Firefly - at what point does it get good?

[brixtonbrood]

I loved Serenity, got Firefly DVDs for Christmas, have spent 5 months dragging myself through first two discs with a profound sense of "OK but so what", have now bought Angel Season 5, which I watched once at the time, and am galloping through it at every possible opportunity (not that I get many opportunities though, but I've watched two episodes in a week, which is a lot for me).

So - should I be holding back on the Angel and returning to Firefly because it gets really good towards the end? or did it get cancelled for a reason?

Comments

panda vs lemur

[oxyrhynchite.livejournal.com]

...our local nature centre now has both (ickle red pandas, not the boring fat bastards) and we're hoping they'll make them fight. Faites voz jeux!

Firefly grew on me, and I think it's worth persevering with, but it's Joss Whedon's favourite child and has been indulged excessively. I also thought the pilot was about as good as it got (and a very nice companion piece to 'Serenity').

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you prefer Angel S5 to Firefly. And nobody's a bigger Angel fan than me.

Pretty much everything from "Out of Gas" on, with the exception of "Heart of Gold", is excellent. But then, I think bits of the first two discs (particularly the pilot) are also brilliant.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Angel 5 is shiny and funny and has characters I like and Spike with no shirt on (admittedly acting rather badly). Also I've never seen the last episode but can't completely remember what happens in the preceding ones, so I'm quite motivated to watch the first 21 episodes.
However, as swisstone reminds me, the Illyria/Fred/werewolf stuff is a little tiresome, so if you promise that the second half of Firefly really is better than the first then I'll give it another go - just as soon as I've watched the commentary for Conviction.
I think perhaps the pilot is a lot less fun if you've already seen Serenity - it establishes a load of stuff you already know.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I'd say that Discs 3 and 4 are better than 1 and 2 (I did stop for a while just before 'Jaynestown'). Mind you, I also think that the second half of Angel S5 is pretty poor.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interesting... T has the Firefly DVDs on borrow atm, I've only watched the pilot which I thought was OK but no more than that. Maybe not worth persisting with?

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

I'd have said Firefly is fantastic right from the first episode. If you don't like it by episode 3 or so it's just not your thing. Give up - life's too short.

[e-pepys.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say that the second half of Firefly was better than the first. It's all excellent. But it is something that takes a few episodes to grow on you as you learn to love the characters, situation, and universe. That said, most people are hooked after about 3 episodes.