FIREFLY Episode 1 "Serenity" First Time Watching Reaction/Review
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Shiny! It's a new series reaction.
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It's a tribute to the writting and acting that when Kaylee gets shot is maybe 20mins in and everyone has the same empathic response of horror... it's like she's a series favorite in the show's 7th season... we get attached so very quickly to all of them...
So true. The look of shock, mouth open in disbelief, shouts of “Oh no! Not Kaylee!” Reaction is pretty much the same across all reactors.
It’s been something like 21 years now and I still want to grab Mal and smack him! You DO NOT joke about Kaylee being dead! (OK, it was funny but still . . .)
@@JohnWelsh-oz3jz The look of betrayal in every reactor’s face when it cuts the the crew laughing at us. 😅
Hot-diggity-dog. Every time I see a new reaction to Firefly I feel a little bit better about the world, knowing that Serenity is still flying.
Can't stop the signal.
Serenity? You mean that old piece of gozee?
Damn right. 👍🏻
I know what you mean. For me it is about writers. These are stories. It seems today, the story is 2nd or 3rd on the list of priorities or not a priority at all. Disney in particular uses a scrapbooking method of film construction which ends up telling a very convoluted story. They think if they film enough scenes they can paste together a film in the editing room. But while that might have worked for Dawn of the Dead, these modern film makers are no George Romero. They are not even a patch on his sleeve.
On horses in a sci-fi frontier; put two tractors in a field and they won't make another baby tractor. 🤔
Machinery like a tractor or car requires a LOT of infrastructure to produce. Mining, smelting, refining, transportation, manufacturing, and all the machinery necessary to produce each step must be made...
...or just have two horses f*ck. 😀
And not to mention fuel. Horses need feed, but they can be used to grow that.
Welp! Now I'm following! I'm addicted to watching people react to Firefly. It's my favorite show of all time. Also, I really appreciated that you told him some clarifying context. I can't tell you the number of times people reacting get so confused about the Chinese language being used, how their not in our solar system, etc. Having this context helps to enjoy the show from the get-go rather than picking it up along the way which can cause distraction from the content of the episode trying to puzzle things out.
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this, but it just now occurred to me that Badger’s peeling the apple might have been sort of a flex. Fresh fruit seems to be a relatively rare commodity (especially given their appearance as an attractive item in a later episode, no spoilers), and making a point of peeling one in front of someone you want to dominate could be a show of “class” in Badger’s mind.
Also, a lot of first-time viewers are so shocked by Kaylee being shot that they don’t really notice how adeptly Book disarms and subdues Dobson…especially for a preacher.
Not to mention that eating an apple is a bad-guy trope...
Another nice little nugget that I never thought about (Badger's apple flex). I can't count how many times I've seen this show---I just say that I'm always watching it. And it just keeps on giving!
I think most people got that with Kaylee eating the strawberry, but most of us missed that with Badger. Good catch.
The best analogy for a Registered Companion is a Japanese Geisha. You are paying for an experience that is more than just sex.
Firefly reaction?!? New sub! Browncoats forever!
Joss Whedon had 7 seasons of Buffy and 5 seasons of Angel which were generally awesome, worth watching all the way through, so it is my guess that he would have kept Firefly good for however long it ran.
Interestingly, they offered him the chance to make something based on the success he had with Buffy and Angel.
It's my guess they expected another drama that was heavily centered around fae and the supernatural. Maybe they wanted another Buffyverse spinoff. So when he presented them with a space western that only hinted at ESP, and the only monsters were more rumor and mystery than in your face... his backers were disappointed.
@@jerryfick613 Sadly, the studio couldn't make the leap that the guy who'd created successful shows that were in their 7th and 4th seasons knew what he was doing.
@35:04 - *"Isn't like, a few planets enough? Can't they just be like, "We'll let them do their thing out there, and we'll do our thing in here, and everyone can be chill, and we don't have to be murdering each other about it."?"*
Said no government *ever,* in the entire history of our species...
As a fellow Browncoat, I love watching people enjoying Firefly for the first time. New sub here. :)
It's also worth mentioning that typically when they speak Mandarin, it's because they are swearing. That was Joss' way of getting around the censors.
