Why Firefly was good

I am watching something called "Browncoats Unite".  It is a 10th anniversary with some of the cast from the TV Show.  I have seen people who hate the show.  I've seen people who love the show.  I've seen people who are indifferent about the show.  I am going to talk about why I think people fell in love with the show.  It is so damn simple but so damn hard to do.  It made people care!

Obviously from my blog I am a pro wrestling fan.  The one thing that wrestling fans do is care.  Think about why people watch wrestling.  They CARE about the guys in the ring.  They care about the character the performers are portraying.  Firefly did the same thing.  In the brief period the show was on people fell in love with these characters.

The one thing that Joss Whedon does really well is write characters.  No matter what kind of person you are there is someone on the ship you can relate to.  Heck often you can relate to several characters on his shows.

I saw the movie, Serenity, before the show.  I remember the show being on Fox but when I tuned in to watch it it had been moved and I said fuck it I wasn't going to hunt a show down back then.  I remember, when Wash died feeling something.  I hadn't known this character for 90 minutes yet I felt something about it.  May be it was the reaction of Zoe but I don't think so.  I saw a little bit of me in him. That is something that Joss does so well, making you feeling part of you in his characters.

Watching the show I fell in love with the characters and even more so the "guest" stars.  As I write this "The Message" episode is on.  One of my favorite quotes, no just from the show but of all time, is from the episode.  "When you can't walk, you crawl and when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you."

It is one of those quotes that have stuck with me and reminded me that I'm not alone in this thing we call life.  Every episode has a great line or two.  My personal favorite character was Jubal Early.  He is an insane bounty hunter after River.  Some of the lines that Jubal says are amazing!

So why did Firefly fail if it is as good as I am saying?  Simple put it was the fact it was on the wrong network.  Fox.  Fox, the network that cancelled Family Guy.  Yeah they aren't real bright at times.

Fox screwed up the order of episodes.  They started the show at episode 3 because the pilot didn't have enough action.  To be fair network television isn't right for Joss.  Joss is slow building and all about character and dialog.  In that sense it reminds me of old Kevin Smith.  It is about the characters and the dialog.

Now let me say this, I am glad the show got cancelled.  Why?  Because I don't want to see the characters ruined.  I am going to use a wrestling reference because it is what I know.  Hulk Hogan "retired" and left the WWF in 1992 after Wrestlemania 8.  He was last seen "passing the torch" to the Warrior.  Instead of retiring two years later he showed up in WCW.  His character was different, he looked different (the steroid trial took place during all this) and the character of Hulk Hogan would be forever different.  If you look at the movie Serenity as the 3 episode finale it is all wrapped up.  Do we learn about some of the secrets?  No we don't.  We don't know about Book and his secrets but that is okay.  Sometimes there are secrets that are good not to know about.  I want the characters pure and unruined by others, the writers of the actual show, ruining them for me.  I know I am in the minority there but it is true.

If you like shows driven by dialog and characters give Firefly a try.  Ignore the sci-fi aspect of it boys and girls, it is about the characters.  Having stumbled upon this makes me watch to watch the show all over again and I think I just might.

Cabin in the Woods review

Okay I saw this in the theatre but apparently didn't write a review of it so I will now as I just watched it on Blu-Ray.

Let me just say this was a fantastic movie.  Since this movie is already out on DVD if you haven't scene it yet it is your own fault!  So there are spoilers ahead!

I listened to the commentary as I watched this.  I remember in the theatre I was maybe 5 minutes late so I missed the fancy opening credits and you open with two middle age guys in an office.  I thought to myself "Shit I went into the wrong theatre" and went out to check and went back in really confused.  Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard mentioned that is what they wanted for the opening so they did a good job.  Oh and for the record Goddard has a really weird voice thing going.  I hadn't watched West Wing yet but seeing Bradley Whitford, Josh Lyman on there, as what some would call a bad guy, is odd after getting to know him as Josh but he is really good.  

Lets get that out of the way actually.  The acting is perfect in this flick.  Honestly they were all fantastic.  The first time I saw it I didn't like Marty's voice but the second time it didn't bother me that much.  But honestly the acting as an entire cast was awesome.

Back to the movie.  The idea is a "corporation" for lack of a better word is in charge of setting up a sacrifice to appease the Ancient Ones to stop from destroying the world.  They manipulate a group of stereotypes, a virgin, a fool/jester, a jock, a nerd and a whore I believe.  They go to a cabin in the woods and all hell breaks loose.  

Let me explain a few of the cooler concepts for this.  The kids actually end up picking their own killers.  They go down into a basement that is full of little things and that is what will bring their killers.  They end up reading a diary from a little girl and that brings a bunch of redneck pain loving zombies.

Another cool thing is the control room.  What is cool about it is there are dozens of monitors that they have stuff on.  One brutal scene is when the Corp thinks everyone has died.  They are having a great big party and in the background they show the zombie just beating the hell out of the virgin character.  I mean on the big screen it was almost uncomfortable.  Also at the end when all the baddies are killing everyone you see dozens of screens of mythical monsters killing people.  It is really neat.

The bad guys are cool is the dad zombie guy uses a bear trap to grab people which is cool.  Unique as I don't think a bear trap on a chain has been used before.

Another thing that is odd is that Thor, Chris Hemsworth, filmed this before Thor and the others but it came out after.  I hadn't seen Thor so I didn't realize that until watching it now.

There were a few things I didn't like about the movie.  This is might be the only time I'll say it but I wish the movie was longer!  I felt like it was rushed a bit.  I would have liked about 30 minutes longer. A little more about how they Corp had manipulated the teens into their roles and also a little more in the control room and lastly more killing when it all hits the fan.  Seeing a few more monsters would have been cool but there just wasn't the money I guess.

The commentary is interesting if you're a movie buff like me.  I like to hear about the writing process but Joss Whedon, as much as I like his stuff, comes off a little self absorbed just a bit.

As far as the DVD I miss the fact that there are no deleted scenes.  I love deleted scenes and trying to figure out the editors and directors thoughts as to why delete those scenes and leave the others.  I love the movie making process.

Overall if you like horror movies and/or comedies this is a good one.  Pick it up if you haven't seen it guys!