(no subject)
Nov. 10th, 2005 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aadler11:00PM Central Afghan Time
Several days when I keyed in prior writing, got other stuff done, but didn’t turn out any actual new copy on “Glass Ceiling”. Three days, actually, which is substantially longer than I should have gone, but I suppose everyone needs a break every now and then. I’m back on the move now — little over 1,000 words today, almost to 15,000 total — with nothing happening tomorrow that should prevent me from playing some catch-up.
Other news:
I got a letter yesterday (with a birthday card included), that was from 1) a woman, who was 2) neither a daughter nor a niece, and 3) not previously married to me. Three good things in one envelope. Okay, this is not an uproariously dramatic event, but it doesn’t feel bad. Letters are precious here; letters from not-otherwise-disqualified members of the opposite gender, more so.
I’ve gone back to working out in the gym in this compound on a daily basis. My goals are modest; I just want to be in decent shape. My largest problem on the Army physical fitness test (which is given at least once a year, or as often as anybody with the power to require it, does so) has always been the two-mile run. I can run just about forever, at my own pace, but the specified time is just a hair faster than is comfortable for me, so I always have to train up to it. I’m doing it right now, on a treadmill; when I can do a minute better than the required time, I’ll feel confident of my ability to pass the for-real test if it’s sprung on me as a surprise. I’ve lost eleven pounds since I arrived in Afghanistan; I need to drop at least fifteen more, and twenty would be better.
I found out, not an hour ago, that we had a rocket attack last night. Complete with sirens. I was totally unconscious of the whole thing. How can a guy brag about something he sleeps through?
Oh, and one of the reasons I let three days go by without writing: I got caught up in finishing out my Firefly DVDs all in a rush, and then watching the copy I’d been holding of Serenity. Thoughts below, including substantial spoilers for the two or three people in the U.S. who haven’t already seen the movie.
On the series, my primary thought is that this is the best thing Joss ever did for television. I’m a die-hard Buffy fan, and I watched the five seasons of Angel with increasing pleasure and respect; but, where those series were intelligent in their treatment and development, Firefly was intelligent in its original design. The network requirement that the prime-time broadcasts begin with “Train Job”, rather than the two-hour series opener, mystifies and annoys me; for me, the whole character of everything that followed was set by that first two-hour episode, and my imagination fails to project how anybody could suitably understand and appreciate it without that proper introduction. Fourteen episodes, only fourteen episodes, screwed around in ways that surely must have prompted visions of murder-suicide in the people actually trying to make the show work; when you index the quality of the material with the irrational treatment it received by network executives, Wonderfalls got more comprehensively shafted, but there aren’t any other serious contenders. Buffy, with a first season of only twelve episodes, went on to explosive success because it was given a decent chance even though expectations were low; Firefly, of immensely better pedigree, was shot dead twenty feet from the starting blocks. And yet, those fourteen episodes are some of the best television I’ve ever seen.
And may yet again. Joss seems to be sticking with movie projects right now, but the financial success (and critical respect) generated by Serenity could easily bring about the return of Firefly, if the man himself happened to be interested. Let’s face it: if a failed series can produce enough support to jump-start a hugely successful movie, it’s obviously practical for a successful movie to justify a return to the series. If only, if only.
Which brings us to the movie itself.
Okay, I’ll admit it: my first reaction was disappointment. I mean, severe disappointment. My problem was that everything that I loved about the series seemed to be missing from the big-screen treatment. Admittedly, the two media are different forms with different strengths and different requirements; only someone who didn’t understand the distinctions would try to treat them the same way. And I’ll have to say that the means by which I saw it was not conducive to appreciation. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was a local version; as I discovered, it was a horrendously cheap bootleg, obviously filmed straight from a movie screen by a video camera. Colors were muddy, sound was blurred, it was just really bad. Even granting those limitations, however, I still felt let down.
But you know, after that first exposure I began to come around. There’s no overcoming the awfulness of my copy, except by — as I intend to do at first opportunity, about a month from now — buying a real one when they become available. My biggest complaint, about the lack of characterization in people whose characters had been so tantalizingly depicted on the series, has been tempered by repeated exposure. Even with commercial time subtracted, fourteen episodes provides something like ten hours of screen time; there’s no way a two-hour movie can compete with that. Nor, if it had been done as if it were a single large-scale television episode, could it have properly competed as a movie. Serenity, for a fan of the series, is not a single-viewing experience. Watch it a few more times, and the familiar people start to emerge. I still feel that Book and Inara were pretty badly short-changed … but with nine main characters, somebody had to be, and (I say this with regret) they were the ones who could be largely overlooked with least damage to the entire product. (Not that I don’t still feel some resentment at SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Book being killed without our ever getting answers to the mysteries in his past.) Mal, Jayne, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, Simon, River, they all came through. I can’t imagine what subsequent movies or a subsequent series would be like without SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Book and Wash, but I have a feeling Joss already has.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER And it will be a long time before I recover from the impact of the scenes right at the end. Two things in particular, moments apart and inextricably linked, but still distinct in my mind.
First, Simon, wounded and helpless, knowing it’s all over. He gave up everything for his sister, sacrificed his career, left his family behind, became a fugitive practicing medicine for the benefit of a bunch of wandering mercenaries. He lost everything, for her sake, and what does he say to her at the end? “I’m sorry.” Sorry for failing her, sorry for being about to die. I knew he’d say that. That’s how men like that think. I knew he’d say it, but that doesn’t stop me from damn near crying whenever I think about it.
Second, River running to seal the blast doors and toss the medical kit in to the others. It’s chilling, no matter how many times I watch it: 90 pounds of seventeen-year-old surgically-instigated-schizophrenic female, in a cotton dress and bike shorts; and dozens of homicidal mutants, most of them three times her size, all armed, crazy with bloodlust, indifferent to pain. You can see the moment when there was still a chance that survival might have been possible, and you can see it vanish. She’s focused on what she has to do, instead of what’s around her; they grab her and drag her back inside as the doors close, locking her in with them; and that last chance at life is gone.
Heck, I may go watch it again as soon as I post this.
I’ve been a fan of Buffy since the first episode, and remain one more than two years after the series ended (over a year, if you count Angel as a continuation of the Buffyverse). But I see what’s been done elsewhere, and I think it’s entirely possible that the bar has been raised. I think the time may come when we look back and say, “Remember when we thought Buffy was good? Heck, remember when it actually was the best thing on television?”
It happened with STAR TREK. The original series seems almost like a parody now; but it suffers by comparison because it broke new ground, it got left behind because it opened the way for others to go farther. That’s not the worst fate a work of art can suffer.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 07:53 am (UTC)I definitely think Joss raised the bar for what "good" television is for me. Before Angel and Buffy, I had very little "must see TV," because it was all garbage. And now I have three shows I make it a point to watch, and two others that are pretty good. And it's funny, because the three I love, I love for completely different reasons from each other. I watch "House" for the snark, "Lost" for the story, and "Numb3rs" for the family interaction and the math.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 02:56 pm (UTC)Though I’m not actually in a position to watch them these days, those were three of my favorites also, for mostly the same reasons. (I counted story as the main attraction on Numb3rs.) I ordered Lost Season 1 online, and may well get the chance to acquire Season 2 by the same means before my deployment ends.