Farscape: Season 2, eps 1-6

[meganbmoore]

A few comments on aesthetics:

1.  I loathe Zhaan's new outfit.  Not only do I think her S1 wardrobe was more attractive, but the simplicity suited her.  The new wardrobe, in addition to being less attractive is too...attention getting, especially with the gold.  It doesn't suit her.

2.  They seem to have changed up D'Argo's design up some, too, though I can't really figure out how.

3.  You know, in general, I approve of the black leather fetish that seems to have developed between seasons.  But why does John get layers, and Aeryn vests that don't button over her stomach?  (And what happened to John's hair?)

I loved the first two episodes of the season, was bored by the next two, and then loved the two after that.  I'm still having trouble warming up to Chiana-a little too "sexy bad girl with inner nice girl," I think-but am glad they aren't villifying her or looking down on her for her sex drive, or indicating (so far) that it's part of any trauma or angst.  More fictional characters should be allowed to like sex because they like sex, as opposed to it being justified by angst or trauma.  (It only works for Gojyo.)  Aeryn and John are also starting to feel more like they're paired for who they are, as opposed to defaulting to the human and the human-looking alien.

While I'm not sure what I think about Zhaan apparently falling apart with D'Argo gone (right now, I'm passing it off as her needing something to snap her into seeking priesthood again) I mostly love how the remaining bits from last season were handled.  Then again, I may be biased, as they did exactly what i wanted them to do with Crais.  He's still monstrous, but the worst of what we saw was his wanting vengeance, not pure evil, and I like that excuses weren't made for that in his changing.  As he told D'Argo, he's bred to be the way he is, and is now questioning whether or not all of that is the right thing.  If he met D'Argo's son now, he'd still be compelled to destroy him as a freak.  A year from now, it may be a different story.  And, thankfully, Aeryn wasn't judged for dealing with him.  "Oh, you worked with Crais to save us.  Well that...ok, we hate that, but you gotta do what you gotta do." 

.I really liked the second episode with D'Argo and the priestess of his race, but don't have much to say about it.  Though I am glad that D'Argo is the one who got to strike the final blow while John cooled his heals, as certain other series would have taken the alien's kill and given it to the human.

I...did not like the episode with Chiana dealing with grief too much.  The bits with Chiana dealing with grief I liked, but I didn't care as much for the plotline with the crazy suicidal druggies.  Though I did like how John's reaction to Chiana's random hookup wasn't "Why are you doing this?  Random hookups are a bad way to grieve!"  but "Chiana!  I know you need to deal with this your own way, but does it have to involve a crazy suicidal druggie who's trying to turn you into a crazy suicidal druggie?"

The crazy-making lightwaves episode was probably supposed to be funny, but it actually bored me.  Outside of John's crazy getup and the "We're going to die." comment.  And is it just me, or was Chiana still mostly her normal self?

I have mad love for the flashback episode or Aeryn killing Moya's last pilot, and her and Pilot both dealing with that.  I'm glad that she wasn't made "not as bad" as the others (that was her boyfriend) but indistinguishable from the others, including betraying her boyfriend.  It also made sure we didn't make the mistake of ever confusing Crais with a misunderstood woobie.  I wonder, though, if either she or Zhaan remembers now that she was on board when Zhaan was brought on board.  (Though I have to ask...how does sex in a public-if empty-place equate to a discrete affair?)

Then there was the return of Maldis.  Maldus.  Whatever.  I rather figured out it was him or part of his race from the start, but it was fun watching it play out, and I liked that Zhaan figured it out quickly.  Zhaan is my favorite, but talking about her is difficult.  In many ways, she is her spirituality and her composure, and this episode highlighted both.  I kind of like to think of Maldis as someone convinced he's the biggest bigbad, only to always get pwned by Zhaan.  Though it'd be nice if she eventually got rid of him for good.

And then we end with meta on needlessly convoluted storytelling.

