Making things more confusing, the first episode of Firefly is titled Serenity.
So you watch Serenity, then the rest of the episodes, then you finish it up by watching Serenity. 
Yeah, if you’ve already seen the movie and liked it, go ahead and see the series. I just wouldn’t intentionally do it that way if you have the option not to.
Heads up for other dense people like me - the actor who plays Jayne, Adam Baldwin, is not one of the “Baldwin Brothers.” You might have seen him in other SF like Independence Day, Predator 2, or X-Files, or perhaps his probably best-known role as “Animal Mother” in Full Metal Jacket. I slapped my forehead when I realized who he was.
You can also see him in the final series of Angel. He cleaned up rather nicely as a suit at Wolfram & Hart.
I don’t know if the two can be fairly compared. Whedon wrote, directed, and produced Serenity. He wrote part or A:R (he had absolutely nothing to do with the ending, for example). The difference in creative control probably obscures any difference in Whedon’s style or writing quality between the two works.
Also as the army coat-wearing bodyguard in My Bodyguard.
I met him during the filming of The Bodyguard; his first film. I was like 14. He was way cute.
My Bodyguard. The Bodyguard was that Whitney Houston glurge that infested our airwaves with IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Will Always Love YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUooooooooooUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
And he was 17 or 18, unless it spent a *lot *of time in post-production. He was born in 1962, and My Bodyguard came out in 1980.
But yeah, way cute. (Awww, it’s a widdle biddy Jayney-poo!)
So . . . the parallels in the themes are strictly coincidence? You seem to be suggesting that because he didn’t have 100% creative control, that he therefore had zero input.
Watching both back to back, as I did–trust me, there’s LOTS to compare. Lot of interesting parallels.
Oh doy. I’m very embarrassed. (Although, I’d like to point out that the song is a great song; it was Whitney’s delivery that was glurgy.)
One of my favorite random things to see Adam Baldwin in was Stargate SG1, where he played the commander of SG13, who gave an absolutley hillarious monologue about the hardships of fatherhood.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love my family! But why do you think I got a job that lets me travel hundreds of lightyears away from them?!”
I saw Serenity when Tivo recorded it as a suggestion. Never heard of it before.
I really liked it. Good bad guy, rational plot, witty dialouge and didn’t go overboard on special effects.
I watched the first episode of Firefly (although it might have been the one that was chronologically first but not broadcasted first), and I’m 45 minutes into the movie, and I don’t know what the big attraction is around here. What a normal show. What sparkling wit? What inventive characters? BtVS and Angel were much more offbeat and quotable.
And had ACTORS WITH EXPERIENCE in Firefly, not just cute kids who never really got the hang of it. I mean, Geller still couldn’t act her way out of a brown paper bag and the rest of her posse is pathetic, though Boreanez has developed range and depth.
BUT Buffy and Firefly are completely different series aimed at completely different audiences. I recall how pissed the Buffistas were when Firefly didn’t turn out to be Buffy Goes to Outer Space.
Sure it was. It was just that Firefly’s Buffy was divided equally between Mal & River.
Well, to give Joss some credit, he wasn’t trying to just do the same thing twice; he had no intention of making “Buffy in Space.” I get that each of his three shows represent three different ideas. I just personally think the Buffy was not only a bigger, better idea, it was also better executed.
And though I totally agree that Geller will never win an Oscar, I must point out the obvious fact Boreanaz is the worst actor of his or any generation. He sucked whatever life there was to be sucked out of Angel. I have no doubt that he was cast as a vampire as a prank by Joss; a conceptual pun on vast talent for sucking, and sucking hard, and sucking long.
I tend to think of it this way: In “Buffy,” Joss was able to explore as much camp as he wanted. I mean, really, the film was a satire. His actors were young (for the most part- let’s not discount the astounding Anthony Stewart Head), his budget was relatively low, and nobody ever expected that it would take off like it did. As for acting, I’d like to give Gellar a break and direct you to the fourth season episode “Who Are You.” Watch how she and Dushku play off of each other: it is, frankly, incredible. Ahem.
“Angel” was, in my opinion, distillation. Conceptual pun aside, Joss got to refine his work, polish certain aspects and discard others.
“Firefly” is, in my view and in the view of other Jossslaves of my acquaintance, his magnum opus. The dialogue is much punchier while retaining that trademark Whedon one-two, the characters are idiosyncratic enough that they are human while, at the same time, refraining from becoming caricatures, and the storylines are great.
So much love for the Joss.
A small note regarding “Buffy in Space:” I’m sure this is common knowledge now, but meh. There was an idea Joss has described wanting to use in a later season of “Firefly.” Spike was to be sitting at a bar at a saloon the characters entered, staring into his drink, and was to have the line, “I’m tellin’ you, nothing ever changes.”
I must have been drunk when I replied to you before, because I missed your implicit slander of Alyson Hannigan.
::pulls glove off hand, slaps dropzone in the kisser::
SWORDS AT DAWN, Sir!
[Captain Reynolds] Sw-what? [/Captian Reynolds]
I also DVR’d the Firefly marathon on Sci-Fi.
While I was watching it, I was trying to figure out why it failed.
I eventually decided on the opening credits. That theme song is terrible. I could watch the teaser, think I might like the show, and be talked out of it by the credits.
Seriously? I mean, I’m perfectly willing to give him the “Most Improved” award, since given his extremely limited gifts, he must have worked very hard indeed to achieve the level of near-adequacy he exhibited in later seasons of Angel. (And really, I *like * the guy, but come on!)
I don’t think that SMG is a horrible actor (albeit certainly not a great one). Unfortunately, by seasons 6 and 7, it was apparent that she was either dismayed by the direction her character took, extremely bored, or both. Her repertoire of emotional conveyance was reduced to sad hand wringing, angry arm crossing, and anime eyes. It made for a nice drinking game, though.