Firefly Re-Watch on Hulu. Quick thoughts on the episode Mrs. Reynolds

After binging Future Man on Hulu I decided I wanted to do a quick Firefly re-watch (also on Hulu).   Rather than do a review of the series as a whole I wanted to just talk about one particular episode that is pretty much Firefly at the shows best.

The episode Mrs. Reynolds is just about perfect.  The crew of the Firefly lifts off of a planet with a stowaway that apparently Mal accidentally married the night before (unbeknownst to him). This episode is pretty much is when the series cemented itself to me as a favorite.   I was already a fan of both BUFFY and ANGEL,  created by Joss Whedon,  so when Firefly came on the air I was already on board.  Nathan Fillion stars as Mal Reynolds (Basically a Han Solo type character) that captains a spaceship around the fringe frontier like planets of the solar system.   This episode for me is where the cast totally clicked.  The humor of Mal trying to deal with this stowaway wife was hilarious.  I was laughing at every single nervous facial expression as Captain Reynolds tried to sort things out while the rest of the crew made fun of him.  The chemistry of the cast felt like this show was already in its 6^th season. Then the fun twist in the plot happens developing simmering plot lines between some characters that would carry throughout the rest of this short-lived classic sci-fi show.  

If you have never seen Firefly ---WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU and if you have already seen it –it may be time to revisit this show.  Nathan Fillion is probably my favorite TV actor now because of this show Castle and now The Rookie.    Watching this makes me want a Joss Whedon  Han Solo DISNEY+ Series.

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Futureman TV Series Review Seasons 1-3

As we discussed on our recent Podcast of things to watch during the lockdown of 2020 - Future Man Hulu was one of the suggestions.   Future Man is a Time Travel comedy that can best be described as The Last Starfighter meets Hot Tub Time Machine.  Season one was great.   A couple of time travelers from a miserable future land in the year 2017 to find the "savior". An average guy that was the only person in the world to beat their recruitment video game.  Of course, he isn’t what they expected instead he is just a video game playing janitor.    They join up with him anyway to try and fix the future by changing the past.   Time Travel fans know how good that usually works out and this show takes us on a fun journey through time.

The highlights from Season 1 include some great stuff in the 1980’s that includes one of the Time Travel warriors becoming a Corey Hart fan and getting involved in an impromptu shirtless Volleyball game a la TOP GUN.     My favorite episode of Season 1 includes this same character Wolf opening an underground sewer restaurant where he kidnaps famous people for a culinary experience of a lifetime. There is also a great scene where the main character accidentally cock blocks his dad and takes the Back to the Future mom scene a step to far.  The first season has some really funny stuff and plays around with fun Time Travel homages.

Season 2 for me was a little bit disappointing as the show gets bogged down in a dystopian future that was a little less compelling then going back in time.  The show picks back up again near the end of the season with some really good stuff and the end of season 2 sets up perfectly for a great third season.

Season 3 picks up in far future with our characters prisoners and a part of a Running Man style game show.  A hilarious start to an interesting season.   I loved some of the concepts in this season like the place they find called HAVEN.  A place where time stands still.   All in all it was a good show and a fun and easy binge-watch.  Of course, I’m a big-time travel fan.

 The finale of season 3 was a satisfying series finale.  Of course, this is a time travel show –so they could always find a way to continue on.

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Nightflyers 2018 vs Another Life 2019

The two sci-fi TV Series share a surprising number of elements. Nightflyers aired on Syfy channel in 2018 and Another Life on Netflix in 2019.  Both shows have these things in common.

1. A mission to meet an alien race that is baffling scientists

2. A holographic character played by a black actor.  (That is a strange coincidence)

3. A computer intelligence that may be causing issues with the mission

4.  A character that has to face dangerous radiation to complete a task.   

Not knowing the back story of the series productions -- I would guess that Another Life is the one ripping off Nightflyers, since it pretty much ripped off every sci-fi story I've ever seen in its first season.  Below are some brief thoughts about both series.

