NSR: 'Firefly'/'Serenity'

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NSR: 'Firefly'/'Serenity'

Post by myras_girls »

I only bring it up because we were having a 'verse discussion in Portland_Rider's topic about painting his scoot. And now that I think about it all my scooter friends who've seen 'Firefly' love it. Have you seen it?

Best Buy has 'Firefly' The Complete Series on sale for $12.99. $12.99! that's crazy cheap!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Firefly%3A+ ... id=1324175
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Post by Tocsik »

Firefly/Serenity is amazing. How it was ever cancelled is beyond my understanding. I know it's all about ratings but if it would have been tried on another network or at another time, I'm sure it would have endured.

Watch the extra features on the DVD's (esp. Serenity) and you will get some great info. Imagine, a show gets cancelled but the cast, crew and fans are so devoted to it that a feature length, big budget film gets made after it's cancellation!

The cast, scripts, directing and special effects were/are some of the best ever. Nathan Fillion has become one of my favorite actors. He has been on Castle for a while now but I haven't let myself get "hooked" on it. Now, you are starting to see the rest of the cast show up in other projects.

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Post by laxer »

Absolutely fantastic show (and film)! The characters are deep and complex. For those of you who haven't seen it, I'd describe it as a sci-fi western, but that doesn't really do it justice.
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Post by myras_girls »

It really is sad that it was canceled so quick because I truly believe it had potential to be the best television show of all time.

I have been enjoying 'Castle', though it's no where near as good as 'Firefly'. But if you're a 'Firefly' fan, you should check out this 35 second clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3pdj9p6yI

And yes, I have seen 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'. Sheer brilliance, I tell you!
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Post by TVB »

I watched an episode or two, and didn't bother watching any further. I saw the movie thinking maybe I'd been too hasty... and had the same reaction. I'm an old Trekkie with every episode but one of The Next Generation and all of Babylon 5 on VHS, so I certainly don't judge anyone for getting all fannish over it. But my impression Firefly was "a western with ray guns", and I generally find westerns boring, and I find the ray guns the least interesting part of science fiction. Sorry.
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Post by rsrider »

Only the ships had energy beam weapons, the crew carried normal ballistic weapons. Strangely enough, I watched Serenity last night.......They killed me with a sword Mel, how weird is that?......AND I was just in Best Buy today looking at PS3's. arg wish I would have known about the Firefly deal......BTW: the PS3 250 gig is releasing Nov. 3, double the HD capacity for just $50 more. after going to Game Stop the kid told me about the new PS3 and I decided to wait a couple days to make my decision, hoping for some possible bundle deals. But Firefly was awesome!
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Post by Quo Vadimus »

Um, if you like Nathan and Firefly/Serenity, you'd best see the Halloween Castle episode (http://www.hulu.com/watch/104731/castle-vampire-weekend - I think they're starting to charge pretty soon, so catch it quick!). You only have to watch the first minute or so if you're not into detective shows. But the show does let Nathan play with his particular humor quite a bit.
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Post by TVB »

rsrider wrote:Only the ships had energy beam weapons, the crew carried normal ballistic weapons.
I stand corrected. So it was a western without ray guns. Where I come from, we just call that "a western". :)
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Post by Syd »

TVB wrote:
rsrider wrote:Only the ships had energy beam weapons, the crew carried normal ballistic weapons.
I stand corrected. So it was a western without ray guns. Where I come from, we just call that "a western". :)
Odd that you didn't like it TVB, what with you being from the west and all. :wink:

I agree with you, though, the best part of good Sci Fi is not the technology but the story. I'd say the same can be said of westerns. And I thought the story in Firefly was good. But that's taste, and as the Romans said "De gustibus non est disputandum"
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Re: NSR: 'Firefly'/'Serenity'

Post by Lostmycage »

myras_girls wrote:I only bring it up because we were having a 'verse discussion in Portland_Rider's topic about painting his scoot. And now that I think about it all my scooter friends who've seen 'Firefly' love it. Have you seen it?

