Firefly (TV Series) [Archive] - Page 5 - KSiteTV Television & Movie Forums

yellowqueen22

11-07-2005, 01:16 PM

Calling all Whedonites....

For those of you that don't know yet, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly & Serenity, will be guest starring on this week's episode of Veronica Mars. This week's episode, airing this Wednesday and entitled "Rat Saw God", will feature Whedon as an Employee at a Rental Car Store. Check below for pictures of Whedon from this week's episode...
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Whedon's appearance on Veronica Mars comes after his high praise of the show this summer...

This is my attempt at posting my own thread. My peeps and I just finished a crazed Veronica Marsathon, and I can no longer restrain myself. Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I've never gotten more wrapped up in a show I wasn't making, and maybe even more than those. Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion, I mean BIG, and charsimatic actors and I was just DYING from the mystery and the relationships and PAIN, this show knows from pain and no, I don't care, laugh all you want, I had to share this. These guys know what they're doing on a level that intimidates me. It's the Harry Potter of shows. There. I said it. People should do whatever they can to check out this first season so the second won't be a spoiler fest. I'm nutty.

I'm a little calmer now. Oh God, no I'm not! Wait. Wait. Okay. Some of you may already be all up on this, and some may disagree, but I'm urging peeps to check it out, 'cause there is great TV afoot, and who doesn't want that? Thank you for your time.

Still not calm! Wait... wait...

But Whedon's not the only Buffy/Angel Alum to show up in Neptune. Last season, Alyson Hannigan showed up in Neptune as Logan Echolls self-absorbed brat of an older sister. And Alyson will be back for an episode at the end of sweeps to stir up the secretive world of Neptune with fellow Buffy/Angel Alum Charisma Carpenter. Pictures of Hannigan on Veronica Mars below...
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Charisma Carpenter is currently stirring up lots of trouble in Neptune as a trophy wife that likes to be naughty. She is likely in the episode with Joss this week. The VM team have also promised that Charisma & Alyson will share a scene (lesbian overtones hinted at????) in the last episode of sweeps. Carpenter pics on VM below...
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So the morale of this rant is... watch Veronica Mars and support your Buffy/Angel/Firefly alum.

Joss Episode - Weds. Nov. 9th @ 9pm on UPN
Alyson & Charisma Episode - Weds. Nov. 30th @ 9pm on UPN

TMLS

11-24-2005, 07:29 AM

Fancy owning a browncoat?

http://www.fireflycostumes.com/

Summers

11-25-2005, 03:05 PM

Ooo..me want :D

TMLS' BROTHER

11-25-2005, 03:10 PM

$1500 for a browncoat?! WOW... and thats jsut the starting bid!

LexLuthorMetropolis

11-25-2005, 04:21 PM

Would be worth it if I got a lot of use lol.

Summers

11-29-2005, 10:41 PM

How would Firefly continue?

30.11.05 - 02:10

How would Firefly continue?

Tim Minear about an unaired and unfilmed Episode of Firefly. Reavers will rape Inara???

What were some of the Firefly stories you never got to tell?

He hemmed and hawed, “Should I tell you this?... Oh well, what’s he going to do, fire me?” The original show was darker and this story was more in keeping with that tone.

It opens with Mal and Inara fighting (as they do). Mal tells her she pretends to be a lady and wants everyone to bow before her and kiss her hand but she’s just a whore. Then the Reavers attack and take Inara. While trying to get her back they learn that she had something that would make anyone who had sex with her die. When they finally track down and board the ship they find all of the Reavers dead and Inara shaking and traumatized. They take her back to the ship and Zoe guards her room. Mal tries to get in to see her and Zoe tells him he’s the last person Inara needs to see. He pushes past her, kneels before Inara and kisses her hand.

Of course someone asked, “Is that what the syringe [that Inara gets out when the Reavers approach in the pilot episode] was for?” To which he replied, “I don’t know. Next question.”
http://www.slayerverse.org/tanet/net_buffy_us/?navi=news.php&id=28001

Now, that is just scary and chillin to read. That would a be an intense episode.

tiger17

11-29-2005, 10:49 PM

I'ld cry like Nancy Kerrigan if something like that happened to Inara. It freaked me out when Early merely threatened to do things to Kaylee. That actor was incredible. He could take you from hating the character, to being amused by him, to almost sympathizing with him; all in just a few lines.

Summers

11-29-2005, 10:55 PM

Those line Early said to Kaylee freaked me out too :(.

You peg the actor very well. He is one of the best I seen. He does the same thing in Serenity with his character in the movie. You can see why Joss picked him, and to have that type of villain.

tiger17

11-29-2005, 11:08 PM

What character in Serenity? You don't mean the Operative, do you,sweety? That's not the same actor. The guy who played Jubal Early was Richard Brooks and the the guy who played the Operative was Chiwetel Ejiofor. He came out in Love Actually. I remember 'cause the lucky s.o.b. was married to Keira Knightley's character.

Summers

11-29-2005, 11:17 PM

They weren't the same actor??? They looked so much alike, and acted so much alike I thought it was the same person.

Gee, I feel dumb now lol.

tiger17

11-29-2005, 11:21 PM

Originally posted by Summers
Gee, I feel dumb now lol.

Sorry, not my intention.:\

Kaylee- *comforting Summers* It's okay, Tiger makes everyone feel dumb. He's like a monster.

I'M NOT A MONSTER!!!

Summers

11-29-2005, 11:27 PM

Oh, I know wasn't your intention. It's no biggie. It was my mistake totally. I made myself feel ditzy lol. I thought they were the same actor is all lol. Now I know they are not :).

:rotfl: The Mrs.Reynolds episode lol.

tiger17

11-29-2005, 11:40 PM

Originally posted by Summers
:rotfl: The Mrs.Reynolds episode lol.

That and Shindig are probably my two most favorite eps. Mostly because they both have lines that directly sum up many situations that me and my friends have found ourselves in.

In Shindig it's Kaylee's line "Up until the punching, it was a really nice party." and Mal's "I don't like fancy parties. To rough" Those directly correlate to the night me and my friends went to Planeta for the first time. This club is alot more upscale than the bars we usually go to. We were having a great time... till the girl that my buddy was dancing with turned out to have a boyfriend...a boyfrined who "took offense" to their dancin' and then "took a swing" at my friend. All hell broke loose.

Then in Our Mrs. Reynolds, Mal quietly asks Jayne "How drunk was I last night?" to which Jayne promptly responds with " Weh, I don't know. I passed out." An exchange me and my friends have played out many a time...many a time.

TMLS

11-30-2005, 03:10 AM

Finally got round to buying the boxset at the weekend (£17.99 in HMV Sale, any UK'ers still without it). Really must watch it...

Summers

11-30-2005, 10:33 AM

Originally posted by tiger17
That and Shindig are probably my two most favorite eps. Mostly because they both have lines that directly sum up many situations that me and my friends have found ourselves in.

Shindig I love to death. I enjoyed that episode a lot. Mrs.Reynolds was enjoyable, but I love her second apperance episode more :D.

I'm a big fan of Ariel, Objects in Space, Serenity two parter, and Out of Gas. Those are the ones I can name off the top of my head.

TomBenton

11-30-2005, 02:03 PM

Oh, how I do love Firefly. An amazing series cancelled LOOOOOOONNNNNG before its time. I absolutely adore it. FOX can go to hell for cancelling it. That was a terrible move.

My all-time favorite episode is "Out of Gas". I've always loved episodes like that, but I really loved that episode. Mal's dedication to his ship was really moving. And whenever I watch it now, towards the end when Mal says, "Will y'all be here when I wake up?" I always start crying - partially because of the emotional way it was filmed, but primarily because chances are they won't be here when we wake up. It looks like Serenity was the end of our Big Damn Heroes.

Summers

11-30-2005, 03:28 PM

Originally posted by TomBenton

My all-time favorite episode is "Out of Gas". I've always loved episodes like that, but I really loved that episode. Mal's dedication to his ship was really moving. And whenever I watch it now, towards the end when Mal says, "Will y'all be here when I wake up?" I always start crying

I agree. That was a very moving quote, and that means a lot from Mal who was slowly getting his faith back due to the atmosphere of the crew.

I loved the look of the flashbacks in the different color. It was very yellowish-green.

tiger17

12-01-2005, 01:05 PM

Out of gas is a great ep. The flashback for Jayne is one of the funniest moments in the whole series.

"Not as deceiving as a low-down dirty deceiver."

Summers

12-01-2005, 03:41 PM

His was very funny. Mal getting a crew member, and getting out of a situation at the same time :lol:.

tiger17

12-01-2005, 03:54 PM

Shindig and Our Mrs. Reynolds are defintely my #1 and #2...but its a close race for #3 between Out of Gas and War Stories. OOG has great origin info...but WS has some the most memorable (for me anyways) catch phrases in the series. Who could forget "I'll be in my bunk." ? That's classic. Also, one of the coolest lines in all of TV and Movies: River's...."No power in 'verse can stop me." THAT ROCKED!!! It actually gave me chills.

Summers

12-01-2005, 04:05 PM

Serenity pilot, Shindig, and Ariel are always in my top three. The fourth would be the series finale Objects in Space. Those are my favorite, but every episode has a several scenes which are just too memorable.

Such as, River's reaction to Book's Don King's Hair :lol:.
Zoe: Damn, preacher :lol:

tiger17

12-01-2005, 06:51 PM

Or Heart of Gold:

*unwittingly, over the radio*

Jayne- Now that's just downright dirty, girl.

Mal- Jayne, you are aware you're transmitting. 'Cause I'm feelin' particularly girlish or dirty at the moment.

zanos

12-05-2005, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by Summers
How would Firefly continue?

http://www.slayerverse.org/tanet/net_buffy_us/?navi=news.php&id=28001

Now, that is just scary and chillin to read. That would a be an intense episode.

WOW! That would have been an incredible episode. Damn fox for cancelling this series. Damn them to hell!!!!

Summers

12-07-2005, 04:34 PM

Wil Wheaton is a Browncoat

And he reports about meeting Sean Maher accidentally at an audition. listen to his podcast. But who is Wil Wheaton?

Wil Wheaton is an actor. His most popular role is Wesley Crusher, the sometimes annoying, intelligent teenager in seasons 1-4 of "Star Trek - The Next Generation". He reappeared for some guest-appearances in the TV-show afterwards and was seen in "Star Trek X - Nemesis" as well.

Wil Wheaton met Sean Maher before auditioning for a sitcom. It starts at around 21:25. The whole podcast is half an hour long and 27.3 MB.

Now we know, Sean Maher auditioned for a Warner Bros. sitcom.
And Wil (now a drooling fanboy) was able to "seduce" his stepkids to enjoy science fiction because of "Firefly".

Is "Firefly" a nerd-creator?

Click on the source-link to go to Wil Wheaton's blog and hear the podcast.

Source: wwdn
http://www.slayerverse.org/tanet/net_buffy_us/?navi=news.php&id=28185

TMLS

12-14-2005, 03:06 AM

Wil Wheaton? Good god. That's me suddenly wanting to hate Firefly ;)

yellowqueen22

12-14-2005, 11:03 AM

They also mentioned Firefly in last night's episode of Bones. The adorably cute nerdy boy was a big Firefly fan and the other guy was teasing him about it.

LexLuthorMetropolis

12-14-2005, 12:14 PM

TV Ad campiagn for SERENITY is in full motion in the U.S. since it hits DVD shelves the 20th of this month!

RedPhoenix23

01-06-2006, 03:34 PM

Woopsie Daisy! I didn't realize until too late that there is a "Firefly" marathon on today on the SCI-Fi channel today before new episodes of the Stargates and Battlestar premere!

In my area there is about one episode and a half before the marathon is over! If you don't have it on DVD, you should go check it out!

Poetic Chaos

01-06-2006, 05:43 PM

I just got my first taste ever of the Firefly show with that marathon. Didn't see the whole thing (as it started at 8am) but I LOVE this friggin' show. I saw Serenity a few weeks ago and have been hoping to catch it on Sci-fi since. It just sucks to catch on to something when it's already over. Is the movie stand-alone or does it take place after the show and was the last episode they showed today the last episode of the series?

RedPhoenix23

01-06-2006, 05:51 PM

I believe Serenity was meant to serve as a stand alone for people who did not see Firefly, but it also was a bit of continuation of Firefly for the fans, most notably the River story.

Slade

01-08-2006, 12:02 AM

Serenity was like the series finale they never had.

I too caught after it was cancelled unfortunately. It was a good show. :(

It happens though.

Thats why you need to watch and support TV shows you like.

Summers

01-08-2006, 12:52 AM

I felt the same way Slade. To me Serenity was a perfect series finale.

yellowqueen22

01-11-2006, 09:25 PM

Serenity works perfectly as a series finale... but it also works as a stand alone if you've never seen the show. Lots of my friends saw the movie with me and they'd never seen the show... they still loved the movie without having seen the show.

wesley_wyndam_pryce

01-12-2006, 09:02 AM

After being hooked on Firefly from Sci-Fi. I ordered the series off of Amazon, it came the other day. Its so good.

Summers

01-12-2006, 11:37 AM

The pilot's commentary with Joss and Nathan is one of my favorite commentaries in the Whedonverse boxsets.

yellowqueen22

01-12-2006, 03:30 PM

I still haven't had a chance to watch the commentaries or the special features.

Summers

01-12-2006, 03:59 PM

I haven't on the movie, but the tv show I have.

tiger17

01-13-2006, 12:23 PM

Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite do a pretty entertaining job on commentary for "The Message".

Poetic Chaos

01-17-2006, 04:52 AM

Looking at Fanfictions, River/Jayne seems to be a popular ship for River. Now I look for the ship in every story for my favorite character (River in this case) but I honestly can't imagine her with anyone on Serenity.

atrufan14

01-17-2006, 10:08 AM

I got Firefly box set for Xmas and set about watching the whole series for the first time a couple of days ago. It's really addictive and I've just watched the last episode (so annoying that it can't continue)!

Looks like I'm gonna have to watch Serenity again so that I can understand it more :lol:

tiger17

01-26-2006, 11:34 AM

Originally posted by Poetic Chaos
Looking at Fanfictions, River/Jayne seems to be a popular ship for River. Now I look for the ship in every story for my favorite character (River in this case) but I honestly can't imagine her with anyone on Serenity.

I've always liked the idea of River connecting with another "test subject". Perhaps one that is released in oder to track her down.

greggbray

02-08-2006, 08:53 PM

Any word on more live action firefly/serenity stories? Maybe something on Sci-Fi? I LOVE this show. One of my all time favorites (like many, discovered it well after it was cancelled on DVD).

Summers

02-08-2006, 09:40 PM

Well, for more Firefly/Serenity movies we don't know. Joss said he has no at the moment. Those movies are dependent on the dvd sales :\. He did have a sequel prepared though.

We do know Joss will be involved in making some new comics of this universe that takes place after the events in Serenity.

Here is also something new about the tv series prospect:
Firefly and The CW?
Kristin Veitch posted something interesting on the "Watch With Kristin"-board!

Kristin Veitch:
"A friend just saw Nate Fillion, Summer Glau and Gina Torres coming out of one of the exec buildings at Paramount where they are putting together the new CW unit.

Hmmmmm? Will Firefly fly again?"
source: www.eonline.com

Very interesting indeed.

LexLuthorMetropolis

02-08-2006, 10:45 PM

Very, very interesting.

