I don’t know why I didn’t catch Firefly on television. While I don’t watch much TV, this was right up my alley. Firefly is a science fiction series in the tradition of Westerns. So, either you’ll love it or hate it. I liked it and I am surprised it didn’t run longer.
As a TV series, the episodes vary in quality. Some were pretty good while others felt like fillers. However, Amber was hooked on Firefly and couldn’t wait for the next DVD to arrive from Netflix (we have a single DVD plan).
The movie Serenity furthers the story and solves the mystery of the girl River. But it has a very different outlook and does not look or sound Western at all.
Overall, I think watching Firefly helped a lot in building the characters and the curiousity for Serenity. So I would recommend watching both Firefly and Serenity. I would rate both 8/10.
Agreed, I quite enjoyed the series and consequently the movie. Might be a second movie, although Joss Whedon has said that the series is definitely at an end.
Disclaimer: I could only stomach a couple episodes; so, my comments are based on a limited data set.
In my mind, a single, guttural utterance summarizes this series and its genre – ugh. What mad-capped producer thought it would be good to recast a western, with clunky revolvers and all, in space! Ugh! Cowboys, ranch hands, a preacher, a prostitute and even a country doctor reprise well worn terrestrial roles in an extra-terrestrial location. While some of these characters could plausibly appear on a 2Xth century space frontier, I found it difficult to swallow the premise that they would look, speak and react much like their 19th century counterparts. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! And, I must add an Arrrgh for good measure.
Captain Arrrgh: I was thinking about you when I wrote about hating Firefly. I get your point, but I am somewhat of a sucker for old Westerns. You might like Serenity since it isn’t really a Western, though I am not sure how the character development would work without watching Firefly.
Such excellent taste you have!
I enjoyed Serenity, too. Haven’t seen Firefly. Looks like a job for NetFlix.
It was indeed a charming mix of Western and sci-fi, but I think a lot of etnertaining is whether we realize it or not. Take Star Wars for example.
I’m really beginning to like this blog!
I think the reason that no one caught onto Firefly while it was on the air is that it was on Fox. I caught the re-airing of the series on SciFi and my husband bought the series as well as Serenity just because he liked the following exchange from the commercial:
Mal: Do you want to run this ship
Jayne: Yeah
Mal: Well… you can’t
It reminds me a lot of a watered down version of CJ Cherryh’s books. I think that’s why I fell in love with it. Science fiction meets western = cool. I really do wish there was a way to convince Joss Whedon and a network into filming at least one more season of the series, just to fill in the things we don’t know about a few characters. (Like, what’s the deal with Shepherd Book knowing so much about weapons and law enforcement? My theory is that he was an operative before he was a shepherd.) Okay, I just realized how “geek” that sounds, and I’ll stop typing now.
Brian: 🙂
Svend:
Or the original Star Trek.
Emily: Thanks.
Serenity— I thought it was a fabulous film. I had seen half an episode of firefly and changed the channel because I was just not impressed. However the movie builds the characters and fills in all the details rather well. I did not feel I missed out just because I did not see the series. I think I rank this right up there with 12 monkeys, strange days, riddick and the first two years of Buffy. The film had great dry humour and was not afraid to make fun of itself or its genre. There was also no special effects overkill.