Though...are they hooking D'Argo and Chiana up?  That seems a bit odd to me.  I guess because, as is proportionate to their individual races, they seem the oldest and youngest on board, respectively, aside from Pilot possibly being younger (he seems to be barely out of his teens, as those things go, and Chiana more late teens.)  

Comments

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

2. They had to. Tony couldn't actually move much in D's original get-up (the fact that Tony is a phenomenal actor is the only reason D'Argo wasn't cardboard in the first season). But they don't really explain it in the show, they just darkened him a bit (there's a throw-away line somewhere, I don't remember where, about it being 'space burn' or something).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer how he looks now, I just spent the first couple episodes of the season staring and trying to figure out what was different.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. They might have wanted a throw-away line about it, but then again, they aren't exactly known for talking down to their audience.

The new streamlined look is better, though. *pleased* Hrm. Damn. Now I kinda want to watch some Farscape.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Though...are they hooking D'Argo and Chiana up? That seems a bit odd to me. I guess because, as is proportionate to their individual races, they seem the oldest and youngest on board, respectively, aside from Pilot possibly being younger (he seems to be barely out of his teens, as those things go, and Chiana more late teens.)

Yes, but if Chiana and Pilot hooked up, it would be... no, okay, no, that's never stopped Farscape before. What, you didn't noticing the simmering sexual tension between Rygel and Zhaan?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I suspect Chiana would find a way, if that was who she fancied.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

And John would see it, because he's John.

[foenix.livejournal.com]

*shudder*

For me, "Taking the Stone" that third episode of the season about Chiana's grief, was the absolute lowest point of the entire series.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It could have been good, but the storyline they chose for it...wasn't.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years since I saw this, but yeah, as memory serves there's never any "oh, Chiana's sex drive is pitiably abnormal and unfeminine and only a reaction to trauma, yadda yadda" nonsense. It's just part of the way she is. Which is nicely in line with their handling of the other girls -- Aeryn is not a badass merely because of indoctrination and lack of some stronger male romantic interest to soften her up into a proper woman, and even Zhaan isn't presented as one of those soft-and-helpless token female healer/cleric types; she's sensual and strong-minded and capable of violence. Really, I love all of the Farscape ladies to distraction...I think the biggest thing that kept me from loving the show more than I did was that Crichton was so bland and uninteresting in comparison to the aliens, although to their credits the writers didn't really make it one of those tiresome "what these people aliens need is a honky Terran" Marty-Stu-Fixes-It-All sort of series...

(Speaking of older SF series with awesome ladies, did you by chance ever watch Babylon 5?)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Crichton...I like him, but he isn't as interesting as the others. But I think the show realizes that.

What really caught my attention in S1 was that part of why Zhaan is so spiritual and committed to it is that she knows her dark side is as bad as-or worse than-that actual bad guys.

Never seen Babylon 5.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the scripts aren't above poking fun at Crichton when he's being full of himself, which went a long way for me; it's more of him having to adjust to this weird new universe and less of expecting them all to bend to his ideas about the Right Way of doing everything.

B5 I would recommend, with a couple of caveats -- it can be a little uneven at times, in terms of both acting and script quality, but at its best it can be very, very good, and I would say that the excellent actors and good scripts do at least outnumber the mediocre ones. It also is one of those cases where the central storyline was all plotted out in advance -- with somewhat mixed results, as yet again at its best it means that it really rewards careful, thoughtful viewing, as all sorts of little things that seemed unimportant at first turn out to be incredibly significant in retrospect or on re-watching; but since this is yet another one of those SF shows that nearly got cancelled only to be reprieved at the last minute, that overarching story arc suffered a bit in the final seasons, where some events that should in the original plan have happened later got shoved forward when they thought they were going to have to rush to wrap things up, and this then left a lot of gaps in the final series that were hastily filled with stuff that wasn't always up to par.

