What's On? Firefly.

Ok first of all, if you don't know what's going on, I suggest you read the previous post (it is brief (not boxers, sorry)) so that you are not confused anymore. If you DO know what's going on, then welcome to What's On? This time, I will be telling you about the series Firefly.

Firefly is a science fiction series that aired on Fox from 2002-2003. It was cancelled sadly after just 14 episodes. Since its cancellation, it has achieved cult status. I personally wanted to get into the show when it came out, but I was too young to watch it, so when it was cancelled, I forgot about it for a long time. I recently rediscovered it when I thought about it and then realized I could probably find it on Hulu.

The premise of the show is that there are 9 people on board a Firefly class ship (named so because of their resemblance to a firefly) named Serenity. On board, we have:

Mal Reynolds- Mal is the captain of Serenity. He's a very sarcastic guy, but he obviously has a conscience and he cares about the safety of his crew.

Zoe Washburn- A long time friend of Mal, Zoe is a very loyal companion who is very cool and collected at all times. She is married to the ship's captain.

Wash Washburn- The ship's captain and sometimes the comic relief. He's a skilled pilot and he doesn't get as much screen time as he deserves mainly because he's behind the controls of the ship most of the time. He has good lines when he gets to move around though.

Inara Serra- Inara is a companion, which is basically a classy whore. In the future, whores are prostitutes that aren't registered with the guild. Companions are very graceful and elegant (a stark contrast from modern day prostitutes) and they are actually looked up to in some circles.

Jayne Cobb- I don't know why he got a girl's name (frankly, it confused me for the first 4 or 5 episodes when I was surprised to see a man answer when they yelled out Jayne). He's the strongman that carries all the guns. He's slow witted, but handy in a fight and he somehow winds up being the butt of most of the jokes.

Kaylee Frye- The ship's mechanic. She's very spacey and innocent minded. She's one of those characters that it's hard to watch at some times because of her trusting nature and her strange ability to see what's good in everyone even when there isn't anything good in them.

Simon Tam- The ship's doctor. He and his sister River are on the run from the Alliance.

River Tam- Simon's sister and an escapee from a secret alliance training facility. Nobody knows what happened to her in there, but it obviously made her somewhat crazy.

Shepherd- I don't know if they ever brought up this guy's name, but he is always called shepherd. Basically, that means he's a travelling pastor. He is very calm and seems like a pacifist, but he hides a wide array of useful skills.

The series takes place in the year 2541 I believe (might be a few years off on either end). Earth was used up and humanity moved out and terraformed a bunch of "new earths." These new earths became fronteir worlds and some more central ones became large cities. The fronteir worlds are very much like scenes out of an old western movie. It is those worlds that give this sci-fi series a much more distinct western flavor than other science fiction series and movies. Another thing that sets Firefly apart is that it does not have any aliens. At all. Everyone is human and frankly, it was a nice, new perspective to have on science fiction.

Before the series begins, some big events went down. The centralized planets decided to form a government called the alliance. Many were opposed to that and there was a big war over it. Mal and Zoe fought side by side in that war, which helped build their trusting friendship. Unfortunately, the alliance (which was funded far better) won. Mal decided to get away from it all, so he bought a ship and he set sail to wherever the space winds blew him.

The crew of the Serenity are basically smugglers, but they also help out people on fronteir worlds if the money's good enough. The nine people all bring different points of view to the show that make for some good dialogue opportunities. The writing is very good, although I still have no idea why they always swear in Chinese. It was never explained, but there are websites that translate what they say and some of the insults are pretty funny.

The show was unfortunately cancelled after just 14 episodes of which many were aired in the wrong order. I believe that the show was cancelled due to lack of interest (duh) caused by the times it was aired in. The show is essentially about defying a government and the show was aired around the time between when 9/11 happened and before we invaded Iraq. During that time, people weren't really up for a revolt against the government. I believe that if the show had been aired during the waning years of the Bush presidency, it would have done far better and we would probably still be watching it now.

All in all, Firefly is a great science fiction series that you should definitely find time to watch (you won't need a lot of time). If you like it, I'm told you would like the movie as well (Called "Serenity"). I haven't seen it yet, but I would figure it's good since it is basically wrapping up the series.

Well that does it for this round of "What's On?" Remember, this is not a regular post, but it does come again. My next series will probably not go by as quickly as this one did. Ah well, tune in next time.