Went to my uncles cabin in the woods for a few days to relax, he's got the box set of the show and decided to give it a rewatch, was a pretty big fan in college. Got through like 3 episodes and shut it off.
Yes, Whedon is a creepy and maybe knowing that affecting my judgment, but honestly does feel like I'm noticing things my younger brain didn't. A lot of the dialog seems overwritten, some of the "quirky" shit the characters do comes off more obnoxious than endearing, also the story is giving me weird AnCap vibes. I mean yeah the Alliance clearly is pretty evil but we never get much explanation as to what the Brown Coats political program is, why did they want to succeed? Them being confederate coded sure as shit doesn't help.
Also, it almost leans TOO much into the whole western asethic sometimes, to the point I find it unbelievable. Okay, sure, humanity hastily colonized some planets and now some have regressed into SciFi Deadwood, I can dig that. But like, people on horses with cowboy hats seems a bit too comic for me.
Idk, just some random observations.
Edit: oh yeah and the intro song fucking sucks. That was something I thought even back when I liked the show.
Yeah, the Alliance is basically supposed to be cyberpunk white dude China and built from a bunch of classic "the US literally did/tried to do this and the Soviets verifiably did not, but we're gonna write it as the Soviets doing it" tropes, while the secessionists were just like "yeah I can't handle all their rules you know *licks lips inappropriately* had to come out here for some real freedom you know *lips licks some more, for longer* heh heh heh you know what I'm talking about," Heinleinian (how the fuck is "Heinleinian" an actual word that spellcheck accepts) frontiersmen.