ShadowDiver

02-09-2006, 07:59 AM

Well I was just intorduced to Firefly about a month ago my a friend. Shame its not really shown on TV here in the UK but I have the box set now. Seen it all now and its great. Love the characters and how then intergrate together.
Just saw Serenity the other day as well and its certanly a big hit in my books.

atrufan14

02-24-2006, 04:55 AM

Almost DVD time .... :D

TMLS' BROTHER

02-24-2006, 06:52 AM

Originally posted by atrufan14
Almost DVD time .... :D

Firefly's been out over a year...

atrufan14

02-24-2006, 09:31 AM

I was talking about Serenity, sorry I got confused between the threads. I already have Firefly on dvd :)

TMLS' BROTHER

02-24-2006, 10:06 AM

Oh... Okay.

atrufan14

02-27-2006, 12:28 PM

Okay, this is probably gonna sound really dumb but I can't find the commentaries on the firefly dvds - where are they?

TMLS' BROTHER

02-27-2006, 12:31 PM

the main menu -> episode -> audio options or something like that and if it has a commentary it will say commentary by ____ just check it to on and play the episode...

atrufan14

02-27-2006, 12:58 PM

OK I'll check that out - i think it has a language settings option or something. thank you :D

TMLS' BROTHER

02-27-2006, 01:15 PM

You're welcome, if it doesnt work let me know and I'll check on my dvd's (Although mine are r4 ones)

NdN_aPoLLo

03-19-2006, 04:53 PM

I was going to start a new thread about this show but then decided to play it safe and search for it...

This is by far one of the most intelligent and entertaining shows I have seen to date and I hate FOX for not giving it a fair shot... Serenity was a wonderful movie too but there was a finality to it which makes me wonder if all the rumors of the show coming back are lies

tiger17

06-27-2006, 10:03 AM

I'm bummed cause I missed the June 22 screening of Serenity in Austin. Hopefully there will be another before too long. If not, there's always next year. I hope.

Hydra

07-03-2006, 09:04 PM

I just watched Firefly and Serenity recently.

I've gotta say, it is very rare that I see a show as good as Firefly. There was not one bad episode of the lot of them, and its a real shame that it was cancelled. I have to say I was a little dissapointed in the film, I thought it could have been better, and kind of backtracked on the charectar progression that we'd gotten from the show.

tiger17

07-03-2006, 09:35 PM

The backtracking was a sort of concession on the part of the filmmakers in order to make the movie a bit more accessible to non-Firefly fans. For the fanboys/girls there exists a three part comic book series that takes us from Objects in Space (the last Firefly ep) to the begining of Serenity. It explains the current tensions between certain crew members (mal/simon) and the absence of others (Inara/Book).

Hydra

07-04-2006, 06:05 PM

Well I gathered that Inara was gone because she said she was leaving in the show. And I understand the reasons for them doing it the way they did, but it was still a bit jarring. Also, the biggest thing for me was that Firefly managed to take itself seriously, tell intriguing and suspensful stories, and yet have a great sense of wit and humour. The show (even at its most tense moments) was always fun. Never corny, but always fun, and the film lost a lot of that for me.

KSiteTV

09-12-2006, 01:39 PM

Good news! (Hopefully!)

Because of the high post counts of the related Joss Whedon show threads (Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Serenity etc.), we're going to be setting up a special World of Joss Whedon topic here at KryptonSite. Look for it later today (Tuesday 9/12). Special thanks go to Yellowqueen22 for helping to implement this move (and in most cases, as usual, doing the hard stuff. YQ22 is great!)

We're also going to be splitting the Supernatural section into two sub-forums - General Discussion and Episodic Discussion.

Thanks as always for being a visitor to the KryptonSite Message Forums!

Summers

09-12-2006, 04:04 PM

Originally posted by tiger17
The backtracking was a sort of concession on the part of the filmmakers in order to make the movie a bit more accessible to non-Firefly fans. For the fanboys/girls there exists a three part comic book series that takes us from Objects in Space (the last Firefly ep) to the begining of Serenity. It explains the current tensions between certain crew members (mal/simon) and the absence of others (Inara/Book).

Agreed. I had to get to use the backtracking of Simon/Kaylee relationship. It was a little bit different in the beginning, but by the end it smoothed out to where it would have been if the show continued.

Here is a new interview by Sean Mahr:

What is that experience of having a show cancelled?
"Firefly" is my fourth cancelled show, and my fourth cancelled show with Fox, to be specific.

Really? Can you walk us through those real quick?
First there was "Ryan Caulfield." I think it only aired two shows. He was a teen cop. I think there were 7 or 8 episodes shot, and I don’t think I’ve even seen them. Then I went to "Party of Five" and they cancelled that. I was Julia’s (Neve Campbell) boyfriend. Then I went to "The $treet," and that was cancelled. Then I went to "Firefly."

So, you were prepared.
Actually, with "Firefly," we all took it really hard. It was a big blow, it was awful. And then to have the fans, the Browncoats across the world, you know, they kept it going, and we kept feeling the support. It was flattering to say the least, also humbling. It was just really special to know that what we felt so strongly about was resonating.

How did you get involved in Firefly?
I was initially a little turned off by the idea of a sci fi until I met Joss Whedon. I remember I took this meeting and there was no script yet. He was taking meetings with a bunch of actors, there was a sort of breakdown, a kind of synopsis, and the show sounded incredibly interesting. It didn’t sound like a sci-fi show to me. And meeting him sealed the deal. You’re struck by his brilliance right when you meet him and you know you want to work with him. So I auditioned and then the script came in the interim, and I tested and got the part.

The writing is so clear and specific. That must be a relief to play.
Really, again, it goes back to Joss. It’s a relief to have him be the ring leader, because not only does he write this fantastic script, but he steps onto set and knows exactly what he wants. You’re really just being guided along with this incredible energy that feels so right and then you get this finished product, and it’s “Wow!” He directed the pilot obviously, and he directed the “Objects in Space” episode -- he’s this full package.

He also handpicked the crew, so a lot of them came from Buffy, and a lot of them came from Angel, and so they had this relationship and had known each other for years and to step into that was an incredible environment to work in. It’s sad to say, but I didn’t realize how lucky we had it until the show was cancelled and you end up in other work situations. Not that they’re miserable, but they don’t stand up to kind of the set that Joss ran. So, working on a production of his was a gift.

Are you still friends with the rest of the cast?
Yeah, it’s funny because I think people, not that they don’t believe it, but we clicked in a very easy manner, and Joss always says that, too. That’s the way he cast the show, by the person. He saw tons of brilliant actors, but unless he connected well with the person, he didn’t want to cast them. We gelled together and we’ve stayed friends. Some of them are like family. Morena (Baccarin, who played Inara) and I always look at each other and say that we just didn’t realize how good we had it until you look back and say, “that whole situation was incredible.”

It’s such a large mythology and the sad part of it’s cancellation is that we didn’t get to see how far that the story could have gone. Were you all aware of where you were headed?
It could have gone on for seasons and seasons and seasons. I don’t think I really knew where ultimately it would lead. I mean, Joss would run set and let us know where things were going, episode to episode, but in the grand scheme of things -- obviously the Reevers were a big deal.

The scariest thing in the pilot is this idea of these things that you don’t know what they look like, but you know they’re terrifying. There’s the scene where Inara takes out the syringe and once you get to the movie, you realize why. You can’t survive after seeing them or that it’s better to kill yourself before they get to you, you will become a reever, this life of everlasting torture and misery. We got to do that in the movie finally, but we only had one season.

Simon gets punched a lot. But he doesn’t often punch back.
We talked about this evolution of Simon in Season Two. We were doing this gradual thing with costume and hair and make up, sort of bringing him more to be part of the crew and I was really excited about that. Joss and I talked about how to get him to be tougher, and getting him off the ship. I always had to stay behind, because I had a stick up my ass the whole time. So we were gonna toughen him up a bit. Which we took that into the movie a bit. I hit Mal and I kill a Reever. That was a big day for me.

Your relationships seemed impossibly organic, to the point where it’s hard to know if you’re acting or improving. Were you allowed any improv?
There’s no improv so much with Joss. He’s actually quite, I don’t want to say strict, it’s just that you know that his language is his language. You can bring up suggestions but usually he’s right and you have to go back to the way he wrote it.

It’s interesting, in terms of his writing, he always says he wrote after watching the actors. As people. He watched us together, and watched our relationships and our interactions and kinda wrote from there. So it was organic in that sense, and came from us in that in that sense, but once it was on the page, and once we were on set -- we had a great script supervisor who wouldn’t let us change a comma.

So the unique language, the word choices like “shiny” and “Goram."
That’s all Joss. It’s a very western slang, and that was all Joss and Tim (Minear).

What were you told about how it got cancelled?
We were not told much. I think we were strung along for a little while, because they were on the fence about what to do with us.

So no idea why it was pulled?
From the beginning, after we shot the pilot, coming back to work, we really never felt like the network got it. We didn’t really feel a ton of support from the beginning. It was always a little confusing.

There’s a great story that Joss tells about after the network saw the pilot, someone who shall remain nameless goes, “But I don’t get it. There are horses.”And so Joss says, “Oh. Okay, well, that’s sort of the point.” And the guy says, “But horses in outer space?” That was a comment out of an executive mouth, and so I think that from the beginning, there were some things that they just didn’t take the time to understand.

I think that they were on the fence about picking it up again, anyway. There were all these jokes on set that Fox wanted “Melrose Space.” They wanted more sex and more action, and what I liked about the show so much and what Joss loved obviously was the characters, and the relationships between them and the dialogue. When I read the pilot, I was like, “this is fantastic, it’s so unique, a post-apocalyptic western.” He created this incredible world they wanted something different and I don’t know if he was able to give it to them.

Plus, wasn’t the series shown out of order? Is that true?
Yeah, that was a mistake. They did do that. They decided to show the pilot as a special Christmas episode, so episode two ("The Train Job") was shown first. I mean, the universe of this show was a tough world to adjust to anyway, so being sort of thrust in to the second episode was really hard. The pilot introduced you to these characters, it was two hours, you got to step into this world and say “here’s what this is about.” You know, like any show, the pilot is designed to draw you in and introduce you. And the network, I think they weren’t sure about it and they wanted to re-tool it, and they ended up showing the pilot after episode eleven or something. Which was just a mistake.

I remember people seeing the show when it premiered and they were sort of thrust into it. I remember a lot them being confused. And thinking, well, if they’d seen the pilot, then you would have known their names. And now, we’re still talking about it. Fox did all these things and everytime someone hears the story they say, “huh?”

So, the cancellation wasn’t solely based on the ad campaign?
Umm ... What ad campaign? I don’t remember the show being advertised.

How did the movie come about?
After it was cancelled, there were talks about finding another home for Firefly. I did not in a million years think it would be a feature film. We thought, maybe the Sci-Fi Channel, or we would continue somewhere. But I went over to Joss’ house one night and he was like,”Universal’s doing the movie.” He was going to Cape Cod to write the script and suddenly it was all in the works. What happened was that the sales for the Firefly box set DVDs were through the roof, and Universal was already thinking about doing it. Again, though I really think that the fans helped the most. That was sort of our ad campaign. The fans were still excited. And they still are.

There is talk on many other fan sites about a sequel to the film. What do you know?
I’ve not heard either way, but they have until Sept 2007 to decide. But I haven’t heard either way. It’s one of those things. If there’s a sequel, you know, anything these people want to do, I’m there. We always joked about taking the show on the road, as a side show act - you know, “let’s get on a bus and drive cross country and re-enact firefly episodes on stage!” It’s a wonderful group of people, it’s not a question, of course we’d all be on board.

Where did you study?
I studied undergraduate drama at NYU -- bounced aimlessly around a couple studios before I landed at Playwright's Horizons and something clicked. I found my home away from home for the duration of my studies.

What would you like to say to the fans?
It’s what we always say. We consider them family. The fans are another character on the call sheet, because the show wouldn’t have gone on and the movie definitely would not have been made without the fans so I think our gratitude for them is endless.

What are you working on now?
I did a movie called “Wedding Wars” for A&E. It’s a really sweet romantic comedy centered on gay marriage. It’s not about gay marriage, but that’s the backdrop of it. It’s about the freedom to be who you want to be.

We are cancelled TV junkies, so we never ask this question, but on behalf of the fans on our site, we have to know -- is there any chance we’ll see the show resurrected and new episodes made?
People always ask that and I don’t know the answer. I think the movie experience for us was so great that I think we would probably focus our attention on the bigger screen for the story. Although, I wouldn’t say never, this show always surprises me.
http://slayerverse.org/sv2/index.php?comments=36401

The only promotion I remember of Firefly was on FX network since they air Buffy on there :\.

Recent interview by Nathan, and honestly it should've been put in here when I posted it in the Buffy. One of my fav interviews:

“Put this in your article: I dropped school and was four months away from graduating. Put a bug in the ear of the administration saying that I sure would like my degree.”

Nathan Fillion once wanted to be a teacher. Then he wanted to be an actor. Then, his starring role as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the short-lived but critically acclaimed series Firefly, which was followed up on the big screen with last fall’s Serenity, ensured Fillion’s success—at least in the acting respect. But, despite all of his big-screen accomplishments, Fillion still has another goal he hasn’t yet conquered: he wants his teaching degree from the University of Alberta.

“I’m not going to go teach or anything, but they could give me an honorary degree of some kind,” Fillion laughs. “I was going to be a high school teacher. I was doing a drama major and an art minor.”

Four months before he was set to graduate, Fillion went to New York to audition for the soap One Life to Live, leaving his teaching practicum incomplete. He was just shy of completing his requirements for his Bachelor of Education.

“[The University Administration] was really cool,” Fillion recalls when he approached faculty and administration to ask permission for a leave of absence. “I asked, ‘Can I put a hold on my spot? I’m going to New York to try this soap opera, but it might not pan out and I might be coming back and picking up where I left off.’ They said, ‘Yeah, go ahead, knock yourself out,’ and they held my spot ... they were very cool to me.”

As it turns out, things ended up just dandy for Fillion on One Life, and before long, he was auditioning in Los Angeles, landing plump roles on television programs like Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and later on, of course, the lead in another Whedon project, Firefly.

Despite his success in LA, though, Fillion hasn’t left Edmonton entirely behind him. Since moving to the US, Fillion has returned several times to his hometown in order join the cast of the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty, a hobby he’d spent a good chunk of time on during University years, and this past August, he came back, once again, for the 25th anniversary of the Fringe theatre festival.

“I’m very happy to be back doing improv, doing Die-Nasty. Getting back up there with those guys was very, very important to me,” Fillion says. “They’re always so welcoming and supportive, and they’re always just so willing to embrace me whenever I come home. It makes me feel great.”

In recent years, Fillion has been one of several homegrown Edmonton improvisers/performers to make the trek south to North America’s entertainment Mecca. Another fame-gaining performer hailing from our fair city is Rapid Fire Alumni Josh Dean, better known for his work on the Fox sitcom Free Ride. And, aside from having similar roots, Fillion also considers Dean to be a close friend.

“We hang out all the time,” Fillion says. “[Right now], he’s house-sitting for me and feeding my cat.”

While Fillion may have fellow Canadians like Dean to keep him company, he admits that there are some things about Canada that he misses. Fillion describes how surprised Americans are at what he considers the common courtesy all Canadians extend to strangers.

“If I’ve got a giant shopping cart full of groceries and someone comes behind me with only three items and I let them go ahead rather than wait for me, people are so taken aback. It makes me feel great, but it also kind of disheartens me to know that someone would be so taken aback when you just [show] common courtesy,” Fillion explains. “Canadians aren’t afraid to be kind. They’re not afraid to be polite. They’re not offended by everything. It just seems to be more relaxed and easygoing.”

