Our Collective Case of Anwhedonia

Wherein Our Heroine Veers Off on a TV and Movie Tangent.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Therefore, I am following Rivka's example and going for something a bit lighter today.

In that vein, I refer to something that my great and good friend Alicia points out in a comment to "An Experiment" below. It appears that "Serenity," the movie that is rising from the ashes of the television show "Firefly," is actually being made.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden considers this a "a temporary respite from our collective case of anwhedonia," and I have to agree.

For those who are puzzling over the newly-coined (as far as I know) term "anwhedonia," it is a reference to Joss Whedon, TV show and movie creator and writer extraordinaire. For those who are aficionados of his work, we had a brief, shining moment in the sun last year when he had three shows on the air at the same time. "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," a show which rewarded those who came at it with an open mind and confounded the expectations of people who were unwilling to give it a chance; "Angel," the "Buffy" spin-off and "Firefly," which I humbly submit was Whedon's best work, in spite of its incredibly short life.

"Buffy" ended its seven-season run last year. "Angel" is ending this year. And "Firefly" was cancelled after only eleven episodes aired. This summer, we fans of Mr. Whedon will go from three nights a week of Whedony goodness to zero.

Allow me to rant for a bit. The programming trolls over at Fox Television are the most contemptible idiots ever to need a serious clue-by-four to the head. They ordered "Firefly" knowing full well that Joss Whedon's ideas come from somewhere to the left of left field, but also that he makes them work. Given a fighting chance, his shows find a passionate and devoted audience.

So instead of giving the show that fighting chance, Fox does the other thing. After a lack of promotion of the show that must have been embarrassing and disturbing to all involved, they placed "Firefly" in a time slot that is commonly known as the "death slot" - Friday night. They also showed the series out of order, only showing the pilot episode at the end of the show's eleven-episode run, thereby guaranteeing that even the most devoted Joss Whedon fan would be baffled by certain plot points or relationships. They didn't even run three episodes they already had in the can. In essence, they did everything they could to make the series a ratings failure. (By the way, this is not an isolated incident - they did the same thing to "Wonderfalls" this year.)

The only thing they did right was release the series on a DVD, which is a fantastic piece of work. Not only is the show marvelously compelling when viewed in order, but every disc contains at least one thoughtful, insightful, often humorous commentary "extra." There is a "making of" featurette which contains touching stories from cast members and crew that illustrate how deeply everyone was involved in making this a really great show.

Now, all nine original cast members have signed on to the project and it goes into production next month. It may not be a cure for the Whedon-less Television Blues, but at least it's something to look forward to.

Posted: Wednesday - May 05, 2004 at 08:50 AM | |