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docbeard posted:It was either this, or walk across the country to raise awareness of early '00s sci-fi television, and my cart just broke.  Welcome to what appears to be the first thread I have ever started on the Something Awful Forums! After the subject of Farscape came up in Toxxupaton's Doctor Who review thread, I have decided, against the advice of the stuffed bear that I believe to be my attorney, and flying in the face of all good sense, to jump into the "watch a TV show and write things about it" game face-first. I'm sure it's going to be fine. So why Farscape? Honestly, mostly because I wanted an excuse to watch it again. I saw it when it originally aired on what was then the Sci-Fi Channel between 1999 and 2003, and I did another run through most of the series again about, oh, five years ago, but with a few exceptions, it's been a while since I've seen it. And because I think there's a lot to say about this show. It's a visual feast, it's a wealth of characterization, and it's, well, a roller-coaster of quality; while I'll keep my feelings about certain episodes close to my chest right now, I'll say that the series features both some of the best and some of the worst television I've ever seen. Besides, it's unique in the universe, and unique is always valuable. So what even is this Farscape thing, anyway? What am I, Wikipedia? The short version is that it's an American/Australian co-production that began airing on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1999. It was created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, who at the time, was primarily known as the writer of the film Alien Nation and the creator of Seaquest DSV (speaking of blasts from the past). More recently, he's involved with Defiance, a show about which I know absolutely nothing. (I didn't even know that about it until about two minutes ago.) It was co-produced by Jim Henson Productions, who also did a lot of the costuming and practical effects, including creating two of the show's major characters. So yes, the people making vague remarks about Muppets when talking about Farscape aren't actually joking. But shut up about that. While there are certainly some "yeah, that's a puppet" moments, on the whole, the show looks amazing, particularly by the standards of television produced at that time. The show aired for four years, was canceled abruptly (and that's a story in and of itself), and concluded with a miniseries called The Peacekeeper Wars. There are various DVD and Blu-Ray collections available (I'll be watching from the 2010 box set, because I like commentaries), and the series (but not the concluding miniseries) is streaming on at least the U.S. Netflix. So how's this going to work? I'm going to aim for one review a week. I'll announce the episode I have coming up next, probably give a brief (and, one hopes, vaguely witty) summary, and then the review will appear in the next couple days. (Expect the first review sometime next week unless my life implodes or something.) This is all experimental, and I ain't setting anything in stone at this point. Ideally, I'll keep going with this til I get through the series (which I realize is going to be something like two years), so long as this doesn't turn out to be a massive disaster. I'm not going to do any kind of elaborate Thread Rules thing. If anyone gets horribly disruptive or hateful, I have a Report button and I'm not afraid to use it, but I certainly don't mind disagreement or critique, and as long as you're not just shouting insults at me or (especially) at other posters, we're probably cool. What about spoilers? I've seen all of Farscape before, so no one's going to be ruining any surprises for me. However, I'd prefer it if discussion didn't get ahead of the episode I'm currently watching, both because I think that makes for a more focused experience, and because I imagine there will be at least some people following along who are watching the show for the first time. I'm not gonna freak out about the occasional dropped hint about things to come (though please don't be cute or coy about things, you're not as good at it as you think you are), I'm just going to ask that you show some respect for the people around you. docbeard posted:oh god what have I done
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Jul 24, 2015 15:48
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| # ? May 3, 2024 01:38 |
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(Reserved for links to reviews.)
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Jul 24, 2015 15:49
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(Reserved for...other things.)
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Jul 24, 2015 15:49
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Next, On Farscape: Premiere Little Johnny Crichton goes off on his own, and ends up in a baaaaaaaad neighborhood.
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Jul 24, 2015 15:52
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Well, this will end well! Subscribed, and eagerly awaited. Farscape is my very favorite show. Even though 3/5ths of it suck.
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Jul 24, 2015 16:00
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Looking forward to this...shitwreck.
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Jul 24, 2015 16:35
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What could possibly go wrong?
