other random bits

[cellio]

We went to see my parents on Sunday. It was nice to see them again. Apparently my niece is serious about wanting to move to Italy after she graduates. More power to her. She's an art (art-history? not sure if she formally changed) major who wants a museum job (specifics unknown to me); it seems like that'd be hard to come by and almost certainly means moving anyway, so she may as well go for what excites her if she can.

My parents wanted to show off their shiny new mall (Pittsburgh Mills), but it was raining so we didn't see much of it. I am not a recreational shopper (unless it caters to my particular obsessions, but I don't get excited over things like clothes), and mostly one expanse of stores is much like another to me, so shrug. I don't need to see the third local Barnes & Noble or the 437th Starbucks; I care about the unusual or unique stores, but they are very much the minority in such developments. (And in the "some things never change" department, service in the new mall's new Eat & Park was very slow. We were on the verge of walking out without paying not because we're that kind of people but because we couldn't find anyone who would take our money.)

Later Sunday we went to afternoon tea hosted by a friend, but the aforementioned rain meant we didn't go out into her garden. It was a pleasant gathering, though, and the tea and little sandwiches and cookies were tasty.

Dani and I didn't catch Firefly when it was on TV, so when we were recently ordering stuff anyway we picked up the show on DVD. We've seen three episodes so far, and it's got my attention. I take it we aren't going to find out what's up with River before the end of the show (or the movie)? I was a little surprised to see how overtly a western it is -- the horses in the first episode and the bar fight in the second augmented the soundtrack and the characters' general style. :-)

Given how little TV we watch (less now that West Wing and Commander in Chief are done), I wonder if it would ultimately be cheaper to cancel the cable and just buy the interesting shows when they come out on DVD. As a benchmark for lag time I just checked Amazon, and this year's Invasion is due out in August. But hey -- it says "complete series"? Did they really not renew it? Bummer -- I'd heard that they did, but apparently they changed their minds.

Comments

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

Mmmm Firefly. Good stuff there. Definitely pick up Serenity and watch it *after* watching Season 1.

And prepare to be very annoyed that what is out, is currently all there is (and possibly all there will every be, short of books and comics)

[cellio]

Yeah, we decided not to see the movie when it was out because we wanted to do things in the righ order. We do plan to see the movie after the TV show.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

For tv viewing, I have to say that Netflix is faster than I thought and allows you to keep stuff as little or as long as you like.

[cellio]

Good point -- and they supply the return envelopes, so you don't have to go anywhere to deal with it. That might be the way to go.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

They do, and a regular mailbox is all you need. I really like it -- we just joined. I mailed the first movie back on Saturday. I think I had the next movie in my cue Tuesday morning.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

We've seen three episodes [of Firefly] so far, and it's got my attention.

I've seen all of the first two DVDs, and the first episode on disc 3 (but I wasn't paying enough attention so I'll go back and re-watch when I get the chance). I'm not gonna see the movie until I get done with the episodes. It's got my attention as well, but I don't have the discs (yet).

I take it we aren't going to find out what's up with River before the end of the show (or the movie)?

I sure don't think so... but wait til you see what she gets up to on the second DVD (primarily the episode "Safe").

I was a little surprised to see how overtly a western it is...

I gather that the non-Core worlds can't get much by way of technology, so they go with what they can get. As for the analogy between the non-Core worlds and the Wild West, I picked up on that before I even saw the pilot ("Serenity" on disc 1).

[arabella23.livejournal.com]

We haven't had cable in a long time. But we do netflix and get all the good tv stuff from it. Right now we are watching 6 Feet Under, a series that was on HBO. I recommend this method.

[cellio]

I hadn't realized that Netflix's cheapest plan was so cheap. $6/month for 2 discs a month, which isn't all that unreasonable (and if it is, I'm sure they make it easy to upgrade). Are they good about sending you TV shows in order, or when you put a show on your list, do you risk getting the discs out of sequence?

[arabella23.livejournal.com]

Yes, we haven't gotten any out of order and we've watched a ton of shows. They have a button like add something and it puts them in your que in order

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

I won't provide any spoilers other than to say watch all the episodes in order, when you finish watching the episodes keep in mind that the series was canceled abruptly, then watch Serenity.

Much will suddenly make sense by the time the credits roll at the end of the movie.

Oh yeah, and if you haven't found it already, study this website:

http://fireflychinese.home.att.net/updates.html

It's translations of the Chinese lines spoken during the TV series and movie.

[cellio]

Thanks for the link!

[jducoeur]

I take it we aren't going to find out what's up with River before the end of the show (or the movie)?

Without getting into spoilers: the movie is fairly River-centric, and gets into some decent depth about her backstory.

Despite its short run, Firefly was one of the best shows of recent years -- the writing just sings, and it was a real shame when it got cancelled. I'll warn you now that the movie, while fun, is quite a bit different from the TV show: it takes what I suspect was originally intended to be a full season of the show and compresses it into 2 hours, so it is much more plot-centric, rather than being as deeply character-centric as the show tended to be.

I wonder if it would ultimately be cheaper to cancel the cable and just buy the interesting shows when they come out on DVD.

Not a crazy idea. msmemory and I have gotten to the point where we watch most shows after-the-fact (we're in the middle of doing the whole past season of 24 as a big blort right now), and I've begun to simply decide to pick up some shows on DVD. I suspect that, if you did that, you'd mostly just be a few years ahead of the pack...

[cellio]

This past season I watched shows as they were broadcast, but only a few: West Wing, 24, Commander in Chief, Invasion (I think that's the complete set). Two, or more likely three, of those are now off the air. Good new shows might emerge in the fall (two of those four were new this year), but I'm starting to think that I don't have to watch things right away -- I can wait for the DVDs, since it appears that they are now released just a couple months after the end of the season. (Invasion comes out in August.) The trick with new shows is knowing what's good enough to seek out on DVD, but between friends' reviews, the occasional borrowed tape (maybe), and NetFlix, that's probably a solved problem.

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

Another point about the movie is that it takes place several months after the last television episode. This point becomes obvious eventually, but I remember wishing that I had known it going in. (The first time, I missed a reference that indirectly implied this fact.) Several notable events took place during the missing time, and I understand that some of the story is told in some in-canon Firefly comic books.