Firefly

[lorenzovanmatte]

The Train Job
The good;
We see a more moral side to the Serenity crew and love the face-off between Jayne and the other without Mal around.

The bad;
The sick bay design is rather stupid, wouldn't you want some privacy rather all those windows for people to see in? No one notices Serenity flying alongside the train?

Best line;
Zoe (about to fight the bar thugs); "Jayne?"
Jayne (shrugging) "Hey, I didn't fight in no war"
plus
Zoe; "I have an image of that guy hanging from the ceiling"
Mal " I have an image of that guy not being me"
and
Mal; (of ripping off the Alliance goods) "I would do it for free"
Zoe; "Can I have your share?"

Packing heat;
I'm reliably informed by the folks on the yuku Xena forums that the sniper rifle Jayne used in Serenity is a Blaser R93. The bar thugs pack a Colt 45, Glock and 44. Automag. The Alliance troops use H&K MP5s and SA80s.

Kinky dinky;
Sexy belly dancer.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Mal talks of 'being on the edge' then 'moving towards the middle', possibly alluding to the frontier and the central planets. Innara and Kaylee have a big girly hairstroking session (how the Summer's girls on Buffy used to express physical affection for one another). Inarra remarks to Kaylee "We could experiment". Mal seems keen on the idea and refers to Inarra 'servicing the crew' but she dismisses that as his 'lonely pathetic dreams'. Summer points out that Mal=Bad in Latin/French.
Mal tells Zoe he loves her but it's all part of their cover(?)
How'd they get away with that?
People on meathooks, never a good thing. River being experimented on also not good.

Total Serenity crew; 7(8?) River comments of Serenity "This isn't home". Book is now part of the crew with no backstory but still wonders about his role onboard. Jayne doesn't consider Simon or River part of the gang.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kayleigh, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness.
Bondage;
Knocked out; Jayne by Simon
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Mal kills Crow and Zoe kills at least 2 of his men
Mal; 8-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Kaylee seems fascinated by the details of Inarra's profession. Inarra claims a companion gets to pick and choose her clients which I think is about as realistic and truthful as the Dollhouse staff pretending to themselves that they don't hire the Actives out as sexual submissives. Mal still needles Inarra about her hooking but does so more subtlely and less nastily than he did in 'Serenity'. The nature of the companions work is left very vague here, if you hadn't seen Serenity you wouldn't know exactly what her job is, she could be a beautician.
Inarra enjoys turning the tables on Mal, pretending he's her indentured man (some form of community service in the future?).
Know the face?
Tom Towles plays the thug in the bar, he's also Cooper in the far superior remake of Night of the Living Dead and guest starred in Anthony Head's series VR5 (in which he essentially plays a prototype Giles)
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men here and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Again we see people who are pro-Alliance and not just upper class types like Simon. Here the Alliance provide medecine for needy and as the Sherrif points out they weren't the ones whole stole it.

Fanfic;
Interesting ST:TNG fic where Picard learns that the Fedearations use of warp drive is destroying a sentient species who live in subspace. He protests to Starfleet Command but he's then asked what the alternative is, should they give up space travel leaving Starfleet defenseless against the Ferengi/Borg/Romulans? In the end he decides to toe the party line but accepts that the 'Prime directive' is an exercise in hypocrisy.

Missing scenes;.

Western cliches;
Mal is thrown through the bar window but in the future it's a forcefield. Telegraph poles beside the train track even in a world with inter-stellar travel. Jayne's 'aiming for his head' remark may be a reference to The Magnificent 7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/Jesse James also big on train heists (anyone watch the 'Deadliest warriror' showdown where The James Gang goes up against Al Capone? For my money it's James by a mile, he's a trained soldier and a combat veteran whilst Capone probably never faced a target who fought back.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Shot; shot by the Fed during the robbery.
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;

Reminds me off;
Mal refers to 'We'll rise again' which relates to the Confedracy in US Civil War. Does anyone else expect Niska to tell a story about Meerkats and try and sell Mal cheaper car insurance? (if you're a Brit you'll understand that, if you're not don't worry about it). The town of Paradiso may refer to the old Western series 'Paradise'. Crazy genius River is very Drusilla/Pylea Fred, drugged Jayne reminiscent of AI in 'Spin the Bottle'. Wash's Hawaiin shirt is very Xander especially the one he lent to Spike in the season 4 ep Doomed. The 'we're not going' remark is reminiscent of Aliens where Ripley goes to rescue Newt. Joss in his commentary draws comparison from Mal to Angel.
Of course the Alliance remind you off Starship Troopers but then Joss explains why on the commentary.
Questions and observations;
We now know the war ended 6 years ago. Inarra has been on the ship 8 months. Here we have a much more upbeat, likeable Mal, perhaps the events of Serenity mellowed him? He even says 'It's the right thing to do'. Book refers to the 'Fuzzy wuzzies' referring to Kiplings poems concerning the Sudan campaign Britain fought against Islamic fundamentalists in C19th (and we're still doing it today!).
What is the chain of command on Serenity? It seems to go Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, after that anyone's guess. Note Mal doesn't kill the Fed on the train, just knocks him out. Joss refers to Inarra and Mal as Beatrice and Benedict from 'Much ado about nothing', check out the Kenneth Branagh version for the Beatrice and the Duke (Denzel Washington) proposal scene alone. Joss refers to Firefly as Star Trek;TNG dark underbelly, much as what was explored in DS;9.
Marks out of 10; 5 out of ten, nowhere near as good as Serenity, not a bad ep in itself but feels cheap in comparison to it's predecessor, like Charmed to Buffy.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Bushwhacked

The good;
Clever of Mal when he's asked about the brother and sister he replies 'There are no children on this boat', exactly what you'd immediately think if someone referred to siblings. Good interrogation scenes, especially Jayne's and some tense stuff with the bomb defusal, very Juggernaut. Love River's delighted reaction to seeing the stars.

The bad;
Zoe comments that there were no signs of a struggle but surely the crew would have fought to the death against the Reavers? Why didn't the Reavers eat the bodies if they're cannibals?
Best line;
Commander; "You fought with the Captain during the war?"
Zoe; "I fought with a lot of people
Commander; "What about your husband?"
Zoe; "I fight with him too"
Packing heat;
Would conventional guns work in a vaccum? Maybe if they had futuristic ammo? The Alliance Commander packs a Barretta pistol when boarding Serenity. His troopers seem very impressed with Jayne's private arsenal, presumably the NRA sided with the Alliance as there seem to be no gun laws in the future.

Kinky dinky;
Sweaty cast playing a variation of basketball, Zoe's top especially revealing. Wash goes enthusiastically into detail about Zoe's amazing legs and 'what's above them'.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Inarra comments 'We're all running away from something'. She calls River 'sweetie' much as Kaylee does. Kaylee is very defensive of the Serenity, perhaps she identifies with the ship as herself.
How'd they get away with that?
Corpses bouncing off the windshield. The suit scene once again demonstrates the crew's rather cruel sense of humour. Self mutilating psychotic survivors.

Total Serenity crew; 7(8?)
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kayleigh, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Mal punches the survivor. When the Alliance show up the crew bravely give up without a fight.

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness.
Bondage; Mal placed in handcuffs by Alliance
Mal; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
Zoe tells Jayne to shut up or he'll scare the women.

Kills;
Mal; 9-Mal kills the survivor
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Once again Inarra is the one with the respectable job, the Alliance commander not able to believe she's associating with this of bunch of lowlives.
Know the face?
Doug Savant of course is Tom Scavo in Desperate Housewives, a show Nathon Fillon, Julie Benz and many other Whedon alumni guest star on. I keep expecting Lynette to show up and remind him to pick up the kids. He's also one of the soldiers in Godzilla.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Mal mocks the idea of the Alliance turning up to rescue their taxpayers whereupon they do exactly that. The Commander has seen torture during the war, by the Alliance to the Browncoats or vice versa? He comments that 'For some the war will never be over', does he mean for him or for Mal? He shows genuine concern for the dead passengers and when the pseudo-Reaver breaks free his first act is for a guard to be placed on the ships nursery. He leads the Alliance team onto the Serenity himself. In the end he lets them all go.

Fanfic;

Missing scenes;.

