February 03 2013
TV gripes you should quit complaining about.
Time to move on from "Firefly was awesome and Fox cancelled it!"?
This thread has been closed for new comments.
You need to log in to be able to post comments.
About membership.
TV Gripe #9. HBO Girls sucks. Lena Dunham only got her show because of nepotism. HBO Girls is great. Lena Dunham is the voice of a generation. There are no African Americans on Girls. Lena Dunham is fat and ugly.
I love the show, personally (Lena Dunham has a strong creative voice) but if you hate or love it, deal with it and calm down because Lena is going to continue to win awards for years to come. Seriously, some of the hatred smacks of jealously and sexism. And yes, Lena Dunham is fat, but not ugly and I think that's great. We need more women on tv who aren't skinny and are not models on tv. We need to see women on tv who look natural.
Now, everyone else what is your tv gripe?
[ edited by BuffyFirefly on 2013-02-03 11:18 ]
BuffyFirefly | February 03, 02:10 CET
losthero47 | February 03, 02:44 CET
I'd rather we stuck with Firefly than veer off elsewhere. The Firefly complaint has been going on for over ten years now and at some stage (if we're not there already) people will see it as sour grapes rather than a genuine grievance. Whether the fandom wants to move on is another matter but we would need to be aware of how we're viewed by outside (there's a story there but that's for another time).
Simon | February 03, 02:50 CET
Egghead | February 03, 03:34 CET
lecter | February 03, 04:17 CET
theclynn | February 03, 04:51 CET
statusNOTquo | February 03, 04:56 CET
brinderwalt | February 03, 05:10 CET
[ edited by redeem147 on 2013-02-03 16:13 ]
redeem147 | February 03, 06:41 CET
gossi | February 03, 06:52 CET
And we know there was going to be a Spike cameo in Season 6. link:
Simon | February 03, 06:56 CET
To be perfectly honest, any interest I might've had in that show was killed by the overkill way they promoted it.
Don't tell me they don't pick and choose which shows they want to succeed when they do something like that.
Go ahead and argue "But Kevin Bacon! Who had a name in Firefly?" and I'll say "It shouldn't matter if you've got a nobody in the lead or Mr. Really Big Movie Superstar - advertise the show, not the actor."
Grr. Argh.
ShadowQuest | February 03, 07:21 CET
Last summer, seeing Nathan Fillion tear up a scant few feet away from me after answering a question from a new fan, in talking about how that kind of enthusiasm and appreciation has kept the show alive ten years later, only confirmed for me how special it all was. It's a shared experience - and if I get an opportunity, I still mention the show to people who might be interested and how to find it. I can't gripe about being able to do that.
Tonya J | February 03, 07:55 CET
-Stargate SG-1
-Dresden Files
-Flash Gordon
-Firefly
-Law & Order
vegetaman | February 03, 08:13 CET
That, and the way Community has been treated by NBC... I love it so, and I'm constantly afraid it's on its last legs.
WhatsAStevedore | February 03, 08:18 CET
/still bitter
lynnenne | February 03, 08:25 CET
Imagine what the world would be like if the original Trekkies gave up trying to resurrect the canceled series.
Bitter about "Angel," too.
[ edited by Nebula1400 on 2013-02-03 17:46 ]
Nebula1400 | February 03, 08:45 CET
/rant over.
embers | February 03, 08:47 CET
Now that would be absolutely hi-larious.
brinderwalt | February 03, 09:39 CET
Easy to hate on a big faceless corp but actual people made those decisions and those actual people have been gone from Fox for a very long time.
IrrationaliTV | February 03, 09:59 CET
BrewBunny | February 03, 10:25 CET
While it's hard to let something go, what may spring down the line is a show FOX allowing FOX to right its Karma. Often what's ahead of its time allows for another show to really advance television storytelling.
Davila | February 03, 11:00 CET
BuffyFirefly | February 03, 16:11 CET
BuffyFirefly | February 03, 16:11 CET
Unless you spend the entire time needling them and pointing out how 'awesome' Firefly being renewed would have been, people don't care. They will watch it, they may enjoy it, they may say "that was good, a shame there's not more". Nobody should have moral outrage at this. There is nothing moral about it.
And Angel was far more deserving of a sixth season than Firefly a second, but I guess that gets a pass because it was Joss' own cockiness that got that cancelled?
Gouki | February 03, 17:11 CET
espalier | February 03, 19:00 CET
Jelly | February 03, 19:18 CET
jgsugden | February 03, 20:13 CET
So... after it was announced that Serenity didn't do well enough to have a sequel then?
Gouki | February 03, 20:14 CET
It seems we must know different people.
Umm... what was that about entitlement again?
So... after it was announced that Serenity didn't do well enough to have a sequel then?
Obviously I can only speak for myself. For me it would be when the franchise's ability to sustain interesting and inventive stories and characters runs dry, which is to say probably not in the foreseeable future (at least not going by the current consumption rate - if you get my drift...)
