A Man. And His Blog.

Back to FIREFLY, and I was bored with such a lame episode. I didn’t have anything against defending somebody’s honor, or a “hostage” situation in the Serenity, but the story was sleepy and never interested me. At least the episode showed some “regular day movements” for the Serenity crew, and it was not something they’ve stepped on during their travels or during a complicated and dangerous smuggling job – it was just a day gone wrong a bit.

Actually, it was a nice story at first, but at the end the whole overall arc felt way too forced for me, and way too random. Of course Badger (Mark Sheppard) told Mal (Nathan Fillion) to look for the next job during the dress ball, and of course Inara’s (Morena Baccarin) date of the evening with Sydney Bristow’s dead fiancé happened at the ball too, giving the writers much opportunity to let Mal clash with the culture, and bring his own life in danger. The sword duel was a nice idea too, but the fight itself was pretty much lame and pretty much predictable – of course Mal would win, and of course Inara’s honor is rescued by the man in the trench coat. Without surprised the episode can’t thrill me, which is why I was a bit bored while watching.

Furthermore the episode could have done so much more with the “hostage” situation on the Serenity. Not just showed this story that Badger is a kick-ass guy, who does anything to get jobs done, but it could have brought some thrill into the episode. Instead the crew was just sitting around, talking about stuff, thinking about an escape plan, and listening to River (Summer Glau) talking straight all of a sudden (the most likable scene in this episode). But here I wondered why River was actually with her senses for the scene. First she makes a bit of chaos in the kitchen, but in her next scene she is normal, even more kick-ass than Badger, and nobody doesn anything? After all, Badger was keeping the crew together, but as soon as he heard that River was from his home (by the way: I loved the accent), he is a friend like nobody, and lets her go back. It’s kinda awkward writing for me.

Well, it was not really an episode for me. Maybe it was the wrong time of day, maybe it was Christmas coming up, but the episode was below expectations. 5.5/10

Welcome to the ball of the large dresses

A usual expression after listening to River talking

Doesn't say much, but is happy in outer space: River

There isn’t much to say about one of the two episodes reviewed here, except me asking FOX how they could have seen a pilot episode in “The Train Job” (1×02). And there isn’t much boredom in one of the two episodes reviewed here, since I was stunned that “Bushwacked” (1×03) was over way too early. And while the first episode was rather a simple procedural episode, which stated the obvious that our scavenger heroes are real heroes, instead of dirty characters (which I am still believing to see somewhere in the season), the second episode had a serial nature with the story involving the Reavers, as well as the evilness which is called Alliance. Or to say it with a sentence everybody is understanding: The first episode was pure average and somewhat boring, the second episode was a masterpiece among the first three Firefly episodes. Now I am wishing that most parts of the season/series will hold that quality. And what I’ve developed while watching the two episodes: I am hungry for the movie Serenity now.

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The crew of the scavenger ship Serenity

Having to choose between various short-lived science-fiction series… I choose to watch them all. After all, you only live once. Since I am in the midst of finishing the second series of the re-imagined Doctor Who, having begun Space: Above and Beyond and am about to want to watch such trash programs like Lexx or Cleopatra 2525, I rather chose to start and finish the short-lived Firefly. After all, Joss-Whedon-nerds told me that the series is a highlight, the cult following is quite acceptable, and I always wanted to see the movie, which is not possible before I don’t watch the series beforehand. And it is science-fiction in space – something you rather find on network television. Either it gets canceled too fast (like Firefly, the latest example would be Defying Gravity) or the series creators don’t put their stories in space, rather want to tell alien stories on Earth and about to fail in interesting me  (I’m looking at you, V). So, here I am, and here you are, reading my review for the 2-hour-pilot of Firefly. Produced for FOX for the TV season 2002/2003, aired out of order, canceled very soon, because of production costs and ratings. I always wondered why Joss Whedon was still interested in bringing FOX a new show six years later with Dollhouse, and who knows how Firefly would have done, when FOX wasn’t part of the deal Joss Whedon concluded.

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