Firefly

Several shows have been cancelled before they were able to complete their story, but none resulted in such a vocal reaction than that of the 2002 20th Century Fox series, Firefly. While it only lasted fourteen episodes and its ratings were nothing special, its strong DVD sales and large fan-supported campaigns proved that this was a newly birthed cult classic, with the audience reception being extremely positive and many lamenting its disappearance. While the show did get a 2005 film titled Serenity which somewhat wrapped things up, it was apparent that people wanted a proper continuation outside of outside media like comics and tabletop games. Even though its time on air was brief, it managed to make a connection with its fans. In the far future of 2517, humanity has been forced to leave Earth due to over-population and the remaining superpowers (America and China) formed a new government known as The Alliance, which placed the remnants of humanity into a totalitarian social system. After a failed civil war, many who stood against this new society resorted to becoming intergalactic smugglers, fairing cargo and even people across various other inhabited planets throughout the universe. One such ship is the Serenity, which is captained by Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds (played by Nathan Fillion) and consists of crew members like his first mate and wartime friend, Zoe (played by Gina Torres), her husband and the ship’s pilot, Wash (played by Alan Tudyk), mercenary Jayne Cobb (played by Adam Baldwin), mechanic Kaylee (played by Jewel Staite) and companion Inara (played by Morena Baccarin). While transporting a pastor named Derrial Book or ”Shepard” (played by Ron Glass), the crew also find themselves looking after rich trauma surgeon Simon Tam (played by Sean Maher) and his sister, River (played by Summer Glau), both of whom are on the run from Alliance members who were experimenting on River before Simon freed her. Dragged into a situation above their pay grade but deciding to protect the two, this crew set out on several crazy missions to keep the money flowing in, often contending with wild situations and people who wish to claim the bounty on Simon and River’s heads. The funny thing about Firefly is that, despite its massive popularity, it actually houses quite a few flaws regarding aspects of its storytelling, yet it somehow doesn’t prevent it from being a watchable and even enjoyable show.

The premise of a group of smugglers helping a fugitive with seemingly supernatural abilities who is being hunted by an authoritative presence, isn’t bad on paper, and a space western with sci-fi elements feels like a smart blend to freshen up each genre in a way that could be pretty different. While it’s hard to say the show does a great job at mapping out its story as focus on River and her kidnapping can get forgotten about pretty quickly, but this show actually works better as an episodic series rather than something with an over-arching plot. While other sci-fi stories and even animes have do this idea of a futuristic space-faring world where outlaws thrive on bounties and smuggle against a corrupt governing force, this one presents not only a grittier side to it through the western appeal and visual design, but also a diluted and more mainstream version to make it more simplified, but also more approachable to any viewer. It actually has a fair share of good ideas, and its world building isn’t that bad, but what really grabs people about the premise is its cast of characters, how they go about dealing with situations in this world, and the grounded but not overly serious manner in which they solve the problem. As previously stated, the world building has some great qualities to it like the mixture of Western and pan-Asian cultures to create a unified visual design, a governmental system run by the winners of a human civil war which resulted in the losers becoming pioneers in this new world, and even the various new jobs and roles that people are forced to do in this new environment, but the execution of a lot of these elements can leave a lot to be desired and that comes from just how poorly written this series is. Created by Joss Wheadon and with Tim Minear as the head show runner, the series contains very predictable dialogue, a tone that can be woefully mean-spirited and even inappropriate instead of ‘’humorously messed-up’’, and most of these stories are fine in the vacuum but prove to be pretty lame and uninteresting once they get started. Despite its minimal length, a majority of these episodes feature plot elements, character dynamics and even comical or serious situations that are never really interesting, don’t feel like they are building to something, and don’t paint the series in the best light. Yet in spite of this predicament, it still feels oddly engaging even when aware of its faults. Arguably the two best episodes of the show are Bushwacked, where the crew find the remains of a broken ship recently attacked by nihilistic cannibal space pirates known as Reapers (another great idea never really taken advantage of), and Objects in Space, where River seemingly bonds with the ship to save the crew from a mentally disturbed bounty hunter. They are well-directed, have good build up, feel a bit livelier from an acting and even presentation standpoint, and further explain something about this world in a way that doesn’t feel like the smallest of breadcrumbs.

