the wonders i've seen

[xparrot]

Just watched Farscape - I'd seen eps here and there, but not the whole show before - and we finished with The PeaceKeeper Wars miniseries tonight. Don't know the general fandom opinion but I thought it was a fitting end to the series, very satisfying save the one sad thing, and that was handled great, just...sad! Overall, wow. What a show. I mean, the crack levels are through the roof (the cartoon ep? Harvey? the last 30 seconds of the series finale?) but that just makes it...special. And when it dials up the intensity, man, it grips you tight.

It is an unfortunate series to be watching concurrent with Smallville fanning, though, because it does much of what SV does, only it does it so much better. Heroes and villains who are comic-book-style larger-than-life; family and friendship; kick-ass action and wild adventure; romantic relationship drama amidst world/galaxy-shaking events; guys in leather pants with incredibly nice asses...yeah, this is what television should be. Farscape has a sense of humor and a sense of wonder that few shows manage. And a certain moral ambiguity that it embraces and explores; it doesn't let you forget or ignore when the heroes make the wrong decisions, or when the right decisions have terrible consequences.

And crack. Oh, the crack. You have to love a show in which the hero is a scifi geek and, finding himself trapped in a distant part of the galaxy, starts quoting movies. Because that is totally what I would be doing, in Crichton's place. "That's no moon, that's a Budong!"

Also, I have to say, anyone who wants to accuse me of defending Lex just because he's hawt - don't tempt me, because I will turn Scorpius-apologist on you, just watch me. Well, except that I don't need to, because the show does a fine job of that on its own. But I could. And believe me, it's not because I find Scorpius hot. I find him awesome, but that's different. Scorpius sex scenes make me cover my eyes (and oh, yes, he has them. This is Farscape! Never think that they won't go there, because they absolutely will.)

(And Scorpius gets a minion! Yay for Smithers Braca!...okay, yeah, I may have a slight thing for loyal minions. Why can't Lex have just one who survives? *whimper*)

Comments

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

I adore SF TV. I was a Star Trek fan from way back (my pre-teen years), I taped Babylon 5 starting with the first airing of the pilot, I watched The X-Files and Highlander and Quantum Leap (and ficced all three)...and so on.

Farscape just didn't grab me. I expected great things, the way my friends gushed, but what I saw didn't live up to that. Aeryn, for example, couldn't hold a candle to Delenn. What I saw seemed to be...I don't know how to put it in words well, but...trying too hard, I guess. It was trying too hard to push the viewers' buttons, and that made it seem contrived.

The wonky humor made it worse. If the humor flowed naturally from the characters' personalities, like X-Files, that would be one thing. If it were all about the campy humor, like Xena, then I would have been able to appreciate it as such. But I was trying to take it seriously, and then it would throw something like the cartoon episode at me, and I was like...heck with THAT, it's wasting my time.