The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXXI

[Traitorfish]

It was definitely not a very good question.

I don't know, sometimes it's worth asking what seem like stupid questions just to check that we do, in fact, have an answer. It would have been inappropriate to Contre's thread, would have seemed tone-deaf, but no harm asking it here.

 

[Farm Boy]

Does anybody else still keep up their whistling chops? The preponderance of looks has seemed to shift towards, "Give the crazy man lots and lots of space."

 

[warpus]

I don't know, sometimes it's worth asking what seem like stupid questions just to check that we do, in fact, have an answer. It would have been inappropriate to Contre's thread, would have seemed tone-deaf, but no harm asking it here.

Without any context at all, then yes, perhaps, but I don't buy it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You might not understand this, but Valka appears to be recommending that you check the thread out.

I've been on there extensively but I just don't think my question was appropriate for it.

I hadn't realized (or had forgotten) that you might have read that thread. I no longer follow it, and it is in fact invisible for me now. I have no interest in following a thread where I get snarled at because I'm not familiar with some flag that has no relevance to my life, but apparently "everybody" knows about but me - since I'm "too old and out of touch" to know about anyway.

It was just a suggestion that if you have questions about that issue, the thread that deals with it might be a more useful place to go for answers than a serial thread that will be archived within a week or so.

I don't know, sometimes it's worth asking what seem like stupid questions just to check that we do, in fact, have an answer. It would have been inappropriate to Contre's thread, would have seemed tone-deaf, but no harm asking it here.

Pointless to ask it here unless that thread's OP reads these serial threads. A PM (diplomatically worded) might be more apt to get an answer.

 

[Takhisis]

Does anybody else still keep up their whistling chops? The preponderance of looks has seemed to shift towards, "Give the crazy man lots and lots of space."

I'm whistling right now.

 

[Farm Boy]

Any favorites? In a fit of being tired of children's programming, I found The Andy Griffith Show is on Netflix. Way too appropraite and fun to do.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Any favorites? In a fit of being tired of children's programming, I found The Andy Griffith Show is on Netflix. Way too appropraite and fun to do.

I enjoy whistling, although I'm not very good at it. Sometimes the cats give me "shut up, Mom" looks.

My dad used to whistle when I played the organ, if I was playing something he knew. His favorites were Irish Rovers songs.

 

[shadowplay]

I am fairly certain this was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Happy to help.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

You know what to do about almost anything said to you by those people.

Take everything they say as right without question?

Critical contempt was the norm for any sort of science fiction until very recently, in all mediums. Partly this is snobbery, partly it's because most critics are generalists who don't understand the conventions of the genre, let alone when they're being subverted. It's only in the last few years that it's become acceptable for critics, at least some of them, to enthuse about geeky media, and that's a shift in which Whedon himself played no small hand. When Firefly was on the air, a merely mixed critical response was like an Oscar for a sci-fi series, let alone a space Western.

I've heard their opinions about science fiction and they would agree with those critics as they see most science fiction is terrible. They do like fantasy, which they see as more realistic than science fiction.

I assume by "they" you mean "I"?

No. I haven't seen most of what Joss Whedon has made, except for Firefly and Serenity. I did try to get them to watch Firefly years ago by giving them a DVD box set. They said it's awful and that it's why the show was cancelled, because American shows never get cancelled but last for years.

I did bring up that Joss Whedon did work on Toy Story, which I know they like, but I'm uncertain just how much of his work remains in the film.

 

[Farm Boy]

I enjoy whistling, although I'm not very good at it. Sometimes the cats give me "shut up, Mom" looks.

My dad used to whistle when I played the organ, if I was playing something he knew. His favorites were Irish Rovers songs.

Not sure that whistling is really in need of quality control.

Those are good whistling songs! I'll have to look some of them up again, it's been a while. I tend to wander through snippets of Molly Malone, Mairzy Doats, You are my Sunshine, Phantom of the Opera, Black Velvet Band, stuff like that.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The problem is that they find it incomprehensible that anyone likes anything made by Joss Whedon at all. One of the complaints is about the characters. There are too many and they are all bland, boring and poorly written.