Western cliches;.
The term bushwhacked and bushwhacker comes from the US Civil War where both sides sponsored bands of guerillas to operate behind their opponent's lines. In reality these were little more than state sponsored brigands, the movies 'Ride with the Devil' and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' giving a good idea of their actions. The most famous of all was Jesse James, a former bushwhacker who became a robber and outlaw because he couldn't accept the war was over, just as the Alliance Commander accuses Mal of doing here.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;

Reminds me off;
The ghost ship is very Marie Celeste with hints of Alien and 2010 (especially the way it spins). How they find the survivor is very similar to the marines discovering Newt in Aliens. Jayne's description of his unseen attacker as 'big, strong' recalls the commandos describing Buffy after she rescues Willow in the s4 ep 'The Initiative'. Mal's talk of the darkness is similar to Nietschze's observation that if you stare into the abyss for long enough it stares back into you. The booby trap reminds me of an effect from Babylon 5, something the Drakh would use.
Questions and observations;
I somehow feel the red balloon they find on the ship has some significance but I just can't think what? According to the Commander there are 40,000 Firefly type craft in the galaxy. It's been 4 months since The Train Job as Inarra says she's now been with the crew nearly a year. Exactly why does the Commander want to know the details of Zoe and Wash's marriage? Three eps in we have yet to see a real Reaver although here we get a glimpse of a pseudo one. How intelligent are they? They can operate spaceships and leave a boobytrap so they must have some sentience?
Marks out of 10; 7/10, interesting

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Shindig

The good;
Kaylee is the belle of the ball and isn't she WONDERFUL! Mal swordfighting and lots of good stuff with Badger, especially his conversation with River. Adore Mal's looks of amazement as Jayne knows what 'pretentious' means.
The bad;
The cows in the final scene are amazingly quiet whilst Mal and Inara are talking.
Best line;
Kaylee; "Great party, huh?"
Debutante; "Not as good as last year"
Kaylee; "Why, what did they have last year?"
Debutante; (looking Kaylee up and down) "Standards"
To quote Cameron on The Sarah Connor Chronicles '*********e much?"
Also like;
Kaylee; "Maybe that's him over there?"
Mal; "That's the buffet table"
Kaylee; (hungrily) "How will we know if we don't ask?"
Packing heat;
Swords this time. Badger's men use an MP40 Schmeisser, an Uzi and an AK-47, the guest at the party seems to have a Colt .32 pocket pistol. Jayne packs what looks like a Mossberg shotgun on the Serenity.
Kinky dinky;
Naked Wash and Zoe get it on again, Zoe complimenting Wash that he 'knows all the steps'. Inarra's outfit at the party is also quite something. Kaylee comments that Mal's outfit shows off his backside and Inara subsequently spanks it with her sword.
Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inara is hired for the evening but we've no idea if they have sex or not so I'll put him down as a possible.
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Wash jokingly refers to 'jealous men like me' regarding Zoe but is he really joking or sending Mal a not so subtle message? When Kaylee says 'Look at the pretties' Mal asks if she means the girls or the clothes? Mal and Jayne s****** as Badger implies he has his hands on some diamond testicles. Mal observes Atherton is such a catch 'I'm liable to sleep with him myself'.
How'd they get away with that?
Mal gratuitously stabbing Atherton after he's defeated him in the duel. Mal's remark comparing Kaylee to a sheep dancing on it's hind legs is INCREDIBLY insensitive, Jayne's gynacologist joke in the ep Serenity is less offensive.

Total Serenity crew; 8(9?)
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
After sex it's Zoe who wants to sleep and Wash to stay awake. When Mal claims he cannot run Inara correctly points out that he runs away all the time. Mal is far from stoic when complaining about his wounds later.
Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys.
Bondage;
Mal; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 1
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
It's not enough for Atherton to simply hire Inara for her charms he wants to own her completely and deny her to other men, like she's some form of possession.
Kills;
Mal; 9-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Inara greets several other companions at the party. They are used by rich men as status symbols, who has the best one get's the most kudos. At the end she freezes him out, no other companion will now work for him after how he's treated her. Mal refers to the companion training school as a ****e academy (jeez the man has NO CLUE!)
Know the face?
Larry Drake is familar to 80s TV viewers as Benny in LA Law, the nicest man in the world and to horror fans from Darkman and Dr Giggles where he plays the nastiest men in the world. He also stars with Whedon alumnis Alyssin Hannigan in American Pie 2 and Amber Benson in the dreadful B-movie Gryphon.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Would the Alliance allow slavery (or dueling?) on their worlds? Or are they like the Union forces in the American Civil War/British Empire in the 18/19th century, abolishing it wherever they go?
Fanfic;
Mal and Inara getting together after this ep is common but a sizeable minority like to pair her up with Atherton, presumably the same folks who think Kate Winslet should have stuck with Billy Zane in Titanic (Mae West's quote of wanting a man who's "handsome, rich and cruel" springs to mind") If you like things a LOT more adult there's also one where Kaylee's admirers invite her to an after hours party and then indulge in group sex with her, more or less consensually (ie she starts off as less but ends up as more).
Missing scenes;.
Reputedly there was a scene where we see Mal unload the walking arsenal he carries in his pockets before entering the ballroom plus a derringer he has Kaylee carrying for him in her stockings tops. Also a scene where we Larry Drake's character and Badger fall out and Inara gossiping with her fellow companions at the dance.

Western cliches;
Nice in a western series to finally have the Serenity with a hold full of cattle, once again food is one of the most precious commodities in the Fireflyverse, especially some good steak as Jayne observes earlier in the episode.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Crew injured;
Mal pretty badly sliced up in the duel at the end.
Reminds me off;
Deranged River talking in her faux cockney accent is VERY Drusilla indeed. Inara the high class lady of the night is very Darla and her love/hate relationship with brooding hero Mal somewhat akin to Darla and Angel. Mal's hatred of slavery is reminiscent of Han Solo. The *****y girls at the party are awfully like the Cordettes on Buffy. Kaylee's hilarious expression as Mal tells her that he has a job for her is very like Willow's when Riley's wife Sam makes suggestions for Xander's wedding in the s6 Buffy ep 'As you were'. Wash is a bad poet, much like Spike and not really an action man as with Xander. Jane comments that the Serenity crew are the misfits who don't fit in much like the Scoobs at Sunnydale High.
Kaylee's rescuer at the party does indeed remind me of an older Clark Gable as the commentary observes but also of Dr Huer from the old Buck Rogers TV series.
Questions and observations;
They still have the peerage system in the future. Unfortunately they've also got slavery too, even on a fairly civilized world like Persephone . 'Magic' Jane Espenson, hooray! Inara seems to have a thing about slumming, she really is out of place in the Firefly crew and certainly in the bar Mal and Jayne take her to. More social climbing by Badger but he's useless at it, crustless sandwiches (cucumber?) mixed with wood alcohol hooch, no wonder he needed Mal to be the middleman for him in the deal, at least he can fake class convincingly. Kaylee's surname is Lee Fry. She once again shows her love of fruit, both mangoes and strawberries as does Badger who's at the apples again. Zoe's remark about Jayne slitting her throat and taking over the ship again suggests he's the unofficial 3rd in command. However he wants to rescue Mal when Badger comes to the ship.
Mal is in many ways too honest and honourable for the criminal world, he's probably more like the Alliance than he cares to admit but can't stand submitting to their authority.
Marks out of 10; 7/10 pretty good

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Safe

The good;
River dancing is just wonderful as is Simon's happiness at it. The scene where the rest of the crew rescue them is terrific as is Jayne looting their stuff.
The bad;
Can someone please explain to me exactly when the hillbillies work out that Simon is a doctor? Also what sort of supplies do they have for him to work with?
Best line;
Jayne; (pretending to read Simon's diary) "Dear diary, today I was pompus and my sister acted crazy"
Packing heat;
Everyone's guns sound very different in this ep, more zingy and less like conventional firearms. The villains/cops 6-shooters also seem to hold an inordinate number of rounds. The lead cop packs a 44. Magnum. Mal and Jayne use Mossberg shotguns and Zoe utilises a full size Winchester rifle rather than her normal cutdown version.
Kinky dinky;
Kaylee wants to bite Simon all over? Jayne seems to derive pleasure from having watched the cows being fed by beautiful women (presumably Kaylee and Zoe rather than Inara and River?)
Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext;
Is Kaylee the duck and Inara the swan?
How'd they get away with that?
Skinning the hare is nasty but makes it's point. Burning witches at the stake.

Spoiler

Total Serenity crew; 9 Simon and River's status onboard confirmed
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River(?).

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Clever mislead, we think the hillbillies are savages but actually they're just desperate people who need a doctor.
Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts.
Bondage; River tied to a stake
Mal; 1
River; 1
Knocked out; Book goes unconscious after being shot
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Women good/men bad;
Kills;
Mal; 9-
Zoe; 4-
Jayne; 2-
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);
Know the face?
High School Musical star Zac Efron as young Simon, he'll later star in '17 Again' with Whedon alumni Michelle Tractenberg.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Alliance good or bad?;
Mal runs to the Alliance in order to save Book, how that must choke him! They seem reluctant to provide but don't say no outright. Then our Shepherd slips them an ID card? Hmmmmm.
Fanfic;
Missing scenes;
Reputedly scenes where the Alliance question the Tam's parents after Simon rescues River, River reading Ruby's mind and seeing her tragic story plus paying Badger his share, his hoodlums unable to believe that Mal doesn't try to rip them off, much to Badger's chagrin at Mal's moral superiority again.
Western cliches;
Hillbillies kidnapping folk. Zoe actually shoots the gun out of one of the bad guy's hand.
Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Shot; .Book shot during a the gunfight with the cattle
Mal; 1-
Kayleigh;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-
Crew injured;
Simon knocked around yet again, he seems to be everyone's punching bag.
Reminds me off;
River on the pyre reminds of Buffy, Willow and Amy tied to the stake and almost burnt as witches by M.O.O

Questions and observations;
So, what is Book's past and why do the Alliance treat him like a VIP once he identifies himself? Is he a former Alliance General guilt-ridden by his role during the war? A former spy who sold out the Independents? A scientist who carried out experiments like those conducted on River?
Mal finally makes a deal and actually earns some more or less honest money from it. Presumably this pays for the slap up meal the crew enjoy at the end of the ep. Mal asks why things never go smooth for them, once again we see that he's not really suited to a life of crime. As we suspected River and Simon were pro-Alliance before River's ordeal, casting the Browncoats as the enemy in their games. The locals describe the Serenity as a fancy vessel, would do Kaylee's heart good to hear that but it really underlines how remote and backward they are if they think that. This ep is set 3 weeks after the last so a planet 3 weeks travel from Persephone must be remote indeed. Jayne enjoys smacking the cows around? Once again father's get a hard time in the Whedonverse although the Tam's parents seem nice enough folks.
Marks out of 10; 7/10, nothing very startling here, nice to have River and Simon confirmed as part of the crew and I like the dance scene

 

[Siby]

Jeebus, you really love this show and clearly enjoy writing (obsessively) about it.