A show is only as good as its characters and while these roles follow the standard outline of a rag-tag crew of outcasts, it is hard to say they evolve past those base archetypes. With nine to focus on, you’d figure that this would lead to a lot of fun dynamics, but the show’s insistence on mostly sticking to its lead character plus its forgetful nature with some of its plot points, means that a good chunk of them feel secondary and don’t get the chance to be that interesting. Sheppard is used so sparingly that it’s easy to forget about him, and roles like Kaylee, Simon, Inara and River are frequent enough to be recognizable, yet their purpose in several episodes becomes so repetitive that it feels like they don’t have a planned storyline (despite River setting the entire series into motion). Malcolm Reynolds as a lead is a little messy, mainly because his morality seems to flip-flop whenever the show demands it. Having a gruff leader isn’t a bad idea for this show, and Fillion is able to bring an affable yet still hardened quality to the role (almost like a mixture between Michael J. Fox and Brendan Fraser), but his standings on certain topics are odd, he feels weirdly cruel in many moments and then overly sympathetic the next, and while Fillion is good, he’s not strong enough to really bring a sense of nuance to the role, so he can be a little hard to pin down, which is more than could be said for the rest of the crew. Gina Torres acts quite charmingly as Zoe and even has some pretty great friendship chemistry with Fillion (arguably the best in the show), but her character feels very bland and underutilized, Wash is the one-note comic relief and while not painful, he is never funny and Tudyk doesn’t act the role very well, Adam Baldwin is very one-note unlikeable as Jayne, Kayle’s perky attitude against her unrefined mechanic role is different for the archetype yet she isn’t much more than a love interest, Simon gets a fair chunk of screentime yet is pretty bland overall, Inara’s entire purposes feels weirdly sexist and disgusting given how she essentially works as a prostitute yet is given a high pedigree to obscure that creepy knowledge, and River, even though she should be the most interesting, is mainly kept to the sidelines and is oddly infantilized for a good chunk of the story. All the acting is honestly not too bad (with special mention to Glau who can switch from spaced-out weirdo to hardened and composed super genius at the turn of a dime so effortlessly) but they aren’t allowed to be more than what they are written to be, which isn’t that special.

The production for this show feels surprisingly cheap, with a presentation that features sloppy camerawork, set and costume design that feels thought-out but is poorly used, and several visual effects that look pretty rough even for back then, but these elements can be excused. This show had to face a lot of strife from Fox when it was trying to get green-lit, with Whedon having to fight off multiple complaints from the studio, and that mixed with the episodes being aired out of order which resulted in a lot of confused audience members meant things needed to be changed up. This led to director of photography, David Boyd, using cheaper material and equipment when shooting the series, adopting a more hand-held documentary style as opposed to a more sweeping and prettier look. This is understandable given the situation, but it doesn’t mean this style is very good, with many shots feeling poorly framed and even awkwardly edited by Lisa Lassek. Sometimes it’s effective like whenever they are in a crowded planetary environment, walking through a packed street or even just walking around the Serenity, but for any action moments, it can make the show look pretty cheap and lame, which isn’t helped out by the truly awful looking effects whenever something is shown in space, which doesn’t feel like a stylistic choice (even though the lack of sound definitely is one), but just a consequence of the show’s cheaper feel. The production design by Carey Meyer is also a bit of a double-edge sword, as the environments and Chinese aesthetics feel poorly utilized and more like a sense of cultural appropriation rather than anything else (you feature a world seemingly dominated by the Chinese yet feature none if any Asian characters), resulting in most of its appeal and architecture feeling like hollow decoration rather than active world creation. The one trade-off is Serenity itself, which provides for a pretty decent set and nice location to return to throughout the series, as it truly feels lived in and unique from other space-travelling vessels of a similar type. The music for the series composed by Greg Edmonson, along with the main theme sung by Sonny Rhodes, provides a nice atmospheric and genre-appropriate feel for the series, creating that rustically epic and slightly somber, yet still uplifting tune that works nicely as the overall sound of the series.

Firefly acted as a nice beacon for many who watched it, and much like an insect to a glimmering bulb, it perfectly draws them in even though underneath, it contains things that aren’t always the best for you. This feels like a truly rare experience where the project has openly poor qualities that would otherwise make it crash and burn like a mishandled world, dull and bland plot lines, characters that range from harmlessly generic to borderline annoying and inconsistent, and a cheapness that comes through in the dialogue, overall design, and visuals, but in spite of this, the show not only manages to still be decently put together, but also strangely engaging, which might come from the passion of the actors, the appeal of this concept and some of the leading hands behind the camera. Considering the amount of trouble it had to deal with from studio interference, it explains why it didn’t do well when it was airing, but considering how many people were devastated with its cancellation and still talk about it to this day, it also makes sense how it did so well after the fact and gained a second wind. It still remains in the hearts of many and is considered one of the strongest cult projects ever, bring your own thoughts to the table and see how you view this small but very bright firefly.