The Browncoats Rise Again

The Original, One and Only, Hippy of Death writes "There's an interesting read posted on The Weekly Standard website talking about Joss Whedon and the unusual marketing campaign he is waging for the upcoming Serenity/Firefly movie." From the article: "It was ignored and abandoned, and the story should end there--but it doesn't. Because the people who made the show and the people who saw the show--which is, roughly, the same number of people--fell in love with it a little bit. Too much to let it go. . . . In Hollywood, people like that are called unrealistic, quixotic, obsessive. In my world, they're called Browncoats."

Re:Brownstains?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

The episode you saw (also titled Serenity, IIRC) was neither the worst nor the best of the series, but it happened to be one that required having watched a good deal of the series to really get into that particular storyline. This is a problem with a lot of Whedon's work, actually -- not a problem for serious fans, of course, but it does sometimes put off the more casual viewer. OTOH, the long, intricate story arcs in all of his series are one of the reasons the guy has so many dedicated fans, so it cuts both ways. He's telling stories, not episodes; if a story takes one episode to tell, that's great, but he'll also tell it in ten episodes if needed.

If you're willing to give Firefly another shot, I'd recommend finding someone who has the DVD boxed set, and watching the series premiere (the real premiere, the two-hour one, not the fairly mediocre episode that Fox actually showed first) and then, if you like it, watching the rest of the episodes in sequence.

What's so great about it? Well, for me, it's pretty much the same stuff I think is so great about all of Whedon's work to date: terrific dialogue, immensely likable characters, intricate storytelling, and a willingness both to use cliches as needed and then discard them the instant they're no longer useful. Buffy, Angel, and Firefly all managed to surprise me, repeatedly, just when I thought I was being led down a familiar path. Hardly any TV shows ever do that, and few enough movies.

It's the characters who make it work, ultimately. You may not always agree with them, or admire them, or even understand them, but you like them, and you care what happens to them. They're not archetypes; they are, even when they're fighting vampires or flying spaceships, people you feel like you could sit down and have a beer with. This is Whedon's great talent, and it's what keeps his fans coming back to his work.

Not sure if this answer is un-cult-like enough for you, but it's what I've got. ;)

Re:Just saw a preview a couple of days ago ...

[cybrpnk2]

Check out the Serenity trailer online [serenitymovie.com].

Re:Just saw a preview a couple of days ago ...

[chrysrobyn]

Warning for the paranoid or purists, parent poster is a referrer link. If you have a problem with that, don't click. If you don't care, no worries.

Re:Joss Whedon

[Anonymous Coward]

Ac because I moderated this thread. The preview to Serenity appears to be a hot girl kicking ass because that's what appeals to people. The actual series has one girl who does any ass kicking, and she is not a member of the crew. The girl you see in the preview doing the ass kicking has a storyline about her that explains somewhat what is going on, but throughout the series she does 0 kicking.

Also, having seen small amounts of the series Angel, I don't believe that there are girls kicking ass in it.

Re:Joss Whedon

[toxfox]

Why stay on the outside? Borrow or rent a few DVDs and watch a few episodes of any of his shows. On TV, you'll find reruns of Buffy on FX, Angel on TNT, and in July, Firefly on SciFi. Overall, Whedon fans trend slightly more female than male. I managed to get tickets to the most recent "Serenity" screening, and the crowd looked to be about 50-50 men and women. And slightly older than I was expecting - I think the 30-somethings were most strongly represented. The "deeper thread" that draws in fans is primarily the characters themselves, their individual arcs and their relationships. The creative supernatural or scifi worlds he's created are certainly a great part of the fun of being a Whedon fan, but the resonance of the shows comes from the dynamic of the created families for each series.

Re:Brownstains?

[ctr2sprt]

He's not talking about "Serenity," he's talking about "Out of Gas." Technically spoilers, but nothing you don't learn from the first five minutes of the episode:

It starts with Mal clutching a piece of machinery, then falling to the deck where his blood drips through the grate. Followed by a flashback to when he buys Serenity (the ship) and enlists the crew (not the passengers, whose enlistment is depicted in "Serenity" the pilot).

"Out of Gas" is the best episode in the series, but only if you've watched all the ones leading up to it and so have an attachment to all the characters already. It is the worst episode to watch first.

100 posts and a +5 mod for the parent, yet I'm the first one to point this out. Does that seem right to you?