One of the many perks of running Whedonesque.com, is…

Hang on. There aren’t a lot of perks, really, other than the pleasure of being boss of a site that’s well respected and much quoted. Yeah, we got invited to the Serenity premiere in Los Angeles. But I live in Amsterdam. Which means I never get to go to premieres, conventions, screenings or other meetings. When the Paley Center in New York invited us for a panel discussion on television and online fandom, one of the USA based mods got to go, but I could not. And unlike many of our members, I’ve never met any of the actors, or Joss.

All of this is perfectly fine with me. Yeah, I run the site, but I also run U2log.com and a couple of other sites. I’m not the biggest fan, I don’t keep up with all the news, I don’t know episode titles by heart, I couldn’t tell you which of the writers wrote what. I like communities, but I don’t get too involved. (My pet theory is that people who like to run online communities are actually all mysanthropists deep down.) I consider this a good thing. A little distance from the subject matter is essential. It helps keep me objective. And possibly sane.

I do receive a fuckload of annoying PR in the Whedonesque inbox, all about stuff that means nothing to me, not being American, not living in America. And probably wouldn’t mean anything to me if I were American, living in America. But I digress.

Perks. I has one. A kind soul gave me access to the Dollhouse screener, which contained an unfinished version of ‘Ghost’, the first episode. In case you’ve been living in cave, Dollhouse is Joss Whedon’s new television series for Fox, starring Eliza Dushku and Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett. You can read a synopsis of the show on Wikipedia. It is set to premier on February 13.

I remember catching my first glimpse of Buffy on TV (it was the sixth episode of the series’ first season: ‘The Pack’) and feeling compelled to keep watching it, unable to flip to another channel. Like being drawn in by Bob Ross’s hypnotic voice.

Dollhouse didn’t do that, in fact, the first time I watched it I zoned out several minutes into the first act. I like Eliza Dushku a lot, after all she was my favourite slayer. In this first episode, I think she did ok as ‘Caroline’* and as the innocent doll ‘Echo’. She’s also fairly good as the brazen character she’s ‘imprinted’ with in the first few minutes, but I found her far less believable as the character she becomes next, when she’s hired to mediate between a kidnapper and the abductee’s father. In fact, she looked so awkward and miniscule in her skirt suit and specs, it took me right out of the story. And that’s when the supporting characters began to stand out – especially on second viewing.

Tahmoh Penikett, playing the FBI-agent Paul Ballard, is as strong as he is as Helo in Battlestar Galactica. Harry Lennix, who plays Echo’s ‘handler’, doesn’t get a lot to do in this first episode, but he could be interesting. Amy Acker – who I never liked as Fred in ‘Angel’ – does a lot with her bit part as the Dollhouse doctor and I immediately wanted to know more about her scar-faced character. The actress who stood out the most, though, is Dichen Lachman. She plays ‘Sierra’, another doll. We catch a few brief glimpses of her throughout the episode, before she makes a striking entrance right at the end of the show. Kick ass, not unlike like Jessica Alba in ‘Dark Angel’, but with more exotic features. I couldn’t help but wish she’d been cast as Echo.

Whedon’s shows are always about the ensemble, and it isn’t the first time the supporting actors do more for me than the lead. I never liked the character Buffy that much and it took a while for me to take to any of the cast of Firefly, which completely failed to grab me in the first few episodes. So while not exactly confident, I am hopeful the series will prove to be a grower and that Dushku will prove to be as big a talent as Whedon says she is.

* Huh? Yeah, she’s called Caroline in a flash back, where she is reminiscent of the more vulnerable Faith we sometimes saw in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m just going to pretend Joss named her after me. Indulge me.

Verdict: Really, really bad Buffy, without the making sense.

God almighty, the scene with the granny is edited. So. Slow. Ly.

Jack’s not here. It’s like the Scoobies without Buffy.

That Blowfish is straight out of the RSC. Is that a gun which I see before me?

Ah, Jack’s back. Ianto’s jealous of the Doctor, poor thing.

Oh. The Marsters. Not a fan. Not of the cheeks. Not of the acting. Sorry.

Hee, just when you’re thinking that’s so ‘help me Obi Wan Kenobi’… there it is.

Yeah, yeah, kiss already. Why not fall through the floor as well?