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Jul 24, 2015 17:36
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I watched the premiere last night and it certainly was...something.
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Jul 24, 2015 18:14
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gently caress, now I have another show I have to rewatch. Thanks Docbeard 
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Jul 24, 2015 18:22
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Farscape is a good show, you will enjoy it. Or you won't, whatever, life is meaningless.
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Jul 24, 2015 18:44
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I would like to mine my nostalgia for this show without actually going back and watching it, sure. Please include pictures of that kickin' rad gunblade thing the klingon fella had.
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Jul 24, 2015 18:58
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Hell yes
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Jul 24, 2015 19:15
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I've had a hankering to re watch Farscape for a while, I am totally down for this. Let us proceed with the business of awesome.
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Jul 24, 2015 19:50
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Okay I'll try to watch along with this, Farscape's been sitting in my Netflix list for a while now. I don't really know anything about it aside from what's in the OP.
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Jul 24, 2015 22:42
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Farscape to me always felt like more of a proper Star Wars successor than the prequels which came out at the same time and cost probably 100x more.
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Jul 25, 2015 00:00
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This show has an alien that farts helium
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Jul 25, 2015 02:07
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Only when he's nervous. Also Rygel is the best. I may periodically say other characters are the best in a fit of excitement but it's really Rygel.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:15
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I love muppets.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:18
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Anyone who hasn't seen this show before and is watching along, please also submit your opinions as the thread progresses. Half the fun of the other thread was seeing the show through the eyes of the bemused/confused outsider.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:21
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Proposition Joe posted:I love muppets. The Pilot is cool Well I'm not sure I actually liked what I just watched but at the very least I'm curious enough to watch more.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:25
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ThaGhettoJew posted:Anyone who hasn't seen this show before and is watching along, please also submit your opinions as the thread progresses. Half the fun of the other thread was seeing the show through the eyes of the bemused/confused outsider. This. Regy Rusty posted:Well I'm not sure I actually liked what I just watched but at the very least I'm curious enough to watch more. That was kind of my original opinion when I first saw it. I've just watched it again and, well, you'll know what I think soon enough! My opinion has not changed that much. Review soon! Not tonight-soon, but...soon!
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Jul 25, 2015 02:31
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Pilot is actually the best character in this. He's got more arms than anyone.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:41
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Been meaning to watch this for a while, so this gives me a reason to say, "Okay, sure, might as well now." So congrats, you've already won. Full disclosure, I love the Muppets.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:42
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docbeard posted:That was kind of my original opinion when I first saw it. I've just watched it again and, well, you'll know what I think soon enough! My opinion has not changed that much. Yeah, the pilot is a little shaky. It takes the show a little while to find its feet. 'til Durkha Returns, IMO, though there are a few good episodes before that. I kind of want to gush about why I love this show so much but it'd probably end up being super spoilery. I will restrain myself. thrawn527 posted:Full disclosure, I love the Muppets. The Henson Company's work on this is spectacular.
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Jul 25, 2015 03:02
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Regy Rusty posted:The Pilot is cool It's amazing how expressive he is able to be. Man, I love Farscape. I still haven't watched The Peacekeeper Wars, mostly because I just don't want it to be over.  Maybe this thread will get me to finally watch the end!
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Jul 25, 2015 04:38
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perhaps i'll watch farscape with you and ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH realtalk docbeard what's your aims here? are you treating this as a for fun thing or a writing exercise? are you looking for criticism? because i'm willing to provide writing criticisms if you're looking for it, via pm too if you don't want to be embarrassed or nothin'
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Jul 25, 2015 05:53
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thexerox123 posted:It's amazing how expressive he is able to be. I admire that willpower considering how the final TV episode did, uh, not really seem to be a very satisfying end to the show.
