It's now 2 years away or so that friends had me the DVD-box for my birthday and since then I myself chose it for two or three other birthdays to give. Most recently to my best friends girlfriend who both definitely don't like SciFi-series at all and they looked at me really, really ... really, really, really skeptical and were like "?... urm ... You really mean it?"
A month went by 'til we met again and I asked for it: "...could you already have a look on...?" *shinyfacebigeyes* "WE WATCHED THE WHOLE THING IN A SWEEP LAST WEEKEND...!" *eyeswet* "... I could keep watching this for years now..." *sobb*
"Firefly" (and the up-following movie "Serenity") definitely created something new and admirable in the SciFi-world.
Joss Whedon created a franchise on the line between the genres "Western" and "Science Fiction" and in the same step managed to make those two distant relatives new neighbors.
What did we have 'til then in the genre of SF? "Babylon5"? Very well particularly in the second half but long gone. "Space - Above And Beyond"? Folded too soon as well. "Star Trek"? Conservative and held down by it's own parents, betraying the audience by selling idiotic techno-babble labeled as "developement". "Battelstar Galactica"? Came later, was good but also transported too much blind obedience and hailing militarism under pseudo-critic main-characters. Nevertheless at least they revived a franchise I admired as a kid but which was deader than dead since then. But they also benefited from the aesthetical and dramatical patterns, initially made popular by "Firefly".
And in Western? Hm at least there's the excellent "Deadwood".
"Firefly" served the starving' fan-bases of two stagnating genres with a fresh and offensive mixture of both worlds: dirt, violence, rude and smart humor, wit, both stimulating AND hilarious ways of sexism (enjoyable for both male AND female audience), excellently drawn characters who each could give a plot line each possible, credible but unexpected twist, coolest production design, a devoted cast, terrific dialog-lines (which among my friends many "Firefly"-fans and me regularly quote at any given occasion), political incorrectness to laugh about and –apparently before and beyond camera- the most important thing of all: an incredibly strong familiar sense.
Again: FOX took all this away! So it's obvious that they don't want to stand for particularly that last virtue!
Different from the "Star Trek"-producers, the "Firefly"-makers also served us an outstanding main theme which is already in my Hall-Of-Fame of the best TV-themes in history, while on the other end of the universe the "Enterprise"-title-track (a horrid piece of boring, conservative mainstream-rock à la Eagles) instantly made me run like hell, never to re-zapp.
The story of those 16 "Firefly"-epsiodes rotates around the crew of an independent freight-spacecraft name of 'Serenity' -a fresh and unique offspring of the Han Solo world- who try to make their way between half-legal or illegal space-havens, the SpacePatrol (the series obvious criticism of any military-industrial complex which surely was one of its coffin-nails), cheating business-partners and an omnipresent anonymous threat called the "Reavers", spacecraft-mobile cannibals whose background is explained in the follow-up-movie "Serenity" (another criticism to man- and nature-exploiting companies). The crew has to take also unwelcome cargo or compromising jobs to get through and has to struggle with their conscience several times – and the final decisions ain't always ethically certain and therefore not predictable for the audience (another plus, the next coffin-nail).
The threats shown are truly terrifying and they really scare the viewer: the "Reavers", the Gestapo-alike "BlueHands", merciless bounty-hunters or lethal technical devices as for instance in "Our Mrs Reynolds".
"Firefly" was what I had hoped for for years after being more and more annoyed of the usual regular SciFi and it even served my love to western. And now it's gone. Thank you FOX! (you know, "Thank you" as mumbled by James Belushi in "The Principal").
"SERENITY..." says 'STAR TREK's tombstone.
A month went by 'til we met again and I asked for it: "...could you already have a look on...?" *shinyfacebigeyes* "WE WATCHED THE WHOLE THING IN A SWEEP LAST WEEKEND...!" *eyeswet* "... I could keep watching this for years now..." *sobb*
"Firefly" (and the up-following movie "Serenity") definitely created something new and admirable in the SciFi-world.
Joss Whedon created a franchise on the line between the genres "Western" and "Science Fiction" and in the same step managed to make those two distant relatives new neighbors.
What did we have 'til then in the genre of SF? "Babylon5"? Very well particularly in the second half but long gone. "Space - Above And Beyond"? Folded too soon as well. "Star Trek"? Conservative and held down by it's own parents, betraying the audience by selling idiotic techno-babble labeled as "developement". "Battelstar Galactica"? Came later, was good but also transported too much blind obedience and hailing militarism under pseudo-critic main-characters. Nevertheless at least they revived a franchise I admired as a kid but which was deader than dead since then. But they also benefited from the aesthetical and dramatical patterns, initially made popular by "Firefly".
And in Western? Hm at least there's the excellent "Deadwood".
"Firefly" served the starving' fan-bases of two stagnating genres with a fresh and offensive mixture of both worlds: dirt, violence, rude and smart humor, wit, both stimulating AND hilarious ways of sexism (enjoyable for both male AND female audience), excellently drawn characters who each could give a plot line each possible, credible but unexpected twist, coolest production design, a devoted cast, terrific dialog-lines (which among my friends many "Firefly"-fans and me regularly quote at any given occasion), political incorrectness to laugh about and –apparently before and beyond camera- the most important thing of all: an incredibly strong familiar sense.
Again: FOX took all this away! So it's obvious that they don't want to stand for particularly that last virtue!
Different from the "Star Trek"-producers, the "Firefly"-makers also served us an outstanding main theme which is already in my Hall-Of-Fame of the best TV-themes in history, while on the other end of the universe the "Enterprise"-title-track (a horrid piece of boring, conservative mainstream-rock à la Eagles) instantly made me run like hell, never to re-zapp.
The story of those 16 "Firefly"-epsiodes rotates around the crew of an independent freight-spacecraft name of 'Serenity' -a fresh and unique offspring of the Han Solo world- who try to make their way between half-legal or illegal space-havens, the SpacePatrol (the series obvious criticism of any military-industrial complex which surely was one of its coffin-nails), cheating business-partners and an omnipresent anonymous threat called the "Reavers", spacecraft-mobile cannibals whose background is explained in the follow-up-movie "Serenity" (another criticism to man- and nature-exploiting companies). The crew has to take also unwelcome cargo or compromising jobs to get through and has to struggle with their conscience several times – and the final decisions ain't always ethically certain and therefore not predictable for the audience (another plus, the next coffin-nail).
The threats shown are truly terrifying and they really scare the viewer: the "Reavers", the Gestapo-alike "BlueHands", merciless bounty-hunters or lethal technical devices as for instance in "Our Mrs Reynolds".
"Firefly" was what I had hoped for for years after being more and more annoyed of the usual regular SciFi and it even served my love to western. And now it's gone. Thank you FOX! (you know, "Thank you" as mumbled by James Belushi in "The Principal").
"SERENITY..." says 'STAR TREK's tombstone.