|
Movies Books Music Food Tv Shows Technology Politics Video Games Parenting Fashion Green Living more >

Lunch » Tags » Tv Shows » Reviews » Firefly - The Complete Series » User review

Firefly Complete Series

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin; Release Date: October 19, 2004

< read all 8 reviews

Firefly Frickin' Rocks the Roots of Steampunk

  • May 21, 2010
  • by
Rating:
+5
Firefly is quinessential steampunk. Even better, it's western steampunk combined with spacepunk: the wild west- in space!  Firefly presents an elaborate, brassy atmoshpere, packs a punchy script with dark, quirky humor, and pays its dues to classic westerns- shoot outs in the desert, bar fights and gambling. Plus, it's full of powerful female characters, who include an independent (and zen) sex worker, a drop-dead gorgeous leiutenant who can shoot a rifle while leaping sideways through the air, and the ship's brilliant, goofy, mechanic. Even River, the psychic genious child who gets picked on for having schizophrenic episodes related to government experiments, mentions pleasantly to an antagonist, "I can kill you with my brain."

The show also provides the epitomies of the old standbys: the brooding but noble captain, the endearing, macho backstabber who could sell them out at any moment, a preacher with a mysterious past, and a classy doctor learning just how wild the lawless backwaters of space really are.

The series showed for only one season, and was aired out of order. Watching the series chronologically reveals a tight plot line with plenty of twists and as many dusty shoot outs as you want. There are even horses and cattle wrangling.

The plot winds around the the Captain and Leiutenant, war veterans from a doomed battle. Turned lawless themselves, they smuggle cargo across the galaxy while running from the feds. Most of the crew are wanted for something, and one in particular is being chased mercilessly: River, the runaway from a government experient who escaped with the help of her brother, a prestigious, young doctor.

I especially appreciate sex positive character roles in the show. Inara, a "Companion" registered with a guild, like a union, offers a more enlightened sci-fi lense through which to view the old western characters from "houses of ill repute." Plus, I applaud the choice of a female identified character for the ship's mechanic. Quirky and small-town-innocent, though not chaste in the least, Kaylie continues to astonish as the universe's most talented space mechanic. Spaceship mechanics "just talk to me," she says in a Kansas drawl.

Steam punk has its roots in early science fiction literature, the edisonade, a type of English dime novel in which a mad inventor builds a steam powered machine to carry him across the New World, exploring and fighting savages. This trend eventually gave way to science fiction that made angry response to naive colonialism (hence the punk). In the last half of the 20th century sci fi writers explored and exhausted the social implications of imperialism, colonialism, xenocide, and patriarchy. Sci Fi is a playground for imagining ways out of what seems wrong and out of control with the "real" world, while calling out the "real" world for its superficiality and greed.

Firefly offers critique of our own puritanical sex culture, corrupt police force, and tyrranical government. It presents the dark side while introducing alternatives we could embrace.

In short, the characters are hot and funny, the action is wild, and the script is clever. Joss Whedon knew what he was doing. The setting is devine: dusty cattle ranch one moment, deep space the next. The ships cozy innards leave lots of room for amusing crew bonding and surprise attacks.

Disclaimer: the theme song is horrible. Truly brutal, bad songwriting. For fun, try making up your own words to the song during the opening credits- the music is slow and the lyrics are painful.
Firefly Frickin' Rocks the Roots of Steampunk Firefly Frickin' Rocks the Roots of Steampunk Firefly Frickin' Rocks the Roots of Steampunk

What did you think of this review?

Helpful
3
Thought-Provoking
3
Fun to Read
3
Well-Organized
3
Post a Comment
More Firefly - The Complete Series reviews
review by . February 27, 2011
posted in SF Signal
Up until about half a year ago or so, I'd managed to avoid Firefly.  Sure I'd heard lots of fans saying great things about it and I was certainly aware of all of the attention Joss Whedon was attracting (brilliant, down-trodden savior of all that is meaningful on TV), but I had this little problem believing any of it.  I'd been enticed into watching a couple of episodes of Buffy and wrote it and Whedon off as trash.  Funny, sometimes high-concept (over the top) trash, …
review by . December 16, 2010
   I very much enjoyed this series.  The basic premise is that of a dystopian Western in Space, where a totalitarian government has an iron grip on the most developed planets, and the less developed are left to fend for themselves.  These outer worlds are relatively undeveloped and most of the technology seems like a mix of 19th-20th century, and near future technology.  This is a series where horse-riding cowboys with assault rifles and space ships are found in close proximity.  …
Quick Tip by . April 23, 2011
   Here is Firefly from before Star Trek, 1962      LOL
review by . May 21, 2010
I would reccommend this to any fans of science fiction as well as fans of Joss Whedon   Firefly is, in 3 words, cowboys in space. And in one word: awesome.   The characters are by far the best part of this series. They are well developed and incredibly rich. Even Jayne, who you love to hate, is always consistently Jayne. We begin to feel like we intimately know these characters and grow to love them. A wonderful series, well worth your time.        …
Quick Tip by . October 01, 2010
How did they manage to cross sci fi with westerns, and then do all the swearing in Chinese! Great series. Wish it had lasted longer.
review by . May 09, 2010
I have not seen most of Firefly.  Most of what I saw didn't attract me.  The Western Sci-fi combo just didn't turn me on.      But one episode I encountered was really good, Objects In Space.  But it occurred entirely on the ship and the Western motif did not enter into it.      River is acting weird and they are wondering if she is a danger to the crew but a bounty hunter gets on board trying to kidnap River but her psychic powers make that …
Quick Tip by . June 15, 2010
a great show that was cancelled too soon.
About the reviewer
S. Artemis Thistle ()
Ranked #1457
Writer and Reader Extraordinaire
Consider the Source

Use Trust Points to see how much you can rely on this review.

You
ArtemisThistle
Your ratings:
rate more to improve this
About this movie

Wiki

Joss Whedon follows up his hugely successful BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER series for Fox with FIREFLY, an action-packed fusion of the science-fiction and western genres. Set five hundred years in the future, FIREFLY depicts a troubled world after a massive universal civil war. The resulting power party, the Alliance, control everyone and everything, except for Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of his spaceship, Serenity. As the Alliance continues to wreak havoc on the world, Malcolm does what he can to restore order to his surroundings.
view wiki

Details

Release Date: 2002
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Premiere Date: September 20, 2002
Genre: Science Fiction
Original Air Date: September 20, 2002 - December 20, 2002
DVD Release Date: December 9, 2003
Polls with this movie
First to Review

"Objects in Space"
© 2013 Lunch.com, LLC All Rights Reserved
Lunch.com - Relevant reviews by real people.
()
This is you!
Ranked #
Last login
Member since
reviews
comments
ratings
questions
compliments
lists