I don't exactly hate River, but I do resent her story using up all the air in Serenity. I too missed the ensemble approach. They might as well have called it the Mal'n'Rivr story, with supporting cast. And yes, the two deaths still rankle. Mainly because while I realize there must be death, it was the *logical*, not the unexpected, characters who died--the old guy, and the happily married guy. Not the doctor-brother turned knight errant, or the swashbuckling captain, or even his staunch woman second in command. No. The old guy. The sweet guy. Just the ones you'd expect to wear the red shirts in any TOS script. They felt like cheap deaths, and Book and Wash deserved better.

Wash's death didn't feel clichéd to me, but I feared Book was going to tell Mal to win one for the Gipper before he passed away.

Per Wonderfalls season 2, weren't they also talking about having Jaye end up committed?

Per Wonderfalls season 2, weren't they also talking about having Jaye end up committed?

That's what I heard. That plot line actually sounded pretty interesting.

I have this vague memory that there was going to be something involving her brother's theological interests and the whole Jaye-talking tchotchkes thing.

I remember that her brother was going to be this John the Baptist type person, telling people that Jaye was not insane but a prophet.

I'm sure it would have been cooler than I'm describing.

I saw a reference in a review today to "French-Canadian ingenue Dhavernas" and it took me aback, because I really know her only from WF, which, not so much with the ingenue.

Oh that reminds me that I wanted to email the B'more Sun film critic and recommend Wonderfalls to him because he was very taken with CD's performance in Breach. He called her something like a "find".

Is reckon not a common word, or something? Certainly, in my world, I hear it every day.

Deaths in Serenity - that all comes down to the original story structure of the movie. I have the earlier, 400 odd page version of the script kicking around, and in it Wash and Book never die. In fact, they make a joke about it near the end. Of course, the last 100 pages is just noise in it, I agree with Joss on that. Personally, I though Book's death worked, but Wash's death -- whilst it gave them some focus for 10 minutes, in terms of Zoe's character it just didn't work. They didn't have time in the format to examine emotions of characters like they did in TV. It was an attempt to make an action movie from a concept that wasn't entirely about action.

It was still one of my favourite films of 2005, but I can see where people can have issues with it -- I'm glad they didn't call it Firefly, because it wasn't.

I think that "reckon" is used more in the UK and Ireland than it is over here. (Unless you're being folksy.)

I believe that in the extras they talk about how in S2, Dr. Ron would write a book about Jaye, and I think that leads into a cult forming around her. As a result of that she's committed at the start of S3, and runs into the "Lovesick Ass" kid. Oh, and Sharon's pregnancy forces her to stop smoking.

I have great affection for Wonderfalls, and love showing it to people and watching them be charmed by it, but... I don't really wish it had continued. Apart from having qualms about some of the stuff they were planning... it's such a perfect little music box of a story as it is. I'm strongly in favor of endings. And I always prefer missing something to getting sick of it.

I can't really put my finger on why Firefly got stale/sour to me over time.