I kind of doubt anyone who says that has actually watched Buffy or Firefly or The Avengers, but okay. Still, nobody bats 1.000 - I couldn't get next to Dollhouse - and sometimes a writer's style just doesn't connect. I'm apparently immune to the charms of Harry Potter, for instance. I read the first book and saw the first movie, and couldn't tell you a thing about them.

One of the things they've said is that even at the time, shows like Buffy and Firefly were considered terrible and all treated poorly by reviewers.

Well, the 15 reviews collated by Metacritic from 1997 give an average score of 80, which is outstanding. The links to the actual reviews are all dead, though, and Metacritic's methodology is to assign a 0-100 numerical score to every review, even if the writer themselves didn't (and almost none do). So Metacritic scores are actually Metacritic's evaluation of the review, not the reviewer's evaluation of the material. Still, an 80 is miles from "treated poorly."

Firefly is a slightly different story. Its Metacritic score is only 63 on 30 reviews, but that's misleading in a couple of ways. First, the reviews are all over the yard. Many critics gave it outstanding reviews and many gave it terrible reviews. Perhaps some of them shouldn't have written a review of the show in the first place, as they were unprepared to like it. The NY Times reviewer wrote, "Firefly is even more of a confusing mess than the description makes it sound. It's a crazy quilt of "Star Wars," "Mad Max" and "Stagecoach," just to mention the most obvious films it calls to mind." She clearly didn't care for what it was attempting to do, so whether it succeeded or not perhaps becomes irrelevant. I suppose someone who doesn't want to see even a good comedy-adventure, sci-fi western might benefit from a review written by someone who also doesn't like those, but in that case, I would think the trailer would be enough to tell you it isn't your cup of tea.

The other issue Firefly faced was the infamous mishandling by its network. The first episode aired, for example, was actually the 2nd or 3rd episode. No joke, Fox aired the series out of order (bring this up with any "Brown Coat" even today and you might see Dr. Banner turn into the Hulk - or Jennifer Walters turn into She-Hulk, as the case may be ).

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I kind of doubt anyone who says that has actually watched Buffy or Firefly or The Avengers, but okay. Still, nobody bats 1.000 - I couldn't get next to Dollhouse - and sometimes a writer's style just doesn't connect. I'm apparently immune to the charms of Harry Potter, for instance. I read the first book and saw the first movie, and couldn't tell you a thing about them.

The Avengers is the reason why they asked this question. They blame it for everything wrong with current superhero films and how everything has to be part of a cinematic universe. They even wrote a blog post about it.

 

[Arakhor]

Take everything they say as right without question?

Oh, absolutely. Without question. Don't even think about it.

If that is what you took from what I said, you're definitely not interested in our responses.

 

[warpus]

No. I haven't seen most of what Joss Whedon has made, except for Firefly and Serenity. I did try to get them to watch Firefly years ago by giving them a DVD box set. They said it's awful and that it's why the show was cancelled, because American shows never get cancelled but last for years.

Sounds like someone who is at least misinformed. Firefly was cancelled because Fox did a horrible job promoting it, they stuck it in a bad time slot, from what I remember they moved it around, and they showed all the episodes out of order.

It would be very easy to look up how long most TV shows in the U.S. last. A lot of stuff gets cancelled after 1 or 2 seasons.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

No. I haven't seen most of what Joss Whedon has made, except for Firefly and Serenity. I did try to get them to watch Firefly years ago by giving them a DVD box set. They said it's awful and that it's why the show was cancelled, because American shows never get cancelled but last for years.

Firefly is like anything written by Douglas Adams (the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). You have to be in the mental space where you can handle quirky humor and some really offbeat juxtapositions of people, objects, ideas, etc.

The very first Doctor Who story I watched in its entirety was Pirate Planet - part 2 of the Key to Time series, in the Tom Baker era (Mary Tamm was the actress who played one of the companions, Romana I). Douglas Adams wrote that one, and it was so bizarre that I nearly shut it off again. The only thing that made me watch the thing was the promise made to a college friend - to watch at least one Doctor Who story.

