Firefly

[Spriggan]

According to the offical MST3k website Sci-Fi will not show them, sence a large majority of them didn't have sci-fi theams.  So I beleave at the time that Sci-Fi got MST3K from Comedy Central thay didn't buy the rights to the first 6 seasons and now don't want or can't get the rights.

[Fellfrosch]

Yeah, that's what I figured.

[Kid_Kilowatt]

At first, Sci-Fi was VERY concerned with making the show sci-fi-oriented, and that's part of the reason why they didn't buy the rights from the earlier seasons.  Other reasons include the fact that the first few seasons were VERY spotty in terms of joke density and good delivery and the fact that other parties were gradually acquiring the rights to the films, making it impossible for the episodes to be rebroadcast.

Sci-Fi Channel's misdirected concerns about MST3K also forced the show to create a linear (and VERY stupid) storyline involving travelling through space and time in some kind of epic adventure.  Needless to say, fans hated it and Sci-Fi eventually gave in, letting the show's creators do what they want.  This is why the later Sci-Fi seasons are not all sci-fi and the interstitial sequences stopped including some lame plotline and went back to random skits and gags.  Now, however Sci-Fi is gradually losing rights to the movies in their own episodes (like Diabolik, for instance), and that's why they're showing fewer and fewer different ones in reruns.  They'll be doing reruns for at least one more season, but they mostly show the last season or two now because of the licensing problems (and to avoid reminding people of the terrible Planet of the Apes plotline - ugh!)

If anyone is interested in the early episodes, my brother and I have a fairly good collection (about half of all the episodes) on tape, including the 3rd Comedy Central season in its entirety and most of the last 2 Sci-Fi seasons.

[Fellfrosch]

I would be very interested in that. I've got a few on tape (including my favorite, "Werewolf,") but I'm always looking for new episodes.

[Fellfrosch]

I missed Firefly today. Any good?

And I was impressed with John Doe again. I expected it to turn into just another crime drama, but they're keeping a strong element of Nowhere Man.

[42]

I'm still ambivelant to Firefly, this episode seemed like it's still setting things up. We got to know a little more about the gigantic cast of characters and some more about the world. There was also a psychotic killer.

I'm still not a huge fan of John Doe, it's not bad, but it just isn't standing out for me yet. Though it did talk more about Seattle and the Puget Sound area which is always good.

[Fellfrosch]

If this is our thread for discussing new sci-fi shows, then this is the place to say that I just watched Birds of Prey. It was surprisingly good, and not nearly as moody as the commercials made it look. I was kind of expecting a Buffy/Dark Angel mix, but it was more of a feminist Batman Beyond. All of the characters are women, to the point that when Harley Quinn showed up as the main bad guy I groaned in pain--she's a very good Harley, but I wish they'd thought a little harder and done something a little less obvious. Still, as comic book shows go it's pretty good, and the cast is engaging (well, except for Huntress. She's just surly and angst-riden, which in Hollywood passes for a round character).

[Tage]

Even with that glowing recommendation, I still think it sounds generally uninteresting. Somehow an all-female version of Batman just doesn't do it for me.

[House of Mustard]

Was Birds of Prey ever a comic book?  Or is it just a comic book type TV show?

[Fellfrosch]

As far as I know it's not based on any comic book, but it does seem based (whether consciously or not) on Batman Beyond. You have the older ex-super hero with a mobility impairment who stays back at the base and acts as mentor/mission control, here played by Dina Meyer, from Dragonheart and Starship Troopers, as Barbara Gordon. Gordon used to be Batgirl, but according to this show she was shot by the Joker in a final act of revenge and is now paralyzed from the waist down. She stays in the secret lair and sends messages and advice to the field agent, in this case the love child of Catwoman and Batman, who makes snide remarks and beats up bad guys. If not for the youngest girl, a psychic with no technical or martial skills at all, it would be an exact female duplicate of Batman Beyond.

[Spriggan]

Actualy birds of prey is a comic book and according to E! online it's still ongoing.  It actualy stared way before batman beyond.  But that aside what did you think or Mark Hammels cameo?

[Fellfrosch]

Birds of Prey tonight was, as it was last week, on the thin border between cool superhero series and poorly written cheesecake. On the one hand, it had an interesting conversation between Huntress and the hip young cop who's trying to figure out all the paranormal stuff going on in New Gotham. On the other hand, that conversation took place when they were trapped in a sauna for five hours, and were thus forced to shed any extraneous clothing.

But the big problem (other than the bad CG cityscape we have to look at between every scene change) is Harley Quinn. Introducing a vast, overarching villain in the first episode of a series is a tried and true tradition, but going back to that same villain in the second episode is an unforgivable blunder in Fellfrosch's Book of Really Stupid Things. Why are we asked to believe that every single crime in the city leads back to single mastermind?  Why can't there be other bad guys who want to do dastardly things? Using the same villain every single time is boring and annoying and, unless that villain is incredibly deep, a sign of shallow imagination.

Remember the TMNT cartoon, where the villain was Shredder and Krang every single week? Remember how stupid that was? I wish TV writers remembered.

[House of Mustard]

Stupid?  You must forget the hilarious hijinks of Rocksteady and his partner is crime Be-Bop.  Pure comic genius - like a mutated Abbott and Costello.

[Tage]

Okay, sorry to bring this thread back on topic, but did ANYBODY record Firefly and John Doe from last Friday? Fellfrosch had assured me that he would, and then he didn't. If you taped them, could I please borrow the tape?

[Fellfrosch]

I didn't assure you that I would, I merely mentioned that I should. Those two sentiments are fairly far away from each other on the spectrum of accountability.