Maybe I was just reading something into it, but it seemed to have a little right of center subtext in it.
They also got great ratings. I was really surprised to see a show like that on network TV. It was very well done all they way around. I have never been statified by the explainations for the cancellation.
It was certainly better than some of the stuff made for the SciFi channel.
The movie looks like they kept the exact same feel, though one cannot tell much from a trailer/
Whedon himself is a lib; held a big pro-Kerry rally last fall in LA, so I am sure the subtext was more a result of the western influence, not from Whedon's direction. Lib or not, he madea good show.
Well, I could be paranoid, but I think that there seemed to be some sort of political motivation behind it. The good guys looked an awful lot like grass roots conservatives to me (well maybe libertarians.) The bad guys looked very much like corporate statist too.
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The movie looks like they kept the exact same feel, though one cannot tell much from a trailer/`
I saw an advance screening of Serenity last night that was pretty close to the final cut. I'm not going to give away any real spoilers but I did want to say that the movie was great and it keeps that same feel as the show, if not moreso and more seriously. The movie is really good stuff and there is plenty for Freepers to latch on to in there.
Well both westerns and good SciFi are really "Morality Plays." They are both set in time conveniently removed from the present in such a way the the present might be obliquely discussed, and yet they are close enough in time and spirit to us that the issues are recognizable and readily open to our empathy.
There is an interesting essay in a recently published book titled Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly edited by Glenn Yeffeth and Jane Espenson (who did commentary for the Firefly episode "Shindig" on the DVDs) about why the Western and Science Fiction elements didn't work as well as they could have in Firefly. The author's argument is that chivalry is central to Westerns but fairly alien to science fiction and oddly absent from Firefly. The left-leaning editorial introduction that disagrees with the essay's argument and assures us that women don't need to be rescued and that Joss Whedon is a feminist seems to support the theory. Of course as a warning, much of the book tilts severely left (including a very lame parody attacking Bush and a few essays that made me wonder if they were watching the same show I was) but there are a few thought-provoking essays that still make it worth reading.
Whedon himself is a lib; held a big pro-Kerry rally last fall in LA, so I am sure the subtext was more a result of the western influence, not from Whedon's direction. Lib or not, he madea good show.
I'm not a Whedon fanboy but I think he and his liberal fans really need to pay more attention to the show he actually created. At best, it comes off very "right-wing libertarian" and the movie should make more than a few Freepers happy.
But I am realizing one thing about leftists. They really only support government control when they believe they will be calling the shots. They start sounding mighty libertarian when they don't like who is in control or the direction government is going in, which may be what we're seeing here. Of course liberals are real pros at ignoring cognitive dissonance. It's almost required to stay liberal.