Farscape the PeaceKeeper Wars - Review
Jul. 13th, 2010 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI can't think of a subject title. About to pour - so am eating at desk again, and forgoing a walk through the mucky air. It's not the heat, it's the humidity, folks. The rain will be a nice release. The built up pressure in the air has been making me a bit crazy.
Finished watching the Farscape series last night - with the mini-series The Peacekeeper Wars - which aired approximately two years after the series was cancelled. The mini-series unlike the Firefly feature film, actually takes place immediately after the final episode of Farscape and works beautifully as a series end. It resolves all the themes, sub-plots, and character arcs.
While imperfect, it does a fairly satisfactory job of brining closure. It may well be the best series ender that I've seen done or at least the most satisfactory. And the ending for me, at least, was a happy one.
It is told in an interesting manner - with the hero in what appears to be a coma, rehashing what happened and somehow digesting it. Re-emphasizing that the story is largely from the perspective of John Crichton. What's also interesting about the finale is it actually addresses Protagonist Privilege - in should any one person play god and what are the consequences. I've rarely seen it addressed better than it is here - and it is an on-going theme, which fits well within the general and central theme of the entire series - Violence cannot and does not ever resolve our problems in a satisfactory manner. When we try to resolve things by force - we bare the price.
This theme is examined from mutiple angles throughout. Torture in Farscape is shown to be unsatisfactory. No one achieves their aim through torture. And more often than not - ends up paying the price for doing it.
The flaw - is that story is rushed. They crammed two seasons worth of episodes into 3 and 1/2 hours. Did it rather well, but certain character tid-bits got lost. Skisousa (sp?) - a character introduced at the beginning of Season 4, arc is somewhat truncated. And the reveal regarding her character towards the end of Peacekeeper Wars is a bit rushed. It makes sense and works.
But it comes too quickly and lacks true emotional impact.
That flaw is somewhat forgiveable considering what they had to accomplish in such a short frame of time. Actually considering what they had to do - their finale is actually better than tv series which had plenty of time to wrap things up. (I'm looking at you Lost and BSG, and sigh, Buffy.) Farscape's ending was in some respects amongst the best I've seen - which says more about other tv show writers. Whedon screwed up royally with Buffy in my opinion. And I was unsatisfied with Angel - but that was due partly to the Angel the character having almost no real arc to speak of. Things happened to him, but he never changed. Everyone around him evolves and changes, except Angel. Angel is the same. Only the actor grew older and somewhat better in the role. Compare and contrast to Spike - who does actually change,
or to John Crichton, who changes a great deal.
In Farscape - the flaws are all in the fact that you have to cram forty-two episodes worth of ideas into a three and half hour script. You have to complete your arc, and stay true to the theme. And well, they did just that.
They not only did it, they incorporated several sci-fi tv and film and novel references in, as well as re-affirmed their characters relationships, exploring them fully. Plus exploring issues of gender equality, racism, xenophobia, and culture clash.
There's a great exchange between Aeryn Sun and Skisousa regarding relationships.
Skisousa: How can you bear John Crichton's child when you must know he is your inferior.
Aeryn: Skisousa - leave. Wait, don't just leave, leave this ship entirely.
Skisousa ( a brilliant intellect): I'm sorry. I did not mean to offend. I'm just asking. With Scorpius and I, I saw myself as his superior in every way, but then I realized in some respects that he far exceeds my capabilities and is actually my superior, my master. Is that how you feel about Crichton? Do you see him now as your superior and master?
Aeryn: No. I see him as my equal. We are equals. Skisousa - perhaps you should stop wasting time analyzing who is more superior or inferior and just accept that you are meant to be. Sometimes you are just meant to be together.
That folks, in a nutshell, is feminism and the definition of a sucessful relationship - one between equals. And it is so rarely shown so well.
The show and series is highly re-watchable. There's so much here to examine and play with. And I'll most likely be posting more meta on it in the days to come.
I wrote this quickly during my lunch break. So typos, errors, abound. Not edited.
Finished watching the Farscape series last night - with the mini-series The Peacekeeper Wars - which aired approximately two years after the series was cancelled. The mini-series unlike the Firefly feature film, actually takes place immediately after the final episode of Farscape and works beautifully as a series end. It resolves all the themes, sub-plots, and character arcs.
While imperfect, it does a fairly satisfactory job of brining closure. It may well be the best series ender that I've seen done or at least the most satisfactory. And the ending for me, at least, was a happy one.
It is told in an interesting manner - with the hero in what appears to be a coma, rehashing what happened and somehow digesting it. Re-emphasizing that the story is largely from the perspective of John Crichton. What's also interesting about the finale is it actually addresses Protagonist Privilege - in should any one person play god and what are the consequences. I've rarely seen it addressed better than it is here - and it is an on-going theme, which fits well within the general and central theme of the entire series - Violence cannot and does not ever resolve our problems in a satisfactory manner. When we try to resolve things by force - we bare the price.
This theme is examined from mutiple angles throughout. Torture in Farscape is shown to be unsatisfactory. No one achieves their aim through torture. And more often than not - ends up paying the price for doing it.