… campy banter, blah blah.

Intimate scene between Gwen and Jack. For a second there I thought he was going all Roy Batty on us. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate…

You know I’m really starting to doubt Barrowman’s ability to act a lead (drama) part. Perhaps if they did a musical episode?

Aw, Rhys proposed. He’s sweet.

See? Once a rapist, always… oh sorry, wrong ‘verse. Heh.

Talking about rapists… this verse has got its own. Oh hi, Owen. When’s he hooking up with Tosh then?

Run, Ianto, run.

Has Marsters had some work done? The eyes look weird.

Oh noes, he’s killed Jack. Good old… immortal Jack.

How fast did the Scoobies drive to get back to Jack so quickly?

Ooooh, there’s the stopwatch. Get it?

Huh, what, rift? W’happen?

Hey, he can’t go out in the sunlight, he’ll go woosh!

I have no idea what’s happening.

What did he say? He found who?

Hmm.

“First off, is life in Jane Austen’s England any less
exotic and strange than life on Galactica or Serenity? But the real
parallel is a set of characters who seem completely fresh and real and
identifiable no matter how alien the world they’re inhabiting.

You know what current show I also see as having this quality? Friday
Night Lights. It’s a gorgeous show that consistently reminds me of
Battlestar Galactica and Firefly — it creates/reflects a real world
filled with lots of real and complex characters with consistent but
constantly-changing relationships, shot as if the camera just happened
to be catching slices of real lives… the fact that FNL is set in
small-town Texas instead of on a spaceship doesn’t matter one bit to
me. Both worlds are a little bit strange to me — what does it matter
that one requires artificial gravity and other artificial turf?”

That’s for every person I’ve met in my life who told me ‘Ugh, I don’t like SciFi, it’s not real.’ And for every person who isn’t watching Friday Night Lights or Battlestar Galactica, and should.

Serenity is the Joss Whedon film based on the shortlived Firefly TV series. Last Saturday, I joined the fans at browncoats.nl, for a very special screening at the UIP office here in Amsterdam. It was the perfect way to see it. The film hadn’t been subtitled yet, there was no intermission and the audience didn’t talk or cough or kick my chair or munch popcorn or neck. So that was fab. There weren’t any cast members, like at many of the USA screenings, but that’s ok, I wouldn’t know what to say anyway.

I’ll post my non-spoilery thoughts here and then spoilers after the break and I’ll probably invisitext them too, so you’ll have to highlight them with the cursor.

First of all, for those reading this that do not know, I was a big Buffy & Angel fan and I run Whedonesque.com, a website dedicated to all things Joss Whedon, the writer / creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel. Having said that, the people that post on my site are the real fans. I can name some episode titles, but not all and I have no idea which writer wrote which episode. Basically, I was heavily invested in the whole watcher/slayer thing and Scooby friends/family vibe. That spoke to me.

Unfortunately the Buffy series didn’t explore that enough and became more about ‘who is doing the Slayer today’ and ‘female empowerment’ (barf), so I really didn’t care much for the final two seasons. Secondly, I liked Firefly, but didn’t love it like I loved BtVS and Angel. So yeah, I’m a fan, I run the website, but it isn’t life or death to me, you know what I mean? (Those with no experience in any fandom at all will have NO idea what I’m on about.)

When Firefly first aired on TV, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. There were so many, I didn’t have an immediate favourite and I didn’t fancy any of them either. Since then, I’ve watched the series a few times and I’ve grown quite fond of it. But still not in a ‘oh god, I adore these people and they’re telling my story’ kind of way.

Shortly after seeing the film on Saturday, I posted to Whedonesque about it and the minute I posted, the site and most of my other sites went offline. Which completely sucked for all the obvious reasons, but also because it meant I couldn’t talk about the film when I was still completely pumped up about it. So here is what I wrote:

Well, let’s put it this way. I went in with a lot of real life stuff on my mind and a pretty low mood.

I forgot all about it when the film started and I didn’t think of it for one second during, and for about 30 minutes after it ended I was still blissfully forgetful of said real life stuff. I was in a different world for the entire film.

That Joss. He brings the funny. And the scary. And the sad. And the poignant. And the relevant. All in one ‘big damn movie’!

