I identify with it. Really, I feel for Simon. Couldn't she cut the poor guy a little slack?

I think Trash might be my favorite, period. It is certainly the one I watch the most.

A friend of mine calls Trash one of the finest hours of scripted TV, period.

There is lots to love with "Trash" -- but "The Message" has Jayne's hat ! Made by his mom !!!

Watched The Message and HoG last night with some folks who hadn't seen them but are coming to the movie. We had to back up the DVD and run a scene again b/c it was skipping, and one of our friends was already reciting the funny lines along with the actors.

I am a huge and unabashed sap. I freely admit that there are major plot holes in The Message, but they don't really bother me. I love Jonathan's performance and I get teary every time I watch the last ten minutes or so. Gina rocks so hard in this one, too. Zoe draws her boundaries with Tracey so clearly, from beginning to end.

The only thing I disliked about The Message was them not letting Tracey in on the plan, which would've saved him.

I don't disagree that this is irritating, but Mal kind of did the same thing to Simon in Bushwhacked. OTOH, seems like he would have at least yelled, "We're not turning you in, you dim-witted [insert Mandarin curse here]," once Tracey took Kaylee hostage.

Similarly, in HoG, I have so much love for Melinda Clarke and how she manages to transcend what could be total crap roles. Also? Way hotter than Morena, and I'm not even an Inara hater.

HoG. Worst. Episode. Ever.

I hated pretty much everything about it, mostly because it had Mal, Zoe, and Wash all playing fools. I did think Melinda Clarke was the best part of the ep. Would that she had been cast as Inara.

Would that she had been cast as Inara.

Oh, now *that* would have been cool.

I identify with it. Really, I feel for Simon. Couldn't she cut the poor guy a little slack?

That was always my one qualm about Kaylee. The whole "I have a crush on you—how DARE you disappoint me by not acting out my romantic fantasies!" thing really tends to bother me when I see it in action. Though it's usually employed by unsympatheric crazy-woman characters who are supposed to loosen up the tense repressed guy and teach him How to Live and Love, rather than fully realized three-dimensional characters like Kaylee.

The thing is that while Kaylee knows how to get properly friendly with a guy, Simon is unlike any other guy in Kaylee's world--their social circles were never meant to overlap. She's probably dealt with plenty like Bester, who react to her overtures in a pretty easy-to-understand way. Simon's reactions baffle Kaylee because he doesn't know how to deal with things the way they are "out in the black" and he's not good with women to begin with. Her frustration makes perfect sense to me because she's never had to deal with a man who behaves like Simon, at least not on a romantic level. You could call it a by-product of the intense social stratification of the 'verse, or you could call it me being an unrepentant apologist. I'll cop to either.

So would we say that the recommended arrival time at the preview screening is, bare minimum, an hour beforehand?

We were there two hours beforehand last time out and might have been in the first hundred in line. If it's just two or three of you, I'd say you'd probably still be good at T-minus one hour, since you'll still probably be able to find decent seats. The flans, they are friendly and accommodating.

And commonly served as a dessert in Mexico.