I just hope you take breaks to avoid getting carpal tunnel. Also, it's probably good there are only 13 episodes to review. hehe

Anyway, I enjoy skimming the write-up.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Jeebus, you really love this show and clearly enjoy writing (obsessively) about it.

I just hope you take breaks to avoid getting carpal tunnel. Also, it's probably good there are only 13 episodes to review. hehe

Anyway, I enjoy skimming the write-up.

Actually Firefly is my least favourite of Joss' shows, you should check out my Buffy reviews if you want to see true obsession!t:

Our Mrs Reynolds


The good;
The Mal/Jayne exchange on the wagon cracks me up every time. Some great acting by Christina Hendricks and the scene where everyone stands around judging Mal upon meeting his bride is hilarious. Some nice tension too as they ingeniously slip the net.

The bad;
?

Best line;
Mal; "How drunk was I last night?"
Jayne; "I don't know I passed out"
plus
Mal; "You've the same right as anyone to live and kill people"

Packing heat;
One of the bandits appears to pack a Springfield rifle. Jayne shows Mal 'Vera', his 'Callahan full bore autolock assault rifle' which needs oxygen to work. I must say I was totally fooled by this scene, I knew Jayne wasn't threatening Mal but I thought he was actually giving the gun to him as a wedding present.


Kinky dinky;
Mal cross dresses. The bandit leader demands 'one on one time' with Jayne's missus. Zoe refers to Saffron as Mal's 'nubile slave girl'. When Mal finds a naked Saffron in his bed she declares she's 'made herself ready for him', she started without him? She 'swells to think of you in me' as indeed does he. It's been a 'long while' for Mal. Wash likes forward women. Jayne never kisses his women on the mouth. Another thank you kiss from Mal to Kaylee.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; incredibly Mal resists

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby


Capt subtext;
Obvious jealousy from Inara, the only other member of the crew who's not laughing at all this. Also jealousy from Zoe, maybe over Mal but also over Wash seeming to like Saffron. Note her pride later when she learns that Wash resisted and stayed true to her. Kaylees's the only one who doesn't feel jealous, she feels for a crying Saffron describing Mal as a monster for upsetting her. Huge battle of seduction between Inara and Saffron but who's conning who? Like all straight men Mal loves the idea of two women together, thinking that Inara kissed Saffron rather than him.

How'd they get away with that?

.
Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers, Mal raised by his mother and 40 ranch hands.
Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1

Knocked out; Mal by the goodnight kiss, Inara by a secondhand goodnight kiss, Wash the old fashioned way
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1

Women good/men bad;
If Saffron is to be believed girls on the backward planet are kept in a 'maiden's home' and given away in arranged marriages. Mal decares Saffron 'No one's property'. Zoe takes exception to the idea that she might cook for Wash.

Kills; Mal, Zoe and Jayne kill 2 of the bandits each. Jayne kills 2 of the wreckers.
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 6-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Saffron refuses to be a 'doxy' and expresses contempt for them. Mal never beats around the bush and refers to it as '****ing'. Inara actually thinks the arranged marriage is degrading. Also she reveals her speciality is washing her client's feet.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.

Alliance good or bad?;
One of the bandits they kill is the wayward nephew of a senior alliance member. Mal&co probably wouldn't be in trouble but with Simon and River on board they don't want to chance it so don't hang around.

Fanfic;
Plenty where Saffron seduces Mal, Inara and any and all of the entire crew. The adventures of Mr and Mrs Reynolds also popular.

Missing scenes;


Western cliches;
Settlers in gingham dresses that would look apt in Oklahoma. Mal's mum owned a ranch, he really was a cowboy.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Wash gets a nasty old crack on the skull. Amazingly no one hits Simon for once.

Reminds me off;
Here we see the gang as hired guns running bandits off a small town, much like the Magnificent 7 (or The A-team?). Saffron uses the term 'doxy' which I've only ever heard used before by Wes on Angel about Cordelia and her friends. Wash's story of geese juggling reminds me a little of Steve Martin's film The Jerk. The wreckers are very Jamaica Inn/The Fog. Mal's assertion that he beats Saffron because of his loyal crew of friends is very like Angel to Marcus in Carpe Noctem and Spike's definition of why Buffy always triumphs.

Questions and observations;
The opening dirge is very Xena. We see the friendship between Mal and Jayne developing to a great degree, they seem more like buddies in this ep than before. Is Bau a real dish? We learn a little more about Mal, he's from the planet Shadow. The way the wreckers refer to the Firefly she sounds like the Volkswagon Beetle of spaceships. Note Saffron seduces Mal not with her body so much as flattering him for his morality. Inara pretty handy in a fight, maybe they teach more than footwashing at the academy. Why don't they all just pile into Inara's shuttle when they're being lured into the net? Or if they depressurise the cargo bay wouldn't it alter their course? Presumably the suit keeps pumping oxygen in when the visor is shattered allowing Vera to still function in a vaccum. Very little River in this ep, does she even have any lines?
.
Marks out of 10; 8 bordering on a 9, really good, up there with Serenity as the best ep so far, funny, thrilling and some great character moments, really like Saffron and I hope we might see her again, I hope the rest of the series is this good.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

JAYNESTOWN

The good;
The bit where the gang see Jayne's statue alone had me laughing out loud, then the song is even better. Inara's confusion over her client referring to Jayne but she thinks it's Mal is also hilarious. The River/Book scenes where she tries to correct the bible are terrific. Also love the bit where Zoe welcomes her boys home and her faked adulation of Jayne once she hears the story.

The bad;
Handing Stitch the loaded gun is deeply stupid, no matter what the magistrate's motivation. What IS the cargo they pick up? Stitch fires a shot in the air when we first see him confront Jayne but doesn't work the action and eject the spent cartridge until he shoots the mudder, he actually threatens Mal with an empty gun.

Best line;
Kaylee (to Inara who's off to see a client) "Have good sex!"
also like;
Simon; (upon learning of Jayne's folk hero status) "This must be what going mad feels like"
upon hearing the Jayne song;
"No, THIS must be what going mad feels like"
plus Wash;
"Let's go to the crappy town where I'M a hero"
and;
River (to Book whilst correcting the Bible); "Just keep walking preacher man!"

Packing heat;
I'm informed that Zoe's cut down carbine is referred to as a 'mare's leg', possibly because of it's kick? Stitch has a sawn-off Remmington shotgun.

Kinky dinky;
Simon finally tells Kaylee that she's pretty and they get all snuggly over 'mudders milk' (nice pun).

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Jayne possibly sleeps with the barmaid but unconfirmed. Inara has another paying customer.

Inarra;2- 2 paying customers, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Jayne; 1 possible, Jaynestown groupie.


Capt subtext;
I thought that the toppling of the Jayne statue was actually a comment about the similar destruction of Saddams statue during the liberation of Iraq but that actually happened afterwards (much as The Initiative on Buffy was very Guantanamo Bay but also occured beforehand)


Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River


Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Big tough Jayne whimpers as he pulls the surgical tape off his skin


Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent/overbearing fathers.


Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1

Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1

Women good/men bad;
Really like Inara's 'what makes a man' speech to her client. Not so fond of Jayne casually tossing his groupie aside the next morning with only a goodbye spank of her ass.

Kills; Jayne kills Stitch
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 7-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara kisses on the mouth. Her guild gives her enough leeway to reject her clients father if she'd wished to but she seems genuinely fond of the son. Ceremony plays an almost more important part for her in her work than the sex.

Know the face?
Kevin Gage who plays Stitch essentially recreates his role of the odious Waingrow in the wonderful Michael Mann film 'Heat', best cops and robbers story off all time.

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Jack Jabaley; 2-the bartender here and Xander's friend Tito the Plumber from Buffy.


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; .
Mal; 1-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Simon gets roughed up AGAIN! He's beginning to remind me of Joxer the Mighty. As Kaylee observes "You got to be steeley, can't let men be stomping in you so much"

Reminds me off;
Bare chested Jayne reminds me off the late Kevin Smith playing Ares in Xena. River sounds very like Fred when she starts talking physics when rewriting the bible. Book with his hair down reminds me of an Afro-American Albert Einstein. 'You fought the law' may refer to the song by The Clash. Mal's remark about the Mudder's Jayne fixation being about what they need as opposed to reality is reminiscent of the Dollhouse's philosophy.

Questions and observations;
So, beer was intended to keep the masses down? I wonder what went wrong? Surely Stitch can't have been wholly in the box for 4 years, his muscles would have atrophied until he couldn't walk and no one would be able to stand the stench to realease him. A town so backward they don't even know what a menu is, Simon really is in hell. He comes off the ship and starts really participating in their crime for the first time. Interestingly Zoe is left behind and Mal takes Wash with him, maybe because there's not going to be any gunplay in Canton. Jayne starts to develop a conscience, he and Mal beginning to bond again in the final scene. Stitch is one tough hombre to keep fighting with a Bowie knife in his chest (take that Deadliest Warrior who said the stiletto was better).
Magistrate Higgins got what he wanted, his son is now a real man, standing up to his overbearing father.
.
Marks out of 10;
8 out of 10, fairly lightweight but truly very, very funny episode with a Jayne brought to the fore for the first time and some absolutely killer lines

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Out of Gas


The good;
Really, really good, a classic 'submarine' story told with comedy and tension yet with wonderful character touches too. Lovely little details like even when they're all freezing to death Jayne stays in his shirtsleeves or Simon mourning the loss of his brithday.