Still, Fillion will probably remain in LA for the time being while he pursues new projects. He has just completed work on an independent film called Waitress with actress Keri Russell, and White Noise: The Light, which will be released sometime in January.

Although Fillion enjoys the challenge of taking on new roles, he hasn’t forgotten the project that first introduced him to wider audiences, and most importantly, he hasn’t forgotten where he got his start. With a few films under his belt and no end to acting in sight, Fillion will always find the time to return home to Edmonton at least twice a year, whether it means reacquainting himself with the Fringe stage, or dropping in to local classrooms to speak about his achievements.

“My best friend from school teaches [in Edmonton]. I go talk to his drama classes all the time when I come back during the school year. My family brings me back. This is where I’m from.”
http://slayerverse.org/sv2/index.php?maxnews=36296

angelfire east

09-12-2006, 07:47 PM

Cool interviews:D

tiger17

09-13-2006, 09:50 AM

I love this ruttin' show. Thanks for posting those interviews, Mel. It's funny. I hadn't watched an ep in a quite some time. Then yesterday I watched Shindig, Safe, and Our Mrs. Reynolds all in a row. Now I get a little more exposure to the 'verse. I'm going home and watching the Big Damn Movie tonight.

angelfire east

09-13-2006, 11:44 AM

I know this question has been asked before but I've new to the fandom of Firefly so what was everyone's favorite episodes? favorite characters? whats the funnist scenes in you're opinion?

tiger17

09-13-2006, 11:58 AM

Some people say it's difficult or impossible to pick a favorite ep, but for me it's easy: Shindig. Two reasons:

Kaylee- Up until the punching, it was a real nice party.
(of personal significance to me)

Mal- Don't take his offer.
Inara- What?
(What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.)

ILuvLoVe

09-13-2006, 09:52 PM

Despite the fact that I'm a huge Buffy and Angel fan.. I hadn't watched Firefly until a couple weeks ago. I saw a couple reruns on Scifi and I actually went to go see Serenity, but I just kept putting watching the whole series off. I think I was afraid that it wouldn't equal what Joss had done before. Well, I was wrong. I'm not really into scifi stuff, but I think this show was wonderful. It's hard to pick a favorite episode. I think one of my fav's is "Jaynestown" *I'm not sure if that's the title exactly..so please correct me if I'm wrong* My favorite character is probably Mal and Inara. I am really disappointed that they never showed them getting together, but I guess Joss can be a tease :lol: I can't believe a good show like this was kicked aside. Well, actually I can believe it, I just don't want to.

angelfire east

09-13-2006, 11:07 PM

Cool guys:D Jaynestown is the correct name:D

My favorite episodes are, Objects in Space, War Stories, Shindig well I love them all but that the top three.

my favorite charaters are: Mal, Kaylee, Jayne and River.

my ships are: Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon and Zoe/Wash

ILuvLoVe

09-13-2006, 11:39 PM

Another thing I really liked about the show was it's lack of e.t. beings... and also the blending of all the cultures... That show was really good.. the more and more I think about it :lol::lol:

Thanks fo verifying :p :lol:

tiger17

09-14-2006, 10:14 AM

Originally posted by ILuvLoVe
Another thing I really liked about the show was it's lack of e.t. beings...

I really liked this aspect, as well. The fact that it was still just us and we still had our problems. It was great. I also liked the fact that they didn't shy away from dealing with faith and religion (or lack there of). Infact they made it a central theme of the show and I thought that was awesome.

Originally posted by Summers
Agreed. I had to get to use the backtracking of Simon/Kaylee relationship...

The backtracking that I had the hardest part dealing with was the Mal/Simon tension. Especially after episodes like "Safe","Ariel", and "Out of Gas". These eps, at least for me, established both Simon and River as "one of his crew". Funny, one of my buddies (whose not as deeply commited to the series as I am) caught something in Serenity that may have helped explain the situation. Mal says something to Simon about "his crew" and ends with "that don't include you 'less I say it does." Basically he took that as Mal changing his mind on a whim, in the heat of the moment, and not something he really meant. Then with the falling out between the two, Mal just sorta stuck with it. Perhaps to make leaving them behind a little easier on his conscience.

yellowqueen22

09-14-2006, 11:33 AM

Even without the backtracking, the final episode, Objects in Space, clears up some of the tension between River and the entire crew, but it doesn't relieve any of the concerns or tension. River saves them all with her plan, but the only reason she has to is because she is on board the ship in the first place. Simon is still in the precarious position of protecting her above everything else. Although Mal has welcomed them as his crew, he continually makes it conditional on whether Simon can keep River in check.

As for the Simon/Kaylee relationship, I didn't really see backtracking in the movie... in "The Message" Simon fails to make his move again by saying something stupid and then being unable to apologize, in "Objects in Space" Simon once again misses his opportunity to kiss her. The movie picked up on this same idea... that their relationship was full of missed opportunities.

As for Inara & Mal... if anything there was lots of missing story details, but not backtracking. After "Heart of Gold" Inara decided to leave the ship and leave the crew for good because of her feelings for Mal. Although she still had not left the ship by "Objects in Space" it was still her plan. By the time we get to "Serenity" she has already left and been gone for some time... apparently Mal didn't have the guts to ask her to stay.

ILuvLoVe

09-14-2006, 10:42 PM

Okay.. hopefully I didn't miss this.. but at the risk of sounding like a moron... was it ever explained why Shepard was on that other planet??

tiger17

09-15-2006, 11:07 AM

Originally posted by ILuvLoVe
Okay.. hopefully I didn't miss this.. but at the risk of sounding like a moron... was it ever explained why Shepard was on that other planet??

That particular situation is the thing the comic book probably did the best job of explaining. It was basically a falling out between Book and Mal over the continued compromising of Books integrity. It's alluded to in Serenity as Kaylee and Jayne are cleaning up the mess from the first Reaver escape.

Kaylee- Cap'n's gonna drive us all off. One by one. Just like Shepherd Book. Just like Inara.

ILuvLoVe

09-15-2006, 11:22 AM

Thanks. :D

Yeah I caught that in the movie.. but I wasn't sure if there was ever a reason given in the show or movie. I didn't know there was a comic book/s....very cool. :)

i luv tom welling

12-03-2006, 12:36 PM

My friend lent me his DVD box set a week ago and I got through 3 of the 4 discs. He forgot to include the 4th disc, so I won't get to see the last episodes until January. Still, I totally love the show now. Jayne is hilarious, he gets some of the best quotes. My favourite episode has to be "Out of Gas", it was just so well done.

After I finish watching the series, I'm hoping to get my hands on Serenity and watch that too.

kidkarmina

12-14-2006, 09:08 PM

i really enjoyed firefly. i liked it so much that i bought the series' dvd.

and of course, when serenity came out, i watched that one right away. i was shocked that the 2 regular actors died (sorry for the people who haven't seen it). but it was still good.

so when it came out on dvd, i got that one as well. too bad it got cancelled 'coz i really liked the series.

love mal, the captain but i totally dig kaylee / simon pairing =)!

zzetta13

01-21-2007, 01:43 PM

Ok fellow Smallvilleanions :) I just joined the site today and I want to tell you that I'm a total FF nutcase. I love the Whedon verse and when I came here and saw that there was a room set aside for Whedonites, well it just had me feel a lot of respect for the folks of Smallville. This is going to just be a quick HELLO. I've posted in the introduction thread so there will be a bit more about me there. One thing I really enjoy doing is discussing FF/Serenity, Smallville, Lost or any tv series that I've seen. Just give me a shout or leave a post on the theard here. Now that I'm a member I'll be a regular you'll see that to be very true.

See ya, Z

slayer

09-19-2007, 02:06 PM

so i already own the series, but beacuse that they are always on sale i have felt compelled to buy a set specifically to pass around and introduce people to the 'verse of Firefly. hmm, the growing population of browncoats...what a wondeful world!

anyhow, is anyone hard-core enough that you're going on the FF Cruise in December?

CallMeClark

09-21-2007, 03:42 AM

Sadly no.

I bought the set this summer. But I have only watched the first four episodes. I just can't get into it. And here I thought I'd like anything by Joss.

slayer

09-21-2007, 12:37 PM

wow, seriously!? i say push through it for joss. you never know, you just might not have found the thing that will bring you in yet.

sci-fi, western. that's all i need. but i say just finish it up. i mean what's the harm and it's not like there are any more seasons.

you must watch jayne's town if anything else. who could resist loving jayne after this episode?

CallMeClark

09-21-2007, 04:56 PM

Yeah, and I am holding out on the Serenity movie until I've seen all episodes.

slayer

09-21-2007, 10:48 PM

wow! that's good but completely worse! haha, okay. what i mean is Serenity is just an awesome movie in general. Great Sci-fi.
I say you must definitely hurry it along then, lol.

gategod

10-29-2007, 01:47 PM

Best Sci Fi movie ever you mean ;)

slayer

11-01-2007, 01:23 AM

oh, i did mean best sci-fi ever! :lol:

i'm an american studies major and my student association just hosted a serenity night on campus.....it was awesome :D

slayer

12-07-2007, 03:05 PM

i just did a ten page paper on firefly and gender representation and i'm totally going to frame it because it was awesome :D

i was totally going to do buffy, but my professor loves buffy and i though she was going to tear me apart :eek:

knightofkrypton

02-05-2008, 04:26 PM

I LOVED Firefly. As a Star Trek/Wars fan, I thought it was an incredible show...as a Joss Whedon Fan I felt it showed how much he has grown over the years.

When my roomates introduced me to Firefly, I was literally SCREAMING at the TV during the first episode, "WHY WOULD FOX CANCEL THIS SHOW!!!???"

Eh.....I'm still so sad that there's no more. I watch the series at least once a month if not more...

The_Frag_Man

02-05-2008, 08:20 PM

River and especially Kaylee were really pretty :3

slayer

02-05-2008, 11:39 PM

as i said in the other thread, there are new firefly comics coming out in march.

serenity: better days, there is a link in the other thread (serenity)

krpto

03-21-2008, 09:38 PM

I bought the show on dvd today and so far I am enjoying it After I finish watching it Ill probablly buy Serenity.

slayer

03-22-2008, 01:34 AM

sweet! :D

krpto

03-22-2008, 05:03 PM

Patron: The girl is a witch.
Mal: Yeah, but she's our witch.

lol

pizzaguy19

06-19-2008, 04:29 PM

I L.O.V.E. this show. Unconditionally. Anyone seen more recent numbers for the DVD sales? AFAIK it's one of the highest selling TV series-on-DVD ever.

I saw Serenity before I saw Firefly though, and I don't think that's a bad way to go. You aren't upset about this whole "backtracking" deal with Simon/Kaylee, and you appreciate River more. It doesn't really spoil the plots of the episodes, I found.

Anyway, I've seen Firefly all the way through several times, I enjoy it more than Serenity (which I didn't think could happen, since River is my favorite character), and I've even bought the DVD for my family/dad. I *never* buy DVDs.

Even if we're never going to get a sequel, at least Summer Glau is back in full force in TSCC. :) That's almost as good, even if it isn't Joss. (While River is my favorite character, Mal is a close second in the show itself. Too bad she doesn't get to kick ass more, I could see River being a huge part of a season 2.)

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-20-2011, 11:06 AM

SERENITY

The good;
The 'treasure' mislead is very clever indeed as is the mole, we think it's Simon then Book. Love Kaylee's parasol (like Kari from Mythbusters?). The Mal/Jayne face off at dinner is powerful as is Mal telling Jayne to shut up on Persephone but then agreeing he's actually right. It's a small gesture but love it when Simon is about to give River an injection and she sticks her tongue out.

The bad;
The opening battle scenes are too dark, I can barely work out what's going on. They appear to operate on Kaylee yet keep her clothes on (like Buffy at the end of season 6). Passing the Reaver ship is a tense moment but stupid when you think about the physics as Joss admits on the commentary. Shouldn't Jayne bring his own rifle to the gunfight, what if there were no snipers? What if they're rifles were inaccurate/faulty and how does he use a weapon not zeroed for him? The Reavers just letting the Serenity go then arbitarily coming back for it later with no adequate expectation is just stupid and lazy writing or am I trying to find logic in the actions of madmen? (The Reavers, not the writers). Can't they just take the markings off the food? Why does Mal peg the guy in the hat for the best shot when he's got an ancient Colt repeater rifle? How come Mal shoots Dobson in the head yet he doesn't bleed as he and Jayane chuck him out the door?

Best line;
Mal; "How's business?"
Inarra; "None of yours"
also like;
Zoe; "She shot you"
Mal; "Yeah, she did a little bit"
plus a new spin on the old Whedon fallback "Standing right here!"

Packing heat; whilst Buffy was an avowedly anti-gun series Joss seems to have changed his mind from season 4 of Angel onwards. Maybe he got robbed? AI and Dollhouse often use guns (Echo, demonstrating her familiarity with a pistol "4 brothers, none Democrats"). Firefly takes that to a new level and is a show Frank Castle would almost dig;
Mal and Jayne pack Colt revolver style pistols, Zoe uses a cut-off Winchester carbine. They both use H&K G36's in the war and Mal uses a .50cal Chinise anti-aircraft machine gun to down the skiff. Dobson uses an Astra pistol and a couple of different models of Sig, one of which Simon keeps. Anyone tell me the sniper rifle Jayne uses?

Kinky dinky;
Naked Summer Glau, a cause for joy as anyone who ever watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles knows ("Put'em back in the holster"). Mal tells Kaylee he's considering tying her up, gagging her and throwing her into the hold. She then kisses him and says she loves him. Much like Willow maybe there's a lot of kink beneath that sweet and innocent exterior? "Force is ok" Wash likes to watch Zoe bathe, Inarra also does it unabashedly in front of Book, causing him to gawp. Kaylee certainly knows how to eat a strawberry, maybe Inarra taught her how? Zoe says the Reavers will "Rape us to death" if they are boarded.
.
Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Is it just me or does the Dortmunder resemble the World Trade Centre? The might of 'imperialism' cruising for a fall? I always figured all spaceships were sleek to enable them to perform at least some atmospheric flight but maybe the Dortmunder is like a supertanker, so vast that it never sees port. Some nice kinship between Inarra and Kaylee, they seem tight, Inarra describing her as 'very dear'. Kaylee thinks River is a 'real beauty' and calls her 'sweetie'. When Book comments that the Serenity "Doesn't look like much" Kaylee replies that "She'll fool you", are they flirting? Joss comments she's 'Open to everyone'.
Mal thinks he's better than Badger and Badger knows it and resents it. Of course Mal also thinks Simon is a better than him 'rich boy' and he resents that, possibly because Simon epitomises the Alliance.

How'd they get away with that?
'Good dogs', funny but hoooooooo! Also Mal shooting the horse! Mal fooling Simon about Kaylee dying is nasty as hell. Zoe, Jayne and Mal open fire on Patience and her gang first with Zoe also shooting the guy in the back as he tries to flee, Jayne threatening Dobson with knife torture and Mal causually gunning him down when the Reavers arrive.

Total Serenity crew; 7(8?)
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra. Mal invites Simon to join and I guess River comes with him? Book not really part of the team yet.

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
We see Mal go to the bathroom on a spaceship, something only Babylon 5 has shown before. Simon's dramatic, slow motion run to the sick bay (much like Buffy in Becoming) only to find his patitent alive and well. The crew then laugh uproariously at him. The crew doesn't kill the Reavers but are happy enough to simply get away with their lives.

