At the risk of starting a fight, I just don't get Firefly and why people loved it so much. I saw one or two episodes... meh.
The moment that got me, was in the first episode when there is a bar fight, someone is thrown the window of the 'saloon' and it turns out the window is a hologram, so it just sort of fizzles out and then back into place. I loved the mixing of silly conventions.
I never saw it the first time around, but caught quite a few episodes when it came out a second time. It was OK, but I didn't like it as much as say, Babylon 5, which I always thought was the best sci-fi show of it's time.
Definitely the best of it's time. In fact I think it started the reshaping of TV into what it is today (with plots that go beyond an episode but last across a season or even the whole run of a show). I heard it was originally pitched as a 5 season show about a war with the whole thing sketched out.
Seems that if a show doesn't start off dark, once they do the "big reveal", the next season they do a tone shift to dark to keep your attention. I find, that for me, unless they also lighten it up a little, its exhausting to watch all the angst and struggling constantly, especially when I am binge watching.
There's a lot of really dark stuff I like, but I tend to prefer dark stuff mixed with comedy. One of the reasons I always loved Buffy.
I rented the first season of Game of Thrones but was disappointed, probably because I've read the books, and enjoyed them immensely.
What's interesting to me about this, was that I had read the first 3 books before the show came out, and was amazed at how closely the first season followed the first book. They do start to diverge more and more after that. But I don't really mind, partly because I think the show writers were very good at understanding what TV was good at, as opposed to a book. A lot of the stuff they changed, they did just because there was no visual interesting way to present it, and there are a couple moment in the show, where the actors just bring off brilliantly some emotions that the books could never quite get as well. That being said, I don't agree with all the changes (Jon Snow is a lot dumber, and a bit of a brat on the show compared to his character in the book).
What's interesting, however, is this current (?) season is past the last published book, so I'm wondering if they got a very detailed outline from George R.R Martin so they could film the newest episodes.
Yes, the show writers had from George R.R. Martin how things were going to end. And there is some evidence he may have all the books partly written, just not edited and complied together. Evidently he doesn't just write beginning to end, but writes what interests him, and then goes back to reedit, and fill stuff in. So he likely has a lot of the ending written. Plus, there are so many big plots and characters in the book that were cut from the show, that they really only have to focus on a smaller subset of what's happening.
Lucifer is back, and I still enjoy it. Tom Ellis is perfect as Lucifer Morningstar, as are D. B. Woodside as Amenadiel Firstborn and Lesley-Ann Brandt as Mazikeen. I don't care at all for Tricia Helfer as Lucifer and Amenadiel's mother and hope she either goes back to hell soon, or finds some other child to cling to.
I really like this show too. I'd love to see Death show up. I always loved her from the comic. I do sometimes get a little tired of Lucifer's daddy issues, but it's still a really fun show.