The bad;
I'm almost a little disappointed that Mal just bought Serenity at a second hand spaceship sale, I always thought he won her in a card game or stole her from the Alliance (or even the Independents?) in the dying days of the war.

Best line;
River (to a frightened Book); "Don't worry preacher, we won't suffocate. We'll freeze to death first"

Packing heat;
Mal shot with a Browning 9mm.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Bester gives Kaylee a tour of his engine room

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester


Capt subtext;
Interestingly Inara says that she loved Serenity the moment she saw her too, just as Mal did. She also says 'I don't want to die at all'. One theory I've heard throughout the series is that she's actually slowly dying (like Darla) and that the syringe we see her with in Serenity was for medecine rather than narcotics or a suicide kit. Here she says that she doesn't want any of the crew just bursting into her room unannounced, she's not bashful of her nudity, could she be hiding something else? Is this part of the 'little clues' they speak of in the commentary?

How'd they get away with that?
Never liked needles, bad enough to watch Simon inject Zoe but watching Mal do it to himself is even nastier.


Total Serenity crew; 9
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River


Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks (Fool for Love, Lies my Parents told me, Are you now or ever have been?)


Knocked out; Zoe rendered unconscious by the explosion
Book; 2
Simon; 1
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;1
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1



Happy high-class hookers in Space;
We're informed that companions don't kiss and tell, as you would expect of people who listen to the pillow talk of the rich and powerful.



Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.

Alliance good or bad?;
Mal talks of the Serenity representing freedom to him, that they can 'live like real people' which he doesn't feel able to do with the Alliance. They're sneaking about under the radar 'the way it should be' even when it takes them hugely out of the way, it hurts the crew. Now of course, flying under the radar and living as an outlaw from civilisation is all very well UNTIL something goes wrong (or to put it another way, even anarchists dial 999/911). Wash lacks Zoe/Mal's antipathy towards the Alliance and resents that Mal's hatred for it has landed them in this mess and may cost Zoe her life. Interestingly Inara was in favour of unification and supported the Alliance in the war, just as River and Simon did.
Mal's no fool, he's suspicious of the 'rescue' crew, knowing there's no honour or trust in the wilderness.



Missing scenes;
Rumoured to be a scene where we see Mal and Zoe meet for the first time during the war, she catches him stealing supplies for his unit and then he realises she's doing the same.



Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going

Shot; Mal shot by the other captain
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;1-
Book;1-



Reminds me off;
The opening with the camera panning around the empty ship is very Alien again. Mal's leadership under pressure is inspired and he reminds me of great Irish Unionist hero Ernest Shackleton (check out Kenneth Brannaghs excellent version of the story) and of Apollo 13. Wash with his moustache and Hawaiin shirt is very Magnum PI. Kaylee is actually very close to her daddy, just like Fred. The whole ep very similar to the Space; Above and Beyond episode 'Who monitors the birds?' which Joss cites as his inspiration for the Buffy ep 'Hush' plus the Babylon 5 ep Walkabout.

Questions and observations;
This almost strikes you as a third pilot, we're introduced to the crew one by one and everyone's role on the ship is explained. Bester kinda reminds me of the workman in porn who turns up to fix something at the lonely housewives home. Book seems a lot more scared than everyone else which seems atypical of the character we know. Has he had a similar exeprience to this in the past?
Is the gun Mal finds something he planted earlier for just such an emergency or one that was left lying around by Jayne or something?

9/10; eps like this tell me why Firefly has such a devoted fanbase, hope the rest are like this

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

ARIEL

The good;
Lot's of it, if I were to have 2 favourite scenes it would be the admissions nurse just casually accepting the dead bodies into the hospital and Mal remembering what drugs to take by writing it on his hand. Mal's final interrogation of Jayne also excellent, you get the idea he saves him to spare the rest of the crew having to deal with his betrayal rather than for his own sake. The scene where River, Simon and Jayne flee the blue-gloves is a masterclass in building suspense, they haven't seen anything but the approaching screams of their victims coupled with River's terrified babbling produce a real sense of dread.

The bad;
. Simon saving the patient is very blatantly designed to make us feel better about the crew stealing medicine from a hospital (but I love River's smile of pride when he does it).

Best line;
Inara; "What have you guys been up to?"
Kaylee; "Oh, we killed Simon and River, stole a bunch of medecine"

Packing heat;


Kinky dinky;
Wash wants to take Zoe to a naked beach
Notches on the Serenity bedpost;

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester


Capt subtext;
Inara is going for a medical examination which she says is routine. But if we follow the theory that she's actually sick ....? Mal once again demonstrates his intimacy with Kaylee, hugging her in a very familar fashion at the end.
How'd they get away with that?
The blue gloved men repeatedly cutting into River's head to perfom brain surgery, ugh! Then to top it all they slaughter the cops with a device which causes uncontrollable bleeding from it's victims.
.
Total Serenity crew; 8 for this ep, Book is 'away at an abbey'? Do we ever get any other explanation than that? Simon refers to Serenity as 'home'. Mal makes it clear that he continues Jayne's act of betrayal against any of the crew to be against them all
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Simon teaches Mal, Zoe and Jayne enough ER speak to get into the hospital but the admitting nurse just accepts their word as paramedics that the patients died. But Jayne's put so much effort into learning all these medical terms he insists on using them. Which I think is very human. When struggling with the guard it's Jayne who is the one to be bitten when it's normally the other way around, the hero is the one who traditionally does the biting to even the odds against a superior oppenent.

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks
Bondage; Simon, River and Jayne in cuffs
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Simon and River drugged into near death. Jayne knocked out by Mal.
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;2
Mal; 1
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1

Women good/men bad;


Kills; Jayne kills the Alliance marshall with his bare hands
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 6-
Jayne; 7-

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara is expected to undergo a standard medical as a companion once a year (or is she? see subtext). She states the Companion policy about non-commercial dating is 'complicated'.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;
Zoe and Mal are so rabidly anti-Alliance they won't even set foot on a core world or even look out the window (afraid they might like what they see?). The rest of the crew doesn't share their prejudice and are keen to to get off the ship, Kaylee never having been on a core planet before. Does Mal protect River and Simon from the goodness of his heart or to stick 2 fingers up to the Alliance? The Serenity crew steal medecine from a hospital, sure they can replace it but still?
On the other hand the blue-gloved men have conducted horrific medical experiments on River and brutally slaughter a station full of cops just because they heard River talk?

Fanfic;


Missing scenes;
.

Western cliches;


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=ok(?)

Shot; Jayne shot by some form of stun weapon
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;2-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Jayne viciously sliced by River and gives her a busted lip in return. Jayne busted up by the guards and by Mal.

Reminds me off;
Simon saving the patient is a scene right out of The Fugitive whilst the blue-gloves are very X-files. Forget to mention it in Out of Gas but of course Bester is the name for both a famous sci-fi author and Walter Koenig's character from Babylon 5.

Questions and observations;
Ironically the ambulance is a Soviet Hind-model helicopter gunship in disguise. What does 'copper for a kiss' mean? Is it like 'Penny for the guy'?
Why do the blue-glove men seem to kill anyone who has heard River talk, even Alliance police? To cover up the secret of what they did to her or does she have some form psychic illness that they're scared she's passing on? Ironically the one time they actually make some decent money it's all the idea of Simon, who Book aside is probably the least criminally inclined of the entire crew, even Jayne impressed by his plan.
Do they sell the drugs they steal for their medical or narcotic value?
.
Marks out of 10; 8/10, very good stuff, hugely entertaining, we see the Firefly crew pull off a complicated heist and do it with much more aplomb than the Scoobygang or Angel investigations ever managed. We think the main character of the piece is going to be Simon but in a clever turnabout instead it actually turns out to be Jayne and his crisis of conscience is very well written and acted by all.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

War Stories


The good;
So lovely to see Kaylee and River playing together at the start like excited children with Mal and Inara looking on like a pair of devoted parents. Exciting ambush and final rescue and some nice comedy with Inara and her client and the crew's reaction to her. Also hints that River may be a lot more dangerous than we ever thought she might be and some nice character stuff between her and Simon.
The bad;
How exactly does Niska find out where Mal and co are doing the deal? Aside from that not much.

Best line;
Wash; "I am a large, semi-muscular man"
also like;
Jayne; (aroused by the sight of Inara kissing her female client goodbye); "I'll be in my bunk"
Zoe; "Jayne grab your weapon!"
portending of things to come;
'No power in the verse can stop me' said by River and Kaylee in 2 VERY different ways.

Packing heat;
Nikka's thugs use Blazer R93's in their ambush and Uzis, Steyr AUG's and Baretta submachineguns in the station. Wash packs a huge Colt Cobra 44. Magnum in addition to his Mossberg shotgun, Simon a Glock and Kaylee has a Bren 10 pistol, Sonny Crockett's gun from Miami Vice. Anyone tell me what Book's gun is?