Best Buy has 'Firefly' The Complete Series on sale for $12.99. $12.99! that's crazy cheap!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Firefly%3A+ ... id=1324175
I wanted to say thanks for this thread. Before I could even respond we were out the door and we just got through watching the first and part of the second disc. This is a fantastic deal. Fantastic show too!

I saw the Castle Halloween episode the other day. I almost lost it.

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Post by rsrider »

Almost makes you wonder if the studio is releasing this set so cheaply through Best Buy to gauge interest in the show and see if a movie sequel is viable. Hollywood has run out of ideas....I mean they're going to redo MAD MAX for christos sake.....how can you even think of redoing MAX? it's sacrilege.... :cry:
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Post by Lostmycage »

rsrider wrote:Almost makes you wonder if the studio is releasing this set so cheaply through Best Buy to gauge interest in the show and see if a movie sequel is viable. Hollywood has run out of ideas....I mean they're going to redo MAD MAX for christos sake.....how can you even think of redoing MAX? it's sacrilege.... :cry:
Yeah, they ran out of ideas a while back. I've not been to a movie theater in quite a while. It's probably just BB reducing stock... I've found a few of my favorite series screwed up by Fox on DVD in the past for cheap: Family Guy, Arrested Development ($30!) and now Firefly. I found Serenity for about $5 not too long ago and I of course couldn't resist.

Damned shame.
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Post by myras_girls »

Syd wrote:
TVB wrote:
rsrider wrote:Only the ships had energy beam weapons, the crew carried normal ballistic weapons.
I stand corrected. So it was a western without ray guns. Where I come from, we just call that "a western". :)
Odd that you didn't like it TVB, what with you being from the west and all. :wink:

I agree with you, though, the best part of good Sci Fi is not the technology but the story. I'd say the same can be said of westerns. And I thought the story in Firefly was good. But that's taste, and as the Romans said "De gustibus non est disputandum"
I was willing to give the show a chance from the start because I'm a huge Buffy/Angel fan and Firefly was created by Joss Whedon. The first few eps are good but not great. Of course if you watch the actual first episode first I think the show if off to a better start. Fox didn't think the pilot episode, "Serenity", was exciting enough and made Joss do a re-write on "Train Job" and then they aired "Train Job" as the first episode.

As the show moves along it just gets better and better, imo. It's a very character driven show with witty dialog- pretty much right up my alley.

Lostmycage, so glad I could help feed your addiction. ;) It really is a great deal. I went to Best Buy and bought 4 copies of the dvd. Of course I already own it on dvd but for $12.99 I suspect some people I know will be getting it for Christmas. hehe.
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Post by Lostmycage »

myras_girls wrote: I was willing to give the show a chance from the start because I'm a huge Buffy/Angel fan and Firefly was created by Joss Whedon. The first few eps are good but not great. Of course if you watch the actual first episode first I think the show if off to a better start. Fox didn't think the pilot episode, "Serenity", was exciting enough and made Joss do a re-write on "Train Job" and then they aired "Train Job" as the first episode.

As the show moves along it just gets better and better, imo. It's a very character driven show with witty dialog- pretty much right up my alley.

Lostmycage, so glad I could help feed your addiction. ;) It really is a great deal. I went to Best Buy and bought 4 copies of the dvd. Of course I already own it on dvd but for $12.99 I suspect some people I know will be getting it for Christmas. hehe.
I think you've got that right on. I was rather fortunate in one aspect and unfortunate in another. I got to see them all in order (Serenity episode first) but I missed out when they were on the air. I remember trying a few times to see it on the air, but Fox had preempted it with some non consequential sport. I gave up after a while - 2-3 weeks not being able to see it because it got bumped by sports. Once I finally got around to seeing it, I was quite livid that I had missed it.

