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If you aren’t a science fiction fan you’ve probably never heard of it. If you are, you probably watch it biannually as a tradition. Heads up for Nathan Fillion fans: you’ve never seen better from the actor.
What are we talking about? Firefly, an American sci-fi Western drama that ran only for a season and gathered a cult fan-following.
Created by Joss Whedon, this series about a group of smugglers who do cargo runs in their spaceship Serenity was aired on FOX in September 2002.
The show draws its name from the Firefly-class spaceship called Serenity that the nine central characters make their home and is set in the year 2517. After the “Earth-that-was” became overpopulated, some humans migrated to other planets and moons which they terraformed (that is changed the topography, ecosystem and environment) to make them habitable. The main powers in this universe are the Americans and the Chinese who have joined to form the Alliance, which is the ruling power. A war broke out in which Independents tried to resist Alliance control but were defeated.
The show follows Malcom “Mal” Reynolds, a former Independent sergeant played by Nathan Fillion and the owner of Serenity, and his motley crew as they run cargo.
The show was discontinued after 11 episodes due to low viewership leading to a campaign by the Browncoats (loyal Firefly fans) to bring the series back. Its post-airing popularity resulted in the film Serenity in 2005.
Even now Firefly and Serenity remain cult classics among science-fiction lovers drawing huge audiences at every Comic-Con screening.
Here are five reasons why the show (you can buy the DVDs on Amazon) is worth a watch:
Nathan Fillion: Fillion is an absolute riot as the unscrupulous, manipulative, rude, cocky, charming, gun-slinging smart-ass Mal Reynolds. He is a ladies’ man with just the right amount of humour and ruthlessness to make him perfect. His cockiness gets him into trouble, but there is nothing he can’t handle. He can be ridiculous, like when he wears a dress and a bonnet to go incognito and absolutely unbelievable when he doles out oodles of attitude to his love interest buck naked in the middle of a desert where he is stranded. But don’t get on his bad side, he is not an enemy you would want to have. If nothing, just watch it for Fillion. He is very shiny (that means cool in Firefly language)!
The motley crew: There are nine people on board the Serenity and they are nine different personalities with nine different takes on the same thing. From warrior-like Zoe Washburne to her more gentle husband Hoban “Wash” Washburn, from genius mechanic but extremely girlie Kaylee to the mercenary Jayne Cobb and the mysterious Shepherd Book... it is an entertaining place to be.
A good ol’ Western: Don’t be put off by the sci-fi tag, Firefly is a full-blooded, gun-slinging, wise-cracking Western. It only happens on different planets and moons and the main mode of travel between them are spaceships.
The action: It is not the usual massive spaceship battles. The action here is up close, physical and downright dirty.
Joss Whedon: The man gave us Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Avengers, enough reason to buy the DVDs for Firefly and Serenity and watch the master at work.