The flaw - is that story is rushed. They crammed two seasons worth of episodes into 3 and 1/2 hours. Did it rather well, but certain character tid-bits got lost. Skisousa (sp?) - a character introduced at the beginning of Season 4, arc is somewhat truncated. And the reveal regarding her character towards the end of Peacekeeper Wars is a bit rushed. It makes sense and works.
But it comes too quickly and lacks true emotional impact.
That flaw is somewhat forgiveable considering what they had to accomplish in such a short frame of time. Actually considering what they had to do - their finale is actually better than tv series which had plenty of time to wrap things up. (I'm looking at you Lost and BSG, and sigh, Buffy.) Farscape's ending was in some respects amongst the best I've seen - which says more about other tv show writers. Whedon screwed up royally with Buffy in my opinion. And I was unsatisfied with Angel - but that was due partly to the Angel the character having almost no real arc to speak of. Things happened to him, but he never changed. Everyone around him evolves and changes, except Angel. Angel is the same. Only the actor grew older and somewhat better in the role. Compare and contrast to Spike - who does actually change,
or to John Crichton, who changes a great deal.
In Farscape - the flaws are all in the fact that you have to cram forty-two episodes worth of ideas into a three and half hour script. You have to complete your arc, and stay true to the theme. And well, they did just that.
They not only did it, they incorporated several sci-fi tv and film and novel references in, as well as re-affirmed their characters relationships, exploring them fully. Plus exploring issues of gender equality, racism, xenophobia, and culture clash.
There's a great exchange between Aeryn Sun and Skisousa regarding relationships.
Skisousa: How can you bear John Crichton's child when you must know he is your inferior.
Aeryn: Skisousa - leave. Wait, don't just leave, leave this ship entirely.
Skisousa ( a brilliant intellect): I'm sorry. I did not mean to offend. I'm just asking. With Scorpius and I, I saw myself as his superior in every way, but then I realized in some respects that he far exceeds my capabilities and is actually my superior, my master. Is that how you feel about Crichton? Do you see him now as your superior and master?
Aeryn: No. I see him as my equal. We are equals. Skisousa - perhaps you should stop wasting time analyzing who is more superior or inferior and just accept that you are meant to be. Sometimes you are just meant to be together.
That folks, in a nutshell, is feminism and the definition of a sucessful relationship - one between equals. And it is so rarely shown so well.
The show and series is highly re-watchable. There's so much here to examine and play with. And I'll most likely be posting more meta on it in the days to come.
I wrote this quickly during my lunch break. So typos, errors, abound. Not edited.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 05:18 pm (UTC)I agree. Peacekeeper Wars always makes me wish that we had seen what Season 5 would have been. I think we see lots of it in the movie, but I would have liked it to have had the space to breathe.
That said, it left me satisfied (though sobbing. I think I cried for at least a half hour after D'Argo died. And Chiana's "Kill them all!" totally summed up the passion of that moment. Kill them because they killed D'Argo... which, of course, wouldn't have solved anything, but I loved the fierceness of her anger and pain because that's the way that Chiana should react.
And I find the finale makes Scorpius all the more fascinating. It makes me wonder whether I had underestimated him all along. I didn't think he could allow his vengeance against the Scarrans to take less importance than bringing peace. Scorpius makes a consistently fascinating villain because he is complex.
And I'll always love Aeryn.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-14 03:08 am (UTC)I think because I knew they were going to kill him or was waiting for it. Seems to fit, his journey was completely resolved. He had found peace of mind, he had resolved his issues with his brother-in-law, his wife's death and his estranged son. I think part of the problem with cramming all those episodes into one 3 and 1/2 movie was Chiana and D'Argo were cut a bit short. Chiana's blindness was supposed to take at least five episodes. And I'm guessing we would have had at least two or three with D'Argo's son. But, that had to get truncated.
At any rate - I agree - her reaction was completely in character.
But Gigi Edgerly felt a bit off in the mini-series. Not sure why. If it was her makeup or just mannerisms. Maybe the new contacts.
But you can see a shift in how she's performing Chiana - if you watch the episodes back to back like I did. It jarred me slightly.
Skisousa also jarred me - because she was so different in appearance, but that was deliberate.
And it was moving. But I liked D'Argo's death - far better than Wash's in Firefly. D'Argo's death much like Zhan's felt earned.
The writers gave both characters a proper send-off. D'Argo died as he wished in the heart of battle, fighting for his family, his friends, and innocent lives. A warrior. Zhan sacrificed herself for others. In that respect these deaths work better for me, they don't feel tragic. Actually the only deaths that felt tragic was Aeryn's - which luckily was remedied. Zhan brought her back. And John's but that was the double, so I couldn't cry because I knew the other John was waiting for her on board Moya and they were more or less the same. But I thought the decision to kill the one that we had become the most invested in and loved, was a brilliant move.
Farscape is the only series I can think of that actually killed off all four of its main leads, yet still accomplished a happy ending.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-14 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-14 04:04 pm (UTC)And I watch it like a hungry person devoring a scrumptious meal.
Sigh. Best tv series ever.