Anyway, with those caveats out of the way, if you go in not expecting it to be the greatest thing ever from start to finish, and can give it a little time to settle into its groove, I think you might enjoy it. It's certainly no SGA where the aliens/women/non-white/etc. characters never get to do anything cool in favor of giving more screentime to the Marty Stus, and there are several appealing, complex, strong female characters. (Delenn is up there with Zhaan on the "female spiritual leader with awareness of her dark side" side, and Ivanova, my favorite, is an ass-kicking highly-ranked military officer who is every bit as tough and competent as the guys, without having to look or act exactly like one of the boys.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Watching Ben Browder here and in SG1, I get the feeling that he doesn't like the The Man role. Here, he plays Crichton as someone who thinks he's The Man, but he clearly knows that Crichton isn't. In SG1, from start to finish he played Mitchell as someone who was supposed to be The Man but who had serious hero worship for the characters (when he first showed up, he was upset that he wasn't going to be allowed to serve under the female lead of the series, and even though he was technically her superior once the team was settled, he regularly defaulted to her advice) and knew from start to finish that the woman, archeologist and aliens all knew what was going on far better than he did.

I've added Babylon 5 to my Netflix queue (though...I sent these discs back on Thurs and am not getting new discs until Weds, and they're sending 1 Farscape disc and 2 Burn Notice discs) so I will hopefully get to them if I can be patient enough for netflix shipping.

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

I like Chiana, but sometimes they just turn her into something that makes me wonder why I like her at all.

I love the fact that Aeryn and Crais are bad ass, they become better people eventually but they don't ever try to change their histories to make them victims, aside from pointing out that they were bred to be the way they are.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I like Chiana, just not as much as I want to.

What made Crais for me there was that he didn't go "I have been wrong all this time," but "I am what I was bred to be, and I want to find out if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly! Crais reminds me a lot of the bad guy/kinda good guy you often find in anime. He's been awful but gradually starts to think about his actions and isn't instantly redeemed but is willing to consider changing his actions

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I have mad love for the flashback episode or Aeryn killing Moya's last pilot, and her and Pilot both dealing with that.

That was one of my favorite episodes, ever.

I always figured Gojyo would be a slut with or without the issues; he'd just be a different slut.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've always had that impression to. But every other character where it's their angsty past or lost love or can't be with the one they want or whatever? They get no time or patience or sympathy from me. Excepting maybe Laures from Seimaden, but that's a different thing altogether.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I always figured Gojyo would be a slut with or without the issues; he'd just be a different slut.

In other words...Kenren. ;)

(But yeah, word. I think he'd still be the perviest perv in pervville, but with even more simple cheerful hedonism and less of that little-boy-lost undercurrent.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It works with Gojyo because it's not the typical "love and leave/use to deal with angst/avoiding real relationships" garbage, but a very misguided attempt to try to find the right person. We know he's going about it the wrong way, but he's trying to find "The One," not leave a trail flings.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes!

(I think there's always a bit of Kenren/Gojyo looking for love/companionship/some kind of 'real' bond, but the manwhore's always there too.)

[lotuseyes.livejournal.com]

I can't remember--despite having just rewatched this series with my dad like 7 months ago--which episode was shown first on your Discs? 'Mind the Baby' or 'Dream a little Dream'?

Dream a Little Dream, when Zhaan is in jail, was originally meant as the first episode of the season and had been cut differently (without her flashbacking with John) so it could be episode 2 of the season instead. But the big wigs had thought if they opened with Zhaan in jail and her having those little hallucinations about D'argo and the others it would only prolong the final reveal that D'argo/John/Aeryn were a-ok and didn't want that happening.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Mind the Baby. Don't think I've seen the other yet.

[lotuseyes.livejournal.com]

hmm then i'm remembering them out of order (or we watched them out of order). Dream a little dream definately comes after Mind the Baby according to episode guide I looked up.

and what I said shouldn't be considered spoilers. I don't think. I mean you should be able to guess it rather quickly given the fact Zhaan didn't meet up with the trio on a planet of lawyers (there are really funny scenes in there though of Chiana and Rygel trying to be good defenders though).