Cool Television in the 21st Century: Firefly

I finally finished the series!  I'm glad I took my time watching it, but it's so disappointing that the show got cancelled.  Keep in mind that I didn't watch Serenity yet (and I hope never because I heard from reliable sources that it sucks).

Here's the background for those who don't know much about Firefly.  It was aired originally in 2002, and some of the big name actors are Nathan Fillion, currently in a lead role in Castle, and Jewel Staite, who starting off acting at a young age and was in Space Cases.  It is a western science fiction that is set in the future after a war between the Alliance (combined of the two biggest powers from "Earth that was"-China and the United States) and the Independents.  Was once a sergeant for the Independents, Malcolm Reynolds runs a ship he named "Serenity", which is a class Firefly space vessel-yeah, it looks sorta like a firefly, with his screw and passengers.

While Captain Mal is a strong leader with a loony sense of humor, his first mate Zoe, an equally strong willed "warrior woman" fought in Mal's troop in the war, keeps him in check.  She is married to Wash, the ship's pilot/navigator and handles Serenity like it's second nature.  They have a mechanic, a bubbly girl Kaylee who is a machine nut and knows parts like the back of her hand.  Then there's Jayne, a hired muscle who isn't really that bright but knows how to get out of a sticky situation.  These are the original crew members.

The remaining members first start off just getting a ride on Serenity for their own reasons, but as the story progresses, they get more involved in the crew's business.  Originally Book, the Shepard/paster, went on Serenity in the pilot episode for travel but ends up playing a bigger role than it seems.  Inara, a Campanion-registered prostitute, rents a shuttle on Serenity and handles business wherever the ship goes.  Finally there's a doctor, Simon, and his sister, River.  River has been experimented on by Alliance doctors because of her genius and isn't all "there", but as the plot unfolds you start to understand how she thinks and what she is capable of doing.  Her brother is in search of her in the pilot, and the crew decides to keep them on board for hiding as long as he provides medical services for the crew.  Sometimes these characters are part of the missions/jobs given to Mal, who free lances and mostly smuggles goods below Alliance radar.

This is an action, comedy, romance, and drama.  The reasons why I like it so much is that it is treated more as a western than a science fiction.  There are no alien races despite how many planets there are.  The weapons range interestingly.  Usually you will find more Smith and Wesson like revolvers used by the crew although Jayne mostly has modern weapons.  The only people who have the wealth to buy "futuristic weapons" as in other science fiction are rare to encounter in the series.  The speech and costuming follow suit.  Words such as "ain't" are tossed around commonly and and depending on which character, you will see a variety of style.

 Ok the humor is really what I wanted to get at.  It follows a formula that screws with you.  Whenever you expect something to happen, it really preps you in order to disappoint/make you laugh.  For example this scene with Jayne is absolutely hilarious.

When you watch through the episodes and really enjoy them, it's a huge let down when you can't watch any more.  As for the movie-that's debatable.  Some of my friends liked it, most didn't.  But what I hate the most is how incomplete Book's story was.  He is the biggest mystery out of all the characters, and it really show during the last four or five episodes.  There is, thankfully, a graphic novel with his back story, which I will be reading soon.

All in all great series, many will love this even if they aren't big on sci fi and I deeply encourage those to give this a try even if the pilot episode sucks.