Alright, so I’ve decided that I’m going to finally get around to watching the firefly series. Now note, I am really late to the game here, but its something that I have been meaning to do for quite a while now. I’m going to try to review the series from the point of view of someone who hasn’t been told over and over again that it’s a great series and that as any kind of sci-fi fan, not only should I be familiar with it, but I should pretty much live and breathe Joss Whedon’s writing and shows because it’s a matter of honor. So I went a head and got myself a copy of the entire series and I’m going to try to do a review every Friday for you guys of it or some other show that has been recommended to me. This gives me something to do on Friday, which has proved to be a rather slow news day and honestly it gives me a bit of writers block. So starting here soon you can expect to see me doing a review on a weekly basis of the show. So here we go,
Firefly: Serenity Part 1 and 2
Just got done watching the first episode of firefly, and let me say, that if all of them were as good as that plot just was… I’m going to have a really tough time actually doing a review, ultimately they will just turn into nothing less than an episode synopsis. I now understand why Firefly fans love the show so much and this is only after on episode, I am defiantly looking forward to going through the entire season. The real keystone is that it takes pretty much everything that was great about the original series of Star Trek, and it puts it in a dystopian universe. The real attraction of the show comes from the nearly flawless character interactions. I don’t know if they just happened to be sitting around for months before hand together and all decided to get on board and make a show, but the characters that are supposed to be working together from the very first episode really do flesh out to be real human beings and just completely take you away with how natural they all seem to act towards each other. I mean you can compare this to pretty much any other show in Science Fiction and even in Encounter at Farpoint, we had characters, but their development was more along the lines of establishing a stereotype than a character.
I think what also makes this show is the character Kaylee, this character’s energy, and general attitude really do keep the show lighthearted. Like everything that she says and does are so cute and adorable, I just want to adopt her as a sister and go on adventures through space. As Reddit’s bozarking would say ‘In a totally silly and non sexual way’. The character just comes off as an adorable mechanic, like some kind of kawaii creation sent to man to remind him that the world is not a terrible place. I really can’t help but explain that this character along with perhaps Captain Mal really did capture my heart, and were characters that you could sympathize with, not to mention the captains attitude is so badass it makes me envious.
So while I will sing its praises, I think it would be kind of pointless if I didn’t point out some of the things that annoyed me. The first was the use of sexuality / nudity, now don’t get me wrong I’ve been around on the internet long enough to know what titties look like, and it’s not that kind of bothersome “thou have sinned” kind of dislike. I felt more like I did when I watched Nip tuck, or those T’Paul / Tucker episodes of Enterprise, that somehow I was being given sex or nudity as some kind of scene holder to keep the audiences’ attention in sections that admittedly are rather boring. It was something that was just kind of nagging at me. Granted, I suppose one could argue that without those scenes there’s really no good way to go about actually establishing the character, and when the character is a “whore”, this is probably the quickest way to convey the message.
Another thing that also kind of threw me off, is we are talking about an era of modern space travel, but it seems everyone and their mother is carrying some kind of projectile weapon. I can understand if perhaps they weren’t top of the line military equipment, but it would seem to me that if you are capable of interplanetary travel, that something better than a colt 45 would be sitting around in the armory, and even more so that weapons such as assault rifles and the like wouldn’t be that hard to get a hold of. It was this combination of the wild west / futuristic technology, that while hearkening back to the clear roots in the American mythos regarding the cowboy / Indian days that so many children would watch and use as the basis for their imagination, it also just seemed kind of anachronistic in a way.
Other than that though, the show was really well put together, I was laughing and enjoying it the whole way through [which isn’t something I was expecting from a Pilot]. The detail shots for some of the ships and cities really was great and gave you the idea that you were really seeing a time and technology that is beyond our own, and the theme song is admirably catchy. Like I said, I really do hope these start getting worse or I’m going to just end up retelling the story to you guys, I honestly don’t know if it can get much better.
Totally Not a Blog 