Da ich gerade Shockwave Part II ziehe hab ich kein dl-speed/space für den Pilot
whatever
source : http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv ... Dheadlines
Go home Joss!!!!!!
FIREFLY. Futuristic young space privateers try to make a galactic living while dodging the authoritarian Alliance. Or something like that. Fox premiere tonight at 8 on WNYW/5.
The outlaws. The swagger. The no-man's land. The shooting, the drinking, the brawls. Why shouldn't a space western work? Wasn't Gene Roddenberry's original "Star Trek" concept "Wagon Train" in space?
If this makes sense to you, then go out and rent Sean Connery's 1981 interstellar western "Outland." Because Fox's new "Firefly" try is awfully unpersuasive.
It's hard to believe this drab and uninvolving series comes from the same Joss Whedon whose sensitive depictions of agonizing youth have made "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" way more profound than it ought to be, and who sometimes threatens to match the feat with his inner-torment spinoff, "Angel." The only thing deep in tonight's "Firefly" premiere, though, is the well of cliches into which Whedon dips for what passes for plot and exposition.
And is there ever a lot of exposition. This isn't the series pilot; Whedon made a how-the-crew-met TV movie that Fox seems to have deemed less than gripping enough to kick off the run. Instead we're thrown right into action with Nathan Fillion's renegade transport captain and his kick-butt lieutenant babe, Gina Torres. They find trouble in a dusty town bar, facing down disciples of the apparently evil Alliance that has united the planets under its evidently authoritarian rule. Plunky guitar chords sob mournfully as fists fly and guns are drawn. But wait. The cavalry arrives in the form of that Firefly spaceship swooping in to save our seeming heroes as pilot and Torres' hubby, Alan Tudyk, threatens to "blow a new crater in this little moon."
Not exactly poetry, is it?
As leeeeisurely as possible, we meet the Column A/Column B crew: the hothead mercenary (Adam Baldwin), the dedicated doctor (Sean Maher), the trusty mechanic (Jewel Staite), the spiritual guru (Ron Glass), the disturbed kid (Summer Glau, who plays a character named River), even the - heaven help us - beauteous "companion" (Morena Baccarin) whose for-hire feminine wiles come in handy. Then we see what they do for a living, when an oddly European-accented baddie engages them for a "train job." Yep, they're going to steal stuff from a moving train as it rumbles past phone poles into a frontier outpost full of folks in cowboy boots and dusters.
Now there's no reason this can't be made to work. Sci Fi's recently (and disgracefully) discontinued delight, "Farscape," adapted old-time cliches to a modern setting, twisting and turning them into something fresh and dramatically compelling. That show's assorted human and alien characters had snap-crackle-and-popped from their first seconds on screen. And they faced palpably mortal threats, not to mention penetrating questions of personal identity, loyalty, freedom and attachment.
Nothing near as provocative shows itself in the first hour of "Firefly." Everybody's so nonchalant, so self-possessed, so inordinately blank. If there's personality in any of them, they're playing it close to the (fringed leather) vest. It's a relief when the hothead throws a fit, because it proves there is emotion in the 25th century. Playing it level is one thing. Seeming bored by your own activities is another. These guys are hard-knocks rebels? Where's the scrappiness? The sinew? The charm? Heck, the sex appeal?
And the jeopardy? They don't appear truly threatened by their less-than-frightening foes. The episode's big moral dilemma turns out to be anything but: The captain goes all Dudley Do-Right without dithering or doubt. Tonight's denouement hints at deeper dangers down the road, but why would we care when the characters are this dull?
On second thought, forget "Outland." Get yourself some "Farscape" DVDs, and see how it can be done on a weekly basis with ingenuity and esprit. The living ship on that show is more engaging than all the "Firefly" humans put together
