Your thoughts on getting into Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. - Page 4

Katherine_K · 03-06-2006, 09:56 PM

I'd say if you weren't found of S:AAB and you are skeptical of Dark series than I'd avoid Battlestar Galactica. I like both a great deal but you really do have to go into watching BSG with a bottle of prozac and a balloon ready to cheer you up.

Firefly I've never seen so I wont comment.

Jeff Willis · 03-07-2006, 08:44 AM

Yee-Ming & Katherine_K, Thanks for the info on these series. A friend is letting me borrow 'Firefly' to view the 1st couple of eps. Then I can decide on getting this one. As for B.G., I was leaning toward passing on this one based on the posts here.

Mark Talmadge · 03-07-2006, 09:18 AM

To be honest about it, I've finally watched Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica and while the series is okay it's not much better than Firefly. Sure, the series seems to stand by itself but I think I prefer Firefly over BG.

Holadem · 03-07-2006, 09:26 AM

I've now watched 1.5 season of BSG. Good show but boy, you guys were not kidding when you said it was dark! Well, normally that would be right up my alley, but in this case it's just overwhelming.

I like the show, but I don't enjoy spending extended periods of time in that universe. 2 episodes top and I am gasping for air, looking for some sunshine and laughter.

--
H

RickER · 03-07-2006, 09:30 AM

Firefly and BSG are great shows. The only thing better about BSG over Firefly, BSG is still making new episodes. I love Firefly but with only 14 episodes i wont be able to go to that well as often.
Ron, try Farscape sometime too. Great show with some nice character development and a story arc made for DVD viewing.

Jeff Willis · 03-14-2006, 12:18 PM

Firefly: Didn't watch this one when it originally aired. Borrowed a friend's DVD set and have watched the first 2 eps. Interesting but so far, I wouldn't have bought this one for myself. Not to say it's not a good series, but since I haven't bought (or seen) any series that's aired after ~'96 or so, it's not a reflection on the series at all. Interesting musical score with this series...nothing that I'd guessed it would have sounded like with a SciFi series. Does the action and overall storyline pick up in this series? I wonder how much was unresolved as a result of the short life span of the series? But, the film "Serenity" closes up loose ends from what I've read here.

Having not seen TV series since '96, have I been "living on planet '2003UB313'"? Nope, I just view live sports and older series for my TV-viewing and collect a lot of TV/DVD's

For any Astronomy buffs out there, "2003UB313" is the 10th planet in our Solar System discovered last year

Paul_Scott · 05-14-2007, 08:08 PM

From posts over in the HD software forum, I know that Ron has now seen Firefly and Serenity- but I'm curious if he ever checked out BSG.

My original intention was to give it a shot when it hit HD DVD (which now looks to be sometime in September)- however I got to thinking that given how expensive the set will be on HD, if I better just sample the mini-series first to see if I even like it. So I netflixed the mini-series.

WOW!
Absolutely blown away. In short order I ended up getting all the rest of the available discs, and as I type this I have the last three discs(season 2.5) ready to start watching tonight (can't wait to see the second part of Pegasus!).
I have to echo what some other poster already said- The show is like crack. This is the first time since season 1 of Alias where I just hit the Play all button as soon as the disc cues up. I'm always left wishing I had more time to squeeze one or two more eps in. Like someone else, what really struck me about the show is that it is very much a 'disaster' serial. I love the old 70s Irwin Allen movies and BSG to me plays very much like a very witty and intelligent sci fi riff on those. As to the darkness...It is dark, but appropriately so. Unlike a bunch of other wildly succsessful sci-fi properties, this pays heed to its premise, and the premise is the holocaust of the human species. Amazingly that doesn't preclude a good laugh or two, and at least a couple times per episode I find myself laughing out loud. I'm a believer now, and I'm hooked. I can't wait for the HD sets to show up to see the first season all over again....and I can't wait to see where else this goes.

And unlike the compulsively watchable Abrahms series like Alias (and from what I'm hearing, Lost) BSG actually looks like it will have a satisfying end game in sight since the fourth season is going to be its last. I give them a round of applause for setting an near end point in place- the last thing I would want would be to see the show sputter and spin aimlessly. Its been much too good for that so far.
Thanks again to Ron for starting this thread and everyone who posted and drove home how good this show was.

TravisR · 05-14-2007, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

And unlike the compulsively watchable Abrahms series like Alias (and from what I'm hearing, Lost) BSG actually looks like it will have a satisfying end game in sight since the fourth season is going to be its last.

Considering that they just announced an endpoint to Lost, it sounds like you heard wrong. Also J.J. Abrams has barely done any work on Lost- he left to do Mission: Impossible III after the first 1/3 of the first season and he co-wrote an episode this year and left to do Star Trek.

Katherine_K · 05-14-2007, 10:47 PM

Not to mention that while the chances that season four will be BSG's last are good, it's not a done deal. David Erick had to make a public statment on May 12th contradicting Edward James Olmos saying that it was the last season.

Paul_Scott · 05-14-2007, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TravisR

Considering that they just announced an endpoint to Lost, it sounds like you heard wrong. Also J.J. Abrams has barely done any work on Lost- he left to do Mission: Impossible III after the first 1/3 of the first season and he co-wrote an episode this year and left to do Star Trek.

What I've read is this last season has seen ratings dive, and fans getting a bit frustrated - which is why they instituted an end point. OTOH, BSG is still 'up there'- ratings are good, fans are still invested and not dropping away, which is why I would I would applaud them for setting an end marker now.

I didn't realize Abrahms wasn't involved in the show anymore.
I've been wanting to see it for quite a while, but I've been waiting to see when/if ennui would set in at some point.
I just saw M:I III for the first time recently, and like all my other experiences with Abrahms material, I was captivated with the opening, and was having a lot of fun with the follw thru, up until some point near the end of the third act I found myself thinking "wait a sec...is this gonna be all there is?" For as entertaining as it was for most of its run time, I was still left feeling kind of non plussed at the end.

TravisR · 05-15-2007, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

What I've read is this last season has seen ratings dive, and fans getting a bit frustrated - which is why they instituted an end point.

I can't speak for the fans but the stories about the decline use the facts in a way that benefits the story. Ratings are down (like any show where the fad has past) but the show has about 12 million viewers every week, is still in the top 20 every week, in the top 10 for the 18 to 49 demographic and if you factor in DVR vieweings (although the advertisers do not) the ratings have actually grown compared to the average of last year.

All the stories always compare the current ratings to the second season premiere (when it was at its biggest peak of the fad) which is about the same as comparing the ratings of a football game in week 10 to the ratings of the Superbowl and then saying that ratings are down for football and no one likes it anymore.

EDIT: Sorry for going so far off the topic.