I just found your channel. Subbed and liked for your Firefly journey.
"Kaylee's dead" - Mal's cruel joke was also a test to see Simon's genuine reaction. Simon showed true concern for Kaylee. He passed the test. If he failed the test, Mal never would have offered him a position on the crew.
This is an S tier partial series, despite FOX execs sabotage. Joss Whedon signed a 5 year contract (22-24 episodes per season). Soon after, new FOX execs replaced the old execs and wanted to make contract deals of their own. Since they couldn't rip up Whedon's contract, they pulled every dirty trick in the book and got it canceled. They waited until the very last minute on a Friday to reject this pilot. Joss Whedon & Tim Minear had only the weekend to write and submit a second pilot or suffer a breach of contract.
Just a thought. I’m torn between wanting to hear you process what you’re seeing, Nate, and not wanting you to miss the dialogue that you end up talking over. Sometimes it may be prudent to pause the video for a few seconds while you discuss what just happened. There is no wasted dialogue in this show. Every word seems to have a job to do in furthering understanding, advancing the story or making you laugh.
Crap, you talked over one of the best lines with the dinosaurs "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" 🤣
That's my first true 'favourite moment' of the entire show lmao.
My girlfriend did that too. We are no longer together.
@@HalkerVeil Smart move.
Shepherds give the vibe of a combination of Christianity and Buddhism while the Companions are along the lines of a traditional geisha or the Hellenic hetarae.
enjoy firefly reactions. normally skeptic of reactions where one person knows the subject matter. i can tell that you try to avoid spoiling. but sometimes i think you do tend to give away too much info. i think someone should experience it just like us originals did, not knowing a single thing.
One of my favourite series. I own it and still rewatch it years later. Looking forward to seeing your reactions. :)
I respectfully disagree. I think Joss was fully capable of putting together 5-7 seasons of excellent episodes.
Funny. Joss Whedon is canceled by people who've never heard of Roman Polanski.
As good as this one was...after a few episodes things just keep getting better and better. Maybe because you know the crew better. But the writing just gets better.
It's funny/tragic that Fox didn't give Firefly a fair shot, when they gave The X-Files more than a fair shake like a decade earlier and that allowed the show to find its feet and an audience and it went on to become a hugely influential pop culture phenomenon.
When the X files got started, Fox was a brand new channel. The Simpson's, Married: With Children, and The X Files is what Fox was built on. They literally had no programming some nights of the week at the time.
There are a couple of running themes that I'll throw out there that are not spoilers. First is, this is Mal and Zoe's tale. The story of the War Buddies. Even though Gina Torres doesn't always have a lot of lines she is adding so much to the scenes she is in by the way she reacts to Mal even from the background. She's always moving to have a clear shot at whoever Mal is dealing with. And she is always guarding his back and saving him from when his "plans" go awry. That's one of the jokes. The second thing is Zoe is sort of a avatar for the ship and/or vise versa. There are a couple of episodes where this theme is present. I won't spoil them but I believe Whedon planned that to be the case. Watch for them when they happen and you'll see what I mean. It plays into that first theme that this is Mal and Zoe's tale. It's Mal, Zoe and Serenity..everyone else is crew.
I've personally recruited half a dozen co-workers into the noble Browncoat ranks. It's my proudest accomplishment
There is also an Serenity Role Playing Game.
Jewel Straite does not like strawberries.
Your take on why FOX did what they did with Firefly was nice but completely wrong.
The person that green lit Firefly got promoted. The replacement was looking to save money and didn't like Sci-Fi so proceeded to sabotage Firefly before it ever aired. First came the poorly done and misleading commercials for the series. The excuse for the 2-hr season premier change was it was 2-hrs and didn't fit the FOX schedule. The shuffling of episodes and preempting of episodes and even time and day changes all were intentional to lose viewers so they could drop the series for a less expensive reality TV series. The 2-hr original premier was aired after the series was canceled and announced it was canceled. 3 episodes aired in the summer without announcement so few saw them until the DVD release.
