Amph Why didn't Serenity save Firefly?

For some reason, I woke up thinking about this. And they I searched and found this interesting blog post from a couple months ago on this very subject.

I have to say, I generally agree with his comments. Especially the tracking scene. I know it feels neat to not cut for a couple minutes and see how big the set is. But, really, that shouldn't have taken precedence over storytelling. And the ADR - as he also mentions - is horrible. Just really, really bad. When I saw the film, it brought all the charm of both the show and the opening of the film to a grinding halt for me. It was a shame. And I could see how people who didn't know the characters wouldn't be drawn in by it.

I didn't see either Firefly or Serenity until this year (though I'd watched the first 4 episodes years ago and had never gone on), and I liked Firefly quite a lot and I liked elements of Serenity, but on the whole I was left completely unsurprised that it didn't do better. I think by the time I saw both of them, I was far enough removed from the horrible things Fox did to the show and the fan campaigns both to be far less sentimental about it. Which isn't to say that I'm necessarily right, either, and that the mega fans are wrong.

I'm just curious to have a discussion about it. Did the film fail to reignite the series because it went wrong? Or because viewers are dumb? Or because it should have but Fox is dumb? Or something else?

i didn't think the film did much better than the show. why would it have saved it?

Well, obviously that's the ultimate reason: it didn't make enough money. Everyone knows that. The issue is more why didn't it? Was it marketing? Creative failure? Some combination?

mostly marketing i think. and it's just kind of weird to make a film that is essentially a sequel to a show no one watched and expect people to watch it. cool for the fans that they were able to get it made though.

Sci-fi has a hard enough time as it is. Combine it with elements of westerns and some of us will think it's cool, but a lot of people will just think it's weird. The movie, which overall I liked, managed to bring in another alienating genre: horror. I think it just wasn't appealing enough to a broader audience.

See, I don't think I totally buy that, lexu. Sci-fi doesn't have a hard time finding an audience. Neither does horror. These are actually two of the largest staples for box office, even when you have no big names attached. And I think it was totally possible to create a film that would appeal to people who hadn't seen the show, I just am not convinced they did it for some of the reasons mentioned in that article. I don't think it's entirely fair to put it on marketing or the public. I think the film itself has flaws.

I think that's what kept me from really getting into the show - the western element. I'm a big Whedon fan, but just couldn't get into the show. I've been thinking about watching the movie to see if it will make me interested in trying the series again, but haven't gotten around to it. I feel some bizarre obligation to watch Firefly, and I probably will try again eventually.

I agree with Tom about the marketing. I mean, at the time only one of my friends knew what Firefly was, so when 2005 rolled around he was all thrilled and we had no idea why, especially with ROTS out the same year. Firefly has always been a niche franchise, so in a sense Serenity did save it, but still only as a niche interest, which is why there have been comics made after the fact.

Basically I'm saying that since Firefly was so small to begin with, Serenity couldn't do much to bring it up.

it does have flaws, i think mostly in that they sort of had to rush a story that should have been slow-paced with mysteries gradually being revealed to some sort of rapid conclusion. the fact that it did that and that it also killed two of the show's most popular characters makes me wonder what the show would have even been if the movie did somehow miraculously save it.

I don't like the heavy-handed "Western" element either, but it's toned down by the end of the 14-episode run and the show got better because of that.

The same thing happened with Dollhouse - it was cancelled early, so it had to be rushed in order to complete the series. I actually really liked Dollhouse, though I didn't watch it until it was off the air.

I agree with this. I actually love Westerns, but the way it was incorporated originally just didn't make any sense to me. It is probably why on my initial viewing I didn't get very far. But I felt it definitely got less intrusive as the show went on.

So am I the only one who dislikes that tracking shot? And did anyone else actually read the article in the OP? I think his point about the way the Reavers show up is also really good.

I just remain unconvinced that the main problem is 'well no one had seen the show'. I think they could have made a film that would have appealed to more people who hadn't seen the show.

i think they could have too, but it seemed like they tried to make a movie that was for fans of the show instead. sort of a last gasp. the way the film leaves things it doesn't seem like they had any intention or desire to carry on with the show.

i could be wrong though, i have no idea what whedon's actual intentions were.

Yeah, I think that by that point they knew there really wasn't much chance of the show going back on the air. It would have had to do really, really well, and they knew that was unlikely to happen.

Sometimes. Like most things, it's inevitably a combination of factors. The fact that it was based on a TV show that already got canceled for lack of ratings. The fact that it was a relatively unknown sci-fi franchise. The "weirdness" factor of the Western aspects. Poor marketing. While I agree the film has flaws, I don't blame that for poor box office turn-out. There just wasn't enough there to hook people to go see the movie in the first place, much less grab a wider audience to bring the TV show back.

I think the film tries to straddle two main groups of people--the fans, and folks who have never seen Firefly.

Ultimately the film has issues appealing to both groups, which is at least one reason it didn't do well.

Without knowing much about the show, I think the film comes across as a very generic popcorn flick--here's Han Solo and his crew, here's an evil empire, and there are zombies/the borg.

I actually saw the film before I saw the show, and I didn't get it. I thought, ok that was kinda cool....but it wasn't that great. Ooooo, "Hot" psychic girl that kicks ass....that hasn't been done before...

When I saw the show, and I got to know the characters, it suddenly had a much larger impact on me. There was a levity to that show that made it special--I was laughing way more than I expected and that made it fun.

I think I'm one of the few people who watched this show when it originally aired. I remember thinking it was going to get canceled because there's no way they're going to find enough people to give this show a chance. Maybe that's the part both the show and the movie failed at the most, it just didn't convince people it was something they could get into.

Didn't it also air in a strange order because of Fox? I mean, the reason it became so popular was because of DVD sales, right?

And word of mouth.