Joss Whedon's Firefly Soars in Its Single Season

This past Christmas, my brother Benjamin gave me two DVD boxed sets. One was season four of LOST, my favorite TV show. The other was Firefly, the short-lived sci-fi series that he told me was his favorite. I'd heard good things about the show but hadn't ever seen it, so I was anxious to check it out, particularly after seeing the fantastic Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the brainchild of Firefly creator Joss Whedon, co-starring Nathan Fillion, who stars as the cocky but compassionate captain Malcolm Reynolds. I watched a couple of episodes earlier in the year, but it wasn't until this summer that I sat down for a marathon, devouring the whole series in a couple of days.

Malcolm, or "Mal" for short, has some of the arrogant bravado that was evident in Fillion's over-the-top superhero character in Dr. Horrible, but he's much more likable. Mal may have a habit of talking with his fists and engaging in shady business dealings, but he's very dedicated to the crew of Serenity, the spaceship he uses to smuggle goods across the galaxy. He might shower some of them with sarcastic barbs, but if one of them is in trouble, he'll ultimately figure out a way to come to the rescue.

A former military commander, he fought in a war alongside no-nonsense first mate Zoe (Gina Torres). She's extremely tough, and after enduring many harrowing battles, she is fearless in the face of fire. By contrast, her husband "Wash" (Alan Tudyk) is pretty wimpy, a lovable goofball who reminds me a bit of Full House's Uncle Joey. He's always cracking jokes and breaking the tension, but his job on the ship is of vital importance, as he's the pilot. It's up to him to steer them out of harm's way, in which they frequently find themselves.

Jayne (Adam Baldwin) is a surly crewmember who never can be considered entirely trustworthy. With his distinct Southern accent, his self-centeredness, his heavy sarcastic streak and his penchant for physical violence, he reminds me a lot of LOST's resident redneck Sawyer, particularly in the first season. He's one of the funniest characters but also one of the crudest, and he's easily the most antagonistic of the nine core characters. His unappealing personality perfectly sets up the tragi-comic Jaynestown, one of my favorite episodes, in which he returns to the scene of a heist gone bad and is flabbergasted to find himself a folk hero, complete with a statue and a catchy theme song.

Also on board the ship is Inara (Morena Baccarin), who isn't officially part of the crew but functions as an "ambassador" when certain buyers need a little persuasion or distraction. Inara is a registered Companion, which is essentially a high-class prostitute; not only is the profession legal, it's respected by many, and Companions, who are at liberty to be selective about their clients, must undergo rigorous training that includes instruction in such subjects as music. Baccarin reminds me of Kristin Kreuk, who plays Lana Lang on Smallville. Inara also makes me think of empath Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Generally, I like the character, who is sweet and kind, albeit prone to tart-tongued exchanges with Mal, with whom she has a complicated relationship, but having a prostitute on the ship, even one as classy as Inara, means that the show is a little excessively preoccupied with sexuality. We tend not to see very much, but there are always comments being made. Of course, it doesn't all revolve around her; Jayne is pretty lewd in general, Zoe and Wash need to get some couple time in now and then, and various other characters have opportunities to get lip-locked. And it's still nowhere near as smutty as the typical episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Initially, it seems that there may be tension between Inara and one of the ship's newcomers, a Shepherd, or preacher, by the name of Book, but although he does not particularly approve of the profession of Companion, it doesn't stop him from developing a rapport with Inara. Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), my second-favorite character on the show, is wise and calm, and he doesn't shy away from offering an opinion when he feels that a moral imperative is being ignored. I especially appreciate this character because elsewhere in the show, most explicitly Christian characters are portrayed in a negative light. The Bible is quoted as justification for killing an innocent young woman with unusual abilities and for forcing teenagers into marriages in which they are treated more like slaves than wives. Such instances gave me the uncomfortable feeling that Whedon had an axe to grind, but the wonderful Shepherd made it seem less like he was associating Christianity with cruelty and ignorance.

My favorite character is Kaylee (Jewel Staite), the ship's mechanic. I liken her to Scotty because of the deep communion she has with her ship; it is very much alive to her, and she takes great offense when anyone insults it, reminding me of Scotty's famous barroom brawl in The Trouble With Tribbles, started because "They called the Enterprise a garbage scow!" Kaylee is even more indispensable than Wash, and she is also beloved by all on the ship. She is eccentric, compassionate and relentlessly cheerful, reminding me quite a bit of Luna from the Harry Potter series. Despite her expertise, she is very childlike in many ways, and everyone seems to regard her as an adored little sister.