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Arguments where everyone talks over one another. Naked girls in boxes (like Darla in Angel)
Bondage;
The Fed tied up.
Knocked out;
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kayleigh; 1
Women good/men bad;
Mal's jealous attitude towards Inarra is very nasty, you can see why Joss cast Nathan Fillon as the misogynistic Caleb in the last season of Buffy. Inarra's trick commenting about her speeding up the clock was probably intended as a joke but he instantly realises it was a huge mistake, inadvertently insulting her.

Kills;
Mal; 7-presuming the skiff is manned Mal kills at least 3 Alliance soldiers, 2 of Patience's thugs, Dobson and Patience's horse. The way Mal and Jayne dump the body is gruesomely callous but when the Reavers are coming I guess you don't hang about.
Zoe; 2-2 off Patience's men, one of whom she shoots in the back.
Jayne; 2-the same
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Prostitution a recurring theme in the Whedonverse, here the nature of ladies (and gentlemen) of the night and their work is explored.
Ironically Inarra the high class hooker is considered the one who makes the honest living in the crew, some planet's not even letting a ship dock unless they have companion onboard. Book comes across less refined hookers plying their trade at Eavesdown spacedocks. Mal seems to take perverse delight in teasing Inarra by describing her as a 'whore'. She teases him back saying she gave Simon '... a free thrust'. Mal thinks River is a sex slave Simon is smuggling to the frontier.
Know the face?
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Alliance good or bad?;
It says much for the skill of Joss' writing that he could have made the Serenity crew the out and out good guys and the Alliance all bad. But throughout the series we see that actually the order and civilizing influence of the Alliance is very good news for a great many people. Not everyone supports Mal and his crew of outlaws who like the galaxy wild and untamed, resenting that it's "getting awfully crowded in my sky" (one man's freedom another man's anarchy?). Inarra says it best when she declares that Mal likes being 'lost in the woods' whilst Mal's view is that 'goverments are for getting in a man's way'. At the end when they've escaped Mal declares them 'Out of the woods'.
In many ways they're like the Roundheads vs the Cavaliers in the War of the Three Kingdoms (modern historians shy away from the term 'English civil war' as it also involved Ireland and Scotland and Britain didn't exist yet), the Confedracy vs Union in the US Civil War and the Republicans vs Nationalists in Spain, one side with the romance and glamour and one side with the might and right. As the end of the battle of Serenity shows romance and glamour are no match for unity of purpose and an overwhelming military-industrial complex. Note the Alliance soldiers wear Nazi stormtrooper style coal-scuttle helmets.
Much like Dollhouse or Angel Investigations taking over WR&H in the final season here we have shades of grey. I wonder if Joss ever watched the British sci-fi series Blake's 7 when he lived in the UK? It also has a small band of rebels in a spaceship pursued by an all powerful and authoritarian Terran Federation. Here the Alliance cruiser leaves the Serenity alone in order to rescue the survivors from their fake distress call, a low trick in anyone's book. Badger appears to be dealing in slaves which you would imagine wouldn't happen in Alliance territory (US Civil War again?). The Fed doesn't kill Book or Kaylee even though he has the opportunity and motive too, he even apologises for accidentally shooting her and says he doesn't want to hurt anyone. He seems a good enough guy just doing what he considers a perfectly reasonable job. His argument to Simon about coming back to the Alliance almost seems to persuade him. Even Shepherd is unsure who is right or wrong.

Fanfic;
Plenty of stuff showing Zoe and Mal shacking up together during the war before she met Wash

Missing scenes;.

Western cliches;
If you're old enough you surely remember the wonderful documentary series 'The American Civil War', the emotive Serenity music strongly resembles it. Mal speaks of the Alliance 'waltzing through serenity valley' much in the same way Sherman went 'marching through Georgia'. Shooting the horse is very Magnificent 7 whilst Zoe's cut down carbine is very Steve McQueen.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Sticky=corrosive acid
Skiff=Alliance attack craft
Humped=screwed
Companion=high class courtesan
Shiny=good
Shot; Zoe shot but her body armour takes the hit
Mal; 2-shot by Patience offscreen and onscreen.
Kaylee;1-shot by Dobson
Crew injured;
Simon kicked around by everyone, Book bludgeoned.

Reminds me off;
Do we need to say 'Millenium Falcon', right down to it's gunslinging captain? (does this mean Jayne is Chewie?)
The skiff crashing is very reminiscent of the dropship impacting in Aliens. Speaking of which the whole Firefly idea is very similar to what Joss created in Alien 4 for The Betty, an outdated ship full of outlaws with a glamorous female second in command, River and Jayne strongly resembling Winonna Ryder's and Ron Pearlman's characters. Ripley is a female Mal at the end, having regained her crew, her ship, her little girl and her humanity and finally made it back to Earth (Alien 4 is not a great film but at least rescues the series after the travesty of Alien3, the worst sequal of all time). Interestingly the Firefly set is built upon the one they used for filming Alien 4 and Joss comments that the flightdeck of the ship was modelled on that of the Nostromo from Alien.
Wash is very Xander with his battling dinosaurs whilst Kaylee is very Willow/Fred, Joss even describes her as having the Alysson Hannigan quality. Joss describes Jayne as 'the Cordelia' of the group in that he says out loud what everyone is thinking (sorry Adam, I think Charisma is a LOT prettier)
The crybaby trick is reminiscent of Sheriden's ruse during the battle of the line in Babylon 5. The ship 'Brutus' at the spacedocks remind anyone else of Colonial One from BSG? Simon remind anyone else of Christian Bale? Simon/River very Buffy/Dawn and 'The Gift' is even mentioned. The Zoe/Mal/Wash relationship somewhat similar to Willow, Xander and Oz/Tara, great asexual love between the first 2 causing a little resentment and tension with the third, romantic partner. The Alliance rather resemble the Initiative from season 4 Buffy. The scene where we think Kayleigh has died is reminiscent of Cordy in 'Lovers Walk'. 'Crazy Ivan' is a term used in 'The Hunt for Red October' (when a Soviet sub circles around to check if it's being followed). Simon says to River 'You're a dummy' just as Willow says to Tara at the end of the S5 Buffy ep 'Family'. Badger checking the slave's teeth may have been taken from Spartacus.

Questions and observations;
Note Mal kisses his cross before taking on the skiff. Is that why he shows hostility to Book later over grace, he's lost his faith? Note even Jayne does say grace. Mal seems to resent Simon as a 'rich kid', he's a very working class hero. Simon tells Mal to dope Kaylee which you shouldn't do with a stomach wound but maybe their drugs are more advanced? Who are the underground movement Simon claims helped him free River? Did Jayne free the Fed? The Serenity reminds me not so much of a bug as off a goose. I always thought at the end Wash was giving some sort of weird futuristic thumbs up, hilarious to think he's actually faking steering the ship and in the widescreen we see there's no control there. Mal tries to put his past behind him but still can't give up his resentment against the Alliance, won't beg to work for them. He also resents Inarra, Book and pretty much everyone. In the future they still use platinum for money.
Marks out of 10; 7/10, interesting but not brilliant from the beginning by any means

MannaBanana

05-20-2011, 11:50 AM

I just watched this series for the first time a week ago and I absolutely LOVED it! Truely Amazing stuff! :)

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-20-2011, 12:53 PM

I just watched this series for the first time a week ago and I absolutely LOVED it! Truely Amazing stuff! :)

I'd actually say it's my least favourite of all Joss' shows although still well worth watching.

MannaBanana

05-20-2011, 01:33 PM

I'd actually say it's my least favourite of all Joss' shows although still well worth watching.
Yea but compared to his other stuff, this show didnt get a chance to show us its full potential. Its like if Buffy had been cancelled after its 12 episode season 1.

InactiveUserID

05-20-2011, 07:32 PM

It suffered from being a blend of genres. Meaning people who usually mainline space shows probably cringed when they saw the cowboy hats and heard the country slang, and people who like watching westerns probably were turned off by the inclusion of tech, and people who surf around looking for Law and Order type dramas probably said What the hell is this? and flipped away.

I was one of those who were underwhelmed, watching only sporadically until the show was cancelled, basically agreed with the cancellation, then I got more and more enthused about the show from that point on. It's like when you walk into a dark room and your eyes need time to adjust, only in this case the adjustment period took all of season 1. So basically, it would have helped Joss tremendously if the whole nation had been strapped down and forced to watch Season 1 in its entirety. Because then everyone would have had time to adjust to the program and get past their own prejudices to realize it's a worthy and innovative product. Now I wonder what he was planning as the main conflict of season 3, you know?

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-21-2011, 02:00 AM

I think Firefly only really finds it's feet in Serenity;The Movie but by then it's too late. But we can discuss as we go

The Train Job
The good;
We see a more moral side to the Serenity crew and love the face-off between Jayne and the other without Mal around.

The bad;
The sick bay design is rather stupid, wouldn't you want some privacy rather all those windows for people to see in? No one notices Serenity flying alongside the train?

Best line;
Zoe (about to fight the bar thugs); "Jayne?"
Jayne (shrugging) "Hey, I didn't fight in no war"
plus
Zoe; "I have an image of that guy hanging from the ceiling"
Mal " I have an image of that guy not being me"
and
Mal; (of ripping off the Alliance goods) "I would do it for free"
Zoe; "Can I have your share?"

Packing heat;
I'm reliably informed by the folks on the yuku Xena forums that the sniper rifle Jayne used in Serenity is a Blaser R93. The bar thugs pack a Colt 45, Glock and 44. Automag. The Alliance troops use H&K MP5s and SA80s.

Kinky dinky;
Sexy belly dancer.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Mal talks of 'being on the edge' then 'moving towards the middle', possibly alluding to the frontier and the central planets. Innara and Kaylee have a big girly hairstroking session (how the Summer's girls on Buffy used to express physical affection for one another). Inarra remarks to Kaylee "We could experiment". Mal seems keen on the idea and refers to Inarra 'servicing the crew' but she dismisses that as his 'lonely pathetic dreams'. Summer points out that Mal=Bad in Latin/French.
Mal tells Zoe he loves her but it's all part of their cover(?)
How'd they get away with that?
People on meathooks, never a good thing. River being experimented on also not good.

Total Serenity crew; 7(8?) River comments of Serenity "This isn't home". Book is now part of the crew with no backstory but still wonders about his role onboard. Jayne doesn't consider Simon or River part of the gang.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kayleigh, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness.
Bondage;
Knocked out; Jayne by Simon
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Mal kills Crow and Zoe kills at least 2 of his men
Mal; 8-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Kaylee seems fascinated by the details of Inarra's profession. Inarra claims a companion gets to pick and choose her clients which I think is about as realistic and truthful as the Dollhouse staff pretending to themselves that they don't hire the Actives out as sexual submissives. Mal still needles Inarra about her hooking but does so more subtlely and less nastily than he did in 'Serenity'. The nature of the companions work is left very vague here, if you hadn't seen Serenity you wouldn't know exactly what her job is, she could be a beautician.
Inarra enjoys turning the tables on Mal, pretending he's her indentured man (some form of community service in the future?).
Know the face?
Tom Towles plays the thug in the bar, he's also Cooper in the far superior remake of Night of the Living Dead and guest starred in Anthony Head's series VR5 (in which he essentially plays a prototype Giles)
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men here and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Again we see people who are pro-Alliance and not just upper class types like Simon. Here the Alliance provide medecine for needy and as the Sherrif points out they weren't the ones whole stole it.

Fanfic;
Interesting ST:TNG fic where Picard learns that the Fedearations use of warp drive is destroying a sentient species who live in subspace. He protests to Starfleet Command but he's then asked what the alternative is, should they give up space travel leaving Starfleet defenseless against the Ferengi/Borg/Romulans? In the end he decides to toe the party line but accepts that the 'Prime directive' is an exercise in hypocrisy.

Missing scenes;.

Western cliches;
Mal is thrown through the bar window but in the future it's a forcefield. Telegraph poles beside the train track even in a world with inter-stellar travel. Jayne's 'aiming for his head' remark may be a reference to The Magnificent 7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/Jesse James also big on train heists (anyone watch the 'Deadliest warriror' showdown where The James Gang goes up against Al Capone? For my money it's James by a mile, he's a trained soldier and a combat veteran whilst Capone probably never faced a target who fought back.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Shot; shot by the Fed during the robbery.
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;

Reminds me off;
Mal refers to 'We'll rise again' which relates to the Confedracy in US Civil War. Does anyone else expect Niska to tell a story about Meerkats and try and sell Mal cheaper car insurance? (if you're a Brit you'll understand that, if you're not don't worry about it). The town of Paradiso may refer to the old Western series 'Paradise'. Crazy genius River is very Drusilla/Pylea Fred, drugged Jayne reminiscent of AI in 'Spin the Bottle'. Wash's Hawaiin shirt is very Xander especially the one he lent to Spike in the season 4 ep Doomed. The 'we're not going' remark is reminiscent of Aliens where Ripley goes to rescue Newt. Joss in his commentary draws comparison from Mal to Angel.
Of course the Alliance remind you off Starship Troopers but then Joss explains why on the commentary.
Questions and observations;
We now know the war ended 6 years ago. Inarra has been on the ship 8 months. Here we have a much more upbeat, likeable Mal, perhaps the events of Serenity mellowed him? He even says 'It's the right thing to do'. Book refers to the 'Fuzzy wuzzies' referring to Kiplings poems concerning the Sudan campaign Britain fought against Islamic fundamentalists in C19th (and we're still doing it today!).
What is the chain of command on Serenity? It seems to go Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, after that anyone's guess. Note Mal doesn't kill the Fed on the train, just knocks him out. Joss refers to Inarra and Mal as Beatrice and Benedict from 'Much ado about nothing', check out the Kenneth Branagh version for the Beatrice and the Duke (Denzel Washington) proposal scene alone. Joss refers to Firefly as Star Trek;TNG dark underbelly, much as what was explored in DS;9.
Marks out of 10; 5 out of ten, nowhere near as good as Serenity, not a bad ep in itself but feels cheap in comparison to it's predecessor, like Charmed to Buffy.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-21-2011, 12:22 PM

Bushwhacked

The good;
Clever of Mal when he's asked about the brother and sister he replies 'There are no children on this boat', exactly what you'd immediately think if someone referred to siblings. Good interrogation scenes, especially Jayne's and some tense stuff with the bomb defusal, very Juggernaut. Love River's delighted reaction to seeing the stars.

The bad;
Zoe comments that there were no signs of a struggle but surely the crew would have fought to the death against the Reavers? Why didn't the Reavers eat the bodies if they're cannibals?
Best line;
Commander; "You fought with the Captain during the war?"
Zoe; "I fought with a lot of people
Commander; "What about your husband?"
Zoe; "I fight with him too"
Packing heat;
Would conventional guns work in a vaccum? Maybe if they had futuristic ammo? The Alliance Commander packs a Barretta pistol when boarding Serenity. His troopers seem very impressed with Jayne's private arsenal, presumably the NRA sided with the Alliance as there seem to be no gun laws in the future.

Kinky dinky;
Sweaty cast playing a variation of basketball, Zoe's top especially revealing. Wash goes enthusiastically into detail about Zoe's amazing legs and 'what's above them'.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Inarra comments 'We're all running away from something'. She calls River 'sweetie' much as Kaylee does. Kaylee is very defensive of the Serenity, perhaps she identifies with the ship as herself.
How'd they get away with that?
Corpses bouncing off the windshield. The suit scene once again demonstrates the crew's rather cruel sense of humour. Self mutilating psychotic survivors.

Total Serenity crew; 7(8?)
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kayleigh, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Mal punches the survivor. When the Alliance show up the crew bravely give up without a fight.

