My First Converts... by nuclearday

NUCLEARDAY'S BLOG

nuclearday

My First Converts...
Sunday, February 5, 2006

Had an especially shiny day today for my day off. Looks like some of my plans are coming to fruition rather nicely and infected a few more people with an obsession of all things Firefly. So if things go how they look, I may have finally earned my browncoat ;p

I was originally dissapointed with my lack of success at trying to turn my friends into fans. My brother is the one who ruttin' rented Serenity in the first place, and he's a beige-coat if I ever saw one. Hasn't even seen more than a few episode of the series, and he frelling lives with me, gorramit!

However, I think I've hit on a winning plan to converting people now, cause this couldn't have gone better. Takes a bit of time, but I think that helped in this matter. For me, it was all about not seeming too overt and shoving it down people's throats.

Here's the story, maybe it'll prove useful to others. My sister's boyfriend (John) happens to be a good friend of mine. (We'd better get along, too, cause well... like I said, he's my sister's boyfriend. Otherwise he'd landing in a whole heap of trouble ;) Spend alot of my days off over at their place, and they happen to be pretty big movie fans.

So, step one: We trade off movies every once in awhile anyway. Cancelled series can sort of bring a stigmata with them. (If they didn't last what's the point, is the way alot of people seem to view it.) So, I figured I'd start them out with the movie. I lent them my copy of Serenity, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary. However, I also lent them my first disk of the boxed set, and told them to watch the pilot first so they'd have a better idea of who was who and such.

They seemed to like it, no big deal. I was careful not to launch into fanboy mode a few days later when we were talking about it. I just made sure they understood the finer points of what made it so good, and tried to plant some seeds for later on. Stuff like "Yeah, the movie was good, but I really liked the series." They liked all the banter and such from the movie so I made sure to talk that up as well. (We all have a running thing about the Star Wars movies and how that's what we really felt was left out in the prequels was all the great dialoque between Han, Luke, and Leia.) So, seeds firmly planted in their heads, I figured I'd let them stew for about a week or so. (Also cunningly managed to 'forget' to take disk one of the series back with me, so they could watch through The Train Job and Bushwhacked.)

So phase two then was all about trying to play it cool. They'd seen three episodes now plus the BDM. They thought it was good, but weren't exactly jumping on the bandwagon, so to speak. This part was all about planting seeds. The next week or so, I'd try to casually insert some conversation about Firefly and how I have to watch an episode every day before I go to sleep and such. Had to play this very cool, as too much would turn them off. The point was to get them to wonder. If this show was good enough to pry me away from my videogame obsessions, then maybe, just maybe, there was something to this after all.

So, I came up another day off. Hung out during the day before they went off to work, and again I'm playing it cool. Just happen to mention that maybe I'd bring some more Firefly for us to watch later on, you know, if nothing good is on tv.

Luckily, there's never anything good on tv. So we're getting bored and I'd strategically placed disk two of the series on their coffee table. I didn't even have to mention it. John makes the decision all by himself to put on some Firefly, and it all goes rather swimmingly after that.

So, Shindig is the first episode. I've been very specific that they are to watch these in order. Otherwise they're likely to miss things, like the cows they pick up in Shindig are the same ones they're dropping off in Safe, for example.

Now, I've got a soft spot for Kaylee, so I'm a little partial to Shindig (plus you've gotta love that swordfight at the end.) John wasn't really that into it, though.

Still, they are like potato chips, you can't watch just one. And if there's nothing on TV at midnight, there certainly isn't at 12:45. So, we watch through Safe. Again, he thought it was funny and clever, but still wasn't, well... obsessed.

By the time we got through Our Mrs. Reynolds, though, it was a done deal. He was cracking up all the way through that one. And the other checkmark on my list of things to look for, I could tell he was kind of humming along with the opening theme by then ;P

By this time, he was starting to identify with Jayne, so I knew that Jaynestown was going to really seal the deal. That really couldn't have come at a better time, really. Hi-lariously funny, with that dramatic twist at the end gets you all misty-eyed.

So. End of disk two. Here was the crucial moment, really. It's getting late and he doesn't work nights like I do. Do I call it a night and head home? Should I suggest we watch just one more episode? The next one was of course Out of Gas, which is a personal favorite of mine. But it's also a whole nother disk, too...

And? Eureka! Without skipping a beat, he pops disk two out of the DVD and immediately pops the third disk into the tray.

I have just converted another browncoat. I have made someone else stay up late enough to be regretting it in the morning, just to watch one more episode. Here's how perfect the timing was on this, too:

Out of Gas is one of those ones where if you see the first five minutes, you HAVE to keep watching. You don't even get to find out why Mal is stumbling around like that until into well into the third act IIRC. So here's John, barely staying awake as it is, but too totally hooked to call it a night. That episode, you have to see it through to the end.

Anyways, that one's over and John's obviously hurting. What with pauses between episodes for cigarette breaks, it's about 4:30 am, and he has to be up at 7:00am. I almost feel bad about it ;P He's cursin me as I head out for the night, 'cause now he has to go out and get the Firefly box for himself

Along with the pleasure of converting someone else to cause, it was just nice to watch through the show with someone else for the first time. I've already seen all there is to see, and while I'm still noticing little things every time I rewatch an episode, there's nothing like the first time, as they say.

I've got another convert from work on the way, too, but she's easy. She used to watch the series when it was on anyways. All I've had to do so far was point her to a few website to see how big this is, and make sure she checks out the fanart sections, since we're both starving artsits of a sort.

So... that's two down, and nothing less than the rest of the ruttin' world left to go. There's a few other candidates I have in mind, and I'm going to try the same tac again to see if it works.

Captain Verbosity, signing off.

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