Back in 1999, I would watch sci-fi when there wasn’t anything better to watch (pre-dvd and my parents had terrible cable at the time). Old movies and re-runs of various semi-entertaining shows could pass the time between PlayStation and N64 sessions.
Then I saw a promo for a new show by the producers of SeaQuest DSV and by the Jim Henson company…. hmm interesting, muppets? aliens? and lots of sci-fi shoot em up action. I’m in.
Honestly, I fell asleep during the premier, yeah there’s a sign of a good show huh? But over the course of the first part of season 1, I fell in love with these quirky, interesting, near unpredictable but enthralling characters and their stories. Here’s why.
Think back to the beginning of Lost. When we first met Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and especially Locke, we loved seeing what they did and how they dealt with their situations, but since mid season 2 we can pretty much predict with decent accuracy how one will react. Do you want to watch characters that are predictable and are written poorly? I don’t. The writers for Farscape did a great job of keeping things moving, yeah there were some slow spots, but not longer than a couple three episodes, new characters would come in and out and make for new challenges to face.
Oh, did I mention the characters were quirky? That can be a bit of an understatement. After season 3 John (the main character played by Ben Browder) starts acting erratic and like a “loose cannon” well, think about it, you were stranded in the middle of nowhere with two major military factions hunting you down for what you supposedly know, I think I would eventually just want to start shooting too.
This is a fun show, and although it was cut off at the end of season 4, I feel that it worked out ok, after all, all things must come to and end. (man I hate colloquialisms) Here is my suggestion, try Season 1, if you like it keep going, if you can’t get past the whole muppets as aliens thing, keep watching Lost or Galactica. I personally think Farscape is one of the best sci-fi shows to ever be on television, period.