Kinky dinky;
The henchman is reading some truly ancient porn when the Serenity arrives, did the Alliance ban Playboy or something? Zoe tells Mal to 'Take me sir, take me hard', naughty schoolgirl style prompting Wash to give his wife a hearty spank on the ass as foreplay for their 'bunk time'..
Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inara's first female customer. Mal confirms that he and Zoe never had sex.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester


Capt subtext;
So the whole idea of the River/Simon incest vibe was actually given to people by Alan Tudyk's in his commentary for this ep? Doesn't give a jot of evidence for it though. Inara's first female client, as Kaylee observes "They look so glamorous". Love her 'God!" expression as Jayne leers over them.
The latent jealousy between Mal, Zoe and Wash comes to a head, noticeably Zoe never promised to obey Wash but does Mal. Of course she picks Wash to save over Mal which must reassure him. The central message seems to be that Zoe loves them both equally but Wash in a sexual romantic way and Zoe as a friend/war buddy.
How'd they get away with that?
Mal and Wash horribly (yet somehow quite amusingly) tortured by Niska. Stops being funny when he cuts Mal's ear off!
.
Total Serenity crew; 9-Book back. The whole gang don't hesitate to cowboy up and go Saving Private Mal.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Amazingly Niska escapes. Mal actually wants the guys to shoot the torturer rather than deal with him himself. Wash does his 'Leave no man behind' schtick whilst cocking about the smallest pistol you've ever seen.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks
Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Mal knocked out/dead but then revived
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;2
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;


Kills; Inara takes no part in the combat and Kaylee never even fires her gun. Hard to tell amongst all the confusion but I'll give Zoe and Jayne 4 kills each and Wash 2. 3 kills for River. Despite both participating in the gunfight neither Book nor Simon kill anyone.
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 10-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Everyone seems to be insatiably curious of whom the Companions are hired by, even Book, they're the futuristic equivalent of Heat magazine. She seems to specialise not so much in the sexual aspect of her job but in making everyone feel special.

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;


Fanfic;


Missing scenes;
.

Western cliches;


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=actually been informed that it means 'little sister'
Niou-se=lame
Shot; Jayne get's clipped during the rescue
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Mal and Wash tortured half to death with Mal's ear cut off. Thankfully Simon reattaches it.

Reminds me off;
The desert hill where they get ambushed is the same one Buffy fights the First Slayer on in Restless.

Questions and observations;
Niska returns as a recurring villain, I've often thought that Dollhouse and Firefly fall short of Buffy and Angel's success partly because they didn't have the interesting and exciting returning villains those series specialised in. Apples again, I'm beginning to formulate a theory that the entire series is actually about fruit. Alan Tudyk states that he believed Wash flew a couple of missions for the Browncoats during the war then was interned by the Alliance before seeing any action. Jayne and Book are workout buddies. Note that Jayne still takes the time to loot the bodies at the ambush site (and presumably recover the drugs from there and the money later from Niska's space station). Note it's Book who rigs the bomb on the mule.
So what is River who can effortlessly shoot three gunmen without even looking? Did the Alliance's experiments turn her into some sort of supersoldier and is that why they're so desperate to retrieve her? Or is she some form of X-men style evolving super being and the Alliance's experiments were designed to prevent her becoming dangerous? Or some secret weapon one of the sides developed during the Unification war and are now trying to cover up? Is that what scares Kaylee at the end?
Zoe cooks for Wash at the end which takes in greater significance if you've watched 'Our Mrs Reynolds'.
.
Marks out of 10;
. 8/10 and again bordering on 9, continuing the high standards of Ariel.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Trash

The good;
Real white knuckle stuff with Zoe and Kaylee on the garbage barge, Indy snatching his hat close. Also love a paralysed, terrified Jayne at Simon's mercy calling out 'Anybody there?" only for River to stick her head around the corner of the door, for such a little thing she can be extremely sinister ("When did your little sister become unbelievably scary?"). 2nd appearance for Saffron and when you see her turn up you just know it's going to be a good one, the interplay between her and Mal and the *****y rivalry between her and Inara is delicious. Really like Monty too, hope we see him again, with beard or without.

The bad;
Doesn't anyone notice a bloody great spaceship like Serenity screwing with the garbage?

Best line;
Saffron; (of Mal) "He's my husband"
Mal; "Well who the hell in the galaxy ain't!?"
plus
Doren; (after Mal has explained they're here to steal his property but that Saffron lied to him) "I appreciate your honesty...not you know, a lot...but...."

Packing heat;
The whole plot revolves around 'The Lassiter', an antique laser pistol of untold value (check out Jayne's double take when he hears the name). We've seldom seen projectile energy weapons in the Fireflyverse, most people seem to still rely on lead. Noticeably the police on the core worlds seem to use some form of advanced stun guns whilst those on the outer planets stick with bullets. Because they need more firepower out in the wilds or just haven't been issued the new weaponry yet? Inara with a gun, the first time we see her with one. Needless to say it's an elegant, delicate looking affair, maybe a Ruger .22 or something similar.

Kinky dinky;
Naked Mal. Give Joss his due, whilst he has plenty of female nudity on his shows he makes sure there's plenty of male eye candy too (Spike, Angel, all the Actives in the Dollhouse showers). He frisks Saf-Brid-Yol commenting he's "never been there before'.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;
Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester


Capt subtext;
One thing that was suggested to me in feedback for my review of War Stories is that Inara's customer was able to provide sophisticated medical equipment at the drop of a hat which Simon uses to sew Mal's ear back on. At the end the crew wonder out loud how she's able to do that so easily but if we do believe that Inara is sick, maybe this was all intended for her as part of her treatment?
Inara accuses Mal of avoiding the core planets not through his hatred for the Alliance or wish to avoid law enforcement but because he's jealous of her clients and wants to stop her working. Mal doesn't mind be called a thief, he just objects to being a 'petty' thief? Or does Inara just mean he's petty about her and a thief? Perhaps Inara resents Saffron so much because she recognises her as a fallen version of herself?
How'd they get away with that?

.
Total Serenity crew; 9-Inara refers to 'our cut' and actually participates in the plan which is unusual for her (or at least she's the backup for when it inevitably all goes wrong). Simon and River inform Jayne they won't kill him for his betrayal because they consider him part of their crew.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book


Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes.

Bondage;
Mal; 1
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1

Knocked out; Jayne by an electric shock
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1

Women good/men bad;
Even by his standards Jayne is amazingly crude to Simon and River, threatening to show then his 'man parts' and proclaiming that 'womenfolk ain't to be trusted'. Saffron leaving Mal naked in the desert in undoubteldy funny although would it have been acceptable to us if Mal had done the same to her?

Kills;
Mal; 11-
Zoe; 10-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara refers to her 'house mistress', presumably some form of high-ranking companion supervisor/tutor. She also refers to the Geisha dolls Mal has been smuggling, a similar profession to her own. Is she Mal's Geisha Doll? Mal calls Saffron a 'Dirty, dirty ****e' as an insult, once again showing how his mind works. Saffron asks Doren if he regards her as his 'Princess in the tower', maybe suggesting she was a companion who made the mistake of becoming a kept woman as a couple of Inara's past clients have wanted of her.


Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.

Alliance good or bad?;
Mal actually shows real sympathy for Duren even though Saffron claims he's an Alliance war criminal, pronouncing him the one guy 'who don't have it coming'. Maybe Mal is starting to put the war behind him? (Or did his own share of looting which is how he afforded the Serenity?)


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time

Shot;
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-

Crew injured;
Mal gets a bloody nose from Saf-Brid-Yol.

Reminds me off;
Inara's pistol is reminiscent of Princess Leia's in Star Wars. The police vehicles remind me of US Navy Viking ASW planes. The phonebox amongst Doren's collection may refer to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Floating balloons on tethers as we saw in The Initiative and may refer to The Prisoner. One of the fences Mal suggests is called Ellison, again a famous sci-fi author.

Questions and observations;
All the mechanics on the Serenity seem to (literally) revolve around the one moving part, it's like the engine on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine or something. So what did happen to Heinrich the security guy? Saffron refers to a fence she has standing by on Prersephone to buy the Lassiter, does she mean Badger? Simon is noticeably dressing down now, no longer so dandy as he used to be (like Wes on Angel). Does River just sense Jayne's betrayal on Ariel or can she actually read his mind? Check out Kaylee's flowery cup, you just instinctively know it's hers. It seems to be you can now fix spinal damage with a simple injection.
So, River tells Jayne that she can kill him with her mind? Does she mean by telling what she knows? Because she's so much smarter than him? Or does she mean literally, implying once again the supersoldier/Dark Phoenix from the X-men idea?
.
Marks out of 10;
8 out of 10, an awful lot of fun to be had, as Mal says at the end, it's a good day. For me Firefly is very much hitting it's stride at this point.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

THE MESSAGE
The good;
Love the ice planets, someone should make those for real. We see more of Mal and Zoe during the war pre-Battle of Serenity and nobody pines as well as Kaylee does (except Willow?)
The bad;
Kinda a weak story with not that great a denoument.

