Monday, September 21, 2020

Serenity: Movie Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2008/10/serenity.html

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8 comments:

Whisky Prajer said...

Oh man, this movie really sticks in my craw -- I am amazed that, as someone who hasn't watched the TV episodes, you are so generous toward it. I've watched the show several times (it's only 15 hours long), and it holds up very, very well. The movie OTOH is very nearly a textbook on how to blow it.

Kinda bugs me that Joss Whedon's personal cancellation means we aren't getting any more TV series by him, but such are the times.

September 21, 2020 at 10:03 AM
Joel Swagman said...

Looking at my old post, it looks like in the comments I was promising 12 years ago to try to track down this TV series, and I still haven't. Although to be fair to myself, I think if I had seen it in my DVD rental shop in Japan, or in the pirated DVD shops in Cambodia, I totally would have checked it out. I just never happened to run across it.

What happened with Joss Whedon again? I have such a hard time keeping up with all the news these days. Or maybe I saw it and I just don't remember because every day there's a new outrage in the news. (Or maybe my long term memory is going....)
I checked his Wikipedia page just now, and it looks like his wife accused him of having affairs. But is that enough to get someone cancelled these days? Do you think he's really done from TV?

September 22, 2020 at 11:48 AM
Whisky Prajer said...

I had to Google "Joss Whedon allegations" and, frankly, what I see listed would not have garnered more than a shrug ten years ago. He can be a bully on set. Dropped a character from Buffy when the actress got pregnant. And his ex-wife cited the affairs when she filed for divorce. The days of Werner Herzog holding a gun to Klaus Kinski's head because he's fed up with his actor's deranged behavior are long behind us, it seems.

September 22, 2020 at 1:59 PM
Joel Swagamn said...

My first reaction too this was to think that cancel culture has gotten out of control again. But then I thought about it some more, and these allegations are actual unacceptable--not so bad comparatively, I'm sure, but still not someone I would want to work with.
Still... I'd be eager to rehabilitate him, if he reformed his ways. And usually these guys are never cancelled forever. What do you think--will he be back in business in 5 years?

September 27, 2020 at 2:28 AM
Whisky Prajer said...

Oof -- I have no clue what five years from now might look like! But Whedon has a sharp sense of how to stretch a narrative, so I imagine he could get back in demand. So far as I'm concerned, though, I think Netflix has the right idea: your story-telling had better bring in the eyeballs toute de suite or the show gets binned after season 2.

September 28, 2020 at 9:30 AM
Whisky Prajer said...

"Bring in the eyeballs" -- FWIW I think that's what makes Firefly so great. They weren't getting the eyeballs they got with Buffy so they swung for the fences with every. Single. Subsequent. Episode. But ... still no eyeballs. Reading the post-show comic books and watching Serenity a viewer gets a feeling of where everything would have gone wrong, frankly. It's best to stick with the TV series and leave well enough alone.

September 28, 2020 at 6:20 PM
Joel Swagman said...

One of these days I will check out Firefly. I promise.

As for the Netflix philosophy, I'm thinking about all the great shows that didn't hit their stride until season 3--Star Trek TNG, The Wire, etc.

But then, that was a different era, wasn't it? Competition for eyeballs was a lot less fierce than it is now.

September 30, 2020 at 10:57 AM
Whisky Prajer said...

I'd better lay off -- Google is suggesting I watch the "Honest Trailer" for Firefly. That'd puncture by balloon mighty quick!

September 30, 2020 at 2:32 PM

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