Fox cancels Human Target

As a moderate fan of Buffy and a huge fan of Angel, I was anticipating Firefly. The first episode they showed was the train robbery one, which was not nearly as good as the pilot, an episode that is almost perfectly plotted with the character reveals timed to an amazing degree. That said, the train robbery wasn't a terrible episode, it was just lackluster. Come to find out that they had literally written it over a weekend when Fox said they weren't going to show the pilot first, and it's impressive that the thing is watchable at all.

Fox seemed to offer a mea culpa by allowing Dollhouse to run past its natural expiration date (and by Fox's standards, allowing it to run past episode 3 was a major admission of guilt), and they certainly gave Human Target a fair shake despite its middling ratings, but this year they've reverted to their usual practice of letting a show go after it fails to be an immediate hit.

I'd never gotten into Buffy and Angel at all. (People who knew me at the time kept telling me it was something I would have loved, but I've never been hugely TV oriented.) When Firefly came out, my only exposure to it was the ads that ran while I was watching 24 (the first season of which was great TV, but after that...)

The ads that Fox ran tried too hard - they were emphasizing that it was sexy sexy sexy, and fast paced... and the practical upshot was that they made Firefly look like an Asylum production. I even remarked to my brother at that time how bad it looked.

I actually watched Firefly on DVD around the time Serenity came out - I saw Serenity first, being hauled by Firefly fans to see it opening weekend. And I do in fact get upset by how poorly Fox treated it.

Dollhouse, of course, was a clear case of Whedon's original vision being compromised for the sake of Fox, who mistreated the show anyway. The difference was, it wasn't nearly as good.

Huh, I didn't know that about The Train Robbery episode. I usually get thrown off by that one after watching the pilot, as the pilot is much more serious: the train robbery one starts to pick up the humor that goes with the seriousness the show can offer.

I don't know if I entirely like the pilot, though... like all pilots, it's rather rough and doesn't do the show quite right (not that I have ever seen a pilot that is not like this). It introduces things well for the show, but other things felt off: I didn't really start to like the movie until the third episode, to be honest. Shindig is the one that really sealed the deal on my love for it, though.

I was digging the pilot up until Wash got to the line, "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" And then I was full steam ahead. I was terribly disappointed by the train robbery episode, but I gave it another chance and was very glad I did.

Wait, what? You didn't like the "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" line? That ones... classic! Or did you mean the opposite?

The Train Robbery episode is okayish, but I agree it's not the best. It just had more of the elements that made the series good: seriousness with some good humor. Like I said, things really got their legs in Shindig for me.