I'm pretty happy to finally be able to show it to my wife (whose never seen it before). I think this will help us get through the fall drudgery that they call a lineup this season. I guess the rest of the time I'll just go out for a ride. Riding always helps. :)
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Post by rsrider »

If Best Buy will offer Space: Above and Beyond for $12 next, that would be sweeeeeet. 8)
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Post by MarsR »

Oh, I love that show. I saw the movie first (I'd never heard of Firefly before) and loved it! Then one day I saw the series on DVD and bought it ($12.99 would have been nice.) I've watched the entire series twice now. And yes, the opening to the Halloween Castle was fun. :lol:
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Post by alienmeatsack »

I am a huge fan of the show as well as the movie. Joss is a genius! (Well, dollhouse aside.)

Someone in another forum mentioned this Best Buy pricing, I wonder how long it's good for... I might pick a few up. Last time they were on sale for $19, I bought likr 3-4 and gave them to people.

It's wierd how this show, unlike any other, has such a magical vibe... And every single person I've recommended it to LOVED it. And somehow it got canned. Wierd.
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Post by Quo Vadimus »

alienmeatsack wrote:Joss is a genius! (Well, dollhouse aside.)
Uhhh, yeah. What happened there? I hate Eliza Dushku to begin with, but we tried it anyway and... no way I'd be watching that show even if Zooey Deschanel were the star. Well, okay, maybe if it were Zooey, but no one else!
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Post by myras_girls »

Quo Vadimus wrote:
alienmeatsack wrote:Joss is a genius! (Well, dollhouse aside.)
Uhhh, yeah. What happened there? I hate Eliza Dushku to begin with, but we tried it anyway and... no way I'd be watching that show even if Zooey Deschanel were the star. Well, okay, maybe if it were Zooey, but no one else!
Agreed! I wanted Dollhouse to be good, even though I am not a huge fan of Eliza Dushku, but yea, it's just not that great. Sorry, Joss! (Though I do feel it would be a lot stronger with a diverse actress like Zooey Deschanel or Summer Glau or Amy Acker.)
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Post by alienmeatsack »

Not sure what happened with DH.

I think like you said, part of the problem is Eliza. She is pretty, but she is herself in everything. She made no real effort to pull a Sam Beckett and try to act like a different person, beyond the new clothing. (IMHO)

There was a lot of potential with all the "whos a doll?" stuff. I just could not get into it.

I did watch all of S1... and it was mediocre until the last few episodes. And that unaired finale was awesome (the future thing).

I keep hoping Joss will find his stride again on TV.

Until then, we can always watch FF/Serenity, Buffy/Angel and Dr. H. :)
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Post by broke »

PERFECT! I had a $15 gift certificate to Best Buy sitting in my pocket for the last 6 months because there was nothing that I wanted that I didn't have to spend a bunch MORE money than $15 to get. It expires next week, so this was perfect timing! At lunch I went for a scooter ride and stopped at Best Buy. I got FF _AND_ Milk Duds!
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Post by alienmeatsack »

broke, sounds like a FF night is in order tonight!

I've been thinking about it myself again lately too. Been a while since I watched em all on the TV. Last times thru were on my iPhone.
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Post by ericalm »

If anyone wants to read my opinion on what's wrong with Dollhouse:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox ... aming.html

It's a rather lengthy analysis of the show and the second season premiere, but it's held true through subsequent episodes.

I wasn't a Castle fan at first, mostly because I thought Stana Katic was too stiff to be paired with Fillion. It's much improved in season 2, though. Now I just want to know how it is a NYC cop can afford designer cocktail dresses.
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Post by myras_girls »

ericalm wrote:If anyone wants to read my opinion on what's wrong with Dollhouse:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox ... aming.html

It's a rather lengthy analysis of the show and the second season premiere, but it's held true through subsequent episodes.

I wasn't a Castle fan at first, mostly because I thought Stana Katic was too stiff to be paired with Fillion. It's much improved in season 2, though. Now I just want to know how it is a NYC cop can afford designer cocktail dresses.
Great article, Eric. I couldn't agree more. I really wish 'Dollhouse' had turned out better but it's really nowhere near any of Joss' other shows. It's just too bad that Dollhouse got a second chance when Firefly did not. I often scratch my head wondering what Fox is thinking.