[ edited by brinderwalt on 2013-02-04 05:37 ]
brinderwalt | February 03, 20:22 CET
I'm not going to get into this, but here's David Fury to help me out:
"The only reason that Angel didn't come back...it's a very simple thing. Because our ratings were up, because of our critical attention, Joss specifically asked Jordan Levin, who was the head of The WB at the time, to give us an early pick-up because every year they [would] wait so long to give Angel a pick-up [and] a lot of us [would] turn down jobs hoping that Angel will continue – he [Joss] didn't want that to happen. So, he was feeling very confident and he [Joss] just asked Jordan, "Like, make your decision now whether you're going to pick us up or not," and Jordan, sort of with his hands tied, with his back up against the wall, called him the next day and said, "Okay, we're canceling you." Jordan's no longer there and The WB has since recognized...I believe Garth Ancier at The WB said that it was a big mistake to cancel Angel. There was a power play that happened that just didn't fall out the way they wanted it to. We wanted to get an early pick-up, we didn't. In fact we forced them [The WB] to make a decision, and with his hand forced he [Levin] made the decision to cancel us. I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel. I can guarantee that."
And I didn't mean cockiness is a bad thing, it's not. Well, in this instance it probably was, but Angel was in a position where Joss thought he could be cocky; didn't quite work out that way.
Obviously I can only speak for myself. For me it would be when the franchise's ability to sustain interesting and inventive stories and characters runs dry, which is to say probably not in the foreseeable future (at least not going by the current consumption rate - if you get my drift...)
You know that fits 100's of shows that have been cancelled before their time, right? Even Sliders. If it's a good enough universe, with many characters, there will always be an interesting story to tell. Doesn't mean they should be told or will be told, but you seem to basically be saying that you will never ever ever accept Firefly's cancellation.
Gouki | February 03, 21:30 CET
When I hear this argument about how the show had awful ratings, all I can say is that everyone I know who are fan of the shows now did not watch it while it was on the air. The trailers that Fox aired looked bad, and there was a complete lack of buzz. I didn't really start hearing good things about the show until after the DVD set came out, and that seems like a common story.
It's been long enough now that I'm not frustrated about how the show was handled, but it left it's stamp on me, and introduced me to Whedon's work. I've remained a huge fan since then. I know it's the same for a lot of people.
I really don't understand bringing up Angel like fans didn't also want that to continue. Fans were really adament that there should have been more. It just had five seasons to develop it's characters and stories, and Firefly had less than 1 and a film. It feels like less of a slight to some people as a result.
[ edited by rabid on 2013-02-04 08:16 ]
rabid | February 03, 22:55 CET
I do regret that Firefly was canceled so soon, mostly because after watching Serenity I saw how amazing Season 2 would have been, but there is one advantage: Firefly is so good and so short that it makes a great intro to Joss. I've persuaded a lot of people to watch the show because it's easy to get into that way. (And it's also pretty easy to tell early on if someone likes the show. If they laugh at the dinosaurs, they're in.)
ManEnoughToAdmitIt | February 03, 23:47 CET
Link:
Simon | February 04, 00:50 CET
sister | February 04, 06:27 CET
To the degree of applicability that I find applies to Firefly? 5-10 tops.
And who doesn't like an interesting story?
And given the above, what exactly is so wrong about that?
[ edited by brinderwalt on 2013-02-04 16:26 ]
brinderwalt | February 04, 07:25 CET
embers | February 04, 08:19 CET
Gouki | February 04, 02:11 CET
And here I was thinking you had no sense of humor!
Your dislike for Firefly is well documented both here and in previous threads. It's getting old.
mutt999 | February 04, 09:11 CET
Several shows people like would either not have happened or be drastically different: Castle, TSCC, and Chuck to name a few. Oh, and Dollhouse, which I personally like better than Firefly.
Serenity would have never been made, so Joss would have not been able to direct this film, which showed that he could handle a big team movie on the big screen, you get where I'm going with this?
Jelly | February 04, 09:12 CET
It's pretty interesting knowing more of the story behind the Angel cancellation. Makes me hate WB all the more, and love Joss even more too. He was definitely cocky in a good and well deserved way.
DreamRose311 | February 04, 09:31 CET
And very well could've changed for the better - who's to say.
brinderwalt | February 04, 10:26 CET
I agree with most of these gripes. My least favorite gripe, "Fox cancels all the good shows" ignores the fact that Fox gives shows a chance that all the other network shows will not. And it also ignores 5 seasons of Fringe.
electricspacegirl | February 04, 11:24 CET
Or maybe Firefly would've gone on to be so awesome that Joss would've ended up in the director chair for X-Men:The Last Stand and the Phoenix saga would've been expertly adapted, Cyclops would've been shown as the brave smart leader he is, and Wolverine would've been bad-ass.
Sorry I got lost in a alternate Whedon world. My apologies.
[ edited by eddy on 2013-02-04 23:02 ]
eddy | February 04, 14:02 CET