The movie was not backed by FOX and was named Serenity cause FOX apparently refused to let them use the name Firefly. Universal agreed to distribute and advertise the series which was from the FAN raised money to make a movie. Universal screwed the pooch and their advertising efforts was poorly done and the movie was a financial flop. The Serenity movie was not intended to wrap up the series but to both catch non-viewers of Firefly up and continue the story. It was to be the first of a movie franchise.
All interesting background! I'm not sure I had ever heard those details before. It's been a while since I was doing my firefly research :)
Even more tragically, it’s only *one half* of a season.
You can see some minor parallels between the Alliance/Browncoats and the Inners/Belters of The Expanse. 🤔
2000's era network TV had some really great stuff. Sarah Connor Chronicles is another great overlooked one.
You know I'm subscribing to a new Firefly reactor!
There was a cult in Russia (maybe still is) worshipping, I kid you not, Gadget Hackwrench. Yes, the anthropomorphic mouse mechanic from Chip&Dale. And in that religion, Gadget is supposed to have avatars. Among those there are Bonnie Barstow, Florence Ambrose, and, yes, Kaywinnet Lee Frye aka Kaylee.
The biggest problem behind the scenes was that there was a change in the executive hierarchy at Fox; one group of execs really got the idea behind Firefly and found Joss Whedon to be a proven draw with shows like Buffy and Angel. Then there was a shakeup, and the execs who gave a greenlight to Firefly were suddenly gone, and the new execs in their places were not fans of the sci-fi/fantasy genres Joss worked in, they didn't want to spend the money on the special effects needed for a sci-fi show, and they were never on board with the"space-western" concept. So they aired it out of order, pre-empted it, moved it around the schedule...I liked the show from the start, even though I didn't have all the backstory the pilot provided, but I could never *find* it.
I've never heard there's an episode 15 script online!!! I'm gonna have to look that up now!!!
The factions in "The "Verse," are the Alliance and the Independents (Browncoats) who were analogs of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, with The Reavers standing in for the Plains Indians of the post-Civil War American West.
"I ever kill you, you'll be awake; you'll be facing me; and you'll be armed."
Well, since you've released The Train Job, now we all know that's not necessarily true!
Don’t know if you caught it but Mal kisses a cross worn around his neck in the Battle of Serenity in the opening scene. So he was a man of faith, like Shepherd Book. However, the crushing defeat in the war resulted in a loss of that faith, hence the quip about praying out loud. Mal vacillates between atheist and angry theist at this point in his life. The ideas of faith (and lack there of), hope and belief are recurring themes in the series.
When I think back to something like Star Trek: TNG and how it was late in the 2nd season (of 26 episodes each) and the characters were still being flushed out and compare it to Firefly it really is amazing. Everyone who watches this is fully invested after the first 90 minutes.
Organic "machinery" requires much less technology to maintain on frontier planets that have been "just barely" terraformed.
I think your description is acceptable, the context of China and English helps prevent people asking a bunch of background questions that isn't really needed (it's common in other reactions..) getting it out of the way helps speed things along.
3:53 I'd congratulate Nate, he now knows more than any of us watching it did before watching, it's not a spoiler, and it is helpful getting ready for the narrative!
32:57 when I first started this journey, having come late to the party, I started watching and did not finish until all 14 episodes were done, I was that hooked.
nice to see one knowing and one not knowing! loving it!
There are a lot of different writers and directors involved in this show, and most are writers from his other shows. They are brilliant.
Sometimes they miss, but mostly the Whedonverse writers strike lightning in a bottle.
I hope you will both look into the other Whedonverse shows:Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse.
The Chinese words you hear, most of the time, are curse words to get passed the censors. However, they don't exactly translate word for word, so when you hear what might sound like cursing just insert your own favorite curse word.
And to think...the execs at Fox didn't think this episode was good enough for the pilot!
Vehicles don't reproduce, horses do. If you bring a few horses with you, you will have generations of horses there after. Your machines just breakdown over time and you may not be able to reproduce them or the parts required to keep them running.
Nice to see a fellow Browncoat bringing others into the fold even if they get a lifetime of what if-s in their head forever
Fox had some... interesting... internal politics happening as well. There was one team identifying and developing new series - with gusto. There was another team that was axing series - who happened to have some issues with the development team. The churn was dramatic (and Firefly got caught in it). Family Guy made a joke about it when they got a restart... listing off an impressive list of cancelled shows that came after their cancellation and before their return.