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness.
Bondage; Mal placed in handcuffs by Alliance
Mal; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
Zoe tells Jayne to shut up or he'll scare the women.

Kills;
Mal; 9-Mal kills the survivor
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Once again Inarra is the one with the respectable job, the Alliance commander not able to believe she's associating with this of bunch of lowlives.
Know the face?
Doug Savant of course is Tom Scavo in Desperate Housewives, a show Nathon Fillon, Julie Benz and many other Whedon alumni guest star on. I keep expecting Lynette to show up and remind him to pick up the kids. He's also one of the soldiers in Godzilla.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Mal mocks the idea of the Alliance turning up to rescue their taxpayers whereupon they do exactly that. The Commander has seen torture during the war, by the Alliance to the Browncoats or vice versa? He comments that 'For some the war will never be over', does he mean for him or for Mal? He shows genuine concern for the dead passengers and when the pseudo-Reaver breaks free his first act is for a guard to be placed on the ships nursery. He leads the Alliance team onto the Serenity himself. In the end he lets them all go.

Fanfic;

Missing scenes;.

Western cliches;.
The term bushwhacked and bushwhacker comes from the US Civil War where both sides sponsored bands of guerillas to operate behind their opponent's lines. In reality these were little more than state sponsored brigands, the movies 'Ride with the Devil' and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' giving a good idea of their actions. The most famous of all was Jesse James, a former bushwhacker who became a robber and outlaw because he couldn't accept the war was over, just as the Alliance Commander accuses Mal of doing here.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;

Reminds me off;
The ghost ship is very Marie Celeste with hints of Alien and 2010 (especially the way it spins). How they find the survivor is very similar to the marines discovering Newt in Aliens. Jayne's description of his unseen attacker as 'big, strong' recalls the commandos describing Buffy after she rescues Willow in the s4 ep 'The Initiative'. Mal's talk of the darkness is similar to Nietschze's observation that if you stare into the abyss for long enough it stares back into you. The booby trap reminds me of an effect from Babylon 5, something the Drakh would use.
Questions and observations;
I somehow feel the red balloon they find on the ship has some significance but I just can't think what? According to the Commander there are 40,000 Firefly type craft in the galaxy. It's been 4 months since The Train Job as Inarra says she's now been with the crew nearly a year. Exactly why does the Commander want to know the details of Zoe and Wash's marriage? Three eps in we have yet to see a real Reaver although here we get a glimpse of a pseudo one. How intelligent are they? They can operate spaceships and leave a boobytrap so they must have some sentience?
Marks out of 10; 7/10, interesting

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-22-2011, 02:30 AM

Shindig

The good;
Kaylee is the belle of the ball and isn't she WONDERFUL! Mal swordfighting and lots of good stuff with Badger, especially his conversation with River. Adore Mal's looks of amazement as Jayne knows what 'pretentious' means.
The bad;
The cows in the final scene are amazingly quiet whilst Mal and Inara are talking.
Best line;
Kaylee; "Great party, huh?"
Debutante; "Not as good as last year"
Kaylee; "Why, what did they have last year?"
Debutante; (looking Kaylee up and down) "Standards"
To quote Cameron on The Sarah Connor Chronicles '*****whore much?"
Also like;
Kaylee; "Maybe that's him over there?"
Mal; "That's the buffet table"
Kaylee; (hungrily) "How will we know if we don't ask?"
Packing heat;
Swords this time. Badger's men use an MP40 Schmeisser, an Uzi and an AK-47, the guest at the party seems to have a Colt .32 pocket pistol. Jayne packs what looks like a Mossberg shotgun on the Serenity.
Kinky dinky;
Naked Wash and Zoe get it on again, Zoe complimenting Wash that he 'knows all the steps'. Inarra's outfit at the party is also quite something. Kaylee comments that Mal's outfit shows off his backside and Inara subsequently spanks it with her sword.
Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inara is hired for the evening but we've no idea if they have sex or not so I'll put him down as a possible.
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Wash jokingly refers to 'jealous men like me' regarding Zoe but is he really joking or sending Mal a not so subtle message? When Kaylee says 'Look at the pretties' Mal asks if she means the girls or the clothes? Mal and Jayne snigger as Badger implies he has his hands on some diamond testicles. Mal observes Atherton is such a catch 'I'm liable to sleep with him myself'.
How'd they get away with that?
Mal gratuitously stabbing Atherton after he's defeated him in the duel. Mal's remark comparing Kaylee to a sheep dancing on it's hind legs is INCREDIBLY insensitive, Jayne's gynacologist joke in the ep Serenity is less offensive.

Total Serenity crew; 8(9?)
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
After sex it's Zoe who wants to sleep and Wash to stay awake. When Mal claims he cannot run Inara correctly points out that he runs away all the time. Mal is far from stoic when complaining about his wounds later.
Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys.
Bondage;
Mal; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
It's not enough for Atherton to simply hire Inara for her charms he wants to own her completely and deny her to other men, like she's some form of possession.
Kills;
Mal; 9-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Inara greets several other companions at the party. They are used by rich men as status symbols, who has the best one get's the most kudos. At the end she freezes him out, no other companion will now work for him after how he's treated her. Mal refers to the companion training school as a whore academy (jeez the man has NO CLUE!)
Know the face?
Larry Drake is familar to 80s TV viewers as Benny in LA Law, the nicest man in the world and to horror fans from Darkman and Dr Giggles where he plays the nastiest men in the world. He also stars with Whedon alumnis Alyssin Hannigan in American Pie 2 and Amber Benson in the dreadful B-movie Gryphon.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Would the Alliance allow slavery (or dueling?) on their worlds? Or are they like the Union forces in the American Civil War/British Empire in the 18/19th century, abolishing it wherever they go?
Fanfic;
Mal and Inara getting together after this ep is common but a sizeable minority like to pair her up with Atherton, presumably the same folks who think Kate Winslet should have stuck with Billy Zane in Titanic (Mae West's quote of wanting a man who's "handsome, rich and cruel" springs to mind") If you like things a LOT more adult there's also one where Kaylee's admirers invite her to an after hours party and then indulge in group sex with her, more or less consensually (ie she starts off as less but ends up as more).
Missing scenes;.
Reputedly there was a scene where we see Mal unload the walking arsenal he carries in his pockets before entering the ballroom plus a derringer he has Kaylee carrying for him in her stockings tops. Also a scene where we Larry Drake's character and Badger fall out and Inara gossiping with her fellow companions at the dance.

Western cliches;
Nice in a western series to finally have the Serenity with a hold full of cattle, once again food is one of the most precious commodities in the Fireflyverse, especially some good steak as Jayne observes earlier in the episode.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;
Mal pretty badly sliced up in the duel at the end.
Reminds me off;
Deranged River talking in her faux cockney accent is VERY Drusilla indeed. Inara the high class lady of the night is very Darla and her love/hate relationship with brooding hero Mal somewhat akin to Darla and Angel. Mal's hatred of slavery is reminiscent of Han Solo. The *****y girls at the party are awfully like the Cordettes on Buffy. Kaylee's hilarious expression as Mal tells her that he has a job for her is very like Willow's when Riley's wife Sam makes suggestions for Xander's wedding in the s6 Buffy ep 'As you were'. Wash is a bad poet, much like Spike and not really an action man as with Xander. Jane comments that the Serenity crew are the misfits who don't fit in much like the Scoobs at Sunnydale High.
Kaylee's rescuer at the party does indeed remind me of an older Clark Gable as the commentary observes but also of Dr Huer from the old Buck Rogers TV series.
Questions and observations;
They still have the peerage system in the future. Unfortunately they've also got slavery too, even on a fairly civilized world like Persephone . 'Magic' Jane Espenson, hooray! Inara seems to have a thing about slumming, she really is out of place in the Firefly crew and certainly in the bar Mal and Jayne take her to. More social climbing by Badger but he's useless at it, crustless sandwiches (cucumber?) mixed with wood alcohol hooch, no wonder he needed Mal to be the middleman for him in the deal, at least he can fake class convincingly. Kaylee's surname is Lee Fry. She once again shows her love of fruit, both mangoes and strawberries as does Badger who's at the apples again. Zoe's remark about Jayne slitting her throat and taking over the ship again suggests he's the unofficial 3rd in command. However he wants to rescue Mal when Badger comes to the ship.
Mal is in many ways too honest and honourable for the criminal world, he's probably more like the Alliance than he cares to admit but can't stand submitting to their authority.
Marks out of 10; 7/10 pretty good .

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-27-2011, 01:56 PM

Safe

The good;
River dancing is just wonderful as is Simon's happiness at it. The scene where the rest of the crew rescue them is terrific as is Jayne looting their stuff.
The bad;
Can someone please explain to me exactly when the hillbillies work out that Simon is a doctor? Also what sort of supplies do they have for him to work with?
Best line;
Jayne; (pretending to read Simon's diary) "Dear diary, today I was pompus and my sister acted crazy"
Packing heat;
Everyone's guns sound very different in this ep, more zingy and less like conventional firearms. The villains/cops 6-shooters also seem to hold an inordinate number of rounds. The lead cop packs a 44. Magnum. Mal and Jayne use Mossberg shotguns and Zoe utilises a full size Winchester rifle rather than her normal cutdown version.
Kinky dinky;
Kaylee wants to bite Simon all over? Jayne seems to derive pleasure from having watched the cows being fed by beautiful women (presumably Kaylee and Zoe rather than Inara and River?)
Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Is Kaylee the duck and Inara the swan?
How'd they get away with that?
Skinning the hare is nasty but makes it's point. Burning witches at the stake.

Total Serenity crew; 9 Simon and River's status onboard confirmed
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Clever mislead, we think the hillbillies are savages but actually they're just desperate people who need a doctor.
Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts.
Bondage; River tied to a stake
Mal; 1
River; 1
Knocked out; Book goes unconscious after being shot
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
Kills;
Mal; 9-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Know the face?
High School Musical star Zac Efron as young Simon, he'll later star in '17 Again' with Whedon alumni Michelle Tractenberg.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Mal runs to the Alliance in order to save Book, how that must choke him! They seem reluctant to provide but don't say no outright. Then our Shepherd slips them an ID card? Hmmmmm.
Fanfic;
Missing scenes;
Reputedly scenes where the Alliance question the Tam's parents after Simon rescues River, River reading Ruby's mind and seeing her tragic story plus paying Badger his share, his hoodlums unable to believe that Mal doesn't try to rip them off, much to Badger's chagrin at Mal's moral superiority again.
Western cliches;
Hillbillies kidnapping folk. Zoe actually shoots the gun out of one of the bad guy's hand.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Shot; .Book shot during a the gunfight with the cattle
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-
Crew injured;
Simon knocked around yet again, he seems to be everyone's punching bag.
Reminds me off;
River on the pyre reminds of Buffy, Willow and Amy tied to the stake and almost burnt as witches by M.O.O
Questions and observations;
So, what is Book's past and why do the Alliance treat him like a VIP once he identifies himself? Is he a former Alliance General guilt-ridden by his role during the war? A former spy who sold out the Independents? A scientist who carried out experiments like those conducted on River?
Mal finally makes a deal and actually earns some more or less honest money from it. Presumably this pays for the slap up meal the crew enjoy at the end of the ep. Mal asks why things never go smooth for them, once again we see that he's not really suited to a life of crime. As we suspected River and Simon were pro-Alliance before River's ordeal, casting the Browncoats as the enemy in their games. The locals describe the Serenity as a fancy vessel, would do Kaylee's heart good to hear that but it really underlines how remote and backward they are if they think that. This ep is set 3 weeks after the last so a planet 3 weeks travel from Persephone must be remote indeed. Jayne enjoys smacking the cows around? Once again father's get a hard time in the Whedonverse although the Tam's parents seem nice enough folks.
Marks out of 10; 7/10, nothing very startling here, nice to have River and Simon confirmed as part of the crew and I like the dance scene

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-30-2011, 01:17 PM

Our Mrs Reynolds

The good;
The Mal/Jayne exchange on the wagon cracks me up every time. Some great acting by Christina Hendricks and the scene where everyone stands around judging Mal upon meeting his bride is hilarious. Some nice tension too as they ingeniously slip the net.

The bad;
?

Best line;
Mal; "How drunk was I last night?"
Jayne; "I don't know I passed out"
plus
Mal; "You've the same right as anyone to live and kill people"

Packing heat;
One of the bandits appears to pack a Springfield rifle. Jayne shows Mal 'Vera', his 'Callahan full bore autolock assault rifle' which needs oxygen to work. I must say I was totally fooled by this scene, I knew Jayne wasn't threatening Mal but I thought he was actually giving the gun to him as a wedding present.

Kinky dinky;
Mal cross dresses. The bandit leader demands 'one on one time' with Jayne's missus. Zoe refers to Saffron as Mal's 'nubile slave girl'. When Mal finds a naked Saffron in his bed she declares she's 'made herself ready for him', she started without him? She 'swells to think of you in me' as indeed does he. It's been a 'long while' for Mal. Wash likes forward women. Jayne never kisses his women on the mouth. Another thank you kiss from Mal to Kaylee.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; incredibly Mal resists

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Obvious jealousy from Inara, the only other member of the crew who's not laughing at all this. Also jealousy from Zoe, maybe over Mal but also over Wash seeming to like Saffron. Note her pride later when she learns that Wash resisted and stayed true to her. Kaylees's the only one who doesn't feel jealous, she feels for a crying Saffron describing Mal as a monster for upsetting her. Huge battle of seduction between Inara and Saffron but who's conning who? Like all straight men Mal loves the idea of two women together, thinking that Inara kissed Saffron rather than him.

How'd they get away with that?

.
Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers, Mal raised by his mother and 40 ranch hands.
Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1

Knocked out; Mal by the goodnight kiss, Inara by a secondhand goodnight kiss, Wash the old fashioned way
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1

Women good/men bad;
If Saffron is to be believed girls on the backward planet are kept in a 'maiden's home' and given away in arranged marriages. Mal decares Saffron 'No one's property'. Zoe takes exception to the idea that she might cook for Wash.

Kills; Mal, Zoe and Jayne kill 2 of the bandits each. Jayne kills 2 of the wreckers.
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 6-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Saffron refuses to be a 'doxy' and expresses contempt for them. Mal never beats around the bush and refers to it as 'whoring'. Inara actually thinks the arranged marriage is degrading. Also she reveals her speciality is washing her client's feet.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.

Alliance good or bad?;
One of the bandits they kill is the wayward nephew of a senior alliance member. Mal&co probably wouldn't be in trouble but with Simon and River on board they don't want to chance it so don't hang around.

Fanfic;
Plenty where Saffron seduces Mal, Inara and any and all of the entire crew. The adventures of Mr and Mrs Reynolds also popular.

Missing scenes;

Western cliches;
Settlers in gingham dresses that would look apt in Oklahoma. Mal's mum owned a ranch, he really was a cowboy.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Wash gets a nasty old crack on the skull. Amazingly no one hits Simon for once.

Reminds me off;
Here we see the gang as hired guns running bandits off a small town, much like the Magnificent 7 (or The A-team?). Saffron uses the term 'doxy' which I've only ever heard used before by Wes on Angel about Cordelia and her friends. Wash's story of geese juggling reminds me a little of Steve Martin's film The Jerk. The wreckers are very Jamaica Inn/The Fog. Mal's assertion that he beats Saffron because of his loyal crew of friends is very like Angel to Marcus in Carpe Noctem and Spike's definition of why Buffy always triumphs.