That is, everyone except River Tam (Summer Glau), a teenage super-genius whose mind has been horribly addled thanks to a stay in a government-run facility from which her older brother Simon (Sean Maher), a brilliant but socially awkward young doctor, sprang her, making them both fugitives. To River, Kaylee is the older sister, a stabilizing influence as she fights off memories of the torment she experienced. There are also hints that she could be a sister of another kind if Simon would stop tripping over his own tongue. River is an intriguing character, but the limited run of the series doesn't allow us to explore her that deeply. Simon is more developed, and I love his nervous, upper-class mannerisms and his incredibly deep affection for River, which drove him to give up his promising career to rescue her from a trap his parents didn't believe was real.

Apart from the nine major cast members, there are several guest stars in one or two episodes. I only recognized a few of them. Fillion had a brief role on LOST as Kate's husband, and another person from Kate's past turns up as a guest star: Frederic Lehne, who played Marshal Ed Mars. His Firefly character has a somewhat similar disposition but is even more belligerent. A pre-High School Musical Zac Efron has a brief flashback role as the teenage Simon. Other memorable guests include Mark Shappard as Badger, an English scoundrel Mal deals with on a couple of occasions who seems like a character out of Oliver Twist. In two episodes, Christina Hendricks plays Saffron, a seemingly naive young woman who comes into Mal's life in a surprising way and returns later as a major thorn in his side. Edward Atterton is equally suave and obnoxious as Atherton Wing, a wealthy man who offers Inara a permanent position, and Richard Brooks is memorable as philosophical bounty hunter Jubal Early.

Firefly takes place 500 years in the future and is unusual for a space opera, since it combines science fiction with the elements of a Western. Serenity is the home base for these characters, but they visit several different planets throughout the course of the series. These planets have been "terra-formed," which means that they were made acceptable for human habitation and populated. On these planets, there are certain high-tech implements, but there are also horses, trains, saloons and lots of pistols. Clothing and speech patterns largely reflect an Old West sensibility, though there are hints of other cultures, particularly Chinese; the characters have a habit of lapsing into Chinese when making exclamations, which is confusing at first. There are no subtitles, but you can basically figure everything out through context. One of the neatest elements of the show is the music, which incorporates several different musical styles, particularly using instruments common to country music and Asian music. One scene features a lively Celtic-flavored dance, another a violin-heavy lament that serves as a farewell to both a character and the show. I love the twangy soundtrack; it gives the show a very unique sound and really helps root it in this particular setting.

I'm not sure why this show never really took off with the general public. It quickly won a very devoted following, with Firefly fans organizing to send off postcards and letters and take out ads in the paper begging the Powers That Be at FOX to keep the show on the air. But there weren't enough of those fans to keep this series flying for another season. As one-season series go, I have a stronger attachment to the hilarious, heart-rending Freaks and Geeks, but Firefly is a rousing space adventure with an unusual format and engaging characters. It's fairly episodic, so the order in which you watch episodes isn't hugely important, though there are some character arcs that develop over the season. I would recommend starting with the two-hour pilot, even though it was the last episode to air when the show was on TV. The last episode has a touch of finale about it but ultimately resolves far too little in comparison to the number of questions that previous episodes invite.

With most of the cursing done in Chinese, language isn't likely to be much of an issue unless you've studied Mandarin, and I find the rustic colloquialisms used by Mal, Jayne and Kaylee endearing. Bedroom shenanigans are fairly common, with at least one such scene occurring in most episodes, and there's considerable violence as well. Besides the fistfights and the shootouts, there are swordfights, cannibals and mysterious weapons that cause spontaneous bleeding. A couple of scenes seemed pretty R-rated to me, and I was grossed out enough that I had to avert my eyes for a minute or two. The most grotesque bits can be found in Bushwhacked, showing the aftermath of an attack by the cannibalistic Reavers, and Ariel, which humorously reminded me of the hospital heist in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home until the blue-gloved Alliance agents turned up and started turning their alleged allies into puddles of goo. The Alliance, which is after River and Simon, is a palpable threat throughout the series, while the Reavers are only an issue in a couple of early episodes. I assume that we would have seen more of them if the series had continued - not that I particularly wanted to.

While there are a few elements of the show I wasn't crazy about, I found it very easy to empathize with the characters, and the unique blend of science fiction and Western is intriguing. It's a shame that the network didn't give it more of a chance to blossom, especially when it was clear that it had taken off so strongly among many of those who had watched it. On the plus side, that means that you can get through the whole series pretty quickly if you want, and you won't have to pay upwards of fifty dollars for the set as you will with many full-length TV seasons. I'm looking forward to watching Serenity, its feature film follow-up, and seeing whether it answers any of the questions left by the series. Whedon has proven himself quite creative; I just hope his next venture catches on a little more quickly.