Best line;
Zoe (to Tracey); "The first rule of war is never to let them know where you are"
Mal (exposing himself to the enemy and firing wildly) "Here I am! Here I am!"
Zoe; "Of course there are other schools of thought"
also like;
Jayne (non-plussed by Tracey's unexpected ressurection but observes) "Spry for a dead fellow!"
and
Tracey; "Do you think I'm stupid?"
Mal; "In every possible way"
not to mention
Mal; "There's always someone out there keeping a bullet with your name on it. The secret is to die of old age before they get a chance to use it"
which leads to;
Tracey; "You killed me"
Mal; "You killed yourself, I just carried the bullet for a while"
Packing heat;
Mal's still trying to offload the Lassiter from Trash but he may have to wait a while until the heat cools off. Jayne takes the opportunity to load up with ammo at the spaceport, considering all the different types of guns they use bullet resupply must be a nightmare. We see Zoe take a H&K G36 from the Alliance soldier she kills, the type of weapon we later see her and Mal use in the battle of Serenity. The Browncoats seem to use M16s and Mal has a H&K UMP submachinegun. Tracey takes a H&K P9 pistol from the crew.
Kinky dinky;
Jayne infers that seeing corpses puts him in the mood for sex but is quick to deny necrophilia. Naked Tracey.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost;

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester


Capt subtext;
Womack threatens the postman with homosexual rape in prison. Mal straddling naked Tracey.
How'd they get away with that?
Simon cutting Tracey, yeesh!
.
Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes.
Bondage; I've been reminded that I didn't include Mal and Wash tied up by Niska in War Stories so...
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Zoe kills 2 Alliance soldiers during the war. Mal kills Tracey who seems very resilent, perhaps due to his organ smuggling surgery?
Mal; 12-
Zoe; 12-
Jayne; 11-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;

Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;
Inara seems to be suggesting she return the Lassiter for a reward but Mal won't hear of it, maybe to avoid her getting in trouble or maybe he just couldn't stand dealing with the Alliance?
Womack is operating by himself as obviously the Alliance consider organ smuggling illegal although it doesn't seem to bother Mal and co.

Fanfic;


Missing scenes;
One rumoured storyline for later in the season is that Mal is approached to join a group of ex-Browncoats who want to restart the war and destroy the Alliance. He is then faced with the choice represented by Zoe on one side who wants to go back to the war and Inara on the other who says that would be madness.

Western cliches;


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Shot; -Wash shot in the face
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-

Crew injured;


Reminds me off;
The spaceport very reminiscent of Blade Runner whilst the post office scenes are reminiscent of season 4 of Babylon 5 (goverments rise and fall but the postal system is forever). The police craft if reminiscent of the former US Navy F14 Tomcat fighter.

Questions and observations;
No aliens in the Fireflyverse, much like BSG. Simon just seems to live with his foot in his mouth (even River thinks he's a 'boob'). I guess being such a goodlooking guy and a successful surgeon he never really had to try to get girls before. His observation that every other woman in his extremely limited social circle is married (Zoe), a professional who refuses to 'service the crew' (Inara) and his sister leaving Kaylee as a last resort is about as sensitive as bombing Hiroshima.
Jayne has a mother (and possibly a sister?) whom he sends money to. Jayne wears a hat which is unusual, in Firefly it's mostly the bad guys who wear hats. A very different version of pre-Serenity Mal here, funloving and seeming to think of the war as a great big game. Kaylee has rigged a hammock in the engine room, perhaps because of the events of Out of Gas? Or because that way Simon can just walk casually in on her which he couldn't in her room cabin?
The mule has survived it's use as a kamikaze in War Stories and is lodged in the Serenity's hold. Interestingly Jayne who we think of as a tactically shaven gorilla shows suprising sensitivity, removing his hat at the sight of the corpse and telling Book that seeing the dead makes him value life all the more. Nice mention of Saffron, Mal&co thinking that the Feds are after the Lassiter because she sold them out.
Shepherd once again shows an interesting depth of knowledge of the Alliance police.
.
Marks out of 10; 6/10 A little disappointing after the quality of the preceding eps, largely rescued by a few good lines.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

HEART OF GOLD

The good;
Stonking great battle, some lovely Inara/Mal stuff and sex aplenty for everyone. Small scene but I love the bit where Mal is doing his best John Wayne impression organising the defence of the brothel and then starts to panic when Pateleen goes into labour only to be saved by level-headed Simon (her kid must have the strangest trio of midwives ever).

The bad;
Silver foil can't hide the cheapness of the sets. Didn't they think to lock up or put a guard on Serenity overnight? If Jayne can take out the M60 gunner on the back of the hovercraft with his M14 can't he just slot Ranse and then it would all be over? You also wonder that Ranse just hands over his deadly, pride and joy pistol to the first stranger who admires it?

Best line;
Nandi;(of the Firefly crew) "If they're got guns and brains that's all I need"
Inara; "Well they've got guns...."
Packing heat;
Too many guns to count but notably Jayne with his M14 and the return of Wash's Colt Cobra .44. Ranse wears a fancy laser pistol which is rare sight for a non-core world. I'm informed that Shepherd's weapon in War Stories was a Goncz GA-9 pistol, great gun enthusiasts on the Xena boards.
Kinky dinky;
Inara bursts in on Mal 'handling his weapon'. She prefers his dinky Colt 32 instead (Wash's 'Leave no man behind' gun from War Stories). Mal and Jayne indulge themselves at the bordello with Jayne in particular getting into some hi-jinks with his blonde to judge by his transmission to Mal just before the gunfight.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Mal finally get's some action. Jayne get's so much he might leave the crew in debt to the Madam.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold ****e and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi

Capt subtext;
Obviously the idea is that Nandi is a substitute for Inara. Does Mal take up with her because she's 'An independent' and not tainted in his eyes with her support for the Alliance? There are also male ****es, one wonders are Companions exclusively female or do they also have male members...oh for a different phrasing.
When Mal shows no interest in her girls Nandi wonders if he's gay? His answer that 'I LEAN towards the womenfolk' is strangely ambiguous. One could speculate that Ranse represents the dark side of Mal himself, you wonder after this ep will Mal continue to use the word ****e as an insult?
How'd they get away with that?
The scene where Ranse humiliates Chari on the saloon balcony is just unwatchable

Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Having met the villain tough-guy Mal wishes to bravely run away. Jayne the callous womaniser actually likes to snuggle with his hooker. Pateleen shows the father his newborn son and then blows his head off in front of her baby with a .357 Magnum.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them.
Bondage;
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Knocked out;
Book; 2
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 2
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;
Rans tells the woman pregnant with his child that if necessary "I'll cut it out of you!" He really is just scum, reminds me of Caleb. The scene where Mal compliments him "She's a beauty" and he takes it to mean his sidearm rather than his wife really sums up the character right there.
Kills; I figure 5 each for Mal, Jayne and Zoe
Mal; 17-
Zoe; 17-
Jayne; 16-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
In this case, low class hookers in space. Inara draws a distinction between Companions and ****es but seems to have no problem with them. Nandi hints that there was a great mystery surrounding Inara's decision to leave the home of the Companion Guild where she was on track to go far.
Know the face?
The beautiful Melinda Clarke is familar to fans of Xena as Valesca and also plays a more exotic Lady of the Night on CSI. Be sure to check her out as the incredible S&M zombie in Return of the Living Dead 3. Photos from Return of the Living Dead III Looking at her you wonder did she maybe audtion for the role of Inara?
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;


Fanfic;
Any or all of the crew indulging themselves in/deciding to work at the Heart of Gold (Kaylee "I love to make people happy and here that's now my job") plus several where Nandi does decide to take up Mal's offer and flee, her girls/boys setting up their new business on the Serenity itself.

Missing scenes;
Reputedly a scene where Ranse's wife comes to the Heart of Gold the night before the battle to try to convince Pateleen to just give her the kid, that she has everything to offer a child and it's the only thing her life is lacking, the only thing she can't do is concieve. Another supposedly has Zoe berating Jayne and Mal for sleeping with the Heart of Gold hookers, saying that no woman would ever act as they did and pointing out that none of the Firefly females took advantage of the male ****es. At which point Kaylee looks suddenly guilty and slips quietly out the room...
.

Western cliches;
Storyline is very similar to aspects of Unforgiven, The Magnificent 7 and Young Guns Pt 2. Nandi rather reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich's Cattle Queen of Montanna. Mal does the traditional 'stagecoach jump' from the horse onto Ranse' hovercraft.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Shot; astonishingly with all the lead flying around our heroes get away unscathed
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-

Crew injured; not even Simon get's beaten up


Reminds me off;
Nandi is very like Tina Turner's character in Mad Max 3. Inara weeping when she discovers Mal has slept with Nandi is similar to Willow's when she finds out Faith has bedded Xander. Mal wishing to meet Ranse before taking him on is reminiscent of the famous Pacino/De Niro scene in Heat.

Questions and observations;
Jayne in a hat again, a stetson for the first time. Zoe wants a baby but Wash is reluctant given their precarious lifestyle. Inara actually get's into the fighting, holding a knife to Ranse throat. Nice quip from Mal when Nandi kisses him, he waits to see if he's going to pass out (as with Saffron). How did they know Chari was the traitor?
Marks out of 10;7 out of 10, a fairly slight story but well told and some nice Mal/Inara stuff

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

OBJECTS IN SPACE
The good;
All of it, very, very good, especially love the opening of Summer as she prowls around the ship listening to everyone's thoughts, the character of Jubal Early, the crew's meeting to discuss River and her plan is inspired.

The bad;
River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before. Plus shooting him would be a lot more humane than leaving him to suffocate?

