Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Firefly ::
by William the Bloody
Welcome to beloved series and character creator Joss Whedon's sci-fi television venture, Firefly! The series takes place 500 years in the future when the human race has spread out from Earth and colonized other planets. There is a galaxy-wide government entity called "The Alliance", which is a double edged sword, as most are. Yeah, they supply their colonies with food, water and medicine, but they also have incredibly strict laws and secret not-so-nice goings on beneath the surface. This is why, in the beginning, many planets fought their unification into The Alliance, but all failed.
We follow the crew of the ship Serenity, which is a Firefly model space ship (there's your title, kids). The ship's captain, Malcolm Reynolds and his first mate, Zoe, fought together in an anti-Alliance battle many years ago and are now doing their small part to rebel against the system by smuggling goods (kinda Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon fighting the Empire by smuggling in Star Wars, you get the idea). These two can't run the ship on their own so, enter the crew: perky Kayley the mechanic, Wash the pilot (married to Zoe), and hired gun-ex-mercenary-type Jayne. In the two hour pilot, we get introduced to the other people who are riding along on Serenity in addition to the necessary crew. There's Inara, a certified and registered companion (re: legal prostitute, apparently a very classy job to have in the future) who rents out one of the shuttle crafts for her own business dealings, Shepherd Book a man of the Bible who bought his passage, and a brother and sister Doctor Simon Tam who smuggled his sister River aboard the ship in a cryocrate on account of busting her out of an Alliance facility that was experimenting on her in torturous ways. The captain and the crew discover what Simon did and agree to hide he and his sister on board with them for as long as they need because 1) they are opposed to the Alliance and its rules already 2) it was definitely cruel and inhumane experimentation going on that it would be amoral to turn them in and 3) having a doctor on board is a pretty nice thing to have especially when you get shot at as much as these guys do on a regular basis.
The basic idea behind the show is outer space meets old west. The planets are being colonized yes, but the ones furthest out from main planets, the "outer rim" if you will, are pretty much roughing it and making do. The main planets are all fancy and ultra technological, but the outer rim civilizations are back to basics with hardly any advancements at all. This is why the Serenity like to do much of its business out there. The Alliance law enforcement presence is few and far between, which makes the smuggling line of work much easier. But it also increases the risk of running into competitors and double crossers, and when you're already on the wrong side of the law, you need to make things right on your own. There is also the problem of the Reavers on the outer rim. They are a horrific and murderous bunch of mutated and mutilated maniacs. Seriously. They like to wear your skin and rape you to death. Best to try and avoid that lot.
The Good: I like Joss Whedon. I do. He's my hero and this is no exception. The characters are so well done it's awe inspiring. They all have their own personal motivations and rationales and the way they interact with each other is what this show is really about. I have to say of them all my favorite characters are Jayne and Zoe. Zoe for being, well a kick ass, gun toting babe who is one of the best second mates I've seen. I love that they made her married to the pilot, because otherwise I'm SURE there would have been waaaay too much pressure to have her get together with the captain because they work so well together in the field. But their relationship, the captain and Zoe's, is not like that at all, and I'm glad. And Jayne for being such a dumb bad ass with a great fire arm collection who names his favorite gun ("Vera") and believes its equal in trade to a woman (don't ask). Jayne has some great moments to be sure, but some of the best lines belong to Wash, the dopey and lovable pilot. I really adore the way they pulled this show off. Yeah, most episodes have them taking on a smuggling job and they have to strategize on how to pull it off without getting caught, but it's mainly about the people and the banter and the snide remarks.
The Bad: Kayley the mechanic, while cute as a button, has bad dialogue. There's just something about the way she talks that I don't like. It sounds forced or something. Also, I have to stop my Joss adoration for a moment to complain. Memo to Joss: get a little more original, mmkay? He seemed to recycle a few of his Buffy archetypes onto us here: Wash, the goofy and lovable guy is basically Buffy's Xander, right down to the Hawaiian shirts, Kayley is your adorable and perky mechanics genius, a la Fred Burkle on Angel or Willow on Buffy, take your pick, but I lean more on Fred, and then there's River with her Drusilla brand of crazy up to and including the unhinging ability to "read" off people. And for being what? 500 years in the future much of the firearms seem like they haven't advanced much. I really don't get that. Only ONE guy in 14 episodes even HAS a laser! We got spaceships and everything but darn it, we can't seem to improve on the six-shooter... hmmm.
All in all, I couldn't believe how much I liked it. I went in determined not to, and was proven wrong. I tried to watch it when it was originally broadcast on FOX in 2002, but they played the episodes out of order (they showed the second episode first and the pilot episode last, so watching from the start of broadcast meant missing out on the character introductions until the end?) which made it difficult to follow, know the characters as well and understand their motivations. I gave up on it then. I wouldn't have even spent money on the DVD collection, but it was a gift, so I watched it, and boy am I glad. I know, the whole old west in outer space seems like a hard pill to swallow, but the characters make it like a spoonful of sugar. Unfortunately, the series was cut short and cancelled abruptly, so there are ongoing plot threads that seem to be going somewhere, but it's a payoff we'll never see, unless the feature film in September 2005 can cover a lot of ground in a short time, OR see to it that the Sci-Fi Channel makes new episodes in the future... well, fingers crossed.
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