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Jul 25, 2015 06:05
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The commentaries for Farscape are really the best part. The one for Jeremiah Crichton is hilarious.quote:Every once in awhile on a TV series, especially one that is just starting up from scratch, you’re fumbling, you’re looking around, and as the show starts to gel, a magical event happens. Every once in awhile you reach an episode where everything comes together: the writing, the directing, the acting, all the production crafts. And you achieve a magic, magic, perfect episode. We’re here today to talk about “Jeremiah Crichton” cause it is absolutely Not. That. Episode.
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Jul 25, 2015 06:16
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Party Plane Jones posted:The commentaries for Farscape are really the best part. The one for Jeremiah Crichton is hilarious. The one for Scratch and Sniff is great too - if I recall correctly they talk about how they felt that episode sucked as originally cut, and the solution was to make it weirder edit: I can't actually find it, maybe they mentioned that in a different commentary and I'm mixing it up in my head Deceptive Thinker fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jul 25, 2015 |
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Jul 25, 2015 15:02
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I wish Netflix had commentaries Or the ending miniseries, come to think of it
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Jul 25, 2015 15:17
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Toxxupation posted:perhaps i'll watch farscape with you and ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH About 70-30 in the direction of fun. I'd rather keep the thread about the show than about me, though, so while I am always happy for critiques, best to keep those to PMs.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:57
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2house2fly posted:I admire that willpower considering how the final TV episode did, uh, not really seem to be a very satisfying end to the show. Haha yeah... I think the only reason I can handle it is because I was spoiled on that ending and what comes after ahead of time.
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Jul 25, 2015 18:39
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2house2fly posted:I wish Netflix had commentaries I thought Netflix UK had Farscape and was going to watch along. Guess not. 
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Jul 25, 2015 19:09
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Netflix France has farscape.
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Jul 25, 2015 19:30
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docbeard, I feel like you should have had a review ready to go when you started the thread, and then outlined when we can expect each review thereafter. We're all treading water a bit right now.
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Jul 25, 2015 21:04
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Premiere The first episode of a new television series needs to accomplish some very specific things. It needs to provide at least a brief introduction to every major character, and every major relationship. It needs to establish the setting. It needs to set up the series’ general premise and, if there’s a larger plot arc, to set that up as well. It needs to do all of this while telling a story that is simultaneously complete and open-ended. It needs to leave us wanting more. It’s hardly any wonder that the first episode of a new series is quite often the weakest. Even aside from the demands of a new cast and crew and writers and directors all learning to work together, there’s little room for subtlety, for finesse, for creativity in a first episode. There are absolutely exceptions to this; both the opening miniseries and the first episode of the Battlestar Galactica revival, and the first episode of Justified, spring to mind as first episodes that transcend the usual limitations. And then there’s Farscape’s premiere, which checks all the boxes and doesn’t really aspire to anything much more. The episode title itself, Premiere, is particularly damning in this regard. They literally called it “first episode”, with no nuance or double-meaning to it. To give it credit, it does check those boxes. Every major character in the show gets at least a little time to demonstrate the basics of who they are. There’s never any ambiguity as to what’s happening and why. The episode’s plot is complete, but also serves to set up a longer storyline. Unfortunately, this also means that the exposition is laid on thick. Take the first scene. We get a shot of John Crichton (Ben Browder) in his flight suit, and D.K. (Murray Bartlett) in his labcoat, and a newspaper whose headline reads “CHILDHOOD FRIENDS OUT TO PROVE A THEORY.” And this should be enough. But it’s not. We get DK reading the headline aloud. We get John and his dad (Kent McCord) talking about John’s mission into space to prove his own theory. We get a goddamned voiceover from EXPLAINING THE PLOT RADIO as the shuttle launches. (There’s a certain irony to this given the way the show evolves, but more about that much later.) Most of the scenes are all right, with the dialogue ranging from painfully earnest — “It’s my training! My