Questions and observations;
The opening dirge is very Xena. We see the friendship between Mal and Jayne developing to a great degree, they seem more like buddies in this ep than before. Is Bau a real dish? We learn a little more about Mal, he's from the planet Shadow. The way the wreckers refer to the Firefly she sounds like the Volkswagon Beetle of spaceships. Note Saffron seduces Mal not with her body so much as flattering him for his morality. Inara pretty handy in a fight, maybe they teach more than footwashing at the academy. Why don't they all just pile into Inara's shuttle when they're being lured into the net? Or if they depressurise the cargo bay wouldn't it alter their course? Presumably the suit keeps pumping oxygen in when the visor is shattered allowing Vera to still function in a vaccum. Very little River in this ep, does she even have any lines?
.
Marks out of 10; 8 bordering on a 9, really good, up there with Serenity as the best ep so far, funny, thrilling and some great character moments, really like Saffron and I hope we might see her again, I hope the rest of the series is this good.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

05-31-2011, 02:45 PM

JAYNESTOWN

The good;
The bit where the gang see Jayne's statue alone had me laughing out loud, then the song is even better. Inara's confusion over her client referring to Jayne but she thinks it's Mal is also hilarious. The River/Book scenes where she tries to correct the bible are terrific. Also love the bit where Zoe welcomes her boys home and her faked adulation of Jayne once she hears the story.

The bad;
Handing Stitch the loaded gun is deeply stupid, no matter what the magistrate's motivation. What IS the cargo they pick up? Stitch fires a shot in the air when we first see him confront Jayne but doesn't work the action and eject the spent cartridge until he shoots the mudder, he actually threatens Mal with an empty gun.

Best line;
Kaylee (to Inara who's off to see a client) "Have good sex!"
also like;
Simon; (upon learning of Jayne's folk hero status) "This must be what going mad feels like"
upon hearing the Jayne song;
"No, THIS must be what going mad feels like"
plus Wash;
"Let's go to the crappy town where I'M a hero"
and;
River (to Book whilst correcting the Bible); "Just keep walking preacher man!"

Packing heat;
I'm informed that Zoe's cut down carbine is referred to as a 'mare's leg', possibly because of it's kick? Stitch has a sawn-off Remmington shotgun.

Kinky dinky;
Simon finally tells Kaylee that she's pretty and they get all snuggly over 'mudders milk' (nice pun).

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Jayne possibly sleeps with the barmaid but unconfirmed. Inara has another paying customer.

Inarra;2- 2 paying customers, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Jayne; 1 possible, Jaynestown groupie.

Capt subtext;
I thought that the toppling of the Jayne statue was actually a comment about the similar destruction of Saddams statue during the liberation of Iraq but that actually happened afterwards (much as The Initiative on Buffy was very Guantanamo Bay but also occured beforehand)

Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Big tough Jayne whimpers as he pulls the surgical tape off his skin

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent/overbearing fathers.

Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1

Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1

Women good/men bad;
Really like Inara's 'what makes a man' speech to her client. Not so fond of Jayne casually tossing his groupie aside the next morning with only a goodbye spank of her ass.

Kills; Jayne kills Stitch
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 7-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara kisses on the mouth. Her guild gives her enough leeway to reject her clients father if she'd wished to but she seems genuinely fond of the son. Ceremony plays an almost more important part for her in her work than the sex.

Know the face?
Kevin Gage who plays Stitch essentially recreates his role of the odious Waingrow in the wonderful Michael Mann film 'Heat', best cops and robbers story off all time.

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Jack Jabaley; 2-the bartender here and Xander's friend Tito the Plumber from Buffy.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Simon gets roughed up AGAIN! He's beginning to remind me of Joxer the Mighty. As Kaylee observes "You got to be steeley, can't let men be stomping in you so much"

Reminds me off;
Bare chested Jayne reminds me off the late Kevin Smith playing Ares in Xena. River sounds very like Fred when she starts talking physics when rewriting the bible. Book with his hair down reminds me of an Afro-American Albert Einstein. 'You fought the law' may refer to the song by The Clash. Mal's remark about the Mudder's Jayne fixation being about what they need as opposed to reality is reminiscent of the Dollhouse's philosophy.

Questions and observations;
So, beer was intended to keep the masses down? I wonder what went wrong? Surely Stitch can't have been wholly in the box for 4 years, his muscles would have atrophied until he couldn't walk and no one would be able to stand the stench to realease him. A town so backward they don't even know what a menu is, Simon really is in hell. He comes off the ship and starts really participating in their crime for the first time. Interestingly Zoe is left behind and Mal takes Wash with him, maybe because there's not going to be any gunplay in Canton. Jayne starts to develop a conscience, he and Mal beginning to bond again in the final scene. Stitch is one tough hombre to keep fighting with a Bowie knife in his chest (take that Deadliest Warrior who said the stiletto was better).
Magistrate Higgins got what he wanted, his son is now a real man, standing up to his overbearing father.
.
Marks out of 10;
8 out of 10, fairly lightweight but truly very, very funny episode with a Jayne brought to the fore for the first time and some absolutely killer lines.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-02-2011, 05:34 PM

Out of Gas

The good;
Really, really good, a classic 'submarine' story told with comedy and tension yet with wonderful character touches too. Lovely little details like even when they're all freezing to death Jayne stays in his shirtsleeves or Simon mourning the loss of his brithday.

The bad;
I'm almost a little disappointed that Mal just bought Serenity at a second hand spaceship sale, I always thought he won her in a card game or stole her from the Alliance (or even the Independents?) in the dying days of the war.

Best line;
River (to a frightened Book); "Don't worry preacher, we won't suffocate. We'll freeze to death first"

Packing heat;
Mal shot with a Browning 9mm.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Bester gives Kaylee a tour of his engine room

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester

Capt subtext;
Interestingly Inara says that she loved Serenity the moment she saw her too, just as Mal did. She also says 'I don't want to die at all'. One theory I've heard throughout the series is that she's actually slowly dying (like Darla) and that the syringe we see her with in Serenity was for medecine rather than narcotics or a suicide kit. Here she says that she doesn't want any of the crew just bursting into her room unannounced, she's not bashful of her nudity, could she be hiding something else? Is this part of the 'little clues' they speak of in the commentary?

How'd they get away with that?
Never liked needles, bad enough to watch Simon inject Zoe but watching Mal do it to himself is even nastier.

Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks (Fool for Love, Lies my Parents told me, Are you now or ever have been?)

Knocked out; Zoe rendered unconscious by the explosion
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
We're informed that companions don't kiss and tell, as you would expect of people who listen to the pillow talk of the rich and powerful.

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.

Alliance good or bad?;
Mal talks of the Serenity representing freedom to him, that they can 'live like real people' which he doesn't feel able to do with the Alliance. They're sneaking about under the radar 'the way it should be' even when it takes them hugely out of the way, it hurts the crew. Now of course, flying under the radar and living as an outlaw from civilisation is all very well UNTIL something goes wrong (or to put it another way, even anarchists dial 999/911). Wash lacks Zoe/Mal's antipathy towards the Alliance and resents that Mal's hatred for it has landed them in this mess and may cost Zoe her life. Interestingly Inara was in favour of unification and supported the Alliance in the war, just as River and Simon did.
Mal's no fool, he's suspicious of the 'rescue' crew, knowing there's no honour or trust in the wilderness.

Missing scenes;
Rumoured to be a scene where we see Mal and Zoe meet for the first time during the war, she catches him stealing supplies for his unit and then he realises she's doing the same.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; Mal shot by the other captain
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-

Reminds me off;
The opening with the camera panning around the empty ship is very Alien again. Mal's leadership under pressure is inspired and he reminds me of great Irish Unionist hero Ernest Shackleton (check out Kenneth Brannaghs excellent version of the story) and of Apollo 13. Wash with his moustache and Hawaiin shirt is very Magnum PI. Kaylee is actually very close to her daddy, just like Fred. The whole ep very similar to the Space; Above and Beyond episode 'Who monitors the birds?' which Joss cites as his inspiration for the Buffy ep 'Hush' plus the Babylon 5 ep Walkabout.

Questions and observations;
This almost strikes you as a third pilot, we're introduced to the crew one by one and everyone's role on the ship is explained. Bester kinda reminds me of the workman in porn who turns up to fix something at the lonely housewives home. Book seems a lot more scared than everyone else which seems atypical of the character we know. Has he had a similar exeprience to this in the past?
Is the gun Mal finds something he planted earlier for just such an emergency or one that was left lying around by Jayne or something?

9/10; eps like this tell me why Firefly has such a devoted fanbase, hope the rest are like this

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-05-2011, 07:00 AM

ARIEL

The good;
Lot's of it, if I were to have 2 favourite scenes it would be the admissions nurse just casually accepting the dead bodies into the hospital and Mal remembering what drugs to take by writing it on his hand. Mal's final interrogation of Jayne also excellent, you get the idea he saves him to spare the rest of the crew having to deal with his betrayal rather than for his own sake. The scene where River, Simon and Jayne flee the blue-gloves is a masterclass in building suspense, they haven't seen anything but the approaching screams of their victims coupled with River's terrified babbling produce a real sense of dread.

The bad;
. Simon saving the patient is very blatantly designed to make us feel better about the crew stealing medicine from a hospital (but I love River's smile of pride when he does it).

Best line;
Inara; "What have you guys been up to?"
Kaylee; "Oh, we killed Simon and River, stole a bunch of medecine"

Packing heat;

Kinky dinky;
Wash wants to take Zoe to a naked beach
Notches on the Serenity bedpost;

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester

Capt subtext;
Inara is going for a medical examination which she says is routine. But if we follow the theory that she's actually sick ....? Mal once again demonstrates his intimacy with Kaylee, hugging her in a very familar fashion at the end.
How'd they get away with that?
The blue gloved men repeatedly cutting into River's head to perfom brain surgery, ugh! Then to top it all they slaughter the cops with a device which causes uncontrollable bleeding from it's victims.
.
Total Serenity crew; 8 for this ep, Book is 'away at an abbey'? Do we ever get any other explanation than that? Simon refers to Serenity as 'home'. Mal makes it clear that he continues Jayne's act of betrayal against any of the crew to be against them all
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Simon teaches Mal, Zoe and Jayne enough ER speak to get into the hospital but the admitting nurse just accepts their word as paramedics that the patients died. But Jayne's put so much effort into learning all these medical terms he insists on using them. Which I think is very human. When struggling with the guard it's Jayne who is the one to be bitten when it's normally the other way around, the hero is the one who traditionally does the biting to even the odds against a superior oppenent.

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks
Bondage; Simon, River and Jayne in cuffs
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Simon and River drugged into near death. Jayne knocked out by Mal.
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;2
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1

Women good/men bad;

Kills; Jayne kills the Alliance marshall with his bare hands
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 7-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara is expected to undergo a standard medical as a companion once a year (or is she? see subtext). She states the Companion policy about non-commercial dating is 'complicated'.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;
Zoe and Mal are so rabidly anti-Alliance they won't even set foot on a core world or even look out the window (afraid they might like what they see?). The rest of the crew doesn't share their prejudice and are keen to to get off the ship, Kaylee never having been on a core planet before. Does Mal protect River and Simon from the goodness of his heart or to stick 2 fingers up to the Alliance? The Serenity crew steal medecine from a hospital, sure they can replace it but still?
On the other hand the blue-gloved men have conducted horrific medical experiments on River and brutally slaughter a station full of cops just because they heard River talk?

Fanfic;

Missing scenes;
.

Western cliches;

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=ok(?)

Shot; Jayne shot by some form of stun weapon
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;2-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Jayne viciously sliced by River and gives her a busted lip in return. Jayne busted up by the guards and by Mal.

Reminds me off;
Simon saving the patient is a scene right out of The Fugitive whilst the blue-gloves are very X-files. Forget to mention it in Out of Gas but of course Bester is the name for both a famous sci-fi author and Walter Koenig's character from Babylon 5.

Questions and observations;
Ironically the ambulance is a Soviet Hind-model helicopter gunship in disguise. What does 'copper for a kiss' mean? Is it like 'Penny for the guy'?
Why do the blue-glove men seem to kill anyone who has heard River talk, even Alliance police? To cover up the secret of what they did to her or does she have some form psychic illness that they're scared she's passing on? Ironically the one time they actually make some decent money it's all the idea of Simon, who Book aside is probably the least criminally inclined of the entire crew, even Jayne impressed by his plan.
Do they sell the drugs they steal for their medical or narcotic value?
.
Marks out of 10; 8/10, very good stuff, hugely entertaining, we see the Firefly crew pull off a complicated heist and do it with much more aplomb than the Scoobygang or Angel investigations ever managed. We think the main character of the piece is going to be Simon but in a clever turnabout instead it actually turns out to be Jayne and his crisis of conscience is very well written and acted by all.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-08-2011, 12:15 PM

War Stories

The good;
So lovely to see Kaylee and River playing together at the start like excited children with Mal and Inara looking on like a pair of devoted parents. Exciting ambush and final rescue and some nice comedy with Inara and her client and the crew's reaction to her. Also hints that River may be a lot more dangerous than we ever thought she might be and some nice character stuff between her and Simon.
The bad;
How exactly does Niska find out where Mal and co are doing the deal? Aside from that not much.

Best line;
Wash; "I am a large, semi-muscular man"
also like;
Jayne; (aroused by the sight of Inara kissing her female client goodbye); "I'll be in my bunk"
Zoe; "Jayne grab your weapon!"
portending of things to come;
'No power in the verse can stop me' said by River and Kaylee in 2 VERY different ways.

Packing heat;
Nikka's thugs use Blazer R93's in their ambush and Uzis, Steyr AUG's and Baretta submachineguns in the station. Wash packs a huge Colt Cobra 44. Magnum in addition to his Mossberg shotgun, Simon a Glock and Kaylee has a Bren 10 pistol, Sonny Crockett's gun from Miami Vice. Anyone tell me what Book's gun is?

Kinky dinky;
The henchman is reading some truly ancient porn when the Serenity arrives, did the Alliance ban Playboy or something? Zoe tells Mal to 'Take me sir, take me hard', naughty schoolgirl style prompting Wash to give his wife a hearty spank on the ass as foreplay for their 'bunk time'..
Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inara's first female customer. Mal confirms that he and Zoe never had sex.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester

Capt subtext;
Inara's first female client, as Kaylee observes "They look so glamorous". Love her 'God!" expression as Jayne leers over them.
The latent jealousy between Mal, Zoe and Wash comes to a head, noticeably Zoe never promised to obey Wash but does Mal. Of course she picks Wash to save over Mal which must reassure him. The central message seems to be that Zoe loves them both equally but Wash in a sexual romantic way and Zoe as a friend/war buddy.
How'd they get away with that?
Mal and Wash horribly (yet somehow quite amusingly) tortured by Niska. Stops being funny when he cuts Mal's ear off!
.
Total Serenity crew; 9-Book back. The whole gang don't hesitate to cowboy up and go Saving Private Mal.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Amazingly Niska escapes. Mal actually wants the guys to shoot the torturer rather than deal with him himself. Wash does his 'Leave no man behind' schtick whilst cocking about the smallest pistol you've ever seen.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks
Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Mal knocked out/dead but then revived
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;2
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Inara takes no part in the combat and Kaylee never even fires her gun. Hard to tell amongst all the confusion but I'll give Zoe and Jayne 4 kills each and Wash 2. 3 kills for River. Despite both participating in the gunfight neither Book nor Simon kill anyone.
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 10-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Everyone seems to be insatiably curious of whom the Companions are hired by, even Book, they're the futuristic equivalent of Heat magazine. She seems to specialise not so much in the sexual aspect of her job but in making everyone feel special.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;

Fanfic;

Missing scenes;
.

