May 25, 2005
Serenity Trailer
At last count, I had convinced one ThreeSources reader to experience the wondrous joy of Joss Whedon's "Buffy, The Vampire Slater" and had one other on the ropes. (I'm watching Season 2 of "Angel" now; the first shows would be a good choice for a newcomer who wanted to check it out.)
Whedon's big failure was "Firefly" which ran a half a season on Fox. It's a little too complicated for broadcast TV, though I am surprised that a guy with 12 seasons of hits under his belt didn't get a longer leash.
Whedon has made a movie with the original cast. "Serenity" opens September 30 and the trailer is here. There's plenty of tie to buy the Firefly DVDs and be fully prepared for the opening weekend.
Firefly is an adult show (the teenagers on "Buffy" scare people away) with a terrific ensemble cast. The message is of freedom and independence. Our heroes have lost a war of independence to the alliance (U.N.) and have taken to the outer planets to preserve their freedom.
Kurt Vonnegut was an avowed Socialist yet wrote the greatest opposition piece to in "Harrison Bergeron." In the same manner, Whedon is liberal who hosted fund raisers for Senator Kerry's presidential bid, and an avowed atheist. Yet his scripts are beloved by both libertarian and social conservatives. They lack moral relativism. There is duty, honor, right and wrong, and actions have consequences.
September 30. I am scared that the role of villain may be shifted from the Kofi-Annanesque Alliance to the mysterious Blue Sun Corporation, but it will be fun whatever goes down.
MOST EXCELLENT! Thanks for the tip, JK.
Just be careful throwing around that word "failure." The "failure" was on the part of Fox canceling it. I don't know what the ratings were but I do know the show was excellent. In addition to the virtues you listed, it was witty, clever and multi-dimensional.
Its one weakness with the masses may be one you alluded to - atheism. That sentiment is expressed from time to time in the series. Even in this modern age of scientific enlightenment, some 92 to 97 percent of Americans are still afraid to let go of the blanket. (http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20010114mag-atheism.html)
Posted by: johngalt at May 25, 2005 2:37 PMYou a Firefly fan? A closet browncoat? Sweet!
The atheist point I was going for, I don't think you would like. Jonathan Last at the Weekly Standard called the Buffy Episode "Amends" the most religious hour ever on Television. Friends I have brought into the fold have remarked on parallels between story arcs and biblical passages.
Like Harrison Bergeron, I think art is just funny that way.
Posted by: jk at May 25, 2005 5:16 PMYeah, you knew that! Or at least, I've mentioned it on the blog.
I'll watch a couple episodes on DVD soon and find a theism reference outta Mal's mouth.
Posted by: johngalt at May 26, 2005 12:30 PMI never believe what I read on blogs; those are written by crazy people!
I am *extremely* used to things that I like being artistic successes and market failures. I don't even think about it anymore.
I was going to do a post, but let me float this here. I think that TV is ready for a long-tail revolution as we have seen in recorded music and journalism.
The way I see it, Joss Whedon has sold a buttload of DVDs. I bought Seven years of Buffy, five of Angel, Toy Story, Firefly and the Buffy movie. Are there enough of us to keep "Firefly" alive with DVD sales? Is there a Moore's law technology that will make this feasible?
(Much better a comment than a post -- I would never say "buttload" in a post...)
Posted by: jk at May 26, 2005 1:58 PM | What do you think? [4]