Not being a vampire fan I had never really seen Buffy in its various iterations despite what I’d heard about it. nor much of anything else by Whedon save Toy Story so I came info Serenity stone cold.
It blew me away, earning ten stars in my IMdb rating, rarely done. On getting home I rented the Firefly discs from Netflix, then halfway through those, bought the set. You could say I liked it.
Even without knowing the characters, they were fleshed out well enough for the movie for even a Whedon novice like me to follow their relationships with each other.
If you haven’t already, you might also check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along. Very campy but extremely brilliant and funny. Nathan Fillion goes crazy camp with his character and he’s hysterical.
Just a word of warning, there is a LOT of hype for Firefly. You may want to temper your expectations a bit . I enjoyed the show, thought it was good, but some of the fanbase wants to put it up on the pantheon of greatest sci-fi show ever. A few people I knew ended up not really liking it because their expectations were pumped so high for it.
Firefly is more of a story about relationships and interactions between the characters that just happens to be sort of sci-fi. It’s the relationships that suck you in. So if you don’t like that kind of story (prefer hard sci fi or whatever) then it might not resonate.
This is nearly exactly the opposite review of Agents of SHIELD than most of its fans would give.
Most say that the the moment you said it declined is the moment that it stopped limping along and kicked into high gear. I’m a huge Whedon fan, and a huge AoS fan. No, he wasn’t that involved in it, but his brother and sister-in-law who ran the show learned a lot from him, and his influence shows throughout the series, which is phenomenal. If it feels slow at first, stick it out though season 1, or more specifically season 1, episode 17..
Sorry, I phrased that clumsily. I mean that the premise of Firefly seemed familiar, while the premise of Dollhuose seemed to be predictable/repetitive. And indeed that was the way it was developed in the first few episodes (mission of the week). I found those sufficiently entertaining but the show would not have captivated me if it would have continued int hat vein.
Incidetntally, the idea of reprogramming personalities is a plto device that was used quite frequently in single episodes of many a TV show in the nineties, IIRC. The series Nowhere man was built around it. But admittedly Dollhouse took the idea to the extreme, as a commercial ‘rental’ service instead of a secret service operation.
It was apparently a life changing event for some of my friends. From 2002-2006 I couldn’t get some of my friends to shut up about it. They went to Brownshirt events, got tattoos, and just incorporated it into their life. I finally watched it, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t change my life.
And a punch in the gut at the end. I didn’t see it on the Web but in a theater to fill out a CSTS the September after it was out. I mentioned seen it yet to a couple friends and they just smiled. On coming out of the theater I just said, “Damn!”
An interesting aside, I was watching Roseanne Halloweeen episodes this weekend (some hold up fairly well, especially the first 2) and Joss Whedon’s name showed up on the credits. I either forgot or never realized Whedon wrote for Roseanne. Joss and Roseanne: The Early Career of Joss Whedon
. I enjoyed the show, thought it was good, but some of the fanbase wants to put it up on the pantheon of greatest sci-fi show ever. A few people I knew ended up not really liking it because their expectations were pumped so high for it.
What shows have you been watching? (serious question. I know of nothing quite like it.)