Castle definitely grew on me over time. It's not fantastic but I enjoy it. I just started re-watching 'Moonlighting' on dvd and 20 minutes in to the pilot episode I realized it's the same basic formula as Castle. Only Detective Beckett is no where near as feisty as Maddie Hayes. Castle is still a guilty pleasure, though.

Who's looking forward to 'V'? It's got Morena Baccarin from 'Firefly'. Yay!
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Post by Lostmycage »

Hey now, don't you go getting me hooked on anymore TV shows. You're going to start cutting into my riding time.
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Post by alienmeatsack »

Also a fan of Castle. Glad to see him in a role that works and might actually be around a while.

Drive was real crap.

Would also love to see more of the FF/Serenity alumni in stuff that didnt suck or was not cancelled.
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Post by ericalm »

myras_girls wrote:Who's looking forward to 'V'? It's got Morena Baccarin from 'Firefly'. Yay!
I've seen the first episode and liked it. I think it's got a lot of potential, but they've already run into production problems and have replaced a key behind the scenes position. Hopefully, it'll do well tonight and at least have a chance to win over an audience.
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Post by alienmeatsack »

Yeah, the V pilot was kick ass. if it keeps at this pace it could be a real winner.

So nice to see the GORGEOUS Morena in something again (Heartland on TNT iddnt count). And Alan too.
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Post by Lostmycage »

alienmeatsack wrote:Yeah, the V pilot was kick ass. if it keeps at this pace it could be a real winner.

So nice to see the GORGEOUS Morena in something again (Heartland on TNT iddnt count). And Alan too.
I'm guessing you didn't get the pleasure of having the pilot preempted by the loosing gubernatorial candidate's speech. As soon as Walsh was killed (AGAIN!?!! WTF is with that dude?!) my local channel switched over to about 15 minutes of unneeded cheering and a humble-pie speech about how he was going to "keep fighting". Both candidates ran smear campaigns so I could not possibly care less, I'd have voted for a janitor if there was one on the ballot.

We watched the rest of the "Our Mrs Reynolds" episode when it became apparent that the political hot air wasn't going to be short. I guess I'll be visiting Hulu at work tomorrow. Thank goodness for mindless portions of our jobs, right?

Now, I'm gonna go watch an episode of Enterprise before bed.

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Post by alienmeatsack »

Lmc, you are a geek and I salute you. You have a nice pleasing response to what I'd blow up about (and probably call the station and yell), then give me your geek cred, and then, layer more geek cred on with your Enterprise reference.

You do know that Enterprise was cancelled, right?
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Post by Lostmycage »

You mean murdered? Yeah, I know. It still plays on my home servers, though :)
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Post by pugbuddy »

I enjoyed the character interaction on Firefly but the scripts were uneven, at best. It had a lot of potential though and I enjoyed Serenity quite a bit.

V was boring and cliche-ridden to me. I like what TMQ wrote about it, though:
In television news, the big-budget remake of the kitschy 1980s sci-fi series "V" begins Tuesday night. Word is the special effects are movie-quality, while the amusingly tacky tone has been replaced by somber and serious. The space-alien mega-babe who is the invaders' sinister leader is played by Morena Baccarin, who also played a space-alien mega-babe who was the sinister leader of aliens attacking Earth in the SyFy Channel series "Stargate SG-1." Baccarin is the first actress ever to be typecast as a sinister space-alien mega-babe scheming to rule Earth! On "Stargate," she wore a revealing outfit that looked like a bondage harness -- after all, who can say what norms of personal appearance may be on other planets? -- though in the new series, she is modestly attired. Must be the difference between cable and network TV. TMQ warned two years ago, "Spacemen of the future: Should you ever encounter on an alien world a gorgeous mega-babe wearing nothing but strap-up heels and a bondage harness, run! She's a sinister superbeing!"