Thank goodness the next one, Stones of Blood, was something that pleased my cultural anthropologist's self... otherwise I doubt I'd ever have become a Whovian.


Firefly is a bit like that - really quirky, and a bizarre combination of pulp space opera, western, and horror. I'll admit that most of my liking for it is because I've been a Nathan Fillion fan since the '90s, when he was on One Life to Live. But I like him as Mal Reynolds, too.

Not sure that whistling is really in need of quality control.

Those are good whistling songs! I'll have to look some of them up again, it's been a while. I tend to wander through snippets of Molly Malone, Mairzy Doats, You are my Sunshine, Phantom of the Opera, Black Velvet Band, stuff like that.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Oddly so, I also still enjoy watching Seinfeld. To anybody who didn't first watch it in its time, now it is unwatchable.

Watched some episodes in its time and found some of it good and most of it meh, but that could have been the translators' fault.

 

[Snerk]

So my feet has shrunk a size this year. Gone down from a 44 (eu) to a 43. What's up with that? Do I have like a Benjamin Button thing going on with my feet or what?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Oh, absolutely. Without question. Don't even think about it.

If that is what you took from what I said, you're definitely not interested in our responses.

What am I supposed to do?

Firefly is like anything written by Douglas Adams (the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). You have to be in the mental space where you can handle quirky humor and some really offbeat juxtapositions of people, objects, ideas, etc.

The very first Doctor Who story I watched in its entirety was Pirate Planet - part 2 of the Key to Time series, in the Tom Baker era (Mary Tamm was the actress who played one of the companions, Romana I). Douglas Adams wrote that one, and it was so bizarre that I nearly shut it off again. The only thing that made me watch the thing was the promise made to a college friend - to watch at least one Doctor Who story.

Thank goodness the next one, Stones of Blood, was something that pleased my cultural anthropologist's self... otherwise I doubt I'd ever have become a Whovian.


Firefly is a bit like that - really quirky, and a bizarre combination of pulp space opera, western, and horror. I'll admit that most of my liking for it is because I've been a Nathan Fillion fan since the '90s, when he was on One Life to Live. But I like him as Mal Reynolds, too.

That's a strange thing. I know they like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they even recommended it to me. They also like Red Dwarf, I mention that because when I watched through Firefly it came off like a more serious American version of Red Dwarf.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Avengers is the reason why they asked this question. They blame it for everything wrong with current superhero films and how everything has to be part of a cinematic universe. They even wrote a blog post about it.

Yeah, Hollywood has a problem with "herding": When someone does something that works (e.g. makes scads of money), then everybody else copies them until the audience dries up (Hollywood isn't the only industry that does this, of course). This 'extended universe' thing is growing like kudzu right now. Even the people who enjoy the soup-du-jour want some variety, and this herding mentality can drown out everything else.

Anyway, Joss Whedon has very little to do with that. He's just a cog, albeit a large and influential one, having written and directed the 6th and 11th films, and helping get the first television series off the ground (his brother and sister-in-law are the primary drivers of that show, though). The Russo Bros took over from Whedon as the Big Men on Campus a couple of years ago.

Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, is probably your friend's real *ahem* arch-nemesis. I'm not sure whose idea the connected movies originally was, but Feige was right there from the beginning: He had 14 production credits for Marvel even before the extended-universe films began in 2008, going all the way back to Blade in 1998, and he's been running the studio since 2007.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That's a strange thing. I know they like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they even recommended it to me. They also like Red Dwarf, I mention that because when I watched through Firefly it came off like a more serious American version of Red Dwarf.

The TV series or the movie? I haven't seen the movie, but I love the TV series. My grandmother was horrified, though, as she'd walked into the room during the "Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blaster" scene and thought I was watching something unsuitable (I was in my 20s).

I'm not into Red Dwarf, though. Not at all. There is absolutely nothing about that series I find appealing.