So if you liked scifi, Star Wars, etc… you’ll be surprised, because this film has real acting, real dialogue, real emotions. If you don’t like scifi, you can still go see Serenity, because this film has real acting, real dialogue, real… you catch my drift. Go see it on opening week. Take your friends. Because when enough people show up for opening week… we’ll get sequels. God knows, we may even get a ‘cancelled’ TV series back on the (not so) idiot box.

Continue if you don’t mind spoilers… (highlight to make the text visible)

I want to see it again. There was so much stuff in there that looked
lush and detailed and went by too quickly, I want to get the DVD right.
this. moment. and freeze frame through all the scenes.

I was spoiled for what for those invested in the Firefly crew is
probably the major ‘event’ in the film: Wash’s death. But I didn’t know
anything else
and had no idea of the film’s plot. I had heard there were problems
with the schedules of two actors (Ron Glass, Morena Boccarin) in the
original cast, so their role in the film was going to be a minor one. I
didn’t know just how minor and I certainly didn’t know there was a
second death. Or that it was going to be Ron Glass (who plays ‘Book’,
the Preacher), who happened to have become my favourite character on
the show. Older guy with mysterious past… hey, I ADORED Giles.

So when Book buys it, I’m stunned (OMG, OMG, they killed BOOK!) and
annoyed. Because here I am thinking I’m ‘safe’ since I knew Wash was
going to die and, yeah, sad, but you know, not invested, so no biggie.
But Book…

There’s a scene in the film where he tells Mal (The Captain) ‘I wasn’t
always a preacher, you know.’ and Mal says: ‘One day you’re going to
have to tell me about that.’ And Book says: ‘No, I don’t.’ Yeah,
foreshadowing, I suppose.

I was one of those people who couldn’t give a rat’sarse about whether
Mal gets Inara (The Companion = prostitute), or whether Kayleigh (Ship
mechanic, and my least favourite character) shags Simon (The Doctor) or
what the hell is up with River (The Crazy Fugitive and psychic,
empowered (barf) girl-woman, i.e. Joss’s unhealthy fixation). I wanted
to know Book’s story. I still do. Now we only get to learn it posthumously,
if ever.

So that bothered me a bit, as did the itty bitty part Morena Boccarin
got to play. I doubt the mainstream audience is going to ‘get’ what she
is about and they’ll just see her as Mal’s love interest. But she too
has a secret and I wanna know. I hope that’ll be part of the sequel. Or
‘a’ sequel. We don’t know if there is going to be one yet. I really
missed her input and Book’s, throughout the film.
 
The film is about River and what’s in her head. I have to say,
the character wasn’t half as bloody annoying as she was in the series.
Before I found out Wash was going to die, I had so hoped the ‘big’
spoiler would be about
River being slaughtered by Reavers, the movie’s ‘monsters’, humans who
have become flesh eating murderers. (Why? Well, that’s part of the
film’s story! I’m not going to spoil everything.) Wishful thinking.

For one second there, it looked like her brother Simon was going to
perish at a point in the movie (just after Wash gets killed in a
typically Whedonesque ‘random’ way) when you (the audience) are busy
gripping your seat in anguish and fear because you start to think ‘oh
god, oh god, they’re ALL going to die…’ That’s Joss’s great strength.
He makes you care. When the cast is in dire straits (think the Mines of
Moria, think Butch and Sundance in Bolivia) you are right there with
them.

What else can I say about the film? It looks beautiful. The opening
scene is great even if I thought ‘um, am I at the wrong screening, is
this the new Star Trek movie?’ He introduces the history of the
Serenity ‘universe’ in a flashback scene where a young River is
attending a history lesson at her primary school.

Serenity is less listerally ‘western’ than the TV series, but more or
less faithful to the canon. The only thing that grates is Simon’s
character, totally out of whack with who he’d become in the series.
Like he’d regressed to his former prissy self.

There’s a line in the film about heroes. ‘A hero is someone who gets
people killed.’ Mal, who, having lost his faith in the war preceding
the Firefly/Serenity story, finds something to believe in, namely
letting the world(s) know what’s inside River’s head, and decides to
risk his life and that of his crew to do it.

Mal gets the job done and people die because of it. He’s a hero, and he’s got to live with that. And with crossdressing…

… no, I’m not going to spoil everything!