In the kitschy "V" of the 1980s, the aliens' ultimate plan was to steal Earth's water. Since water is a common substance in the universe -- comets are mainly water-ice -- this made little sense. The Oort Cloud on the boundary of our solar system contains orders of magnitude more water than Earth's oceans, right there for the taking. Reptilian aliens wouldn't need to engage in complex conspiracies, let alone dress in latex masks, to get that water -- they could have all they want. What will be the aliens' sinister purpose in the new "V"? Please don't tell me they've come to steal our resources. The Milky Way offers essentially infinite resources, the bulk of them available without having to overcome resistance on a populated world.
Castle is a watchable show and a Fillion is always enjoyable, IMHO.

Buffy was good for three or four seasons or so and then just died horribly. I never watched Angel. IMHO, Whedon has great ideas and they usually start off very well but he has a habit of hanging onto his shows too long and pretty much ruining them by the end of the run.
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Post by Lostmycage »

I'll watch any of that over reality television any day of the week.

You've got to give the stations a little bit of a break here. They've been stuck on the mind numbing petty meat hooks of "Reality" television that's lead to a real loss in intelligent writing.

Sure, some of these shows are extremely predictable and shallow, but the networks have to ease back into story-driven programing. It's always a bit rough when you go back to something you're out of practice on.
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Post by ericalm »

V had the highest rated debut of any scripted show this season.

The reality show glut is a symptom, not a cause. The problem is that the major TV networks no longer know how to make money. Reality shows are cheap and bring in ratings and advertisers. They're much less of a risk than a new scripted program. For the cable reality shows (Real Housewives, Kardashians, MTV, VH1, etc.) it's all about numbers. Those networks have all tried more serious or "legitimate" programming. It's this shallow stuff that brings in the viewers.

Not all reality TV is bad. I'll stand by Top Chef, Runway, and even So You Think You Can Dance. Mythbusters!

The better written series such as Mad Men and some of the others on cable couldn't survive on the larger networks. Even some of the shows that have scraped by ("Chuck") survive thanks to product placements. The reason NBC is airing Leno in prime time is that it's so cheap to produce it can get far lower ratings than they'd need for a scripted show and still make them money. They've been so unsuccessful the past several seasons that they've essentially opted out of one hour of primetime.

Unfortunately, this means shows like Dollhouse get renewed while better shows with bigger budgets—and even higher ratings—get cut (e.g., Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles). The reasoning behind which pilots get picked up and which shows get renewed is more complex than ever and often has little to do with the quality of the shows.

I did a piece at the beginning of the season on 16 pilots that were produced but which the networks didn't pick up (here). Some are clearly duds, but I bet a few of them would have fared better than some of the shows that did get picked up.
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Post by Lostmycage »

ericalm wrote:Not all reality TV is bad. I'll stand by Top Chef, Runway, and even So You Think You Can Dance. Mythbusters!
I completely see you point in the above post with the exception of this line. Mythbusters is not what I'd consider reality television. It's Science!
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Post by laxer »

Lostmycage wrote:
ericalm wrote:Not all reality TV is bad. I'll stand by Top Chef, Runway, and even So You Think You Can Dance. Mythbusters!
I completely see you point in the above post with the exception of this line. Mythbusters is not what I'd consider reality television. It's Science!
Why do you have to be prejudiced against me just because I only believe in science?
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Post by Lostmycage »

laxer wrote: Why do you have to be prejudiced against me just because I only believe in science?
Because your hypothesis is different than mine. You're also using all the wrong variables and your equations are laughable at best.

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Post by laxer »

Lostmycage wrote:
laxer wrote: Why do you have to be prejudiced against me just because I only believe in science?
Because your hypothesis is different than mine. You're also using all the wrong variables and your equations are laughable at best.

[/contemplativebeardstroke]
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Post by Elm Creek Smith »

Serenity was on TV again last night. Great show. Bummer that Hoban Washburne, Mr. Universe, and the Shepherd died. It was good to see Ron Glass on the screen again, though. Gina Torres, hot in a kick-a$$ way. Jewel Staite, hot in a desperate, nerdy/grease monkey way. Summer Glau, hot in a spooky way. Morena Baccarin, HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: "Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."

