TV: Firefly

Another quick note, to those people who recommended Firefly to me when I briefly mentioned it in my post about Wonderfalls:

You know what? It is pretty good!

The Sci Fi Channel has begun rerunning Firefly on Fridays, a little before Battlestar Galactica. Last week they showed the two-hour pilot episode. Which is a smart way to begin. As you fans already know, when the show first aired on Fox, Fox did not start with the pilot. They started with the next episode. They thought the pilot was too confusing or some such, so they decided to shelve it and air the allegedly less difficult later episode. Which goes to show you how colossally fucking stupid Fox can be. A pilot, you morons, is what lets people figure out who the characters on the show are, and what the hell the show is about. So instead of two hours of introductory background, they gave us an episode in which we didn't know who anyone in this large cast of characters was, and we didn't know what was happening -- there was a war? With who? When did it happen? What part in it did these characters play? How did these characters all meet? What's with the guys with the blue hands? What are they doing? They're after that weird chick, River? Why? How come none of this makes any sense? Oh, because it was all explained in the pilot. Which you didn't show us, Fox. You shitheads.

No wonder I didn't like the show when it first aired. I can't imagine why Fox thought the pilot didn't work, because it drew me in completely. There's a little adjusting time in the beginning of the episode, where things are a little vague, but then each character is introduced in an entertaining and comprehensible fashion, the situation is laid out for us, and off we go.

Tomorrow's episode on Sci Fi will be the first episode Fox aired, and the first episode I watched. I'm interested in seeing what I think of it now -- when it first aired, I hated it; I only watched one other episode, and gave up on the show. If I had been allowed to start with the pilot, I would've kept watching. A lot of people would've kept watching. The show might even still be on the air, instead of coming to theaters as Serenity next month. Good job, Fox!