I came to a similar conclusion when watchong an episode where Mal and a crazy con-woman steal an antique. As they punched out guards and made their escape, my attention wandered away, because I’ve seen fighting and running about a zillion times. When they started talking again, I paid more attention.
IIRC, though, they were out of orbit and in space at that point. “Take the helm,” doesn’t necessarily mean “fly the ship,” it could just be, “watch the control panels for any flashing lights or warning sirens.”
Eh. I don’t think either of those are particularly strong examples. You’d naturally expect a spaceship to have vacuum suits, and you’d similarly expect Jayne to have lots of guns. It’s not like they open the episode with the doctor discovering a new medicine just before everyone on the crew gets sick with a disease his medicine happens to be a cure for, ot anything like that. Both episodes would have worked just as well without setting up the life-saving item ahead of time.
True enough, but I think this is mostly because the show got cancelled so soon. They were still in the process of establishing the main characters: they never got a chance to really establish any of the villains. Had the show gone a full season, I don’t think this would be a legitimate complaint.
Hmm. Ok, good point there.
Yeah, I know they’re both weak examples. It’s something I noticed a while ago, and my mind is wandering today and I can’t remember what the specific examples I had in mind were. It was more of an observation of the style.
My point isn’t really that it’s convenient that they’ve magically set it up ahead of time. It’s more than they seem to feel they have to set it up ahead of time - as you say, both episodes would have worked just as well without the prior reference, but still they set it up. They seem to do that a lot - more than is neccesary.
It’s not a major concern anyway. It’s nitpicking - but I’ve got to have something to complain about. 
Eh. Maybe. Still, they just seemed like Generic Evil Guys to me.
My complaint is that after getting most of the physics accurate, they had to have air aound the gun to fire. Whedon admits on the CD “Someone told us it had to have air to fire.”
I didn’t think the Generic Evil Guy was necessarily a problem, just like the Generic Spaceship and the Generic Alien Planet With Breathable Atmosphere. The show is about the main characters, and everything else is just background.
Although it did bother me that the Reavers didn’t seem to have any logical motives at all. What did they gain by attacking that immigrant ship, for example?
Which, along with Mal’s mention that the “survivor” is trying to become a Reaver, indicates they’re insane.
Duly noted. And yeah, that part in Shindig splits my sides with laughter every single time I see it.
Actually they do explain the breathable atmosphere - these worlds are terraformed. Further, serenity isn’t generic at all. She’s a very cranky and individualised spaceship. 
That’s not the point though. The technology doesn’t matter so much: the show is character driven. This means that the supporting characters should be well done, and the villains are lacking in that in my opinion.
Another factor in its favour are the speech patterns, with characters referring casually to “the 'verse” and not feeling the need to explain every little turn of phrase (as if to Data, or something). In a very light way it’s like listening to Shakespeare, where the dialog makes sense but you have to pay attention.
I see no reason speech patterns and slang won’t subtly change in the next ~400 years, just as they have in the last 400.
It does make me curious about Chinese curses, though.
'Whaddya wanna do? Clone him?"
I love the line for its sarcasm, but have to admit it’s possible Jayne was partly-serious.
I did! I did! I **did ** watch it! And I thought it was <insert Chinese curse here>.
Along with the singing, according the commentaries there was some thought that he was going to play Badger. That would have been interesting.
Yeah, yeah. I would have checked it against the DVDs, but as I said, I haven’t freaking seen my DVDs in six months now!!. Grumble, grumble. Stupid sister. Ah, well, at least they’re being put to good use.
If you look closely at the dining area, there are a lot of very cool touches. The table and chairs are made out of honest-to-goodness WOOD, and they appear to have been hand-carved. They would fit in in any Western set. And the walls have been hand-stenciled with leaves and flowers. In one of the DVD interviews, one of the head guys mentions that they wanted to clearly imply that Kylee had decorated the walls herself.
Allow me to offer a dissenting voice. Based on the rave reviews I read here, I rented one of the discs and didn’t find the episodes I watched to be anything special. Above average for a tv series, sure, some nice moments here and there, but nothing that made me want to rent the other three discs.
I had the same experience with Angel and Babylon 5; rented the first couple of discs to give them a chance based on what I read here, and couldn’t see what everyone recommending them seemed to see, even though I love Strazynski’s writing.
Heretic! Burn him! Buuuuurn hiiiiim!
That’s it. I must see this show.
Mal: Ah, the pitter-pat of little feet in great, big combat boots… SHUT UP!!!
This thread’s inspired me to watch my DVDs again. Just finished up watching “Ariel” and had pretty much the same reaction I always do. “God damn this was one of the finest shows ever on television!”
And we’re supposed to accept that insane people can form self-sustaining communities, keep spaceships in working order, etc.? I found that to be a bit of a stretch. Not that it detracted too much from the show, it’s just a nitpick.
While that was a hilarious scene, I liked the earlier cliche’-defying scene better. Zoe is negotiating for the return of her husband and her captain, both taken prisoner by Niska:
Niska: I think this is not enough. Not enough for two. But sufficient, perhaps, for one. [evil grin] Ah… Now you have to…
Zoe: Him.
Niska: …?
Zoe: I’m sorry. You were going to ask me to choose, right? Did you want to finish?
Good point. Maybe they’re insane savants.
The ship they passed was leaking some form of lethal radiation.
Perhaps before they rape, skin and eat (what order do they do that in? But I digress) hapless space farers they make them fix their stuff. Surely they steal their stuff.
No, they left all the stuff behind on the ship that got hit by Reavers.