Not sure you can appply the "the 1st couple seasons were great and then it went off the rails" argument with a Wedon show. Buffy is 7 seasons of perfection. Angel is 5 seasons of greateness. Firefly would have been the same.
Definitely need a second watch. They missed a lot. But that's part of the fun I suppose.
Another reaction to my favourite TV show? Shiny!
1:34..so NOTHING's really changed...😛
12:31 So...no subtitles where You are?
ill say this about Whedon. Buffy and Angel went their full runs and both got stronger each season
It just gets better from here. The chances are they could have kept it fresh since they had an entire solar system to explore and an innumerable cast of characters to play off of. Seems a shame it died early. I subbed you to follow along.
it was not just telling a doctor there pheasant died. remember he was told if Kaylee dies he is getting off before the next planet. so, Simon thinks he is going to be spaced.
After hearing the non-spoiler intro, I wondered if more of that earlier in the show might have helped. Probably not, since the idiots in charge couldn't process the notion that a guy running 2 successful shows knew what he was doing. I mean, how crazy was the Buffy concept in the late nineties?
It's interesting when people talk about outdated effects when shows, or movies, don't need them to be really good. If anything, I think they tend to be used as a substitute for good film-making(writing, directing, etc.). The Alien franchise comes to mind. Pretty minor on your part, but worth mention.
Babylon 5 is a biggie for establishing episodic genre TV as well.
When I first met my wife she insisted that I watch this. Luckily I did. And of course she had me watch it in the correct order.
When a person graduates from medical school in the top 5% of his class and then admits that next to his sister he is "an idiot," that says a lot about how smart she actually is.
Whedon had plans laid out for several seasons of the show.
There's also paperbacks and action figures!
You definitely tell him some things that he’d naturally learn as the show progresses like Inara’s position and helpfulness and other things. I understand your excitement though.
Personally, I’m the type to be tight-lipped when my friend asks questions about a show I’m having them watch.
See Pop-culturally Challenged. He does it right.
THANK YOU !!! I'm right there with you 😊👍
Shiny! Firefly.
Buffy and the X-Files did the serialized television thing first. Buffy being another Joss Whedon production.
The other really big problem with FOX's scheduling was how they were carrying the World Series that year. So they would be showing a baseball game in Firefly's time slot, making viewers think, "OK skip a week and we'll see this episode next Friday." But instead, they aired that night's episode hours later, after the baseball game when no one was expecting it. So even fans who were really TRYING to watch the show couldn't find it.
The problem is that a new executive took over and he hated scifi. Instituted a rule that they could only air 1 sci-fi show at a time. So they cancelled Dark Angel(Jessica Alba) to make room for Firefly but intentionally sabotaged it also becaue it wasnt a show he green lit. This is a common practice for executives when they take over. 86 as many shows the previous put into production so they can push the shows they want.
tho they ruined up _dark angel_ before they cancelled it -- specifically by trying to turn it more into _buffy_
When the Fox executives brought Joss Whedon in to create a show they were expecting it would immediately have the draw of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which did not find its audience until midway through Season Two, and so Fox dropped it as "unprofitable."
Thank you so much for taking the Firefly journey, it was encouraging to see that Nate was hooked during the very first episode. Not an easy thing for a TV show to do.
You were being generous when you said that fox was unkind to this show, I also witnessed the crime first hand, fox quite literally murdered Firefly.
The real WTF moment was, when in the last aired episode, we were 'introduced' to a character, River, that had been on the show from the start??!! WTF was fox thinking!?
And then it just ended, Dec. 2002, worst christmas ever. Three of the original fourteen episodes didn't even air the first time around.
Also, you mentioned the music, did you know that Joss Whedon wrote the theme song before he penned a single episode.
Sean/Shawn, I love that you're able to fill Nate in, in real time, to some of the things not noticed by everyone upon first viewing, context is everything. I eagerly await your next reaction.
Fox deliberately sabotaged the show. First they demanded a new pilot but only gave Joss a weekend to write a teleplay for it, which would have given them a justification for cancelling the show before it aired. To their surprise he did it. The new pilot was The Train Job and they indeed ran that episode first. From that point they showed other episodes out of order as you said, and three were never aired, only showing up later on the DVD set. You were trying to articulate the difference between episodic and serialized TV.