upbringing! It’s what I am!” “You can be more!” — to genuinely witty — “Yes, of course. We’re someplace else. I’ll…get back to you on the specifics.” The first extended conversation between D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe) and Zhaan (Virginia Hey), however, is awkward and terrible, and does little to distinguish these characters beyond the obvious stereotypes of Angry Fighter and Enigmatic Priest. Unfortunately, that’s a trend that holds true more often than not where the characters are concerned; Crichton seems like a more-or-less complete person, and Browder plays up his helpless bewildered irritation at everything around him well, but everyone else is a two-dimensional caricature. Sometimes the acting is better than the writing (particularly in the case of Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun, Lani Tupu as Crais, and Jonathan Hardy and the small army of puppeteers playing Rygel), but it’s not quite enough. We establish the basics; D’Argo’s a tempermental fighter, Zhaan the attempted voice of reason, Aeryn a belligerent soldier, Rygel is Better Than You, and none of them really get along with each other. But there’s little about any of them that you couldn’t put on the back of an index card and still have most of the card left over, not yet. This is another thing about which I will have more to say later, but for now I’ll assure you that while this is where these characters start, it is not, by any means, where they end. On a more positive note, the show looks and sounds loving fantastic. If it weren’t for the aspect ratio, I could just about accept this as a show made today rather than sixteen years ago. They were clearly going for an aesthetic that screamed NOT STAR TREK. I don’t really know much about color theory and its implications, but I can definitely see the difference between the cool palettes used for things like Star Trek and Babylon 5, and the warmer earthier colors used here. I love Moya’s organic design, and even the colder militaristic Peacekeeper Carrier set has a nicely alien touch, with design that owes more to curves than to angles. The work of the Creature Shop, in particular, adds a lot to the unique look of the show, and does a lot to sell these ships and planets as places that owe nothing to humanity (even if the Peacekeepers do look suspiciously human). The music, too, is distinctive; the weird electronica of Guy Gross and Subvision both sounds great and sets a dramatic (and almost certainly deliberate) contrast to the traditional orchestral suites of the sci-fi television of the day. Going back to the Creature Shop for a moment, we’ve got to talk about the two puppet characters, Rygel and Pilot (voiced by Lani Tupu). We don’t see a great deal of Pilot in this episode except as an image on a screen, but what we do see looks impressive. I don’t always find Rygel entirely convincing as a living creature, but I did in this episode. I think a lot of the reason for that is how strong a personality he’s given; Jonathan Hardy’s voice work is wonderfully haughty and occasionally malevolent (and it doesn’t hurt that he gets most of the best lines). So we have our characters. We have our plot. We have our longer conflict. Do we have a reason to keep watching? When Premiere first aired, I came away from it not exactly unimpressed, but curious to see what they would do next. And if I were going blind into it today, I think I would have the same reaction. Next, on Farscape: Moya goes for a swim, and a single mother has a close encounter with a bizarre alien who calls himself “John”.
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Jul 26, 2015 01:47
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The_Doctor posted:docbeard, I feel like you should have had a review ready to go when you started the thread, and then outlined when we can expect each review thereafter. We're all treading water a bit right now. You're probably right. In any event, I would anticipate doing one review per week, and they will most likely hit on the weekends.
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Jul 26, 2015 01:48
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For anyone trying to follow along on Netflix, Exodus from Genesis is the next episode but due to production order or netflix being out of order or whatever, Doc will be reviewing I ET.
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Jul 26, 2015 02:59
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armoredgorilla posted:For anyone trying to follow along on Netflix, Exodus from Genesis is the next episode but due to production order or netflix being out of order or whatever, Doc will be reviewing I ET. Oh yeah, that's a good point. I'll be following the order on the DVD set (which I believe is the production order). The order they aired in (which is, I think, what Netflix is using) is a little different. My next few are: I ET Exodus From Genesis Throne For A Loss in that order.
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Jul 26, 2015 03:39
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2house2fly posted:I admire that willpower considering how the final TV episode did, uh, not really seem to be a very satisfying end to the show. I'd add to that and say that the latter part of the last season was not satisfying.
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Jul 26, 2015 05:45
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