Just because this post is here, don’t skip the Potter post. I took a lot of time on it.
So, I have just finished Firefly, the Joss Whedon sci-fi/western I started a few weeks back. And I have to say, despite early misgivings, and a pronounced desire to dislike it, I’ve come away with a pretty good opinion of the show.
Now, sci-fi western hybrids aren’t all that rare. After all, Star Trek – the king of television science fiction – was originally pitched as “Wagon Train to the stars.” What makes Firefly special isn’t that it adopts the mythology and characterization of the Western. No, it adopts the fucking iconography. It’s a spaceship series with horses and six-shooters.
This mix takes a bit of getting used to, and the episodes I liked the most tended to focus on just one style. But there’s something really exciting about such a ballsy choice. Even when it doesn’t work, I was so amused by Whedon’s audacity that I couldn’t really be angry.
The show has a pretty big ensemble – nine main characters – and except for Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), they tend to cycle in and out of prominence. And I’d be lying if I said that all characters and all performances were equal. I shan’t name names, but the preacher in particular is someone I could just as happily do without. But at any rate, the show doesn’t make the mistake I always felt I saw in the other Whedon series I’ve seen, which is to make the characters unsympathetic. And I know that the consensus isn’t that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is full of unsympathetic characters, but I tend to feel pretty morally superior to all of them, or at least intellectually superior, and it’s about the same. The irony is that the Firefly cast is largely made up of unscrupulous liars and thieves. But they fit into their world so well that I find myself rooting for them even when their ethics are shaky.
Even if that world is a fucking western in space. Oh, and there’s Chinese spoken a lot. Run with it.
“Run with it,” is actually the best advice I have. It seems weird, and it probably is weird, but it’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and I’m not exactly a neophyte with science fiction. Try it. The worst that can happen is you’ll be amazed by how nuts the show is.
I won’t say I regret that it got cancelled, because I think it might have had a hard time keeping its plot arc in the air, and I think it’s perfect for a movie series. And make no mistake, I await Serenity with bated breath.