@Invidia said:

It was extremely UNIQUE and innovative.

It was unique, I'll give you that. Innovation - there were some nice ideas, yes. But not all of those ideas were good.

And it also contained more than just the story of the week, because there was also the arc where John is dealing with the death of the brother of the PK commander (the one who also eventually ends up as the pilot for the baby ship named Talon).

Many other shows have arcs. None of the arcs really interested me besides the deal with that Time-guy (Einstein). Everything else was kind of "meh" for me.

And the reason why there's the on and off love story between John and Aeryn is because they come from 2 completely different cultures.

Yes, I understood that aspect - however, I still think this could have been handlet way better by the writers.

HOW IN THE FRELL DID NORANTI GET ON THE SHIP???).

Think of her as being like a MAGICIAN.

OK, this is one of the minor problems for me, I just used it to highlight how absurd it was for me that this was never-ever addressed by the writers. I accept your hadwave-y explanation.

It's also interesting the way you enjoyed Rygel swimming around to collect all of the shattered body parts of John and Aeryn yet never say anything about how ABSURD it was to find a culture that was able to put them all back together again and bring them back to life again.

Absurd is not always bad! In this show there are many times when something absurd happens, and it's bad, since it doesn't make sense plot-wise, or it's a wildly out of character action. But I knew the context of the underwater Rygel scene and it was a clever way from the producers / writers to bring them back after the cancellation. I liked how they previously basically said "f*ck you for cancelling our show" - which brought us to the moment of Aeryn and Chrichton falling apart. So I liked that moment.

So one of the most unlikely scenes of all in the show also turns out to be one of your favorites?

Again: something in a movie / series being unlikely or not unlikely is never the problem in itself. If handled and executed well, it will give you a good experience. That you're watching something coherent and believable. And believable does not equal realistic! Otherwise, you could throw your hands up and switch the show off the second Chrichton winds up in a different galaxy in the pilot episode - as that is clearly an "unlikely" event, eh? If it fits into the plot, adds value, and executed well, then no matter how absurd or unlikely the scene is, I will enjoy it.

Perhaps the problem was also the way that you watched the show?

Because when it's watched weekly or nightly (whenever they use to air reruns of it) then maybe it also makes more sense than if one BINGE watches it in one BIG GULP or by taking in several different BIG GULPS of it at a time?

Irrelevant, as for more than a decade now, I don't watch any series weekly, I only binge-watch - and I liked many-many series I binge watched and hated some others. The interesting thing about Farscape is that it never really urged me to continue (save for the last few episodes of the last season), so I mostly watched it weekly :-) Still did not like it that much overall.

In summary: the problem is not with the absurdity itself. The problem is with the execution (ranging from horrible to passable) the inconsistent tome of the series (wacky VS serious - changing way too often and in an unpredictable fashion), and the lack of coherent writing (plots and characters were all over the place).

@Invidia said:

Have you seen Firefly? If so, did you like that show? Because it's basically the same situation where you've got a group of people on a ship who fly around to different places hoping to be able to find a way to feed themselves.

Yes, saw it, a couple years before Farscape. How did I like Firefly? It's is my favorite show ever, that's how!

But apart from minor similarities (spaceships, rag-tag crew, different planets - these are widely used tropes anyways) these are completely different shows - I was tempted many times to compare this with Firefly, but I reminded myself that it would not make sense to do that. What works in Firefly would not work in Farscape and vice versa. In general, comparing shows rarely makes sense. It's fun, but ultimately pointless - you cannot lift elements from good shows and put them into mediocre / bad shows and expect them to work. That's a typical case of the Detached Lever Fallacy.

This is why I don't really like when people comparing Dark Matter, Killjoys and The Expanse to Firefly. These are all completely different shows. Of course for me the Ur example of "small crew flying around on a small spaceship to make ends meet" will always be Firefly, but Farscape, Killjoys, Dark Matter & The Expanse doesn't have to beat Firefly at this game. Killjoys is focusing on character interaction, The Expanse is focusing on an underlying mystery, Dark Matter is focusing on the identity and the journey of the characters, etc. They don't have to be better than Firefly. They creators just have to be good at what they want to focus on, so they can create a show that stands on its own.

And maybe if you had also watched it in REVERSE (watching the last seasons before the first Seasons) , you would like it better?

I think the influence on my final rating would have been very minor. Moreover, it would have been all the more disappointing to see more interesting episodes first, then to be thrown into that drag that is the first half of the series.

BTW my overall favorite episodes of Farscape are the episode about the backstory of Pilot, and the one in which Chrichton is back on earth, and all shorts of crazy things are happening which makes him realize it's all in his head. That episode reminded me of my favorite episode in a different favorite series of mine: "Restless" from Buffy. It was a wacky episode, but there was narrative consistency behind all the wakcyness so I didn't mind it.

Farscape just did not find the balance between serious / funny / wacky / stupid for me, and on top of that it did not have a strong enough narrative backbone. I think it boils down to this.

@Invidia said:

John isn't the official captain of Moya like the other guy is in Firefly (who also purchased and owns his ship), but John is just as much of a leader as Malcolm is, and he also cares just as deeply for and about the rest of the crew on the ship.

And just like John has a thing for Aeryn, Malcolm also has a thing for Inara.

And just like John goes above and beyond the call of duty whenever one of the crew is in trouble, Malcom also does the same thing.

When Chiana thinks her brother's dead and is on the planet where they jump off the cliff (sometimes to their deaths), John goes there to rescue her.

When River is in trouble, Malcolm does whatever he can do to protect her.

Both crews usually have each others backs, but both Jayne and Rygel are also backstabbers at one time.

Imo, there are many similarities between the 2 shows.

And I also don't see there being the kinds of problems with Farscape as you see.

In fact I enjoyed watching it just as much as Firefly.

But if that's the way you feel about it, you're certainly also entitled to your opinion.

And all one can do is express their disappointment that you didn't also enjoy watching it as much as I did.

Exactly! Fair enough then.

A critique from a fan of the simpleton’s favorite, Firefly. Thank God this show didn’t measure up to your bottom tier, “common” expectations. Marvel sure would, though.

I'm first time watching. Once you get about 1/2 way through the first season the show becomes comfortably, fantastically weird. Yes, it's episodic so after a huge story about marriages and the crew being displaced all over. The next episode all the regulars are on the ship acting as if the wedding episodes didn't exist. I think they were kind of forced do to the fact that it was on syndication and people could miss a few episodes. But man, the characters are so much fun. The one muppet character is actually figured out and given some strengths.

I don't know. It plays like a very weird 70s sci fi pulp paperback. Season 2 is when the show hits all cylinders. The best way to describe the show is it's the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I see all your points but I can overlook them because this show is doing things other space-based shows went. Not bad for a show that I thought was just going to be Star Wars (which it rips off a lot in S1) and Muppets in Space...

I thought the acting so far has been pretty good. The weakest was the baddie from S1 which was kind of replaced by Scorpious who is very creepy. The alien designs can be truly alien at times.

Also, nice to see a baby Murray Bartlett decades before White Lotus and The Last of Us.