She was underwhelmed by season one–but as soon as she saw the season finale, she called me–and raved about how wonderful it was. From that point on, she loved it.

You’re absolutely right about the protagonists being atypical. They’re escaped prisoners; they didn’t choose each other, they were thrown together. That makes things pretty delicious.

I think the alien aliens thing happens in great part because the show never (or rarely) stops to explain itself. It’s not just that many episodes start in media res — it’s that the aliens simply are plainly bizarre without any attempt to explain the intricacies or reasoning for it. I think that lends itself to giving the viewer a little bit of culture shock, in a positive way.

I have to confess that I am merely “meh.” I can see why some people are really fanatic about it. But, I can also see why it never got wide appeal. Especially because you almost have to watch it straight through to really understand several of the plot threads. When it was actually on TV, I only caught occasional episodes, and was generally lost. I think it was ahead of its time for the kind of serial drama that Whedon and Abrams have now made ubiquitous.

The one thing about the show I do like, especially from an RPG standpoint, is that the protagonists are not stereotypical good guys. They are often selfish, occasionally ruthless, and prone to temper tantrums and irrational behavior. Much closer to Firefly than to Star Trek. And, yet, as Helmsman pointed out, they manage to work together.

I’m also with you on the “really alien aliens” thing. Even the Sebaceans manage to avoid being “humans with funny foreheads.” I wish I could put my finger on what it is about the writing that maintains that “otherness” without pointing at it.

Also, look! Twin Cam.

Farscape set things up so that the core group was important to the setting and the story while still maintaining the feel that they were small beings in a big universe. But the best parts of farscape were when the characters succeeded. Occasionally they would succeed beyond their wildest dreams but it never broke the format or the story. It was just good storytelling.