Western cliches;

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=actually been informed that it means 'little sister'
Niou-se=lame
Shot; Jayne get's clipped during the rescue
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Mal and Wash tortured half to death with Mal's ear cut off. Thankfully Simon reattaches it.

Reminds me off;
The desert hill where they get ambushed is the same one Buffy fights the First Slayer on in Restless.

Questions and observations;
Niska returns as a recurring villain, I've often thought that Dollhouse and Firefly fall short of Buffy and Angel's success partly because they didn't have the interesting and exciting returning villains those series specialised in. Apples again, I'm beginning to formulate a theory that the entire series is actually about fruit. Alan Tudyk states that he believed Wash flew a couple of missions for the Browncoats during the war then was interned by the Alliance before seeing any action. Jayne and Book are workout buddies. Note that Jayne still takes the time to loot the bodies at the ambush site (and presumably recover the drugs from there and the money later from Niska's space station). Note it's Book who rigs the bomb on the mule.
So what is River who can effortlessly shoot three gunmen without even looking? Did the Alliance's experiments turn her into some sort of supersoldier and is that why they're so desperate to retrieve her? Or is she some form of X-men style evolving super being and the Alliance's experiments were designed to prevent her becoming dangerous? Or some secret weapon one of the sides developed during the Unification war and are now trying to cover up? Is that what scares Kaylee at the end?
Zoe cooks for Wash at the end which takes in greater significance if you've watched 'Our Mrs Reynolds'.
.
Marks out of 10;
. 8/10 and again bordering on 9, continuing the high standards of Ariel.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-09-2011, 01:34 AM

Trash

The good;
Real white knuckle stuff with Zoe and Kaylee on the garbage barge, Indy snatching his hat close. Also love a paralysed, terrified Jayne at Simon's mercy calling out 'Anybody there?" only for River to stick her head around the corner of the door, for such a little thing she can be extremely sinister ("When did your little sister become unbelievably scary?"). 2nd appearance for Saffron and when you see her turn up you just know it's going to be a good one, the interplay between her and Mal and the *****y rivalry between her and Inara is delicious. Really like Monty too, hope we see him again, with beard or without.

The bad;
Doesn't anyone notice a bloody great spaceship like Serenity screwing with the garbage?

Best line;
Saffron; (of Mal) "He's my husband"
Mal; "Well who the hell in the galaxy ain't!?"
plus
Doren; (after Mal has explained they're here to steal his property but that Saffron lied to him) "I appreciate your honesty...not you know, a lot...but...."

Packing heat;
The whole plot revolves around 'The Lassiter', an antique laser pistol of untold value (check out Jayne's double take when he hears the name). We've seldom seen projectile energy weapons in the Fireflyverse, most people seem to still rely on lead. Noticeably the police on the core worlds seem to use some form of advanced stun guns whilst those on the outer planets stick with bullets. Because they need more firepower out in the wilds or just haven't been issued the new weaponry yet? Inara with a gun, the first time we see her with one. Needless to say it's an elegant, delicate looking affair, maybe a Ruger .22 or something similar.

Kinky dinky;
Naked Mal. Give Joss his due, whilst he has plenty of female nudity on his shows he makes sure there's plenty of male eye candy too (Spike, Angel, all the Actives in the Dollhouse showers). He frisks Saf-Brid-Yol commenting he's "never been there before'.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester

Capt subtext;
One thing that was suggested to me in feedback for my review of War Stories is that Inara's customer was able to provide sophisticated medical equipment at the drop of a hat which Simon uses to sew Mal's ear back on. At the end the crew wonder out loud how she's able to do that so easily but if we do believe that Inara is sick, maybe this was all intended for her as part of her treatment?
Inara accuses Mal of avoiding the core planets not through his hatred for the Alliance or wish to avoid law enforcement but because he's jealous of her clients and wants to stop her working. Mal doesn't mind be called a thief, he just objects to being a 'petty' thief? Or does Inara just mean he's petty about her and a thief? Perhaps Inara resents Saffron so much because she recognises her as a fallen version of herself?
How'd they get away with that?

.
Total Serenity crew; 9-Inara refers to 'our cut' and actually participates in the plan which is unusual for her (or at least she's the backup for when it inevitably all goes wrong). Simon and River inform Jayne they won't kill him for his betrayal because they consider him part of their crew.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes.

Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Jayne by an electric shock
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1

Women good/men bad;
Even by his standards Jayne is amazingly crude to Simon and River, threatening to show then his 'man parts' and proclaiming that 'womenfolk ain't to be trusted'. Saffron leaving Mal naked in the desert in undoubteldy funny although would it have been acceptable to us if Mal had done the same to her?

Kills;
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 10-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara refers to her 'house mistress', presumably some form of high-ranking companion supervisor/tutor. She also refers to the Geisha dolls Mal has been smuggling, a similar profession to her own. Is she Mal's Geisha Doll? Mal calls Saffron a 'Dirty, dirty whore' as an insult, once again showing how his mind works. Saffron asks Doren if he regards her as his 'Princess in the tower', maybe suggesting she was a companion who made the mistake of becoming a kept woman as a couple of Inara's past clients have wanted of her.

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;
Mal actually shows real sympathy for Duren even though Saffron claims he's an Alliance war criminal, pronouncing him the one guy 'who don't have it coming'. Maybe Mal is starting to put the war behind him? (Or did his own share of looting which is how he afforded the Serenity?)

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time

Shot;
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Mal gets a bloody nose from Saf-Brid-Yol.

Reminds me off;
Inara's pistol is reminiscent of Princess Leia's in Star Wars. The police vehicles remind me of US Navy Viking ASW planes. The phonebox amongst Doren's collection may refer to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Floating balloons on tethers as we saw in The Initiative and may refer to The Prisoner. One of the fences Mal suggests is called Ellison, again a famous sci-fi author.

Questions and observations;
All the mechanics on the Serenity seem to (literally) revolve around the one moving part, it's like the engine on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine or something. So what did happen to Heinrich the security guy? Saffron refers to a fence she has standing by on Prersephone to buy the Lassiter, does she mean Badger? Simon is noticeably dressing down now, no longer so dandy as he used to be (like Wes on Angel). Does River just sense Jayne's betrayal on Ariel or can she actually read his mind? Check out Kaylee's flowery cup, you just instinctively know it's hers. It seems to be you can now fix spinal damage with a simple injection.
So, River tells Jayne that she can kill him with her mind? Does she mean by telling what she knows? Because she's so much smarter than him? Or does she mean literally, implying once again the supersoldier/Dark Phoenix from the X-men idea?
.
Marks out of 10;
8 out of 10, an awful lot of fun to be had, as Mal says at the end, it's a good day. For me Firefly is very much hitting it's stride at this point.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-09-2011, 03:30 PM

THE MESSAGE
The good;
Love the ice planets, someone should make those for real. We see more of Mal and Zoe during the war pre-Battle of Serenity and nobody pines as well as Kaylee does (except Willow?)
The bad;
Kinda a weak story with not that great a denoument.

Best line;
Zoe (to Tracey); "The first rule of war is never to let them know where you are"
Mal (exposing himself to the enemy and firing wildly) "Here I am! Here I am!"
Zoe; "Of course there are other schools of thought"
also like;
Jayne (non-plussed by Tracey's unexpected ressurection but observes) "Spry for a dead fellow!"
and
Tracey; "Do you think I'm stupid?"
Mal; "In every possible way"
not to mention
Mal; "There's always someone out there keeping a bullet with your name on it. The secret is to die of old age before they get a chance to use it"
which leads to;
Tracey; "You killed me"
Mal; "You killed yourself, I just carried the bullet for a while"
Packing heat;
Mal's still trying to offload the Lassiter from Trash but he may have to wait a while until the heat cools off. Jayne takes the opportunity to load up with ammo at the spaceport, considering all the different types of guns they use bullet resupply must be a nightmare. We see Zoe take a H&K G36 from the Alliance soldier she kills, the type of weapon we later see her and Mal use in the battle of Serenity. The Browncoats seem to use M16s and Mal has a H&K UMP submachinegun. Tracey takes a H&K P9 pistol from the crew.
Kinky dinky;
Jayne infers that seeing corpses puts him in the mood for sex but is quick to deny necrophilia. Naked Tracey.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester

Capt subtext;
Womack threatens the postman with homosexual rape in prison. Mal straddling naked Tracey.
How'd they get away with that?
Simon cutting Tracey, yeesh!
.
Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes.
Bondage; I've been reminded that I didn't include Mal and Wash tied up by Niska in War Stories so...
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Zoe kills 2 Alliance soldiers during the war. Mal kills Tracey who seems very resilent, perhaps due to his organ smuggling surgery?
Mal; 12-
Zoe; 12-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;
Inara seems to be suggesting she return the Lassiter for a reward but Mal won't hear of it, maybe to avoid her getting in trouble or maybe he just couldn't stand dealing with the Alliance?
Womack is operating by himself as obviously the Alliance consider organ smuggling illegal although it doesn't seem to bother Mal and co.

Fanfic;

Missing scenes;
One rumoured storyline for later in the season is that Mal is approached to join a group of ex-Browncoats who want to restart the war and destroy the Alliance. He is then faced with the choice represented by Zoe on one side who wants to go back to the war and Inara on the other who says that would be madness.

Western cliches;

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Shot; -Wash shot in the face
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-

Crew injured;

Reminds me off;
The spaceport very reminiscent of Blade Runner whilst the post office scenes are reminiscent of season 4 of Babylon 5 (goverments rise and fall but the postal system is forever). The police craft if reminiscent of the former US Navy F14 Tomcat fighter.

Questions and observations;
No aliens in the Fireflyverse, much like BSG. Simon just seems to live with his foot in his mouth (even River thinks he's a 'boob'). I guess being such a goodlooking guy and a successful surgeon he never really had to try to get girls before. His observation that every other woman in his extremely limited social circle is married (Zoe), a professional who refuses to 'service the crew' (Inara) and his sister leaving Kaylee as a last resort is about as sensitive as bombing Hiroshima.
Jayne has a mother (and possibly a sister?) whom he sends money to. Jayne wears a hat which is unusual, in Firefly it's mostly the bad guys who wear hats. A very different version of pre-Serenity Mal here, funloving and seeming to think of the war as a great big game. Kaylee has rigged a hammock in the engine room, perhaps because of the events of Out of Gas? Or because that way Simon can just walk casually in on her which he couldn't in her room cabin?
The mule has survived it's use as a kamikaze in War Stories and is lodged in the Serenity's hold. Interestingly Jayne who we think of as a tactically shaven gorilla shows suprising sensitivity, removing his hat at the sight of the corpse and telling Book that seeing the dead makes him value life all the more. Nice mention of Saffron, Mal&co thinking that the Feds are after the Lassiter because she sold them out.
Shepherd once again shows an interesting depth of knowledge of the Alliance police.
.
Marks out of 10; 6/10 A little disappointing after the quality of the preceding eps, largely rescued by a few good lines.

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-10-2011, 01:39 AM

HEART OF GOLD

The good;
Stonking great battle, some lovely Inara/Mal stuff and sex aplenty for everyone. Small scene but I love the bit where Mal is doing his best John Wayne impression organising the defence of the brothel and then starts to panic when Pateleen goes into labour only to be saved by level-headed Simon (her kid must have the strangest trio of midwives ever).

The bad;
Silver foil can't hide the cheapness of the sets. Didn't they think to lock up or put a guard on Serenity overnight? If Jayne can take out the M60 gunner on the back of the hovercraft with his M14 can't he just slot Ranse and then it would all be over? You also wonder that Ranse just hands over his deadly, pride and joy pistol to the first stranger who admires it?

Best line;
Nandi;(of the Firefly crew) "If they're got guns and brains that's all I need"
Inara; "Well they've got guns...."
Packing heat;
Too many guns to count but notably Jayne with his M14 and the return of Wash's Colt Cobra .44. Ranse wears a fancy laser pistol which is rare sight for a non-core world. I'm informed that Shepherd's weapon in War Stories was a Goncz GA-9 pistol, great gun enthusiasts on the Xena boards.
Kinky dinky;
Inara bursts in on Mal 'handling his weapon'. She prefers his dinky Colt 32 instead (Wash's 'Leave no man behind' gun from War Stories). Mal and Jayne indulge themselves at the bordello with Jayne in particular getting into some hi-jinks with his blonde to judge by his transmission to Mal just before the gunfight.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Mal finally get's some action. Jayne get's so much he might leave the crew in debt to the Madam.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold whore and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi

Capt subtext;
Obviously the idea is that Nandi is a substitute for Inara. Does Mal take up with her because she's 'An independent' and not tainted in his eyes with her support for the Alliance? There are also male whores, one wonders are Companions exclusively female or do they also have male members...oh for a different phrasing.
When Mal shows no interest in her girls Nandi wonders if he's gay? His answer that 'I LEAN towards the womenfolk' is strangely ambiguous. One could speculate that Ranse represents the dark side of Mal himself, you wonder after this ep will Mal continue to use the word whore as an insult?
How'd they get away with that?
The scene where Ranse humiliates Chari on the saloon balcony is just unwatchable

Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Having met the villain tough-guy Mal wishes to bravely run away. Jayne the callous womaniser actually likes to snuggle with his hooker. Pateleen shows the father his newborn son and then blows his head off in front of her baby with a .357 Magnum.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them.
Bondage;
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;
Rans tells the woman pregnant with his child that if necessary "I'll cut it out of you!" He really is just scum, reminds me of Caleb. The scene where Mal compliments him "She's a beauty" and he takes it to mean his sidearm rather than his wife really sums up the character right there.
Kills; I figure 5 each for Mal, Jayne and Zoe
Mal; 17-
Zoe; 17-
Jayne; 16-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
In this case, low class hookers in space. Inara draws a distinction between Companions and whores but seems to have no problem with them. Nandi hints that there was a great mystery surrounding Inara's decision to leave the home of the Companion Guild where she was on track to go far.
Know the face?
The beautiful Melinda Clarke is familar to fans of Xena as Valesca and also plays a more exotic Lady of the Night on CSI. Be sure to check her out as the incredible S&M zombie in Return of the Living Dead 3. Photos from Return of the Living Dead III (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4185233664/tt0107953) Looking at her you wonder did she maybe audtion for the role of Inara?
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;

Fanfic;
Any or all of the crew indulging themselves in/deciding to work at the Heart of Gold (Kaylee "I love to make people happy and here that's now my job") plus several where Nandi does decide to take up Mal's offer and flee, her girls/boys setting up their new business on the Serenity itself.

Missing scenes;
Reputedly a scene where Ranse's wife comes to the Heart of Gold the night before the battle to try to convince Pateleen to just give her the kid, that she has everything to offer a child and it's the only thing her life is lacking, the only thing she can't do is concieve. Another supposedly has Zoe berating Jayne and Mal for sleeping with the Heart of Gold hookers, saying that no woman would ever act as they did and pointing out that none of the Firefly females took advantage of the male whores. At which point Kaylee looks suddenly guilty and slips quietly out the room...
.

Western cliches;
Storyline is very similar to aspects of Unforgiven, The Magnificent 7 and Young Guns Pt 2. Nandi rather reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich's Cattle Queen of Montanna. Mal does the traditional 'stagecoach jump' from the horse onto Ranse' hovercraft.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Shot; astonishingly with all the lead flying around our heroes get away unscathed
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-

Crew injured; not even Simon get's beaten up

Reminds me off;
Nandi is very like Tina Turner's character in Mad Max 3. Inara weeping when she discovers Mal has slept with Nandi is similar to Willow's when she finds out Faith has bedded Xander. Mal wishing to meet Ranse before taking him on is reminiscent of the famous Pacino/De Niro scene in Heat.

