Firefly conceptually is something quite unlike anything you've ever seen. The premise is simple: a bunch of rogues holed up in a smuggler ship take jobs just under the radar of the law to scrape by (Yea, yea! I know there's more to it than that but lets just keep it simple). Firefly blends science fiction and westerns, and it seems like something that shouldn't work but in the hands of Whedon it amounts to something that's quite a lot of fun. That's because underneath its sci-fi-western genre mashup is a lot of throwback storytelling. Unlike grittier, darker sci-fi series of late such as the Battlestar Galactica reboot, Firefly feels like much older sci-fi series that were more concerned with just telling a good old fashioned story (think Star Wars if the rebels had already lost out with a cast led by a Han Solo-type). There's still some nice (albeit familiar) thematic discussion about honor, loyalty, loss, community, power, family, even marriage, but the real treat of it all is seeing Whedon throw so many disparate personalities at eachother and watching them have at it (It's here where you can see the talent that would make The Avengers such a success). This is another instance within the show's makeup where something shouldn't work but in the hands of Whedon it's pulled off with much panache. Whedon is juggling lots of different characters (almost too many), but they're all so lively, colorful individuals and Whedon pulls off the tricky balancing act. (The complicated character dynamics are part of the show's charm). This is primarily done by having the ship's captain Mal Reyolds (played with tremendous swagger by Nathan Fillion) be the central focus and having the other members of the crew only occasionally take significantly greater prominence in the story.
Not every episode is entirely a success; it's really not until episode four "Shindig" that the show becomes the crackerjacking good time that everyone remembers the series being, and episode thirteen "Heart of Gold" is kind of a clunker. However, on the whole it's such a unique show that's capable of being thrilling, dark and pretty funny. The show's highlight, episode eight "Out of Gas", is a prime example of this; "Out of Gas" demonstrated structural ambitions, a wonderful sense of atmosphere and dire stakes that brought out the most from the characters. It's also an episode that features an examination of one of the series' strongest elements: the bonds between the members of the ship. These people shouldn't work well together, shouldn't honestly even logically stick together; Mal has every reason to throw out the Tams from his ship once he discovers what their deal is. But Mal is a cynical romantic underneath all that bluster, and really the whole show takes a romanticized approach to viewing the crew. The series seems keen on the importance of community, and we find the crew forming a pseudo-family.
Whedon recognized that science fiction has a fair amount of overlap with westerns. In deed, many sci-fi stories are essentially westerns in space, and Whedon chooses to emphasize these aspects, pushing them to the forefront. What we end up with then is a show that features horses, saloons and gunplay, but also has spaceships, genetic experiments, and alien-like creatures called Reevers. This mix and match doesn't always work; episode five "Safe" plays up the western genre story about being forced to leave companions behind in an unfamiliar town in order to complete a mission outside the town. But it works a whole lot less well visually when we see our heroes fly off in a spaceship rather than ride off on horses. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of very entertaining things even in episodes that have problems. In "Safe" there's still some great exploration of River and Simon's relationship and Mal's reasons for keeping them on board the ship. Or take a fan favorite episode "Jaynestown" whose significant shortcomings (there's way too much going on in the episode) can be overlooked because the central premise is so damn amusing. Improbably and due to misguided chance Jayne finds himself a local folk figure and hero in a town where they sing catchy songs praising his virtues; it's every bit as hilarious as it sounds and it's simply too much fun to not gloss over the problems inherent to the episode.
Most people who watch Firefly find themselves disheartened by the fact it's merely a season long. It's the same issue with a lot of short lived series. There are better shows than Firefly but in Firefly's one season I can see all the potential in the world; you can just tell Whedon is building up stories (the Alliance, the failed rebellion, the Reavers, River's backstory, etc.) that would have eventually paid off down the line. Thankfully we were given Serenity so that the show could receive a proper conclusion, but Firefly was a television show and the conclusions it truly could have used are the kind only a tv show could have achieved in full.
Don't get me wrong; Serenity is highly entertaining film that services this narrative rather nicely. But it also feels like a patch on a wound. I also chose to make Serenity part of this review rather than it's own review, since even though it is a film and works as a separate entity, it really takes watching Firefly before it to appreciate what it's trying to do. Serenity has to provide non-fans with a lot of backstory to catch them up on what's going on but Whedon largely avoids letting this tie him down. It holds the film back a little bit, but he uses that time to re-state major themes and issues of the story (though the voiceover at the film's beginning is pretty perfunctory) and he does it snappily. In this sense, Serenity works well as its own standalone effort. But it often also feels as if there's just too much going on here. The film wants to explain the Reavers, and explain River, and tell a separate story that features these elements at its crux. In the process the film doesn't get to spend too much time on every plot point like we might wish it would. For starters, a number of supporting characters are just sort of there, and while they continue to be as distinctive and fun as ever, some just don't get much to do (the way Inara and Booth are left off the ship from the start is, um, awkward to say the least).
Whedon wants this to work for non-fans (thus just be a film and a pretty good one at that) and act as a finale for the show (one that's satisfying for a show that never should have gotten a finale in the first place). It comes off at times like its own work though; the look of the film is different from the show (although it's easy to quickly get over that) and there's a larger budget to work with this time around. The tone is slightly off, the rhythm of the dialogue so specific to Firefly doesn't come out entirely the same with the extra time to breathe. But whatever we takeaway Serenity as, it's two hours of some solid sci-fi entertainment, filled with nifty action, a memorable villain, and lots of wit and a can-do adventurous attitude.
Rest in Peace Firefly a genre bending, good ol' fashioned time. Whedon ends Serenity on the perfect note though doesn't he? Serenity is taking off into space and in that moment you can just imagine all the adventures that Mal and his crew are going to have. That's what a good show does; it lives on forever. Not necessarily on the screen, but just off it ... it flies off into space to fight another day.
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