Your thoughts on getting into Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. (1 Viewer)

[nolesrule]

I just picked up BSG season 1 on DVD and I zipped right through it. Now I'm going to pick up 2.0 as soon as I can. Great show.

I don't think the sex of Starbuck is relevent to the quality of the show. Personally, I think it works.

It's much more complex than the 70s show, and that's fine with me. Not everything has to be popcorn sci-fi.

 

[Simon Massey]

I'm sick of hearing this complaint. So what if they changed the sex of the character ???

 

[Will_B]

You had me going for a few sentences, until I read that!

 

[George_W_K]

Well, I haven't seen either of these series, but reading this thread is going to cost me some money.

 

[Sam Favate]

Galactica stands on the shoulders of Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, and The Next Generation. It would not be possible without the influence of those shows. It also draws a lot from the likes of The West Wing, with its political intrigue, and NYPD Blue, with its rapid-edit action sequences and music score. Calling it the best show on television is not undeserved.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Being one of the people who strongly recommended B5 to you, I would like to weigh on this as well.

First Firefly/Serenity - Simply put, extremely enjoyable and as you said, you can digest this quickly. I would highly recommend this.

BSG - This one is tougher since I am not sure how much you enjoy dark shows. I love the show, its very thought provoking and always keeps you guessing. But it has to be the least uplifting show I have ever seen.

With Firefly, you smile because of how good the show makes you feel. In BSG you smile because of how good the show is.

Personally I would rather have seen you start with Farscape after Firefly than BSG. Farscape is complete and by the time you finished it, there should be more of BSG on DVD to watch.

Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

B5 was a 5 year show. If you looked at B5 after just its first 13 episodes, it certainly was going to look as episodic as Firefly IMO. Too short a run to make any sort of judgement IMO.

And even thouh B5 is my favorite TV show of all time, I could easily argue that BSG has as much arc in it after 23 episodes as B5 did after 23 episodes.

Andy

 

[matthew_milam]

"Serenity" didn't make me much of a "Firefly" fan, and I'm not sure if I want to get the series DVD for rental if it's anything like the movie. I might take a stab at it.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

matthew,

It's tough to explain. The series is different in tone and style from the movie, but you still feel a sense of similarity between the two.

I'd give the first disc of the DVD set a look before judging the show on the movie.

 

[Andy_Bu]

If I had watched Serenity only then I believe I would have thought much like you do.

Luckily a friend stopped me from making that mistake and I watched Firefly first and that made Serenity much more enjoyable as well as loving Firefly.

Andy

 

[Joshua_W]

Actually, I think that both series represent a sort of redefinition of science fiction, especially on television.

There's a definite "low-fi" feeling to both shows -- the characters rely more on their wits than futuristic gadgets or aliens to get things done. There are few laser-type weapons to be seen, and most of the weapons fire bullets. In Firefly, the characters are as likely to ride horses as zip around in futuristic cars when they go planetside, and the bridge of the Galactica looks like something from World War II with clocks on the walls and big clunkly handsets.

Whereas science fiction television shows -- like the various Star Treks -- tried to appear futuristic, they have dated badly. But with Firefly and BSG deliberately going retro, it'll be interesting to see how they look like in ten or twenty years.

 

[Mark_TS]

Im not usually much into buying TV shows, but I found a new, sealed BSG UK edition (with the babe on the cover)on eBay at $20. Then I rented the miniseries, put it on one disc, made a label and it fits right in. not bad...

 

[Paul_Scott]

i've tried watching BSG, but some of the stylistic touches (as the hand held space cam shots) are off putting to me.
also to hear the character names from the old show continually referenced in this more dark and serious take is also a bit of a hurdle to get over.
i'm not a 'great' fan of the original. it definitely has a nostalgic appeal, but i was surprised i didn't enjoy revisiting the show on dvd as much as i had catching reruns even 7 or 8 yrs back.
still its hard to divorce my familiarity enough to go into the new series fresh.

i want to though. it sounds like a substantial serial from a dramatic angle...which is the whole point of any genre as far as i'm concerned.

unless the sets get marked down a little bit more and DDD has them real cheap during the summer, i will probably wait until i can pick it up in HD. it sounds like a sure bet for release within the formats first couple of years at least.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Definitely give it another try. Given your opinions on other TV shows and movies, BG sounds right up your alley.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i will eventually, for sure.

right now i have far more dvds to watch than i can ever hope to , and this is becoming a cause of frustration.
i just got around to starting the first set of Dallas, something i had bought on its street date a year and a half ago (and happily find it held up as well as i'd hoped).
what with all the sales recently -DDD, Sonys B1G1 frees, Media Play going out of business, i've increased my TV ON DVD collection by about 2 dozen tv sets in the last few months. and many were bought with the rationalization that they would be watched and resold.
and that is in addition to the hundred or so single movie titles i've yet to watch.
just too much of a backlog.

and the spectre of HD is there too.

i don't doubt BSG is a worthwile show, but unless there is a killer can't miss deal on something, i'm just not going to bite on anything for a while.

i'm sick of chasing the dvd dragon

 

[Eric_Connelly]

When Firefly was coming on the air I really wanted to see it.

They made it seem very 'spacey' and advanced in the previews. Then I missed an episode and caught a few minutes of ep 2 or 3 and thought...this really sucks.

Now I was basing this on how the advertising was, versus the actual product. The death of this show was "Western in Space".

That was it for me, never touched it again.

Now since its been getting very good reviews I wanted to picked up the DVD set before Serenity. I watched a show or two on Sci Fi and really did enjoy it. Then the wife bought me Serenity and I caught almost all the eps on the DVR and Sci Fi.

Good show, really enjoyed it and I do believe that if they hadn't called it a Western it might still be on the air.

BSG...best show on TV. One thing that amazed me about Firefly is underneather it all it was a very raw show. For all of its humor it wasn't a kiddy show. BSG takes that and pushes it even further into the extreme.

Its dark and very very real. I think its a better show than The Soprano's or any of the others. Regardless of it sci fi element they are doing stuff on TV very very few shows have done IMO.

 

[FrankT]

I was really hesitant about BSG because of the old show. I liked it as a kid but remember it being very campy (to me anyway) and thought the new series would be the same. One day, while browsing some rentals, I saw it and decided to give it a shot. I thought I would just be wasting money but what the heck.

Boy was I wrong. I loved it. The next day I bought the whole first season and watched it all soon after.

In short:
BSG = Great
Firefly = Very good.

Get both.

 

[John Burton]

Friends told me to catch both of these shows last year, and I'm glad I took their advice. "Firefly" is fun and light, with good "tight" stories. I'm going to watch the last episode this weekend.

I really didn't like the original "Battlestar". Co-workers talked about the new show, and I'm hooked big-time. The tone is dark, but exciting. It is about the end of humanity!

Ron, do yourself a favor, and pick up the sets of both these shows, and enjoy. Let us know what you think with an informal review.

 

[George_W_K]

Well, because of this thread I went ahead and bought BSG Season One yesterday. I've only watched the miniseries so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. And most of the comments seem to say that the show is even better, so things are looking good.

Edward James Olmos is doing a fine acting job. He's making me think what Babylon 5 would've been like if he would have been Sinclair. (I liked Sinclair, but the acting was average at best.)

 

[Holadem]

Quick question, I have the 1st few eps of S1, but not the miniseries. I could get it, but it will take a couple of days (netflix).

Do I lose much by starting S1 proper, and watching the miniseries later?

Please lemme, I shall like to start tonight if possible, thanks .

--
H