Adding insult to injury, they replaced the cancelled Firefly with Fastlane, which was an incredibly dumbed-down action show that has since become the norm on network TV.
Around the same time Fox also cancelled John Doe, which was excellent. Worse, they actually ran the entire season, but only to twist the knife since Season One ends on a huge cliffhanger reveal.
In addition to the illustrated books ( they are hardcover "comics" ). But there are actual novels not short stories, with the crew.
They use Chinese to curse.
You have a new subscriber.
As we say in Texas; y'all be safe.
Dortmund is city in Germany. Dortmunder means someone or something from Dortmund, Germany. This ship is so named either cause the Alliance fleet yard or a special person involved in the ship's commission (like a member of the Admiralty) is connected to Earth that Was and is German descent. Either way it's a great piece of world building. There does not seem to be any convention in naming Alliance ships. Dortmunder and Magellan, I forgot what the third onscreen ship is named.
Totally agree with your point about maybe the show getting cut early was a blessing in disguise. I've often thought how if it had gone on longer there's always that chance it would decrease in quality like a lot of shows do. Also, if it had continued for 6 or 7 seasons, there's also a good chance it would have been affected by the '07/'08 writers strike and may have suffered an early cancellation anyways, but without a cult following, it may not have received the follow-up movie and other content to wrap things up. I think it worked out the way it was meant to.
You're definitely a Browncoat. My criteria is, you're not a Browncoat until you're singing along with the theme song.
sometimes half a season is enough for a classic to be born.
First time watcher here, and ready for this journey. Thanks for letting us come along.
3:25 Depends. When a show with overarching plotlines is planned it is not exactly the number of seasons or episodes that matter. The problems start when the original plotlines are finished and the producers continue just because the show is popular.
Take Supernatural for instance. The show was originally planned as a 5-season show...and they should have stopped after these 5 seasons. While some individual episodes from later seasons where still good the show itself was pretty bad. Seasons 6 and 7 where still ok, season 8 was already pretty bad and everything from season 9 onwards is utter garbage.
On the other hand - sometimes more episodes would have saved a bad ending of a show. The problem with Game of Thrones season 8 is not that the plotlines didn't make sense, the problem is that about 20 episodes more would have been required to make it believable.
Though powerless I completely agree with your choice to tell about the setting and context. Not many folks are going to zoom in on a computer screen and go "oh this is in the 2500's"
Very happy to see these two reacting to Firefly. I also like the Alphonse Mucha style pictures of the crew in the background - haven't seen those before.
Those (Les Hommes poster set) were released by QMX . There was one for each character (including YoSaffBridge).
Yeah, it's a tragedy that Firefly got cut short. But the alternative is like what happened to Game of Thrones or Smallville. It would've either taken a dive in the final season and been ruined as a whole, or it would've slowly withered and died, getting less compelling as it went until people finally gave up on it. Instead, what we got was short-lived but dynamic and evergreen.
Thing about the episodic formula of the time, Joss had Buffy and Angel out, and they had long since reached the point of needing to watch each episode in order to follow the story. Even thought they had plenty of stand-alone episodes throughout, they assumed that you were familiar with the characters and relationships with each other.
Executives determined that this show was too expensive to produce, (it was quite an expensive show since they shot it on the Fox lot and they had built a complete Firefly ship set, instead of breaking the set up in smaller collapsable units, like in most TV productions) in relation to what it was bringing in, but the reason it wasn't performing as good as they had liked, is because they kept messing with the airtime and the release order. So, in other words, the execs doomed this great show through ineptitude. What's new?
"The only redeemable one on the ship" yeah thats where i tap out. Safe travels.
Perusing your history you seem to be attracted to series and as such I would like to suggest the show "Person of Interest". It's a well written show set in NYC after 911 and possibly relates to a lot of what is happening now. It does good character development with a plausible story line.
