Firefly

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14 shows.  Fox only gave us fourteen shows.  I didn't watch this show when it was on during it's run on Fox and so I'm partly at fault for the shows demise.  I have had many hours of watching Firefly this week on Netflix.  It is the best scifi I have watched in many years.

It many ways its right out of Robert Heinlein world.   The juxtaposition of  cowboys and spaceships could of come from the world of Lazarus Long from the book Time Enough for Love in the chapter The Story of the Adopted  Daughter.   In this section Heinlein tells the story of how the space colonies have imported horses and built wagons to help colonize the planet.  Heinlein's explanation that horses can eat foliage and wagons can be made from local wood.  Horses are self replicating trackers require gas, oil, metal shops and mechanics.  (Yes for the people who would criticize my knowledge I know they imported talking mules)

I have read on the web many people criticize Joss Whedon for his use of cowboys, six shooters and other anachronistic forms in his space show.  I would explane to them what Heinlein showed us.  That moving off planet would require that we develop again a primitive society until we could rebuild the tech based from the resources of that world.

The stories are of such deep settings that you can not see the resolution of show elements for many episodes.   Unfortunately for us we were not able to see the results for many of these storyline due to the premature ending of th show.  Among the stories I would liked to have  seen completed was the story of the sheepard.  I would have liked to see more about River and Simemon, some flashbacks about the romance of Zoe and Wash.  There was so much about this show that I would have liked to have seen.  The problem of caurse is that I didn't tune in to the show while it was on tv and I like so many others let the show down by not giving it the viewers it needed to be stay on TV.

The might of haves and could of haves and the if onlys have left us with only 14 shows and a movie for what might have been the best show of all time.  But it could of died a bad ending like Dollhouse.

Spartucus Blood and Sand

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I have just this last day found on Netflix the show Spartucus Blood and Sand.  While I have spent many hours watching the show trying to get a felling for it I have to say it's not the show I would have thought it was going to be.  I watched Rome and while I didn't love it.  It was fairly good.  My problem with Rome was, that it, like most shows done in America trys to Americanize the world.

Now this is normlly done by sanitizing the show to remove the "Adult "content of the program.  I have felt many times that the progrms are never truely showing the lifestyles of the peoples they portray.  Now I have seen a show that goes the other way.  Spartucus is going out of  it's way to show the nonchristian aspects of Greek society.

This program shows many many many scenes of nudity, homosexuality and paganism.  And after years of complaining about the content of shows like Rome I have to say I don't like Spactucus because it goes to far the other way. Not so much the paganism but the adult nature of the program.

The nudity doesn't shock or disturb me.  But it does distract me from the story.  Its not the female nudity its much like Watchman the male nudity that does it.  I know why its so distracting to see all those penises it's the fact tah american tv and movies for the most part refuse to show male frontal nudity.  This is not fair to the ladies and gay guys that don't get their thrill like straight guys do.

What I find even more disturbing about Spartucus Blood and Sand is the over heighthend blood and gore.  The show revels in death.  It revels in blood, gore and violence.  I find the battles more difficult to watch then most tv and movie violence.  I'm not sure if it's the sepia tone of the rest of the show or the computer generated red of the blood but I just find it hard to watch the gladiator scenes.  I didn't have this problem with 300 so I don't really understand why I'm turned off by Spartucus.

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