Best line;
Simon; "My sisters a ship, we had a complicated childhood"
plus
Mal; "If I wanted medical jargon I'd talk to a doctor"
Simon; "You ARE talking to a doctor"
and
Simon; "Come on out Summer, the nice man wants to kidnap you"
Packing heat;
River get's her hands on Jayne's Desert Eagle 44. Magnum (which dwarfs her), possibly because she senses the impending threat of Early. Jayne says it won't penetrate the ship's hull, that not even Vera could do that. Early has a 'finely crafted pistol' but it seems to be a pure prop gun rather than any contemporary firearm. On his commentary Joss says he doesn't like guns but Buffy aside you'd be hard put to accept that to judge by his shows/films.
Jayne boasts about once hitting a man at 500yrds with a bent scope (Patience's men in Serenity?)
Kinky dinky;
Early threatens to rape Kaylee to get her co-operation. We take it that when he talks of giving Kaylee and 'present' and ridding her off a 'problem' he means River but maybe he takes her as a virgin and is telling her they're going to have sex? River observes he's all about "Power, control, pain'
River voyeuristically 'mindrops' on Wash and Zoe getting kissy on the bridge (aside from Homer and Marge they seem to be the most sexually active married couple ever). Topless Simon for the straight girls and sly boys (Joss admits he doesn't mind giving his audience some cheesecake) plus him playing footsie with Kaylee. He also relates the story of some youthful streaking to celebrate his graduation as a surgeon.
Book is celibate but avoids the question of *********ion.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; we don't know what happens between Kaylee and Early after he ties her up but I don't think so. She also relates a possible story about bedding a 14 year old 'genetic experiment' but again, unconfirmed.

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;1-Bester
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold ****e and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi

Capt subtext;
Mal says that he's perfectly fine with Kaylee never having killed anyone, he wants to keep her the one sweet and innocent thing in his life. Early's fate, left hanging in space with an uncertain future is a metaphor for the series itself.
When Jayne threatens that he and Wash will 'Go somewhere' over his teasing Wash says he hopes it's somewhere with candlelight.
How'd they get away with that?
Early threatening Kaylee is hard to watch as is his pistol whipping Inara across the face. Early licks the ship? Is he descended from Benton Fraser RCMP?

Total Serenity crew; 9-
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River, Book

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
We expect Book to tell the truth about being knocked out but he actually lies. We think Jayne is reaching his arsenal when he pulls the curtain back but actually he's just grabbing a blanket. Kaylee actually gives in, surrenders to Early and let's him tie her up, betraying River to him.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them.
Bondage; Kaylee tied up by Early
Mal; 2
River; 1
Simon; 1
River; 1
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Kaylee; 1
Knocked out; Book and Mal by Early
Book; 3
Simon; 2
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;3
Mal; 3
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 1
Women good/men bad;
Early questions why men are physically stronger yet women have the children?
Kills; Mal kills Early (or does he? Put him down as a possible)
Mal; 17-plus one possible, Jubal Early
Zoe; 17-
Jayne; 16-
Wash; 2
River; 3

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Early exclaims "I'll be a son of a ****e"
Know the face?
Richard Brooks a familar face for all Law&Order fans (until his replacement by Mrs Gere and then Kate Lochley) and truly excellent here in a role where he really plays against type.
Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
Alliance good or bad?;


Fanfic;
Plenty about the future adventures of Jubal Early. Amongst the means for his survival are;
1) Venting air from his spacesuit to propel him back to his own ship
2) Boosting the power of his magnetic shoes in order to attract him back to it
3) Remote control of his own ship once Serenity is out of sensor range (it does seem to fly off under some form of direction)
4) Firing his gun to use the recoil to direct himself
5) Picked up by the blue gloves who are also trailing Serenity
Unfortunately some include him making good on his threats to Kaylee.

Missing scenes; or deleted scenes in this case
1. Scene where we see Zoe and Mal being picked up by the rescue ships after the battle of Serenity. Very graphic with the ground littered with corpses and Zoe in particular looking as though she's on her last legs. It's a powerful scene but if they had left it in it would have detracted from Mal's 'loss of faith' moment in the pilot.
2. Zoe tells Simon about the battle of Serenity in all it's gory detail, 500,000 killed in less than 2 months. What makes this more interesting is that she states that the Browncoats leaders left them to rot on the battlefield for a week, they resent the Independents High Command as well as the Alliance.
3. Well I guess I owe Alan Tudyk an apology, there IS an incestuous subtext between Simon and River (at least on River's part) he didn't just make it up out of the blue in his commentary for War Stories. It's all actually quite innocent, like a little girl playing at weddings and casting her father or brother as the groom. She accuses Saffron of being a thief, the crew think she means snaffling the food but she actually means more than that. Mal's speech to Saffron about standing up for herself shows his attitude towards women and gives her the idea of how to hoodwink him. This scene also explains why Summer Glau had no lines in the whole of Our Mrs Reynolds.
4. Inara announces she's leaving, excised because of the crazy order in which the show was shown so as to make more sense.

Western cliches;


Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Fa-ta-bien=impossible/nonsense
Shot; Simon shot
Mal; 2-
Kaylee;1-
Jayne;3-
Book;1-
Wash;1-
Simon; 1-
Crew injured;
Mal gets a beating as does Simon again, Book get's a sore head. Inara get's a split lip from her pistol-whipping.

Reminds me off;
I guess I don't have to say Bobby Fett right down to his suit, gun and ship because Joss admits it in the commentary. Early threatening Kaylee reminds me of Glory and Tara in Tough Love.
Early's remark of " Maybe I've always been here?" is very The Shining.
Questions and observations;
I had thought it was stupid that Serenity had controls allowing someone to seal the crew into their cabins from the outside but it was pointed out if the ship was depressurised they would need to be able to seal off each compartment. Note Kayleigh is the only one not to have any hidden thoughts for River to read, she's totally open. Book's thoughts make you wonder if he was previously a cop or judge? As early observes, "That's not a Shepherd" Jayne appears to cook pancakes. Note when River has the gun it's Kaylee who backs away most having seen what she's capable off. The crew still don't know about Jayne's betrayal on Ariel.
Mal sure does love his double negatives when talking. Wash seems to delight in teasing Jayne although you'd wonder if he'd be quite so brave without Zoe to back him up? He also thinks telepathy is science fiction even when he's on a spaceship, very postmodern.
It appears people eat horses in the future. Early is the kind of interesting recurring villain the series sorely needs. Unfortunately this is the final ep.
Marks out of 10; 9/10, nice to see the series go out on a high

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Forgot to mention, Jubal Early is the name of a confederate General in the American Civil War (thank you Ken Burns)

SERENITY; the movie
The good;
Obviously benefits from a greater budget especially in the lab scenes. Cool opening tracking shot. Love River and Zoe trading their little look during the robbery and love River's goggles. Stonking great spaceship battles in a series where we haven't seen that before. The scene where they slip through the Reaver fleet is truly creepy.
The bad;
Mal's getting an innoculation at the start. Never seen that before but it neatly informs us that Simon is a doctor. Disappointing that we get no Saffron or Jubal Early but you can't have everything.
Best line;
Mal; "If I'm not back in an hour come rescue me"
Zoe; "And risk MY ship?"
plus
Simon; (to River who has just survived a Reaver attack, massive gunfight and crash) "Are you ok?"
River; "I swallowed a bug"
and
Mal; "You want to be in charge?"
Jayne; "Yeah"
Mal; "Well...you can't!"
Packing heat;
Serenity finally gets some exterior arnament in the form of Book's Bofors like flak-gun. Maybe the Alliance allowed private citizens to own what weapons they like but forbade the arming of ships themselves? Inara uses some form of Companion bow and arrow, as Joss observes, very Wonder Woman. Jayne doesn't use Vera instead having an H+K G36 and his grenades. Mal has an Armalite AR-18 which he later gives to Zoe, most other crew use MP5Ks plus Zoe's Mossberg shotgun.
Kinky dinky;
River voyeuristically watches her brother and Kaylee having sex. Maybe the subtexters did have a point? Kaylee appears to have been using a self-pleasuring device which horrifies Mal (who seems to like to think of Kaylee almost as his virgin daughter) but intrigues Jayne. The crew still like to eavesdrop on Mal and Inara for gossip/thrills. Mal cross dresses again, disguising himself in a companion's dress and may have gone through Inara's clothes (for her scent or to try them on?)

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Simon and Kaylee, at last

Inarra;3+1 possible, Atherton.
Wash; 1-the missus
Zoe; 1-the hubby
Kaylee;2-Bester, Simon
Jayne; 1-at least 1 Heart of Gold ****e and possibly many others
Mal; 1-Nandi
Simon; 1-Kaylee

Capt subtext;
Note River actually sniffs Inara's bed in Kaylee's video. Mal considers Fanty 'pretty'.
How'd they get away with that?
All and everything the Reavers do! The slow sword impalement is also nasty as is desecrating the dead by strapping them to Serenity, even Book.
Total Serenity crew; 7- When we meet the crew Inara and Book are no longer part of it (the ship and crew are literally and figuratively falling apart). Inara rejoins but Book and Wash die. River now takes Wash's place as the co-pilot of Serenity.
Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Kaylee, Inarra, Simon, River,

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Facing the Reavers our heroes bravely run away. Indeed in the end they leave it to the Alliance troops to fight them, THEY save the day. Amazingly the villain actually survives. Mal pushes the guy off the mule and leaves him to the Reavers. We never do get to hear Book's story. Mal the noble hero never hesitates to shoot unarmed people.
Whedon cliches;
Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks. Women in boxes. Misogynists who get what's coming to them. Sex-bots. People with subliminal triggers.
Bondage; River in cuffs
Mal; 2
River; 2
Simon; 1
River; 2
Jayne; 1
Wash; 1
Kaylee; 1
Knocked out; Jayne and Simon knocked out by River, River knocked out by Simon's magic word
Book; 3
Simon; 3
Kaylee; 1
Jayne;4
Mal; 3
Wash; 1
Inara; 1
Zoe; 1
River; 2
Women good/men bad;

Kills; Inara really participates in the fight for the first time. I'll give Jayne and Zoe 10 Reavers each, River 30 and everyone else 5. Amazingly Mal only kills 2 people.
Mal; 19-plus one possible, Jubal Early
Zoe; 27-
Jayne; 26-
Wash; 2
River; 33
Simon; 5
Kaylee; 5
Inara; 5

Happy high-class hookers in Space;
Inara is working as an instructor at a companion training school which must be the best job EVER!
Know the face?

