So, this weekend, I spoke with a couple to whom I’d lent the first disk of Firefly.
My rule of thumb on getting people interested in Firefly has, thus far, be ‘make them watch an episode’.
Seriously, that’s usually all it takes.
Anyway, I was expecting… well, pretty much the same reaction I get from everyone else to whom I’ve introduced the show.
Definitely didn’t get that.
Now, I can see not liking the show… I guess.* Anything’s possible. But with that said, the show’s got Whedon’s sharp dialogue and characters, and it’s sci-fi and westerns. Between those two genres and the writing, you’ll usually hit a person’s buttons somewhere.
Again, it didn’t happen.
What blows my mind, though, is not that they didn’t like it, but it seems clear they just didn’t… get it.
I mean, at-fucking-all, people.
Here’s a few of the comments I got back, regarding the couple’s watching of the pilot, Serenity.
- The music was stupid.
- The Captain was too… Bruce Campbell.
- The spaceship was all beat up and trashy looking.
- Why isn’t there any tech?
- Why didn’t they just drop a bomb on the old woman at the end?
- Why didn’t they just shoot the Reaver’s ship?
- I didn’t like Inara — the prostitute thing is dumb. (No offense, but that’s such a classic conservative’s response to legalized prostitution that it doesn’t warrant a reply. :P)
- I didn’t like Kaylee. (This is just wrong. Wrong on so so so many levels.)
- River was too angsty.
- Wasn’t this show cancelled?
- They’re making a movie? Well, they just did that with Starsky and Hutch, so I guess anything’s possible. (I almost flipped at this point — I want bonus points for that.)
Note that no actual character names were used in the comments — I’m adding those — there was no effort at all made to remember who was who, even for their favorite character (Jayne). I think one of them left in the middle of the episode to take a shower.
Lori H. did the right thing I think — simply shook her head and walked out of the room at “the music was stupid”. I… kept trying to understand.
I’m still trying.
Anyway, I asked them to watch a couple more episodes, but… at this point, I’m waiting for them to compare it to Star Trek unfavorably, at which point I’m going to have to kill them.
What’s the word for when you’re flabbergasted and pissed at the same time?
Every time I look at this post, that’s the feeling I get.
Classic Conservative view on Hookers…
I think would be to let them all hook, that is the Libertarian view on it, and in the American West, prostitution was legal and that was a time of extreme libertarianism and Conservatism.
The fact that Irara is licenced and bonded shows a more conservative government is in place, I think that a liberal one, in countries where prostitution is legal, it’s usually the conservative parties that pushed for the demarcation of the prostitution zones, identification of the businesses, etc.
Pissgasted. Jukked is good for that feeling, so is jacked but I think the best phrase would be, what the fuck?
Given that there are so many shows that are wildly popular that I Just Don’t Get Myself, I suppose it’s not altogether against the laws of physics that someone wouldn’t like Firefly. And, for certain, my own aesthetics are so … idiosyncratic that I’m usually more surprised when folks like something I do than when they don’t.
Still … De gustibus non disputandum.
Considering that I not only don’t get why American Idol, CSI:wherever and Law & Order are popular, why they are still on TV, or even why there are multiples of them on TV. I am probably not the one to ask about the average American’s taste in TV.
That said I am still having laughing fits over the Fillion/Campbell comparison. I don’t see it from any of the shows he’s been in. Not from the Evil Dead Series, not from Hercules/Xena, not from Brico County Jr., and especially not from Bubba ho-tep. This for me is the most curious of the statements.
The Bomb statement is also very entertaining.
The shooting comment I’ll let go by since it wasn’t explicitly stated until “Trainjob” that serenity was unarmed.
I guess that the Couple in question never watched any westerns for the Inara comment. Don’t show them “Heart of Gold”…It’ll blow their mind.
They didn’t like the one character that everybody is supposed to like?!? Soulless cretins.
Poor River…Too angsty. Why can’t she be more perky like the Coor’s Twins.
The Cancelled comment was just rubbing salt in the wound…
…as is the Starsky and Hutch comment.
Since all of the comments sound like all the things that Joss said that the Suits at FOX said, maybe these two ought to take a look at the entertainment business for future employment.
Clearly you must divest yourself of your friendship with this couple – they aren’t up proper standards. Sounds like they’ve been spoon-fed too much Trek (mutter…’why didn’t they shoot the Reaver ship?….mutter).
Of the two I thought the gentleman in question would love it!!! I was shocked. They are the first two people I have heard say that they didn’t really care for it.
I was pretty much left speechless which is why I had to leave the room.
Yes Stan…. speechless. ;-P
Do they have brains?
No, seriously. Was there some kind of freak rhinoplasty accident that removed their brains from their skull?
Oh, wait, I understand now. You showed it to network execs, right?
Gorram, my MOTHER likes Firefly! My mother owns the Firefly DVDs. My mother HATES Scifi and westerns and pretty much everything that makes my life worth living. And even SHE likes Kaylee!
Gah. People. I swear (often and loudly).
Well, in a fairly recent conversation of “which celebrity would you do, if the doing weren’t a problem” I shocked the other end of the conversation by preferring Ben Kingsley to Vin Diesel.
Some people look for flashy pecs; I look for someone who looks like he knows what he’s doing.
Some people look for reality TV; then there’s Joss.
Jackie: “oh, Vin Diesel, hands down. Way down, even.”
So… I guess you’re right about different tastes :) At least he’s a gamer.
Lori Speechless…
I did not think that this was possible..;->
So Lori…Were there Monkey’s? Terrifingly stupid Space Monkey’s?
I have no problem with people not liking the same tv shows I like, gods know it happens often enough…but this is just gorram unnatural. Fang zong feng kuang de jie, for sure.
Let me guess, their favourite shows are Simple Life and The Littlest Groom. Sounds like Fox Executives to me. I’ve shown the show to several friends and every time it only took one episode to get them on board.
Are you sure they weren’t kidding?
Because I can’t seem to wrap my brain around the concept of not getting the show at all. Not liking it, I get, sort of, although I reserve the right to not understand that either.
But not getting it, that just bugs me.
Sekimori: What does that italics stuff mean?
I could see faulting the intentionally jittery camerawork and less-than-stellar editing, as Whedon’s original pilot eased the audience into these styles, and the studios didn’t go with that. And I have to admit the comatose girl was much more entertaining when comatose, but the writing alone made it good. All the other good stuff is gravy.