Farscape: Or... late to the party again

**Phil Clark** · 02-21-2012, 08:06 AM

My wife and I just discovered Farscape on Netflix. We are only about 5 episodes into the first season, and are really enjoying it. Brenda loves that John is a major smart ass. And the Muppet feel of the alien characters doesn't bother either of us. D'argo is cool. The effects are pretty ground breaking for a TV Series of it's time. I cannot wait for it to really hit its groove. Fortunately since Brenda is also enjoying it I can now watch from 1-3 episodes a night. So getting through it shouldn't take too long.

Too bad I missed out on this when it first came out.

**Captain Craig** · 02-21-2012, 08:22 AM

I made a "blind buy" of this on Black Friday for 60% off for the complete series and did not regret it at all. I say blind buy cause actually I'd seen about a dozen episodes, give or take, at one point or other. For my money it was well worth having at about .45 cents an episode and not have to wait for Netflix to send me the next disc. Which is what I'm doing with Deadwood right now.

Hope you continue to enjoy it!

I've now done the same thing with Babylon 5, got those for $12 a season brand new just last month.

**Phil Clark** · 02-21-2012, 09:02 AM

I have Netflix Streaming to my big screen through Apple TV, so I don't have to wait on discs of the episodes.

**carabas** · 02-21-2012, 11:39 AM

Ah, Farscape.
Probably the best space opera show ever. On par with Babylon 5, and easily outranking Battlestar Galactica. No kind of Trek is even in the same weight class.

**Chiasm** · 02-21-2012, 02:23 PM

If you like the first 5 episodes then your going to be in heaven once the show actually gets good. The show is one my favorites of all time but the first season isn't very good til the last six to seven episodes after the main big bad of the series finally makes his appearance.

**thwhtGuardian** · 02-21-2012, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by Chiasm

If you like the first 5 episodes then your going to be in heaven once the show actually gets good. The show is one my favorites of all time but the first season isn't very good til the last six to seven episodes after the main big bad of the series finally makes his appearance.

Everyone always says that, but for me the first episodes are my favorite out of the series.

**Zero Hunter** · 02-21-2012, 07:07 PM

I didn't think the first season was bad, but it definetly gets better as it goes along and the actors really start finding the characters voices. Dargo especially gets to be so much better than he was in those first dozen or so episodes as the series goes along. The whole cast does even the characters of Rigel and Pilot which is pretty good for being puppets.

**Chiasm** · 02-21-2012, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by thwhtGuardian

Everyone always says that, but for me the first episodes are my favorite out of the series.

I kind of came to the series in a weird way. My first ever episode was mid series somewhere and was very heavy on the Harvey stuff and I was utterly baffled and I couldn't figure out why Scorpius was puking all the time. Don't try to make sense of this Phil . . . . cuz you won't know who Harvey and Scorpius are yet as Scorpius is a character introduced later in season one and Harvey is . . . . well Harvey is hard to explain and trying would be spoilerish. Anyway because I didn't understand I never watched again and then the series got cancelled. Time went by and then Sci Fi announced the Peacekeeper Wars mini series. I wasn't planning on watching it but I got sick and bedridden a few days and a Farscape marathon was on and having nothing else to do I watched a big chunk of season IV during the marathon and thought it was excellent. Though I didn't see the end of season IV.

So then I did watch Peacekeeper Wars, which didn't totally make sense since I didn't know the history of the show, but still liked it. From there I paid a fortune for the DVD seasons (at the time they were about $100 a season) and forced myself through season one because I couldn't believe how bad it was compared to what I'd seen in season IV and the Peacekeeper Wars. Really it wasn't until Chianna and Scorpius showed up that season one finally got good and D'Argo stopped being a bad imitation of Worf.

**lomiller** · 02-21-2012, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Zero Hunter

I didn't think the first season was bad, but it definetly gets better as it goes along and the actors really start finding the characters voices. Dargo especially gets to be so much better than he was in those first dozen or so episodes as the series goes along. The whole cast does even the characters of Rigel and Pilot which is pretty good for being puppets.

You are bang on here. Until the last season anyway, they got a budget increase and promptly used the extra cash to buy a boat and water-skis to go shark jumping.

**the goddamn batman** · 02-21-2012, 10:13 PM

What is it about this show that people like? I've seen many episodes on late night tv and thought it was absolutely terrible. I've never understood the love for this show.

Can anyone explain this to me?

Originally Posted by carabas

Ah, Farscape.
Probably the best space opera show ever. On par with Babylon 5, and easily outranking Battlestar Galactica. No kind of Trek is even in the same weight class.

This, to me, is absolute crazy talk.

**carabas** · 02-22-2012, 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by the goddamn batman

What is it about this show that people like? I've seen many episodes on late night tv and thought it was absolutely terrible. I've never understood the love for this show.

Can anyone explain this to me?

I don't know. Maybe you can explain why you didn't like it first?

It's got brilliant writing, actual character arcs that stick and don't get reset, great effects, and a universe that is original, weird and wild. It's genuinely funny. And at times genuinely dark, which is even rarer. And it's got Claudia Black.

**the goddamn batman** · 02-22-2012, 09:44 AM

I can't speak to character arcs but I thought the acting was crap, the effects were pretty poor, and generally it wasn't interesting.

And no, I don't have to explain why I didn't like it in order to ask why people do like it.

**Phil Clark** · 02-22-2012, 10:10 AM

I think that now, 12 years later, the effects hold up pretty well. Yeah... some of them are a bit lame... but come on. Look how far effects have come in 12 years. They were pretty much on the cutting edge on Farscape, for a TV Show.

I have to agree with some of the acting... but some of it is hard to tell if the actors are being told to do things that come off as bad acting, but are actually character (or species) traits.