change things up a bit.

So my questions to you.

1. Who would you least like to see get killed on in the series?
2. Who would you prefer get killed off?
3. If they killed off character would this be detrimental to the show?

---------------------

I was going to refrain from giving my answer, but:

1. Mal, obviously. River next, she's just starting to get interesting. I would say Jayne, but he needs to go eventually, he's is such a loser it seems like he would fall off or walk away from the pier just as his ship is coming in. Kill him off just before you end the story/series, but keep him around for the long haul. He's your Darth Vader.

2. Kill the Doc. Yeah, that's it. Heat things up between him and the mechanic, then kill him in some horrifying way, perhaps even sacrificing himself to save Kaylee. All the chick's dig a good romance even if it ends horribly.
I don't know any woman who doesn't cry when they watch "An Affair to Remember". Go for that kind of mind twisting tug on the old emotional strings bit.

  My next choice was going to be Wash, but I thought "No, he's too good a pilot to kill. Kill his wife, that would make things interesting". Talk about gut wrenching, you're messing with Wash, you're messing with Mal, she is pretty much the only link to his past".

  The Shepard, he's starting to annoy me. Bump him too, just for yucks.

3.  If you kill these people, it kills the show:

Malcolm Reynolds, duh he owns the ship (hmm, though people would least expect him dead. That would be interesting. No, it would still kill the series I think)

River, like I said she is just getting interesting...

Jayne, at least for now. But they need to make this dude a little less cuddly.


P.S. I hope this universe NEVER goes back to TV series, the worst thing that could happen is syndication. Better it hangs around in movie specials).

TarpleyG

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2005, 01:02:23 PM »
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Okay, so it still just wasn't dark enough for me. Sorry. SOMEONE NEEDS TO DIE....and not some "the show is going downhill, star leaves to go into the movies" sort of thing. I am talking one of the main characters. Kill one of 'em off. And make it totally nasty. Something so horrendous, you get mad, sad or go into shock. That should change things up a bit.
ER is notorious for this kind of stuff.  Mark Greene died of brain cancer, the [tinfoil] surgeon bald guy got squashed by a helicopter (and after previously losing an arm to a tail rotor LOL), who else.  Anyway, keeps the show alive sort of.  Look at the cast now compared to day one.  I don't think there is a single charachter left but it is still watchable for some reason.

Greg

Preacherman

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2005, 01:30:33 PM »
Of course, one of the most interesting things about any TV series or movie ever made is that the plot is central - the culture, artefacts, etc. are incidental.  There are only so many plots.  Let's take the Firefly episode where the gang steals medicines from a train, only to deliver them to the settlement when they realize that these are essential to the residents' survival.  This episode could have been set in medieval Europe (magic mushrooms, anyone?), Renaissance Italy, the Old West of America, the Burmese jungle in World War 2, 1980's Latin America during the "drug wars", or a science fiction future.  It would work just as well in any of these periods, and the changes in costume, equipment, dialogue, etc. necessitated by the period wouldn't affect the plot much, if at all.

What so often causes science fiction movies (and TV series, and books, etc.) to fail is that they get hung up on the technology and the "Gee, whiz!" factor.  If they don't have a strong plot, no technical accoutrements will make up for this lack.  The TV series of Firefly was excellent, to me, in that it incorporated elements from many time periods or "stereotypical" series (e.g. the Old West flavor, particularly in weapons and gun-handling, the sci-fi element in the space travel angle, the "cannibal tribes in the jungles of darkest Africa" theme in the Reavers, etc.).  None of these elements were central to the plot - the plot superseded them all, folded them all together into a seamless whole, and made it work.

Star Trek, on the other hand, is a plot-lover's disaster.  It's cheesy, dorky and pathetic.  It depends solely on technical wizardry and gizmo's to make up for its lack of any resemblance of a decent story-line.  I loathe Star Trek!
Let's put the fun back in dysfunctional!

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Strings

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2005, 07:51:09 PM »
Preacherman, you just (inadvertantly, I'm sure) paraphrased me when I was explaining the difference between Firefly and Star Trek. In a large way, you could boil it down to "Gene Rodenberry was trying to preach social commentary based in a far-flung future, Joss Whedon was trying to tell a good story". And I've noticed, in Joss' work, the story always seems to come first (followed by characters)...

Risasi

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2005, 08:08:04 PM »
Preacherman and Rose,

I agree. The stories are generally good. There were a couple episodes that were hokey enough I was having rolleyes moments. But back to the subject, I believe the show was starting to stagnate a bit. This is why I would hate to see it go back to TV.

I also believe someone needs to die. I mentioned Magnum P.I. earlier. You remember the show? I thought it was awesome when they killed Tom Selleck, then they went and botched it by bringing him back for another year.  So the show faded into obscurity, rather that people getting mad and thinking of the show fondly. They just ruined the whole series. Ya gotta finish well.  And you do that by leaving the audience hanging.

So far judging from the responses I don't see that anybody is going to die.

Guest

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Firefly: Survey Says!! - Or; How I would ruin Firefly...
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2005, 10:16:47 PM »
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They pretend to be ready to kill off one of the cast. Yet everything will work out.
In his previous shows, Joss Whedon has not had too much of a problem with killing off central characters to keep things interesting. He is almost notorious for it. For example, the chief supporting character on Angel was killed halfway through the first season despite being quite likeable.