Firefly (continued)
Nov. 16th, 2005 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenMy first comment, on seeing Serenity (the BDM, not the pilot) with Claire and Excitable James, was: "That was such fun." Because it was. It was funny and sharp and had lots of cool CGI and shaky handheld stuff. And, as I said at the time at length, the hero's name is Malcolm.
But I can now see why the cancellation of the TV series pissed so many people off. When it's being done for genre and character development rather than fun, it's extraordinary. The end of the series seems so lopped-off it's ridiculous. I stil think the two best characters are Mal and River, who are both so beautifully realised, and they and all the others could have sustained a proper television show with such ease. And as well as the epic character stuff, there's typically Joss Whedon silly stuff, like Mal and Jayne having girls' names and the random Cockney accents and the Chinese and the Crazy Space Incest (ohgod, the deleted scenes. The deleted scenes, people.)
(A brief question: do the characters know they're speaking two languages? Or have Chinese and English been used together to the point that they don't know they were once separate?)
. Episode stuff again, beginning with War Stories. I liked this one far too much, beginning with Kaylee and River chasing each other round the ship and all the lovely character stuff. And Wash's trick on Zoe that goes wrong was sort of inevitable, but well-done nonetheless. I was horrified at the idea of a torture episode: I mean, there's always one, isn't there, where our gritty but loveable hero is tortured but doesn't break (cf SG-1, Abyss*). But this was nicely subversive, with Wash and Mal having their ridiculously childish fight whilst being tortured, and further with the subversive, no painful decision for Zoe - it's right that she picks Wash, straight off. I adore the relationship between Mal and Zoe; it's platonic, but incredibly deep nonetheless, and there's no fallout about Zoe picking Wash, because Mal gets that she has to.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Niska cutting off Mal's ear made me freak. And right at that moment (it was about midnight or so), Claire knocked; she wanted to come in and bitch about Aristophanes, so I let her in, put the kettle on and paused the DVD. Thing is, I watch everything with subtitles. While I was moving about, Claire was just staring at the screen, which read: "SIMON: It's his ear."
Conversation killer right there. Anyway, to go on, I really liked this one, even if the torture of Mal was a bit gratuitious (and really, it's no bad thing). River, again, is pure brilliance; the whole scene where she shoots the three men was sharp and effective when it easily might not have been. Good stuff.
Trash - well, now, any episode that opens with Mal naked on a rock is going to be an eye-opener if nothing else. That was just fun; a nicely placed caper with lots of silliness and random nudity. I love it. And Mal is obviously entirely un-self-conscious. A closet exhibitionist, if there is such a thing.
The Message - urgh. I think this is the biggest misfire of the season. It should be good - I love any reference to Mal and Zoe in the war - but I think it might have worked much better a slow character piece, without the silly body-stealing in the middle. Better he'd stayed dead! I mean, the idea is good, so it's annoying that the actual episode doesn't work particularly well.
Heart of Gold - ooooh, angst. This one is surprisingly graphic in dialogue and implications. Jayne the big manwhore was to be expected, but I was quite disturbed by the blatant misogyny and cruelty that goes on throughout. The incredible UST between Mal and Inara is nicely handled, and Simon, Kaylee and River make a cute triple act trying to deliver the baby. The ending is typically Joss, again, but misfires entirely simply because it's so out of context. We needed there to be an actual continued season for that to work.
Objects in Space - mmm, lovely. Like an extended piece of perfect fic, that was; I love the playing with River's skewed perceptions, and the brief insights we get into the crew of Serenity. The bounty hunter is deliciously amoral, and River messing with his head an absolute joy. I just wish the series wasn't cancelled here, because the episode shows promise of things to come rather than those actual things. Bloody networks.
And just a note on the deleted scenes - they're both good fun, but in different ways. There's the incestincestINCEST one I've already mentioned, but I think it's a shame the others were cut. They show Mal and Zoe back in Serenity Valley, and later, Zoe explaining what happened to Simon. When it's all spelled out, how Mal and Zoe were left to rot for a week after hostilities ended, and the real reasons why Mal named his ship Serenity, give the relationship between the two a lot more depth.
In short, I've really liked this show. I maintain it's much better than Buffy or Angel. And I now see why people watching Buffy season seven found Caleb so horrifying!
*I've been writing about Mill all day. I now think in footnotes.
But I can now see why the cancellation of the TV series pissed so many people off. When it's being done for genre and character development rather than fun, it's extraordinary. The end of the series seems so lopped-off it's ridiculous. I stil think the two best characters are Mal and River, who are both so beautifully realised, and they and all the others could have sustained a proper television show with such ease. And as well as the epic character stuff, there's typically Joss Whedon silly stuff, like Mal and Jayne having girls' names and the random Cockney accents and the Chinese and the Crazy Space Incest (ohgod, the deleted scenes. The deleted scenes, people.)
(A brief question: do the characters know they're speaking two languages? Or have Chinese and English been used together to the point that they don't know they were once separate?)