Nightflyers 2018

Nightflyers originally aired on the Syfy Channel.  It was based on a George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) novella.   Unfortunately, it was canceled after a short 10 episode run.   It was basically a sci-fi horror series.   It felt at times like American Horror Story in space.

The spacecraft the Nightflyer is on a mission to track down a mysterious alien craft.  The 10 episode run features a mysterious presence on the ship that is sabotaging the mission.  A person with super psychic powers and the mystery of the alien craft itself.  It explores some interesting horror in space tropes --but in some interesting ways that keep it fresh enough to be interesting. 

The only problem with the show for me is that the premature ending since it didn't get a second season leaves too many interesting questions unanswered. The ending feels abrupt as a result.   Also, there was a weird storyline where one of the main characters basically goes insane and because they need him for something in the next episode it is almost treated as if he didn't do those things (which wasn't believable). 

Trailer

Another Life 2019

Here are the comments about this series that I posted on Facebook while watching it.  If it wasn't binge-able I wouldn't have finished the season.

Another Life 2019. A rip off of every sci-fi movie ever —- just less interesting. This show would have been canceled so quickly on network tv Warning SPOILERS in the comment section.       4 Episodes in. If this show was longer than 10 episodes and available to binge I would probably stop watching. I’ll give it about 2 more episodes.
6 episodes in this show officially sucks. It seems like the story on Earth which is a rip off of Arrival has been all but forgotten. The ship bound story has absolutely nothing new to offer and we are supposed to believe that one of the main crew was actually a kidnapper at one point that had kidnapped Starbuck’s character. Give me a break. This show has zero credibility with this random sidetrack storyline.     It doesn’t get any better. In fact, it only gets worse. What a pointless pile of crap.  I just saw that this crap show was renewed for a second season. No thanks

Quick Thoughts on the first episode of Lost in Space: The 2018 Netflix show

Until very recently I didn’t even know this show was coming out.   Maybe I read a story about it awhile back and completely forgot –but it seemed like this Lost in Space Netflix reboot came out of nowhere.   The original show back in the 1960’s was basically the Swiss Family Robinson in Space.  It was like a mix us Star Trek, Batman and Gilligan’s Island.  It was totally cheesy –but a lot of fun.    Then they did a reboot movie in the 1990’s with William Hurt and Matt Leblanc and Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith.   Of course, Oldman was excellent in the role of Dr. Smith.  I enjoyed this big budget movie version and would have liked to have seen it become a franchise—but that didn’t happen.   

So, I was interested the second I saw the trailer for this latest version of Lost in Space.  The concept works better as a TV series anyway.  I watched the first episode and I’m trying to withhold judgement since I learned my lesson with Battlestar years ago.   I spent the first half of the premiere of Battlestar upset.  I wasn’t a happy about my favorite character from the original Battlestar being a woman and many other changes.   The first couple of hours left me frustrated about how it wasn’t my Battlestar.   I stuck it out and was able to see the show as its own thing.  The show ended up being better than the original show.    

After watching the premiere episode of Lost in Space "I’m not having a great feeling about this".   I think Parker Posey could make a good Dr. Smith.  The rest of the cast however I’m just not feeling.  The dark tone the first episode sets –tells us that this isn’t going to be the old fun TV show in anyway shape or form.  The parents are divorced?  Robbie the Robot has been replaced by some sinister looking robot that is connected to the baddies that caused the Robinson’s to crash in the first place?    So instead of fun adventures with weird alien creatures it looks like we are headed for a dark sci-fi story about a broken and fractured family.    The first episode was pretty much a ship in the bottle episode.   Something you expect from a sci-fi tv series since these episodes help to cut back on costs.   Usually however you start getting ship in the bottle episodes further into the series.  Quite frankly for a premiere episode of a TV show this was a pretty dull and boring episode.   I will definitely give it a few more episodes to see if can develop into something cool.    Like I said I learned my lesson with Battlestar.   But if this first episode is any indication –I’m not feeling hopeful.

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Ascension 2014 (Miniseries) 6 out of 10 Warning spoilers

Ascension 2014 6 out of 10

These comments are spoiler filled.

