I’ve heard for years that Farscape was a great sci-fi show that was cut down in its prime. I finally decided to start watching it and so far I have seen the first 7 or so episodes.
I sorta like it. The characters are fun and I got used to Claudia Black pretty quickly even though I thought she’d grate on me. Now she’s kinda hottish. I even got used to the muppets. But so far the stories are okay but not great. Having just come off a Babylon 5-filled autumn I got really used to big, sweeping story arcs and complex political plots. Farscape seems very different.
I assume this is just the usual first season stuff getting up to speed. It is going to get better. Right?
Me either, although I got put off even before you did – pretty much at the “WTF MUPPETS” stage. I loved “The Dark Crystal” and think Yoda looks way better in Empire and Jedi than he does in the new movies, but those aliens in Farscape always look like they should be singing duets with Kermit to me.
The first few episodes are just goofy. But apparently, it gets much better. I’ve never been able to suffer through that first season long enough to get there though.
It does get better, but then it gets worse again. Season 3 of Farscape is great TV, with a season-long story arc and all that entails. The other seasons were mediocre at best, except for the season finales. Those guys could write some great cliffhangers.
I just finished watching the 3rd season, because my Starburst DVD edition showed up this week, and yeah, the early episodes are kinda bleh, just like B5 was, and if you go back to TNG, like they were. Once Scorpius shows up, things are much better. The 2nd season “slide into madness” is good stuff, and as said, Season 3 is great.
Rather than being cut down in its prime, Farscape should have been put out of its misery way sooner than it was. Sure, it was science-fiction, and sometimes it was amazingly good, but I think more often than not, it veered into the not so good.
Ever watch a science-fiction series like Star Trek: Enterprise? Notice how you get these bizarre non-storyline episodes where some writer was given an even more bizarre chance to rewrite Beauty and the Beast? And I mean rewrite in the loosest sense, perhaps a chance to integrate it directly as an episode would be a closer description. Well, Farscape wasn’t that bad, I don’t remember sitting there as appalled as I was when I saw that Enterprise episode (man I hated non-storyline episodes in Enterprise, they consistently sucked). But they were either boring or weird.
In fact, near the end, it just went too weird. It was like they decided to pump the main character full of americhismo in order to appeal to the more patriotic American science-fiction fan. Ever seen one of those cartoons where someone gets hit on the head and then they go nuts for a while, striking poses and shouting garbage? The main character, John, went like that permanently past a point.
But even stranger, in the last season, it started getting really good every episode. I guess it was related to the big finale and there being no non-storyline episodes present. If that left me wanting more, then the two parter special that finished off Farscape took that away, it was like the network thought the “keep farscape alive” petitioning was as lame as I did and decided to make the biggest pile of crap that they could in order to shut everyone up for good. And it worked, it was ridiculously bad.
The thing about Farscape is that they show builds the mythology out of some of the things that happens in the crappier early episodes, so you can’t skip them if you want the payoff, but they’re nowhere near as good as the good stuff in season 2 and 3. Three is really the best without a doubt.
The final movie is ridiculous, but as I understand it, it was supposed to be 2 hours longer and they chopped it down in editing. Makes sense once you see how rushed everything is.
Farscape rocks! It was one of my favorite sci-fi shows behind Firefly and TNG. It’s not a show you can just watch an episode or two of and get it though. The characters develop quite a bit along the way. And it is about the characters. If you’re evaluating the show based on plot believability or some other way of examining a piece out of context, then you’re missing the point.
I really don’t want to live in demagogue’s world. Apparently everything has to strictly follow guidelines for demagogue to enjoy it.
The final movie is good, but unfortunately extremely compressed. It’s essentially an entire season in a short mini-series. I’m very happy that they made it.
Farscape was definitely about the characters first, everything else second. I loved it, but then again I started watching it after Scorpius’ arrival, then went and saw the earlier episodes in reruns.
OMG, I live in a world of guidelines, where one presumably cannot discover righteous unconditional love for Farscape. In my world, we do however have a righteous unconditional love for bacon, does that count for something? :)
Anyway, as much as it confuses me that anyone could have liked the final movie, I am glad to hear that you did.
But before I go on, let me say I watched it all, some seasons twice, and I liked it all. I didn’t dislike it, I just think that it is possible to say that it wasn’t the greatest television program ever and that it had flaws. No television series is perfect.
But this “Farscape was about the characters”… It feels like defensiveness because I cannot identify any substance in it. Why do I find it empty? As I said, I watched all of Farscape, and I have watched a lot of other television series, and all those series were as much about the characters as Farscape was. The only difference I can see is the amount of investment in those characters that any given fan has. When people have to defend the series’ perceived lackings by handwaving about other aspects which presumably don’t lack, it seems, well, as I said… insubstantual. So, can someone please tell me if this means anything, and if so, what it means?
I actually stopped watching at episode 7 or 8 as well, but at some friend’s urging I continued several weeks later.
It was more than worth it. There were some great storylines and storyarcs (especially the several 3-part episodes), and while the first few episodes weren’t really all that good, season 2 and 3 really kicked ass.
You’re correct, characters are a strong point in most of the other popular science fiction series. Star Trek has spawned plenty of characters that are well-known, even among the mainstream population.
What Farscape’s emphasis is on, however, the relationships between those characters. And not just static relationships, but the growth and change in those relationships over time.
Star Trek has very memorable characters, but those characters and their relationship between each other don’t really change all that much over the course of each series.
Farscape is, really, a Space (Soap) Opera. And I’m okay with that.
It would have helped if Ben Browder had a wider range of emotions and acting ability as one of the muppets.
I sort of liked it. It had lots of potential and really neat bits. If this had come out as a kid, I would have creamed myself over it. The ship is killer, Pilot is killer, the progressive softening of character for the Gorkon King^H^H^H^Hthe big dude. But, how many times do I have to watch Browder put the wrong inflection on his lines and have them all go flatter than Claudia Black’s nose? Or have the ship get hit by enemy fire and have Black fall into Browder’s arms? I swear it happens every episode at least once through the entire first season. Rygel looks too much like a muppet. The big guy was a fucking Klingon, ok? And the cute blue chick was so annoying I wanted to pimp-slap her, and I must tell you at this point how annoying a cute chick has to get for ol’ Bill to feel the urge to bring his pimp hand out - a lot, very.
Allot yourself 3 seasons and prepare to give up by the end of the 4th, like everyone else did.
I sorta liked the show, I watched the first season pretty thru, then after that I pretty much watched one or two episodes in each season or so. I remember the one that Browder doing a road runner cartoon. And the one when they all went crazy for some reason or another. After that it seemed that every epsode I watched had someone dead, or someone missing or something.