ECS

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Post by Kevin K »

LOVED Firefly and Serenity! Two of my favorite DVDs in my collection.
'Tis a shame that Firefly was never given a chance. :(
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Post by Lostmycage »

Kevin K wrote:LOVED Firefly and Serenity! Two of my favorite DVDs in my collection.
'Tis a shame that Firefly was never given a chance. :(
-K
:+!:

I also aim to misbehave. Now that should be a patch or something!
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Post by hackett »

"The final measure of any rider's skill is the inverse ratio of his preferred Traveling Speed to the number of bad scars on his body." --HST
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Post by Kevin K »


WANT!!!
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Post by Lostmycage »

Hah! Nice!
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Post by ericalm »

Just announced: Dollhouse will not go beyond its 13 ordered episodes for this season. It'll wrap up on Jan. 22 with its final episode.

Can't say I'll miss it, other than needing a new show to kick around.
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Post by myras_girls »

ericalm wrote:Just announced: Dollhouse will not go beyond its 13 ordered episodes for this season. It'll wrap up on Jan. 22 with its final episode.

Can't say I'll miss it, other than needing a new show to kick around.
I'm not too upset about it. This means Joss and Co. can get to work on the sequel to Dr. Horrible! :D
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Post by Lostmycage »

ericalm wrote:Just announced: Dollhouse will not go beyond its 13 ordered episodes for this season. It'll wrap up on Jan. 22 with its final episode.

Can't say I'll miss it, other than needing a new show to kick around.
I wanted to like it (you can thank Firefly/Serenity for that), but I just never cared. I even gave it time to develop a bit, but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe it's the Sci-Fi twist or something, but it didn't share much with FF/S. I'm halfway thinking of checking out the Buffy series. I'd always chalked that up as TV fodder, but recently I started realizing that maybe this Joss guy's got some other merits to his shows.

Again, thanks myras_girls for the tip off on the Firefly deal. It was the best $13 I've spent in a while! I went back to another BB later to pickup a second gift copy for the holidays. I got my dad hooked on this show and I think I'll be giving him a proper copy come late December.
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Post by Syd »

Lostmycage wrote:...I'm halfway thinking of checking out the Buffy series...
Taste is personal, and mine may suck in your opinion, but Buffy was one of the best TV shows ever.

Remember, there can be only one.
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Post by ericalm »

Buffy and Angel were both great shows IMHO, though over so many seasons both shows had their ups and downs. Still, when they were on, they were ON.

I tried to resist but after watching a few episodes Buffy won me over, ending a 7-year break I'd taken from watching TV. Ten years later, I'm a totally hopeless TV junkie and occasionally get paid to watch and write or talk about it. Pathetic. :)
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Post by Lostmycage »

Syd wrote:Taste is personal, and mine may suck in your opinion, but Buffy was one of the best TV shows ever.

Remember, there can be only one.
I'd say your opinion has rang quite true with my own on several occasions. That's just a little more fuel for that fire to checkout the Buffy History.
ericalm wrote:Buffy and Angel were both great shows IMHO, though over so many seasons both shows had their ups and downs. Still, when they were on, they were ON.

I tried to resist but after watching a few episodes Buffy won me over, ending a 7-year break I'd taken from watching TV. Ten years later, I'm a totally hopeless TV junkie and occasionally get paid to watch and write or talk about it. Pathetic. Smile
I'm solidly Anti-TV, but that's mainly due to the mindless jibber-jabber commercials and the onslaught of "reality" shows, which I firmly believe will be the downfall of humanity. That said, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might like some of these off-air shows. Best part is, if I borrow from some friends, I can catch up and avoid the brainwashing ads at the same time. Sadly, that's much more preferable than watching something as it airs. I'm glad I'm not one of those "Nielsen Families" or we'd all be screwed into watching Mythbusters and the History channel.
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