Serenity...NOW!

I’m so excited—the movie based on one of my favorite TV shows, Firefly, opens on Friday. Advance buzz about Serenity indicates a hi-larious and action-packed adventure. What it doesn’t have is Jessica Alba in a bikini. Her new movie, The Deep, or Nubile Young ’uns in the Sea, or High Concept T&A-Fest or whatever it is called, opens on the same day and that’s got Serenity fans worried. But they shouldn’t be. Yes, there is an audience that will go to see a movie just to see Jessica Alba in a bikini. But I think an awful lot of those same people (Hollywood’s dream audience, 13-25 year old males) will also want to see Serenity—case in point, my son’s 15-y.o. friend, who’d never heard of Firefly, said he was going to see the movie because “it looks coooool.”

And then there are the rest of us who will see it. I saw clips of the crowds that turned out for the Serenity sneak screenings during the summer and what impressed me was the variety—old, young, black, white, Asian, red state, blue state. And women. Lots of women. Older women like me who are perpetually ignored by the marketers/advertisers, women who have a little extra cash to spend on Serenity t-shirts, moms who will only give their kids their allowance if they promise to spend it seeing Serenity and not Jessica Alba in a bikini. Women like me who love a good, rollicking sci-fi flick. Who saw Star Wars when it first came out, fell in love with Han Solo, wanted to be Princess Leia. We’d hoped to recapture that magic with the SW prequels, but they fell dismally flat.

And then Joss Whedon, the man who brought Buffy to life, gave us Firefly and a whole host of questions/ideas about the future, morality, bureaucracy, hope…you name it. Serenity’s crew flew the skies, looking for work (legal or not) and a way to survive. The ship had a dashing, oh-so-conflicted captain with tight pants, a wise-ass pilot, a love-him/hate-him mercenary named Jayne, a man of the cloth, a crusading doctor—and four astounding, well-written, very different female characters. A girl mechanic who not only sees the glass as full, but overflowing; a futuristic prostitute who has complete control over her career and her body; a kick-ass warrior woman who gets all the best lines in the show; and a victimized teenager trying to cope with the fact that the government experimented on her brain, turning her into…well, we never got to see what because the TV show, mismanaged and misunderstood by FOX, was yanked.

But now we have the movie and hopefully those questions will be answered. While I wished the show could continue as a series—Whedon is a storytelling, character-building genius whose talents are best displayed in an on-going series—I am content with the Big Damn Movie. And yes, I plan to go often and early—I hope you, my constant readers (all three of you!) will too!

Janet – No power in the ‘verse stopped us!

Everybody Loves the Emmys...

It’s been a while and I can happily say that’s because, with the exception of mothering and the usual endless loads of laundry, I’ve been working. Writing, entering contests, querying, getting rejected, and planning fall projects. All but the rejections have been quite satisfying.

Anyway, I took some time out last night to watch the Emmys, mainly because Arrested Development and my House-man, Hugh Laurie, were up for awards. The TV awards aren’t the sartorial and linguistic train wreck that is the Oscars, and as Martha Stewart would say, that’s a good thing. They move faster, have no pretension, and the skits are entertaining (last night’s hilarity: “Emmy Idol” in which celebs made dorks of themselves singing theme songs from old shows). I took notes and herewith is my mini-review:

1. William Shatner is a star. No, he’s his own (ever-expanding) galaxy. Anyone who can get rock-star applause and squeals from an audience of jaded Tinseltownians with just the mention of his name as a nominee should be acknowledged as a celestial phenomenon. He brought down the house with his turn as an Emmy Idol, in a pompous recitation of his famous Star Trek "Space...the final frontier..." soliloquy, with mezzo-soprano Federica von Staude giving the background shrieks the full “Ride of the Valkyries” treatment. And when he lost the Emmy Idol voting, the camera cut to him and his amazing, “We wuz robbed,” reaction. He wasn’t quite robbed because…

2. The Idol winners, Donald Trump and Meghan Mullaly (as her Will & Grace “Gabor” character, Karen) singing the Green Acres theme, was the most surreal moment on TV…ever.

3. The wins were predictable and boring; all Raymond all the time. There were a few exceptions, especially Law & Order’s S. Epatha Merkerson’s (oops, my spell check just blew up) endearing reaction when she won for Lackawanna Blues and also the hi-larious dance she did trying to retrieve her speech, which she’d stuffed into her dress for safe keeping. (“My mother’s watching,” she said as she jiggled and searched. “She’s gonna die!”

4. Why were all the nominees for the writing awards stuck in the nosebleed section? Oh yeah, we get no respect! I cringed when the writer who won for “Warm Springs,” a miniseries about FDR’s battle with Polio, had to tramp 46 miles to the stage—with a cane. Eek.

5. Though there were many fab celebs in the prime spots up front, you’d think the entire “stars” contingent consisted of Whoopi, Shatner, and Quentin Tarentino (damn, there goes spell-check again, and I just fixed it!). If I were the director I’d keep the camera OFF Quentin—even if he won. Next to him, Rondo Hatton is HOT (ooh, sorry for the obscure 40s movie villain reference).

6. And finally, the fashions. They were downright respectable, much to my disappointment. Patricia Arquette’s Barbara Stanwyk circa-1942 canoli-do set my 40s-loving heart ablaze, but not so much all the back-less dresses. The camera followed back-less Lauren Graham out to the podium and she looked like the last scrawny chicken left at the deli. No woman should go back-less. Men should, they’ve got the sculpture for it. Maybe some savvy designer should design the back-less tux. Uh, on second thought…envisioning Shatner and his porky (but lovable) Boston Legal co-star James Spader…maybe not.

Okay, that wraps it up, now to get back to the real work…planning for the Oscars!

Janet – No power in the ‘verse can stop me! Only 10 days until Serenity…