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
1. Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
2. Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
3. Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
4. Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
5. Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
6. Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
7. Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
8. Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
9. Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
10. Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
11. Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.
12. Ira Steck; 2-The intern here and the vamp Buffy fights in 'Lies my parents told me'.
13. Michael Nagy; 3-one of the hospital staff here, the Rat Pack vamp Jay-Don in the Angel ep 'The Shroud of Rahmon' and Alfonse (one of vampWillow's lackeys) in the Buffy ep Dopplegangland.
14. Cathy Cohen; 2-the admitting nurse here and the estate agent who hits on cool Xander in the Buffy ep The Replacement.
15. Jonathon Woodward; 3-as observed in the commentary, a hatrick (but not the only one), the vamp Holden Webster whom Buffy slays in 'Lies my parents told me', the traitorous Knox in season 5 of Angel and now Tracey in Firefly, each character seeming good but betraying everyone at the end.
So, 15 in total
Alliance good or bad?;
In this case Alliance bad but well intentioned. They wanted to create a society without violence which seems laudable but in the end turns into a nightmare. In the end the Alliance troops defeat the Reavers, saving the crew and rebuilding the Serenity. Whilst the Alliance seems set to continue it may be very different from now on.
Mal says the war is long done and Joss comments that he's put it behind him. So when he tells Simon that needling the Alliance is one of the reasons he let's him and River stay is he being truthful?
Simon really looks the part of the Alliance officer in the beginning. The Operative says that Mal isn't the hero and the Alliance isn't the evil empire. Joss himself remarks that he sees the Alliance as a largely benevolent force.
So, who would you have sided with in the war? I have to say that Blue Gloves aside I'd lean towards the Alliance.
Fanfic;
The continuing adventures of Serenity post-movie obviously popular. One common thread is that with Wash dead Mal now has to choose between Zoe and Inara as his love. Another is the Alliance unravelling and the crew coming to terms that they've created chaos in the universe and actually seeking to create a UN type organisation/Galactic senate.

Missing scenes;
Reputedly had the series continued there'd have been an episode where Mal and Zoe are tracked down by a group of ex-Alliance soldiers intent on avenging a war crime that their Browncoat unit committed (like Principal Wood and Spike).
The deleted scenes are largely unremarkable except for Inara teaching her Companion skills to her young pupils. More of that would have probably made the film more successful at the box office.

Firefly speak;
Gorram=goddam.
Weak tea=not good
Back birth=idiot
Companion=high class courtesan
Gengish=competent
Doh-ma=understand/understood?
Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
Chin-cha-da=hell
Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
Ta-gow=Oh god!
Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
Gosa=excrement
Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
Los-soh-ret=crap
Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
Wah=what the hell?
Mah song=quickly
Jin-seen-yung=idiot
Nu-shu-quong=nice going
Mai-hong=hello
Sheinou-niou=no good
Mei, mei=little sister
Niou-se=lame
Hey-shu-peegou=dumbass
Moon brain=inbred?
Jus-sa-gran=dupes/suckers
Swa-shi=petty, small time
Trim=sex
Roller=tank or armoured vehicle
Jon-su=*****/hardass
Wetware=smuggled organs
Sly=gay
Drops=narcotics
Fa-ta-bien=impossible/nonsense

Shot; Jayne, Mal, Kaylee and Simon all shot
Mal; 3-
Kaylee;2-
Jayne;4-
Book;1-
Wash;1-
Simon; 2-

Crew injured;
Jayne get's staked in the leg and thumped by River. Mal routinely gets the stuffing beaten out of him.

Reminds me off;
River spying on Simon and Kaylee having sex reminds me off Dawn who was quite the voyeur with Buffy and Riley. The idea of a world without violence is something Joss reuses from season 4 of Angel. The Reavers are reminiscent of John Carpenter's film Ghosts of Mars. The opening scenes are very BSG whilst one of the guns in the bar fight looks like the ones they used on Babylon 5. The new mule is very Star Wars landspeeder (did they sell the Lassiter to pay for it?). Mal shoots the guy being eaten by the Reavers, very Last of the Mohicans.
Now of course Miranda (meaning 'most wonderful') is Prospero's daughter in The Tempest. We've already seen Ariel (the wonder of the Alliance?), does this make the Reavers Caliban? "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine". And of course it was adapted as 'The Forbidden Planet'.
River's trigger is very like Spike's in Buffy. Alien is referred to again although this is a universe without aliens (The Operative refers to 'Building better worlds' which is the company's motto). Mal quotes The Ancient Mariner. The space battle is very Starship Troopers, Wrath of Khan, Babylon 5 and of course Star Wars. Zoe's assertion that they're not getting out alive is similar to Angel in Not Fade Away. Burning swing is very T2.

Questions and observations;
So we finally meet some real Reavers (we've only met one pseudo one before in Bushwhacked). But the Serenity crew never confront the Blue-gloves? Note when we see the slaughter at Haven Jayne still takes the time to loot. Who helps Simon rescue River? The Browncoat diehards who were to try and recruit Mal and Zoe if the series had continued? The Mal we see at the beginning is much more like the Mal we see in the pilot than the series. Wash the pilot always seems the last to know everything, he's rather left out.
The Alliance now use sleek ships. Mal's record shows him to be a captain in the Browncoats which is why Zoe calls him 'sir' which she shouldn't do if he's a sergeant (although if he really did command 2000 men at one point he's actually an acting brigadier). Are the Reavers all gone, did the Alliance wipe them out? Jayne plays the guitar, I wonder if he know's The Hero of Canton?. The Alliance troops have new armour, very Halo like. Jayne points out that of Mal's 30 man platoon he and Zoe were the only survivors, bearing out Zoe's assertion that a hero is someone who gets other people killed and a leader is 'something of a monster' (like ruthless Angel at the end of season 5 and hardass Buffy in season 7). After visiting Ariel River begins to get visibly better. Jayne comes to terms with Simon by offering him his whiskey.
Marks out of 10; 9/10, very good, if this is the last we see of the crew (and it almost certainly is) this is a fine send off for them.

So, Firefly? Well, very enjoyable but I'd still say it's my least favourite of Joss' shows. Now of course maybe if it had lasted longer I would think more of it, if Buffy/Angel had only had 14 eps they wouldn't have grown into the great series they were. I think the best way to put it is that Firefly had the potential to be a great series. Interestingly Buffy was a largely unsuccessful film that was transformed into a tremmendously successful TV series with it's own successful spinoff. Firefly was a failed TV series that became a largely successful film.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Just started watching this series again for the first time in a while, it really brilliant, the first few are probably the worst, and they are still amazing, you just love every single character, for very different reasons, and thats whats so good about it, its a damn shame we never got to see the series continue or we couldnt get a sequel to Serenity.

 

[lorenzovanmatte]

Like many series nowadays I think Firefly was just hitting it's stride when it was cancelled, with falling revenues and competition from cheapo reality shows/sitcoms sci-fi nowadays has to be a big hit from the beginning or pretty much die. I think Dollhouse really only got a seconde season due to Dolls in sexy outfits, it really is a case of the lowest common denominator

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Just started watching this series again for the first time in a while, it really brilliant, the first few are probably the worst, and they are still amazing, you just love every single character, for very different reasons, and thats whats so good about it, its a damn shame we never got to see the series continue or we couldnt get a sequel to Serenity.

I just watched it for the first time on Netflix (including the movie Serenity). The characters were just so unique. They all had something about them that you just fell for. I about gasped when Wash was killed. I didn't see it coming. The end fight was just amazing to watch.

I'll never say never for a sequel. If Star Wars VII is happening....so can this.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yeah I finished this last week on Netflix too. I watched Serenity about five years ago but still remembered certain events. But it's quite different watching it again with watching the show.

It's not my favorite thing Whedon has done, but my non favorite Whedon piece is better than most things.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

And just started watching this again for the 1st time in a few years. Obviously by the post a few above. Its still so good, even today when it doesnt have the production values of modern TV shows, it still shines and the opening song gave me goosebumps on the back of my neck.

Would so love for this to come back, such a unique show.

 

[Venomfan]

introducing my girlfriend to this show right now. Watching it again I feel like Jaynestown should have been moved back a few episodes. The character development Jayne gets in the end scene (42 min mark) [YT]rdMbjqAL6T8[/YT] makes it seem weird that he later betrays Mal. I feel that it would be better if this episode was after that event. Though I imagine some people like that he regresses back to how he was. Also I really wish they released the music for that Hero of Canton reprise that plays in that scene. It's beautiful and my favourite piece of music from the series

 

[Dr.]

Another report of another re-watch. (And for me, it's been a few years.) Yeah... this is still dang good. Also, the CGI spaceships/space stuff remains impressive — especially for a low-budget show that's now over twenty years old.

Also also: I happened to notice that a young Zac Efron plays a young Simon Tam in a flashback.