Questions and observations;
Jayne in a hat again, a stetson for the first time. Zoe wants a baby but Wash is reluctant given their precarious lifestyle. Inara actually get's into the fighting, holding a knife to Ranse throat. Nice quip from Mal when Nandi kisses him, he waits to see if he's going to pass out (as with Saffron). How did they know Chari was the traitor?

Marks out of 10;7 out of 10, a fairly slight story but well told and some nice Mal/Inara stuff

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-10-2011, 12:29 PM

OBJECTS IN SPACE
The good;
All of it, very, very good, especially love the opening of Summer as she prowls around the ship listening to everyone's thoughts, the character of Jubal Early, the crew's meeting to discuss River and her plan is inspired.

The bad;
River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before. Plus shooting him would be a lot more humane than leaving him to suffocate?

Best line;
Simon; "My sisters a ship, we had a complicated childhood"
plus
Mal; "If I wanted medical jargon I'd talk to a doctor"
Simon; "You ARE talking to a doctor"
and
Simon; "Come on out Summer, the nice man wants to kidnap you"
Packing heat;
River get's her hands on Jayne's Desert Eagle 44. Magnum (which dwarfs her), possibly because she senses the impending threat of Early. Jayne says it won't penetrate the ship's hull, that not even Vera could do that. Early has a 'finely crafted pistol' but it seems to be a pure prop gun rather than any contemporary firearm. On his commentary Joss says he doesn't like guns but Buffy aside you'd be hard put to accept that to judge by his shows/films.
Jayne boasts about once hitting a man at 500yrds with a bent scope (Patience's men in Serenity?)
Kinky dinky;
Early threatens to rape Kaylee to get her co-operation. We take it that when he talks of giving Kaylee and 'present' and ridding her off a 'problem' he means River but maybe he takes her as a virgin and is telling her they're going to have sex? River observes he's all about "Power, control, pain'
River voyeuristically 'mindrops' on Wash and Zoe getting kissy on the bridge (aside from Homer and Marge they seem to be the most sexually active married couple ever). Topless Simon for the straight girls and sly boys (Joss admits he doesn't mind giving his audience some cheesecake) plus him playing footsie with Kaylee. He also relates the story of some youthful streaking to celebrate his graduation as a surgeon.
Book is celibate but avoids the question of masturbation.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; we don't know what happens between Kaylee and Early after he ties her up but I don't think so. She also relates a possible story about bedding a 14 year old 'genetic experiment' but again, unconfirmed.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold whore and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi

Capt subtext;
Mal says that he's perfectly fine with Kaylee never having killed anyone, he wants to keep her the one sweet and innocent thing in his life. Early's fate, left hanging in space with an uncertain future is a metaphor for the series itself.
When Jayne threatens that he and Wash will 'Go somewhere' over his teasing Wash says he hopes it's somewhere with candlelight.
How'd they get away with that?
Early threatening Kaylee is hard to watch as is his pistol whipping Inara across the face. Early licks the ship? Is he descended from Benton Fraser RCMP?

Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
We expect Book to tell the truth about being knocked out but he actually lies. We think Jayne is reaching his arsenal when he pulls the curtain back but actually he's just grabbing a blanket. Kaylee actually gives in, surrenders to Early and let's him tie her up, betraying River to him.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them.
Bondage; Kaylee tied up by Early
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Kaylee; 1
Knocked out; Book and Mal by Early
Book; 3
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 3
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;
Early questions why men are physically stronger yet women have the children?
Kills; Mal kills Early (or does he? Put him down as a possible)
Mal; 17-plus one possible, Jubal Early
Zoe; 17-
Jayne; 16-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Early exclaims "I'll be a son of a whore"
Know the face?
Richard Brooks a familar face for all Law&Order fans (until his replacement by Mrs Gere and then Kate Lochley) and truly excellent here in a role where he really plays against type.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;

Fanfic;
Plenty about the future adventures of Jubal Early. Amongst the means for his survival are;
1) Venting air from his spacesuit to propel him back to his own ship
2) Boosting the power of his magnetic shoes in order to attract him back to it
3) Remote control of his own ship once Serenity is out of sensor range (it does seem to fly off under some form of direction)
4) Firing his gun to use the recoil to direct himself
5) Picked up by the blue gloves who are also trailing Serenity
Unfortunately some include him making good on his threats to Kaylee.

Missing scenes; or deleted scenes in this case
1. Scene where we see Zoe and Mal being picked up by the rescue ships after the battle of Serenity. Very graphic with the ground littered with corpses and Zoe in particular looking as though she's on her last legs. It's a powerful scene but if they had left it in it would have detracted from Mal's 'loss of faith' moment in the pilot.
2. Zoe tells Simon about the battle of Serenity in all it's gory detail, 500,000 killed in less than 2 months. What makes this more interesting is that she states that the Browncoats leaders left them to rot on the battlefield for a week, they resent the Independents High Command as well as the Alliance.
3. Well I guess I owe Alan Tudyk an apology, there IS an incestuous subtext between Simon and River (at least on River's part) he didn't just make it up out of the blue in his commentary for War Stories. It's all actually quite innocent, like a little girl playing at weddings and casting her father or brother as the groom. She accuses Saffron of being a thief, the crew think she means snaffling the food but she actually means more than that. Mal's speech to Saffron about standing up for herself shows his attitude towards women and gives her the idea of how to hoodwink him. This scene also explains why Summer Glau had no lines in the whole of Our Mrs Reynolds.
4. Inara announces she's leaving, excised because of the crazy order in which the show was shown so as to make more sense.

Western cliches;
Jubal Early is the name of a Confederate General in the US Civil War

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Fa-ta-bien=impossible/nonsense
Shot; Simon shot
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-
Simon; 1-
Crew injured;
Mal gets a beating as does Simon again, Book get's a sore head. Inara get's a split lip from her pistol-whipping.

Reminds me off;
I guess I don't have to say Bobby Fett right down to his suit, gun and ship because Joss admits it in the commentary. Early threatening Kaylee reminds me of Glory and Tara in Tough Love.
Early's remark of " Maybe I've always been here?" is very The Shining.
Questions and observations;
I had thought it was stupid that Serenity had controls allowing someone to seal the crew into their cabins from the outside but it was pointed out if the ship was depressurised they would need to be able to seal off each compartment. Note Kayleigh is the only one not to have any hidden thoughts for River to read, she's totally open. Book's thoughts make you wonder if he was previously a cop or judge? As early observes, "That's not a Shepherd" Jayne appears to cook pancakes. Note when River has the gun it's Kaylee who backs away most having seen what she's capable off. The crew still don't know about Jayne's betrayal on Ariel.
Mal sure does love his double negatives when talking. Wash seems to delight in teasing Jayne although you'd wonder if he'd be quite so brave without Zoe to back him up? He also thinks telepathy is science fiction even when he's on a spaceship, very postmodern.
It appears people eat horses in the future. Early is the kind of interesting recurring villain the series sorely needs. Unfortunately this is the final ep.
Marks out of 10; 9/10, nice to see the series go out on a high

lorenzovanmatterhorn

06-11-2011, 02:53 AM

SERENITY; the movie
The good;
Obviously benefits from a greater budget especially in the lab scenes. Cool opening tracking shot. Love River and Zoe trading their little look during the robbery and love River's goggles. Stonking great spaceship battles in a series where we haven't seen that before. The scene where they slip through the Reaver fleet is truly creepy.
The bad;
Mal's getting an innoculation at the start. Never seen that before but it neatly informs us that Simon is a doctor. Disappointing that we get no Saffron or Jubal Early but you can't have everything.
Best line;
Mal; "If I'm not back in an hour come rescue me"
Zoe; "And risk MY ship?"
plus
Simon; (to River who has just survived a Reaver attack, massive gunfight and crash) "Are you ok?"
River; "I swallowed a bug"
and
Mal; "You want to be in charge?"
Jayne; "Yeah"
Mal; "Well...you can't!"
Packing heat;
Serenity finally gets some exterior arnament in the form of Book's Bofors like flak-gun. Maybe the Alliance allowed private citizens to own what weapons they like but forbade the arming of ships themselves? Inara uses some form of Companion bow and arrow, as Joss observes, very Wonder Woman. Jayne doesn't use Vera instead having an H+K G36 and his grenades. Mal has an Armalite AR-18 which he later gives to Zoe, most other crew use MP5Ks plus Zoe's Mossberg shotgun.
Kinky dinky;
River voyeuristically watches her brother and Kaylee having sex. Maybe the subtexters did have a point? Kaylee appears to have been using a self-pleasuring device which horrifies Mal (who seems to like to think of Kaylee almost as his virgin daughter) but intrigues Jayne. The crew still like to eavesdrop on Mal and Inara for gossip/thrills. Mal cross dresses again, disguising himself in a companion's dress and may have gone through Inara's clothes (for her scent or to try them on?)

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Simon and Kaylee, at last

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;2-Bester, Simon
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold whore and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi
Simon; 1-Kaylee

Capt subtext;
Note River actually sniffs Inara's bed in Kaylee's video. Mal considers Fanty 'pretty'.
How'd they get away with that?
All and everything the Reavers do! The slow sword impalement is also nasty as is desecrating the dead by strapping them to Serenity, even Book.
Total Serenity crew; 7- When we meet the crew Inara and Book are no longer part of it (the ship and crew are literally and figuratively falling apart). Inara rejoins but Book and Wash die. River now takes Wash's place as the co-pilot of Serenity.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River,

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Facing the Reavers our heroes bravely run away. Indeed in the end they leave it to the Alliance troops to fight them, THEY save the day. Amazingly the villain actually survives. Mal pushes the guy off the mule and leaves him to the Reavers. We never do get to hear Book's story. Mal the noble hero never hesitates to shoot unarmed people.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them. Sex-bots. People with subliminal triggers.
Bondage; River in cuffs
Mal; 2
River; 2
Simon; 1
River; 2
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Kaylee; 1
Knocked out; Jayne and Simon knocked out by River, River knocked out by Simon's magic word
Book; 3
Simon; 3
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;4
Mal; 3
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 2
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Inara really participates in the fight for the first time. I'll give Jayne and Zoe 10 Reavers each, River 30 and everyone else 5. Amazingly Mal only kills 2 people.
Mal; 19-plus one possible, Jubal Early
Zoe; 27-
Jayne; 26-
Wash; 2
River; 33
Simon; 5
Kaylee; 5
Inara; 5

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara is working as an instructor at a companion training school which must be the best job EVER!
Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
1. Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
2. Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
3. Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
4. Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
5. Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
6. Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
7. Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
8. Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
9. Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
10. Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
11. Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
12. Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
13. Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
14. Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
15. Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
So, 15 in total
Alliance good or bad?;
In this case Alliance bad but well intentioned. They wanted to create a society without violence which seems laudable but in the end turns into a nightmare. In the end the Alliance troops defeat the Reavers, saving the crew and rebuilding the Serenity. Whilst the Alliance seems set to continue it may be very different from now on.
Mal says the war is long done and Joss comments that he's put it behind him. So when he tells Simon that needling the Alliance is one of the reasons he let's him and River stay is he being truthful?
Simon really looks the part of the Alliance officer in the beginning. The Operative says that Mal isn't the hero and the Alliance isn't the evil empire. Joss himself remarks that he sees the Alliance as a largely benevolent force.
So, who would you have sided with in the war? I have to say that Blue Gloves aside I'd lean towards the Alliance.
Fanfic;
The continuing adventures of Serenity post-movie obviously popular. One common thread is that with Wash dead Mal now has to choose between Zoe and Inara as his love. Another is the Alliance unravelling and the crew coming to terms that they've created chaos in the universe and actually seeking to create a UN type organisation/Galactic senate.

Missing scenes;
Reputedly had the series continued there'd have been an episode where Mal and Zoe are tracked down by a group of ex-Alliance soldiers intent on avenging a war crime that their Browncoat unit committed (like Principal Wood and Spike).
The deleted scenes are largely unremarkable except for Inara teaching her Companion skills to her young pupils. More of that would have probably made the film more successful at the box office.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Fa-ta-bien=impossible/nonsense

Shot; Jayne, Mal, Kaylee and Simon all shot
Mal; 3-
Kaylee;2-
Jayne;4-
Book;1-
Wash;1-
Simon; 2-

Crew injured;
Jayne get's staked in the leg and thumped by River. Mal routinely gets the stuffing beaten out of him.

Reminds me off;
River spying on Simon and Kaylee having sex reminds me off Dawn who was quite the voyeur with Buffy and Riley. The idea of a world without violence is something Joss reuses from season 4 of Angel. The Reavers are reminiscent of John Carpenter's film Ghosts of Mars. The opening scenes are very BSG whilst one of the guns in the bar fight looks like the ones they used on Babylon 5. The new mule is very Star Wars landspeeder (did they sell the Lassiter to pay for it?). Mal shoots the guy being eaten by the Reavers, very Last of the Mohicans.
Now of course Miranda (meaning 'most wonderful') is Prospero's daughter in The Tempest. We've already seen Ariel (the wonder of the Alliance?), does this make the Reavers Caliban? "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine". And of course it was adapted as 'The Forbidden Planet'.
River's trigger is very like Spike's in Buffy. Alien is referred to again although this is a universe without aliens (The Operative refers to 'Building better worlds' which is the company's motto). Mal quotes The Ancient Mariner. The space battle is very Starship Troopers, Wrath of Khan, Babylon 5 and of course Star Wars. Zoe's assertion that they're not getting out alive is similar to Angel in Not Fade Away. Burning swing is very T2.

Questions and observations;
So we finally meet some real Reavers (we've only met one pseudo one before in Bushwhacked). But the Serenity crew never confront the Blue-gloves? Note when we see the slaughter at Haven Jayne still takes the time to loot. Who helps Simon rescue River? The Browncoat diehards who were to try and recruit Mal and Zoe if the series had continued? The Mal we see at the beginning is much more like the Mal we see in the pilot than the series. Wash the pilot always seems the last to know everything, he's rather left out.
The Alliance now use sleek ships. Mal's record shows him to be a captain in the Browncoats which is why Zoe calls him 'sir' which she shouldn't do if he's a sergeant (although if he really did command 2000 men at one point he's actually an acting brigadier). Are the Reavers all gone, did the Alliance wipe them out? Jayne plays the guitar, I wonder if he know's The Hero of Canton?. The Alliance troops have new armour, very Halo like. Jayne points out that of Mal's 30 man platoon he and Zoe were the only survivors, bearing out Zoe's assertion that a hero is someone who gets other people killed and a leader is 'something of a monster' (like ruthless Angel at the end of season 5 and hardass Buffy in season 7). After visiting Ariel River begins to get visibly better. Jayne comes to terms with Simon by offering him his whiskey.
Marks out of 10; 9/10, very good, if this is the last we see of the crew (and it almost certainly is) this is a fine send off for them.

So, Firefly? Well, very enjoyable but I'd still say it's my least favourite of Joss' shows. Now of course maybe if it had lasted longer I would think more of it, if Buffy/Angel had only had 14 eps they wouldn't have grown into the great series they were. I think the best way to put it is that Firefly had the potential to be a great series. Interestingly Buffy was a largely unsuccessful film that was transformed into a tremmendously successful TV series with it's own successful spinoff. Firefly was a failed TV series that became a largely successful film.