farscapin' and other

[jazzfish]

So almost a year ago I asked the internet what television I ought to watch. The consensus seems to be: Avatar is awesome, Babylon 5 is good but this may be colored by nostalgia, BSG is either really really good or pretty good and then it falls apart, and Farscape is kinda iffy although the people that love it really love it.

Avatar was, in fact, awesome, and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone.

We then watched season 1 of Damages (ugh), and then the entirety of Slings & Arrows to clear the vile taste. After that, well, I'd acquired the first season of Farscape before the move thanks to rebelsheart, so we dived in.

We're eight episodes in so far, and... um. Of those eight:

• Two have been Pretty Good: "Exodus from Genesis" with the space cockroaches, and "PK Tech Girl" with the Peacekeeper love interest.
  
• Two have been Decent: "Premiere," and "Throne for a Loss" with the battle-drug junkies who kidnap Rygel.
  
• Three have been Interesting Premises With Meh Execution: "I, E.T." with the alien UFO watchers, "Back and Back and Back to the Future" with the flash-forwards and the !Luxans, and "Thank God It's Friday... Again" with Hippie Planet.
  
• And one, "That Old Black Magic," had a premise (an evil sorcerer? seriously, sci-fi show?) that snapped my Disbelief Suspenders enough that I couldn't muster up much caring about the (probably quite decent in retrospect) character development at the end.

Episodes tend to end on a pretty open note, which is good: it's setting up things to be carried forward and resolved later. Trouble is, nothing is actually getting carried forward. Every episode starts from the baseline and ignores anything that's gone before. This... is the opposite of what I'm looking for. I want story development. I want progression from episode to episode. In the absence of that I need a really compelling reason to keep watching, and a hit rate of 0.25 isn't doing it for me.

I'm not giving up yet. Right now I'm mostly watching for Aeryn Sun and Zhaan and the Creature Shop creatures, hoping each time for another Pretty Good episode, and waiting for something that'll blow me away. I've heard that parts of season 1 were weak and getting past those will help. Plus it looks like at least the first half of the season was originally aired out of order from how it was written and filmed.

So... it's got until the end of the first season to make me want more.

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At this point I'm also interested in any comments people may have on Burn Notice, Leverage, and/or Veronica Mars.

Comments

[tam_nonlinear]

I have never tried Burn Notice, but it has Bruce Campbell, so there's that. Veronica Mars is one of those shows that has a fandom saying - such a pity it was canceled after the first season (first season awesome, later seasons not so much). I'm a fan of Leverage, but totally admit that it is fluffy and silly, and it's a good show if you don't look too closely at the details.

I've tried Farscape several times and tend to get a few more episodes in each time, but I never developed the love of it that others did. I mostly liked Aeryn and John. I liked the idea that their courtship was so utterly messed up with time travel and clones and alternate time lines and so on that they had four or five first kisses (I love first kisses), but by a certain point the lack of sustained forward momentum got to me. Unlike you, I hated the creature shop aspects (Rigel annoyed me endlessly and was my least favorite character). I've never made it past season four.

[jazzfish]

I admit, I picked up Burn Notice partly on the strength of the premise but mostly because of Mr Campbell. VM and Leverage just look like things I'd enjoy. Thanks!

Rigel as a character is bloody annoying and makes me wince just a bit when he comes onscreen. Rigel as a Muppet is fascinating in that he's so clearly descended from Sir Didymus, and he's got great eyes. And as minor characters with little to contribute go, I rather like Pilot.