I guess the best way to describe the passion I feel for this movie/television show/fantastic story is to tell how I found Firefly and became a Browncoat. I never saw the show when it was on Fox, frankly I have never watched much television on Fridays (the original airdate) until recently, thanks to SCI-FI Channel. I saw Firefly for the first time this past April courtesy of a co-worker who had snagged the entire series off the BBC and brought it in to work for us to watch. From the first episode, I was drawn in by the depth of the characters and the overall concept of the show. Joss Whedon has some serious balls to do a space western but then again he is the guy who brought the world "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". We watched the entire series in about two and a half days and I was blown away. Like every other Browncoat, I could not really think of any reason for Fox to cancel the show and thought Fox had made a big mistake.
I have always been a big science fiction fan, Star Wars, Star Trek (old and new), Battlestar Galactica (old and new) but this show was different. The dialogue was outstanding and on the level of one of my other favorite writers, Kevin Smith. Let me clarify what I mean by my statement of the dialogue was outstanding. The writing was snappy and sarcastic without being over the top and rather then being the common television fare. Joss's writing is sometimes a leap because it assumes a certain level of intelligence from the viewer rather then play to the lowest common denominator. The entire 'verse that Firefly exists in very believable and does not focus on the technology like quite a few other science fiction shows.
The best thing I can say about the television series is that at the end of every episode, it left you wanting more. That is the sign of a great television show no matter what the subject matter. Another show that I love and watch on a regular basis is Seinfeld. I can't say that I felt that way about Seinfeld at the end of an episode, but Firefly was different.
The entire cast of Firefly are criminals on one level or another and yet they are easy to relate to on a personal basis. I wonder what a shrink would say that means about all of us Browncoats. After I had seen the show at work, I went out, got the DVD set, and proceeded to watch it twice more. I watched it once with the regular audio and then with the commentary. I started to poke around online and was absolutely astounded by the cult following that Firefly had generated. It was only then that I learned that the show was from 2002. All I could say was WOW. The show had been off the air for almost three years and during that time, a grassroots effort to bring Firefly back to either television or film had sprung up. I recently read an interview with Joss Whedon and he explained that he just felt like the story had not been told and many times the fan support encouraged him to keep working.
When I learned about Firefly returning as the movie “Serenity”, I was thrilled because like every other fan of the television show, I felt cheated by Fox’s decision to cancel the show after not even a full season. Given some of the programming choices that Fox has made in the past, I really can’t explain why the show was not given at least a full season or part of a second. Well I guess that all does not matter now since Universal signed Joss to do a three-picture deal starting with Serenity.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am going to a press screening of Serenity on Wednesday the 28 of September. I am so psyched to see this movie and sight unseen I will predict that the movie will be successful beyond even the hopes of Universal and Joss Whedon and filming will begin on the sequel shortly. As I promised, there are quite a few links below to some fan sites and some official sites below for those who have yet to discover Firefly/Serenity or for Browncoats who want to bone up before the movie is released on September 30. This concludes the big damn post about Serenity for now. Keep flying everyone and I will see you out in the ‘verse.
Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.
The Official Serenity Movie Site
The Wikipedia page for Firefly
The Signal aka The Big Damn Podcast
The Serenity Chinese Pinyinary site
The Firefly Movie Site (Fan site)
Finally yet importantly, one big damn interview with Joss.
(9,500 words to be more or less exact.) Enjoy.
平静
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