I was really looking forward to Ascension based on the trailer.
Ascension focuses on a Space mission that was sent to colonize Proxima Centauri.  So for many of crew of this 100 year long mission their entire lives would be on this spaceship never touching land.  The mission began back in the Kennedy era and the crew in style and form seems to be stuck in that era.  It seemed like a good idea and the first night of this 3 night miniseries was actually pretty good.  Here is a breakdown about what I thought of the miniseries Night by Night.


  Night 1.  
The story of the first night revolves around the first murder aboard the ship which in year 51 of its journey.  One of the top officers sets out to get to the bottom of this murder while the viewers get to explore the 1960's Mad Men type Playboy Club vibe of the spaceship.   There is also a storyline about modern day in which someone is looking into this secret mission and whether it exists at all.  The first night of this show was solid with interesting teases that something is going on with one of the kids aboard the ship  She  mentions that someone is watching them?   The show ends with one of the murder suspects battling the officer and getting shot out of the airlock.   This is where the first night ends with a huge reveal.   The spaceship isn't in space after all.  The entire ship is in a giant military bunker and the space journey is just an experiment run government.   This was an excellent reveal and had me excited for the next night.   Watching the character plummet into space and land in a giant stunt balloon was cool,  unfortunately the show descended after this pivotal event.

Night 2
After the huge reveal at the end of night 1 we settle into the concept that the entire space mission is basically the Truman Show  like secret government experiment.   It was a cool concept --but the show went downhill from there.   On board the ship they are all having sex and trying to find a saboteur and the little girl seems to somehow know that something is wrong about the whole ship.   The story on Earth with the secret government people is weak and deals with a consultant being sent in to report to superiors on the project, which was a dumb plot line that took away for the more interesting Ship storyline.   At this point the show starts to become a lot less watchable.  The girl that died is now a ghost and walking around the ship trying to show the young girl that seems to have psychic powers.  Meanwhile we are supposed to care random power moves that are happening aboard the ship --which really don't matter to the story.  The show doesn't really know what it wants to be at this point.  Is it a Dallas or Dynasty or a sci-fi show?

Night 3
By the third night --I was already starting to check out.  The charm and interest of this 60's style space journey was falling apart into both inside and outside the ship.  The government consultant decides to escape the project with the guy that had been "spaced" in a completely unnecessary storyline.   The dialogue and acting of the power struggle for the government people running the project was just terrible.  Meanwhile the Space ship's crew is dealing with a energy storm that was created by the "Firestarter" girl and her growing powers.  The whole experiment keeps getting close to being exposed including a broadcast of Alf showing up on one of the monitors and one of the characters questioning this.   It could have been a great series --turned into a really cheesy show by the end of night 3.   The government agents decide to extract the girl that has developed powers.   The acceleration of her powers is ridiculous.   A good concept was basically ruined by some bad story choices and awful dialogue and acting.   I started interested in what was happening on the ship and because the stuff on Earth was so terrible ---I ended up not caring much for the show at all by the end.  I really can't see watching the show if is does get picked up as a series now.

Top 25 Sci-Fi TV Shows Countdown: # 10 Dollhouse

Number 10   Dollhouse   2009-2010

The second of four  Joss Whedon creations on my favorite list.   Dollhouse starring  Eliza Dushku (Faith on Buffy another Whedon show).  It followed the story of a girl that was part of a futuristic lab that used their agents or "Dolls" for different highly paid assignments  be implanting different memories or skills in them by clearing their memories after each task. The premise was excellent.   The writing on the show was terrific both comedic and interesting.   The concept lead to cool stories  each week while slowing unfolding the main mythology of the main storyline about the Dollhouse.   It has a great cast starting with Eliza in the main role.   Fran Kranz as the main tech was great for comic relief and Tahmoh Penikett (of Battlestar fame) as the detective that is trying to figure the Dollhouse out was great as well.   The show was solid from start to finish and unfortunately ended to soon. Like all of Whedon's work I was left entertained and satisfied with the teases and pay offs of the shows stories.