24 and Lost ... but you don't have either one of those without Babylon 5, running through the mid-90s. It laid seeds in the first season for the larger narrative and sometimes doesn't have payoffs until 3 or 4 seasons later... and if you're a Mass Effect fan, you'll recognize some elements since Mass Effect takes a lot of inspiration from Babylon 5
And you will see how confusing it all was viewing out of order, when you see this IN the proper order. As for Chinese, they could curse and the censors didn't catch it. A neat little detail was how the note Badger was reading had moving text like a web page.
Not even one season. It was cancelled mid-season. They would have had another 8 to 10 episodes if they'd gotten a full season.
Everyone who sees Kaylee get shot always yells "Nooooo!" 😂
Well brown coats look like we (ok I'm late) but we git here just in the nick of time, what do you suppose that makes use?
Horses make a lot of sense, mechanical vehicles need to be trasported or constructed... Horses are self replicating.
Tractors don't get sick.
@@zammmerjammerhorses don’t need fuel. Feed, but they can assist in providing it.
Crazy Ivan is a maneuver that comes from Soviet subs. to get away from an enemy sub they make a sudden 180 then blast them with activer Sonar sensors all mounted in the bow. it temporarily blinds pursuit during which the sub scoots away in a random direction like a squid squirting ink at them.
you would know that if you'd seen Hunt For Red October starring Sean Connery, the only Russian sub Captain with a Scottish brogue.
@@scalefree 😂
Well spotted! Except Scots don’t have a brogue. They have a burr. Irish have a brogue.
Yes! Great show, looking forward to your reactions
Great reaction. Happy to see another reaction channel for Firefly. Can't wait for your next one.
I just found this channel. I seek out firefly reactions as it is as close as i could get to re-live the moments for the first time again through someone else. Seeing someone who isn't a brown coat yet... Watching them slowly fall in love with the crew. I just have to say, I couldn't do what Sean (Shawn?) is doing here. If I was showing a friend firefly for the first time... I'd be yappin about the lore and backstory, potentially throwing out spoilers. Definitely annoying the hell out of them, explaining and pointing out everything they missed. I'd be a bunch of nerves overthinking, why didn't they laugh at that? Oh, they missed what Jayne said... I'd be staring at their faces while the shows going on... trying to catch that spark and moment, do they love the show yet? Why don't they love it? Why?!? Love it Gorramit! Love it!!! Please? Lol 😂
Welcome! Thanks for watching! I try my best not to behave that way but I can definitely relate :)
It said first time watching and I was looking at the posters like.....wait what?
omg FIREFLY ♥️♥️♥️ yall abt to enjoy the awesomest incomplete show everrrr (twin peaks used to be it, but i guess that's complete now.. :p)
Great reactions. I love this series. It is sad that it was cancelled midseason.
There is also novels/audio books from Titan Books. They are set between the series and the movie.
There is a documentary called "Done the Impossible" that addressing the fans wanting more. If you watch it, you should wait until after the movie.
Have you played the game? It is like being in the show.
In addition to the comics there are also novels and role-playings games.
Fox had a change of management at the time. The old management loved the idea of Firefly. The new management hated it.
Inara is sort of a mix between a "prostitute" and a "geisha"
I love the look on Kaylee's face when she bites into the strawberry. In all my 52 years of life, I have NEVER made a woman have that expression!
Given that Jewel Staite hates strawberries...
@@migmit that, too!
The movie Serenity, to me, was just a gift for the fans.
You are stunningly capable of discussing Firefly without giving anything away. I would be too anxious to say just a little bit more ... "Oh, you think this is important? Well, you see ..." Foreshadowing would be irresistible to me. I could avoid giving away plot points, but I wouldn't be able to resist hinting that something will be important later. You somehow keep it to yourself. Bravo!
Something to keep in mind, how many sci-fi shows are rated not so good in the first season but really comes into their own second and beyond? Welcome to our fan club
If you haven't already heard it before, a band from Georgia called Emerald Rose have a song about Firefly on their "Con Suite" album called "Big Damn Heroes". It is a fun song about the show and its characters, though it does contain spoilers.
Xena and Buffy were the first for season long story arcs. Before Lost.
I'd throw Babylon 5 in to that list as well.
Very nice reaction. The pairing of a fan & “newbie” is an interesting pairing. Looking forward to the rest of your reactions. Take care.