Farscape - should I make a blind purchase? (1 Viewer)

[MaraKM]

Kyle, I enjoy Charmed, but I wouldn't put it in the same league with Farscape at all. Charmed is utterly brainless. It is the Baywatch of sf/fantasy tv. It is fun, fluffy, and the writing gets worse with every season. At this point, I'm mostly watching it to enjoy mocking it over at the TWoP message boards.

But Farscape has an entirely different class of writing, and great characterization. I adore the series wholeheartedly, and watch it with my brain in the 'on' position. And I loved the pilot - thought it did a great job of introducing the characters & basic universe.

 

[MikeMcNertney]

I'm sort of surprised to hear people say the first episode was so bad. I quite liked it and thought it was very good for a premiere episode, which usually tend to be pretty bland. There are definitely a few after that which aren't great though.

 

[JohnSmith]

Is Season 3 any good? It's been a while since I watched it. I've got Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD, and 3 is coming out soon.

From what I remember there was a certain Season that wasen't that great.

 

[Simon Massey]

Seasons 2 and 3 are probably the best of the series, and I would have to go with Season 3 as the strongest. Season 2 was a little weak IMO until the "Look at the Princess" trilogy, although there were some good episodes. From this point on the rest of the season is very strong. Plus the final four episodes of Season 2 are absolutely brilliant.

Season 3 however was consistently good throughout the year with only one or two episodes which were weak.

In fact the weakest season for me was Season 1, though Season 4 takes some time to get going as well.

 

[Steven.W.T]

I love Farscape! Its my favorite show ever! Season 3 is the best seasons out of them all. If I were you I would rent season 1 and buy season 2 and 3. Season 1 isnt that great until near the end. Deepdiscountdvd.com has them for $89.99, best I have seen. Its kinda steep but worth it. I think, maybe you will, maybe not. Farscape isnt really like Trek.

SG1 is good too! And cheaper!

 

[Jason_V]

Really, I don't think the Pilot is as bad as it's being made out to be. It did its job of introducing the characters, settings and conflicts. That's all you can really ask. The first half of the first season is a bit dull, but it does ramp up very nicely in the latter half. I blew through the last 6 eppys in one weekend after taking over a year to get through the rest of the season.

I'm looking at buying the Season 2 set right now and I'm hoping Season 3 gets announced before The Peacekeeper War in December. It would be nice for Season 4 to come out too, but I think that's a bit much to ask for.

Back to the question: give the show some time. Some installments won't be as good as others (Rhapsody in Blue comes to mind), but each show has something new to offer: Aeryn and John, Crais and Aeryn, Chiana and John, Aeryn and Moya, Dargo and Aeryn...and then Scorpious.

 

[Scotty_McW]

This is a show I really want to check out, but I have a question. Disc one of season one on Netflix is listed as having the pilot and episode 7 where disc two has episodes 2 and 8. Is it correct to watch all of disc one then all of disc two, etc? I've seen that season two has the episodes in chronological order. I hope this question makes sense!

 

[Daniel Kikin]

The early season one discs are in production order, most of those episodes are standalone so you can watch them in the order that they are on the discs. Just make sure be careful with the last set of season two, where you'll need to watch the LGM trilogy on Disc 2 before DMD, the season finale, on Disc 1.

 

[Scotty_McW]

Thanks Daniel. I'm really looking forward to checking out this series!

 

[Daniel Kikin]

You're welcome Scotty, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

 

[Scotty_McW]

Ok, checked it out from Netflix the other day and wound up getting myself hooked on another show!

I went and picked up the first Starburst edition at Best Buy and have only watched one other episode so far, but out of the three I've seen (Premiere, I, E.T. and Exodus From Genesis) they are all fantastic. And from scanning the comments here, it only gets better? Sweet.

 

[Daniel Kikin]

It really kicks into high gear in the latter part of Season One, enjoy the ride!

 

[KyleC]

I'm going to get my wife hooked after her basketball season ends. I'll have all of season 1 by then.

 

[Greg S]

Hell yeah it does. The first few eps after the Premier limp along like a lost puppy sometimes mainly because the writing team and the cast were essentially trying to find their way BUT from about DNA Mad Scientist on it really kicks it up a notch with the exception of a dud here or there (if you have seen the show you know which eps I am speaking of). By Season 1s end you will be begging for more and then in Season 2 you will be in heaven as they really were into at that point and had things just rolling.

Season 3 is my favorite but it is a VERY DARK season but probably some of the best stuff around.

Enjoy it and keep us posted!!

Greg

 

[Scotty_McW]

I finished watching Season 1 last night. The last episodes, starting with Nerve, were amazing! God this is such a great show! I can't wait to start Season 2.

I agree that there were times when Season 1 floundered around, but I was still entertained enough to keep going. The chemistry between Ben and Claudia is awesome! It seems like everyone is really starting to find their characters. I can't remember which episode it was, but when Dargo called Chrichton by his first name...wow!

Great show!

 

[Kevin Hewell]

By the end of season two you'll probably be a full on Scaper.

 

[MichaelGH]

When I first watched Farscape I thought there was nothing they could do to outdo that Season 1 finale...hell for me the effects, story, characters in that episode were better than many movies made from hollywood.

Of course I was wrong. Farscape did outdo that episode, quite a few times...one of my all time favorites from farscape is an episode titled 'the locket' from season 2...i think that one showcases ben and claudia better than any other.

And S3 has some episodes that will simply blow you away with the raw emotion that this show was capable of conveying.

By the way, I think Season 1 plays much better the second time through. I really didn't like the first few episodes the first time through...while they surely aren't as good as later episodes they're really not that bad either and it's fun seeing John's wide-eyed innocence in the beginning...it's heart-breaking.

I just sold my farscape box sets so I could start picking up the starburst editions...I rewatched farscape right before Peacekeeper wars aired...now I've got another excuse to rewatch it Can't wait!

This show is on a par with babylon 5 for me; my wife definitely favors farscape although she likes both...I'm always flip flopping because I enjoy both so much.

Michael

 

[Will_B]

I got another bum disc, but fortunately this one was only a few seconds, so I decided not to exchange it. But that's 2 out of three 3 Starburst editions I've bought which have been faulty - breaking up and locking the player. (And yes I do check it on my 2 dvd players to be sure it is not just a player problem).

Hey! I figured out how they made Chianna not have a belly button, thanks to the stop-motion magic of DVD! There's a scene where they're all eating at their dining table, and the camera is circling around them, and Chianna's side and back are to the camera and she leans over a bit -- and the "skin" of her torso momentarily has lots of wrinkes (and a seam up the side!).

She's still a great addition, despite not being a real alien. Totally tantrum-like energy from her!

I can't stand this piecemeal release schedule though - I blew through the 3rd Starburst over the weekend.

Don't listen to the producers commentary on the last episode of the season if you haven't seen at least through the end of season 3 by the way. I had to turn the commentary off quickly when they started giving the storyline away.

 

[TheLongshot]

To be honest, that's pretty standard for most TV shows. Often, they will talk about future events, either asuming the fan has watched all the shows, or not remembering that people don't know the info yet.

Jason

 

[Scotty_McW]

Since I've never seen the show, I'm avoiding most of the special features. I do read the Farscape Chronicles and sometimes the Alien Encounters, but that's about it. I like have no idea where the show is going.