My New Favorite Thing: Firefly / Serenity
By Dennis West
I have a new love! No, nothing my wife should be worried about. Actually, it's her new love too. For Christmas she gave me the movie Serenity
, which we had seen together in the theater, but she also gave me the series it was based on, Firefly.Firefly has been described as a space western, which actually fits, but it would be more accurate to compare the main character and Captain of the ship, Mal Reynolds (pictured in the middle of the image above) as a Han Solo type character from the original 1977 Star Wars movie. Smuggler, pirate, and scoundrel are all terms that are applicable. Truth is, the American Civil War and the Millennium Falcon were both huge inspirations for Joss Whedon in creating this show.
I have to admit that I have mixed emotions about this new love—on one hand I'm elated that I've found something that I so thoroughly enjoy.
On the other hand it's depressing that I and just about the rest of the world missed this show when it was on the air and when our viewership could have kept it on the air. As a result, all we have is an abbreviated series and a movie. All of which is excellent, but it could have been so much more.I blame the Fox Network. I vaguely remember seeing a commercial for it when it was premiering and thinking to myself that it looked cool, but I didn't catch the time and never heard anything more about it. It turns out that they did the same thing to it that they did to another series that I really enjoyed called Space Above and Beyond
.
It seems like when Fox doesn't have faith in a show, they have no desire to promote it or put it in a time slot that will promote a following. Instead they move it around from night to night until it ends up on one of the poorest nights for T.V. and then pre-empt the heck out of it with sporting events until it becomes impossible for any reasonable person to keep up with it.Anyway, I've found it now, and I love it. It's too bad that Fox didn't put more effort into gettting people to see it, because it seems that's all it takes for people to get hooked. I've already introduced it to a guy I work with and he likes it too.
Anyone who likes an entertaining story, sci-fi for not, give Firefly
and Serenity a try. You won't regret it.
Seed Newsvine
2 Comments:
I agree. Both shows were good. I happen to like "Space.." the most and was shocked when they killed it (atleast respectably). It seems there have been some shows that were stopped then started up later. Maybe there is a way to influence the restart of these....I am not an avid poster so am not familiar with these communication channels.
I couldn't agree more. Dennis has already introduced 3 people that I know of to Firefly (the series)/Serenity (the movie). Even my wife, who is not a SciFi fan by any stretch of the imagination, likes the show.
Probably the most intriguing thing about the show is how it breaks conventions. For example, in one episode, Mal (the captain) comes aboard the ship to find one of the crew being held hostage. The hostage taker says the typical “Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot her.” In an episode of Star Trek or ER or something, they would negotiate with the guy and then there would be a struggle which may or may not result in loss of life.
The crew is in peril both from forces on the ship and outside the ship, so without even breaking stride, Mal, like a true soldier, shoots the guy; bam, one crisis over. Seems calloused, perhaps, but in a war-time situation, if you take time to negotiate, you’re all dead. This may be an extreme example, but the show is packed with refreshing little unconventional surprises.
If you haven’t seen the movie it is great! If you haven’t seen the series, run down to your local Hollywood or Blockbuster and rent them. There are even episodes that didn’t air on TV. Better yet, you just may want to buy them for yourself, unless you already know someone who will let you borrow them (thanks Dennis).
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