Reiterating that the same SFX group did the effects for Galactica, and addressing the style of shot that tossed me out of BG when I saw them:

From the Firefly review here.

Another distinctive element of Firefly is its visual style. Whedon made a point of instructing his cameramen and visual effects crew to make their work a little messy, to lend a realistic quality to the show. As a result, instead of the clean visuals that typify the science fiction genre, we see lens flares, shaky handheld cameras, zooms, and sloppy rack focuses even in CGI shots. While initially the handheld stuff is a little annoying and distancing, these artless, vérité techniques give Firefly an immediacy and realism you'll never see on an episode of Enterprise. The show feels raw and lived-in, and that rough quality really sells the frontier premise.

I got angry because there will be people on SF boards going "Ge Whiz!" and they'll attribute the camerawork in the SFX to Battlestar Galactica.

I'd even feel better if they gave the SFX house credit. But they won't.

I'm in the bored corner w/ Nutty and Suela. The writing, directing, acting, and production design were all pretty thoroughly unimpressive, IMO.

(I can't comment on the effects because I don't have cable, and they weren't done in time for the preview screener I watched. All the CGI ships were represented by triangles with "APOLLO" or "STARBUCK" (or whoever) hovering over them in big red letters, and the explosions were 2-d yellow five-pointed stars. Which was actually very cool, from a fan-of-animation standpoint.)

Whyfor the abuse of badgers with cutlery?

It's an Izzard thing.

I was waiting for Boomer to ask the kid what his name was, and for him answer "Boxey."

I'll be damned. The kid *is* Boxey. Even has the same haircut. Also, not loving the Harvey!Cylon idea at all. There was some nice HSQ at the end.

Unfortunately, I don't really give a damn about any of characters at this point, which isn't good. It's better than the original version, but it's not going to be must see for me unless they do something about that.

Tonight's installment of BG was kind of dull ... though I missed a chunk in the middle.

Daniel, there's an interesting series of articles (or did you post the link?) with Joss and Tim in which Joss discusses the camerawork on Firefly for a few lines. He pretty much attributes the style to 70s westerns and identifies it as a staple of several currently running shows. It's actually a really cool series of interviews, and I think I know how to link now, so ...

Here it is

Is that too long of an address to link?

There was some nice HSQ at the end.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

No seriously. That was my exact reaction to that HSQ. Screaming.

And I'll just come out and say it. I liked the miniseries, and I kind of hope it gets picked up for a show, but only if Farscape gets picked up too.

Still, either way, I'll probably watch. I think given more time, the story and characters will be better developed.

I'm prepared to be in the minority on this.

I thought the HSQ was so entirely telegraphed as to be no surprise at all. But, you know, YHSQMV. So.

I just... you know? It felt so unrelievedly grim. No humor, no hope, no joy. Just death and loss and grey walls and grey uniforms.

And Harvey!Cylon? Ron Moore owes the Farscape team a round of drinks for swiping their idea, anyway. I mean, really. Utterly utterly shameless. Besides, I don't think Baltar breaks nearly as well as Crichton does, and I won't care as much if he does.

I did like Starbuck, though. And the space battles. The battles, I've decided, are kinda cool and interestingly done. Although kind of antiseptic, for some reason I have yet to articulate.

t gives 'Suela a great big slobbery kiss