Is Farscape clichèd?

jjohn on 2002-01-23T20:30:25

As SCI-FI on hiatus until March, 2002, fellow 'scapers are will have to make do with fan sites. One of the them, Farscape Weekly is running this article, Is Farscape clichèd? It lists and catagorizes some of the more brain-damaged plot devices inflicted on sci-fi fans. It's a fun read, although I believe there are some additional examples of Farscape going to the clichè well. Still, Farscape shines when it uses traditional sci-fi elements in unexpected ways. I submit that Eat Me, Beware of Dog and Won't Get Fooled Again all fall into this catagory. What do you think?

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Farscape

TorgoX on 2002-01-24T03:58:07

I'm into Farscape for the clone sex!

Personal Taste

chaoticset on 2002-01-24T06:30:46

I also considered _Out Of Their Minds_ to provide a more interesting take on normal "bodyswap" plotlines. Instead of predictable goofiness or melodrama, you got mental-overload-seizures, perversion, and the first time I've ever seen a male make a pass at another male on a regular cable channel.

I was impressed.

The other thing with _Farscape_ has been that I find it surprising me, and I miss being surprised by TV. _Different Destinations_ surprised me, and it's still one of my favorite eps of all time because it was well executed.

Whatever happened to...

djberg96 on 2002-01-24T22:04:46

...Brimstone? I thought that was a cool concept. They gave it a crappy time slot and it died.

Re:Whatever happened to...

chaoticset on 2002-01-25T13:48:56

Brimstone was one of the unlucky ones, yes. Also excellent stuff. Peter Horton did a Scifi chat and claimed that if they could get funding from Scifi, they were going to shoot new eps of it. (You knew that it was shot/shown on some actual network, and Scifi just bought the eps, right?)

One thing that made it stand out was the look. If I remember correctly, there was something they did during film processing to produce the almost-everything-gray effect.

Re:Whatever happened to...

djberg96 on 2002-01-27T03:27:38

Oh, damn - I forgot that this came from the USA Network until you mentioned that.

It was really a cool show with lots of potential, given some good writing. Sorta reminded me of the Comic Book "Constantine", and a lot more well done than "Buffy".

Farscape

TorgoX on 2002-01-24T23:13:31

Hm, it occurs to me that "is it cliché?" is a particularly silly form-over-content question, of the sort that it usually takes someone as low on the evolutionary scale as a typical US high school English teacher to ask.

Better question: Is Farscape well-written? I say that it sure is, in many ways.

I like Farscape because the writers never pass up an opportunity to make their own lives hard.

The characters fight, they fuck, they swear, they shoot people, they shoot eachother, they get shot, they shoot themselves, they freak out, they lie, they die, they come back from the dead, they get high, they get roaring drunk, they wake up half naked and don't remember how they got there. They're certainly not just earnest case-workers in lycra suits.
And one of them even farts helium!

My favorite bit of dialog, from the episode "Eat Me": "All I need is more... what? Food? Family? Is there a difference?"

It's also achingly well acted, which is something I say about very few things these days.