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WTF, Fox?!

Sep 21, 2008 Misc

Image via Wikipedia

Ok, so I know I’m a little slow on this one. Forgive me for being a late convert to the cause.

A couple years ago we purchased and watched Serenity, the feature adaption of the Firefly television series by Joss Whedon. We loved it. We found it amusing, poignant, containing just the right amount of action and smart. Enjoying the movie as we did, we began to discuss the series. I had thought that perhaps there was something about the series that differentiated it hugely from the movie. I figured something had to have been missing from the series that the movie put back, because the movie was just freakin’ great and there is just no way a studio would have kicked it to the curb.

Neither of us had the chance to do more than catch a few pieces of a couple episodes of the original series when it aired in 2002. I was working nights at the time. Since we shared a computer back then, the other half crammed all her computer delicious time in while I was at work. Well, times have changed juuuuust a little a bit since then. So, after catching another half-episode on TV a few nights ago, I decided to get my hands on the DVD of the original series and really sit down and watch it.

All I can say is, “WTF, Fox?! What the hell is wrong with you?”

The writing was still smart. At times the writing for some individual episodes far surpassed the film. I’m thinking of “Out of Gas” here for those familiar with the show. The script sparkled with a genuine-ness that just isn’t usually found in many of the series being pumped out today. The marvelous mix of cultures, languages and genres seemed made to fit together. It seemed real and it just made sense. The very fact that they didn’t spend half the show using huge made-up spacey-sounding words made the Firefly universe far more realistic and believable, not less (and yes, I’m glaring at you, ST:TNG).

The universe was actually interesting, and not just because it was full of human shaped-aliens with weird foreheads. It wasn’t quite dystopia, but it also wasn’t full of sunshine and roses. The post-civil war, quasi-western-in-space setting, while not new in concept, is pulled off beautifully in an originally imagined way. Between Star Wars and Star Trek (especially Star Trek), the *visual* face of sci-fi had fallen into a few predictable conventions. These conventions made even the shiniest new sci-fi always feel somewhat similar.

Obviously, some of this is on purpose. Movie writers and makers watched the same sci-fi as the rest of us and thus gain their inspiration from the same places. Familiarity makes people comfortable and helps them understand whatever technical mumbo-jumbo gets thrown around. By skipping out on much of the BS technical jargon, Firefly skips the need for sticking to convention and gives their universe a feeling of realness that is somehow lacking in most of the other sci-fi.

The cast had just as much chemistry. This especially surprised me, since pretty much every cast starts off horribly. These guys seemed like the series had been on the air for 10 years. Make sure you’re on an empty stomach and go back and watch the “Encounter at Farpoint,” episode of ST:TNG. If you aren’t throwing up just a little by the end, you are clearly overdosing on your meds. Now, watch “Inner Light” a few seasons later. This is how things normally work. Start with writers and a cast and slowly develop the relationships over a few seasons until they work. Eventually they come together and something great happens.

Not so with Firefly. From the very first episode they seemed like they belonged together. The palpable sense of fun and enjoyment you get form the actors is as obvious as the gray hairs on my head. Everything about these people being together seemed genuine; The friendship between Zoe and Reynolds was well tested and a great deal of their communication went unsaid. The friendship between Kaylee and River or (Kaylee and Inara) had the feel of freshly made friends; full of energy and newness to it.

If anything the series was actually better than the movie. I loved the movie. It’s what interested me in paying more attention to the series. Based on the time between the series and the movie, I *expected* to see the embryonic beginnings complete with all it’s false-steps and starts. What I saw was polish from the very first episode. Not “The Train Job,” which was the first episode aired and one made specifically for the morons over at Fox. Sure it was a fine episode, but the first episode that Whedon created was “Serenity,” and it is just an awesome start to a series. It is perfect introduction to a complex cast. It’s full of nuance and subtlety that even far more mature series are missing.

I’m not sure what the hell the folks over at Fox were smoking that made them think this series was somehow lacking but it was some grade-A shit. Rarely have I watched a better start to a series, or a better series period, for that matter. The series had a great mix of drama, humor and action and that was *after* the suits over at Fox screwed with it. If this series had been given the time to grow it would have been something amazing to watch on a weekly basis. For those of us that actually sat down and watched these, after only 14 episodes, it was already something special.