NEED HELP

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 8:27:36 PM

I am having a crisis.

Not in faith, at least not in our big damn shiny show, and not in my taste in shows, because all of the shows that I watch are either popular, or ones that evoke in me a passionate response, such as the one that I know that I share with all other Browncoats.

I believe that Firefly is a fantastic show. I refer to it in the present tense because, for me, Firefly is still a living and breathing entity of great quality. Plus, I am currently catching up on The Signal and Fireflytalk podcasts, and so, for me, there is still new material being found in the 'verse. I started listening to the aforementioned podcasts late, relative to their creation, but it has reawakened my love for Firefly, which had lain dormant for a number of years, until I finally cracked the seal on my treasured, but unwatched, Firefly DVD set. Watching the shows again, some of them unaired, of course, and so, for me, seen for the first time, and listening to the podcasts during my daily hour-long walk, reignited the love all over again.

However, I have not been able to convert any new Browncoats. No one seems to see what I see in them, and I feel like I am pressuring and burdening people into watching them. But I believe in the quality of the show, and so I feel that it must be able to be seen by others, otherwise I would not continue trying. I listen to the podcasts, and hear a chorus of kindred spirits, and that sustains me. Yet still I doubt that I will ever convert a single new Browncoat. The podcasts have numerous examples of it happening, why am I incapable of enjoying the warm feeling of knowing that a new Browncoat has been born?

Let me tell you the story of my most recent attempt. I took Firefly over to my friend's house and hoped to watch it with him and his wife. We ended up watching the whole Underworld series instead, for, like, six hours. I took it back over there the next night, and we actually DID watch it. It was not warmly received, at least not by my friend, although his wife did laugh at the appropriate points.

I believe that my friends are not idiots, and so, I am wondering whether it is not a matter of intelligence, but perhaps, rather, a more ineffable mindset that makes one a Browncoat, perhaps a willingness to spend time with the story and characters, rather than just being wowed by flash and image. For all of their love of the Lord of the Rings and the like, maybe my friends are just not truly geeks.