Thursday, July 24, 2008

a finale


Firefly (2002)

Status: Cancelled after 11 episodes; 14 episodes made (all on DVD)

Genre: sci-fi/western/drama/comedy/action

DVD extras: pretty good. Interesting commentary on a few episodes.

Basics: The series is set in the year 2517, when we’re no longer separated by continents or countries, but by planets, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship. Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire) pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things".

The show explores the lives of people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and now make a living on the outskirts of the society, as well as the pioneer/ wild west-like culture that exists on the fringes of their star system. In addition, it is a future where the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China (they speak Chinese on the show sometimes—makes it fun and colorful, actually, if a little weird), fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures as well. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today."

The good: the cast. They are fun. Here we go:

Malcolm Reynolds (a.k.a. Mal)- the captain of Serenity. Fought in the war, which left him somewhat broken. Now his only goal is to keep his ship going. An enigmatic anti-hero figure, you might say.

Zoe: second in command; insanely loyal to Mal because they fought together in the war. She’s tough.

Walsh: the funny guy. The pilot. Zoe’s husband. (importance of role, not in any particular order, natch)

Inara: her job title is “Companion,” which essentially makes her a high class prostitute. Of course, she’s the only one making an honest living because everyone else on the ship gets paid by illegally trafficking stuff (and people) between planets. Mal kind of has a crush on her, and if he made a move, I don’t think she’d say no.

Jayne: hired muscle. His loyalty is the most questionable. Large and crude, he’s a lot of fun.

Kaylee: the sweet mechanic; the heart of the ship. She’s the best mechanic there is, and loves Serenity almost as much as Mal does.

Simon: a doctor (top 3%!) breed in the inner planets, the ones under Alliance control. He’s not really into the whole “outlaw” thing, but has become a fugitive because he broke his sister out of a government research facility where they fucked her up for sure. Now Simon and sis are on the run, and the crew of Serenity is nice enough to let them stay (it’s also handy to have a doctor on board). He likes Kaylee. She totally loves him. Simon’s problems with his sister, though, always seem to get in the way. Also, looks very good shirtless. Alas, we don't discover this until the very last episode. Damn.

River: the little sis of whom we speak. She’s kind of annoying at first, but the more you learn about her, the more fascinating she becomes.

Shepherd Book: he’s a priest/pastor/minister guy (they’re called “shepherds” in the future, apparently). Most of the time, he’s kind of just there. Had the series continued, I’m sure he’d have developed into something interesting. That leads me to my next point:

The bad: the fact that the series ended so soon. We have the seedlings of interesting characters, but we never get to fully go into their backstories. Inara and Book certainly had something very suspicious pasts. Such a shame.

The ugly: OK, I’m not really into sci-fi. Some of the episode weren’t that great, honestly. It kind of reminded me of those old Hercules and Xena shows; that’s the most similar thing I can think of.

Why it’s awesome: I think the idea of mixing the genres of sci-fi and westerns is brilliant. It works so well. The parallels between space and the wild west… you never think about it, you know? What really put this series over the top for me was the fact that Joss got to make a movie to finish off the show. And that movie is probably one of my favorite movies ever. I watched it more times than I like to admit. Brilliant direction and dialogue throughout the series.

Best episodes: “Shindig” is very Jane Austen (how cool is that?!), “Jaynestown” has that awesome song, “Out of Gas” is my favorite—it give some backstory in a highly interesting way, “Ariel” is heart-stoppingly thrilling, “War Stories” is fun (as fun as torture can be), and “Objects in Space” is just weird (but kind of in an awesome way).

In conclusion, maybe it’s a good thing it only lasted a few episodes, because that’s the only reason I gave this show a chance. I liked that it had a Big Damn Movie as a finale so I wouldn’t be stuck watching season after season. This show is lots of fun; a great summer distraction.

And so ends my DVD reviews. Yay! I really have too much time on my hands these days.

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I tend to get obsessive about things for a while, then get over it, and start to wonder what was wrong with me in the first place. Also, having no section for "Favorite TV Shows" makes absolutely no sense to me. That should tell you a lot right there.