. Episode stuff again, beginning with War Stories. I liked this one far too much, beginning with Kaylee and River chasing each other round the ship and all the lovely character stuff. And Wash's trick on Zoe that goes wrong was sort of inevitable, but well-done nonetheless. I was horrified at the idea of a torture episode: I mean, there's always one, isn't there, where our gritty but loveable hero is tortured but doesn't break (cf SG-1, Abyss*). But this was nicely subversive, with Wash and Mal having their ridiculously childish fight whilst being tortured, and further with the subversive, no painful decision for Zoe - it's right that she picks Wash, straight off. I adore the relationship between Mal and Zoe; it's platonic, but incredibly deep nonetheless, and there's no fallout about Zoe picking Wash, because Mal gets that she has to.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Niska cutting off Mal's ear made me freak. And right at that moment (it was about midnight or so), Claire knocked; she wanted to come in and bitch about Aristophanes, so I let her in, put the kettle on and paused the DVD. Thing is, I watch everything with subtitles. While I was moving about, Claire was just staring at the screen, which read: "SIMON: It's his ear."
Conversation killer right there. Anyway, to go on, I really liked this one, even if the torture of Mal was a bit gratuitious (and really, it's no bad thing). River, again, is pure brilliance; the whole scene where she shoots the three men was sharp and effective when it easily might not have been. Good stuff.
Trash - well, now, any episode that opens with Mal naked on a rock is going to be an eye-opener if nothing else. That was just fun; a nicely placed caper with lots of silliness and random nudity. I love it. And Mal is obviously entirely un-self-conscious. A closet exhibitionist, if there is such a thing.
The Message - urgh. I think this is the biggest misfire of the season. It should be good - I love any reference to Mal and Zoe in the war - but I think it might have worked much better a slow character piece, without the silly body-stealing in the middle. Better he'd stayed dead! I mean, the idea is good, so it's annoying that the actual episode doesn't work particularly well.
Heart of Gold - ooooh, angst. This one is surprisingly graphic in dialogue and implications. Jayne the big manwhore was to be expected, but I was quite disturbed by the blatant misogyny and cruelty that goes on throughout. The incredible UST between Mal and Inara is nicely handled, and Simon, Kaylee and River make a cute triple act trying to deliver the baby. The ending is typically Joss, again, but misfires entirely simply because it's so out of context. We needed there to be an actual continued season for that to work.
Objects in Space - mmm, lovely. Like an extended piece of perfect fic, that was; I love the playing with River's skewed perceptions, and the brief insights we get into the crew of Serenity. The bounty hunter is deliciously amoral, and River messing with his head an absolute joy. I just wish the series wasn't cancelled here, because the episode shows promise of things to come rather than those actual things. Bloody networks.
And just a note on the deleted scenes - they're both good fun, but in different ways. There's the incestincestINCEST one I've already mentioned, but I think it's a shame the others were cut. They show Mal and Zoe back in Serenity Valley, and later, Zoe explaining what happened to Simon. When it's all spelled out, how Mal and Zoe were left to rot for a week after hostilities ended, and the real reasons why Mal named his ship Serenity, give the relationship between the two a lot more depth.
In short, I've really liked this show. I maintain it's much better than Buffy or Angel. And I now see why people watching Buffy season seven found Caleb so horrifying!
*I've been writing about Mill all day. I now think in footnotes.
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no subject
on 2005-11-16 01:37 am (UTC)I really DO have to go back and rewatch these. *laugh*
no subject
on 2005-11-16 01:45 am (UTC)Regarding the Alliance: one of Inara's clients, whom I think is Alliance, swears at Mal in Chinese. All the other examples I can think of are in that one episode.
(I also have no love for Buffy season seven; it wasn't fun. But yeah, Caleb and Mal might just mess with my head a bit. Eeek.)
no subject
on 2005-11-16 01:54 am (UTC)Ah, yeah. The characters don't (mostly, I'm sure, because we'd never understand them if they did and the writers would all have headaches :) , which is why I tend to assume that as formal languages they're still taught separately, but English has pillaged ruthlessly from the Chinese over the years, as it is wont to do. ;) And people probably don't think about it much. Still, the two languages are so different that I don't think anyone would forget the difference. It's pretty hard to mix up the writing, for instance, and we know they still use both.
English...
on 2005-11-16 07:27 pm (UTC)"English doesn't borrow from other languages: English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them down, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar"
-Anonymous
Just figured you'd like the quote. :)
Seperate languages
on 2005-11-16 06:36 pm (UTC)(A brief question: do the characters know they're speaking two languages? Or have Chinese and English been used together to the point that they don't know they were once separate?)
Hi there, I'm Matthew. beccaelizabeth posted this question on the Soulful Spike Society board, and I was intrigued...
I don't really think so.. I get the impression that they are distinct languages, but the presence of both "ethnicities" (perhaps "langauge groups" would be better) is so widespread, that it's much like living in a town near the Mexican border. You grow up knowing both languages, and use them as necessary.
I get the impression that a synthesis language would have evolved, if that were the case, the way French was assimilated into English after the Norman invasion: and because we had to be able to comprehend it to watch the show..*shrugs*
Of course, there's always the possibillity that Joss was doing things like Asimov did in "Nightfall": translating stuff into familiar languages for convenience of the viewer, just leaving in the chinese expletives and the signs to keep the flavor of a synthesis language, but the way the dialogue is written..
And then, we have the scene where Mal says "that's a chinese word for.." to Inara, implying that they are seperate and distinct languages.
It's never adequately covered in the show, but Chinese vs. English might be a "class" distinction, too: but that would suggest that in the movie, River's class would have been conducted in Chinese.
I think Joss planned to have scenes where the crew would have conversations entirely in English and Chinese, a la Han and Chewie (Or Mike and Jin) with people they'd encountered, or switch languages, he just didn't have time to do it.
Personally, I curse in Russian, German, and Spanish, because I get looked at funny less for that. Well, I get looked at funny, but it's more lack of comprehension than dissaproval.