Browncoats, Reavers and all that jazz … October 31, 2006
Posted by jackal in : Films, TV , trackbackAs a lifelong fan of US TV drama, I’ve lost count of the number of promising shows that were cancelled, and swiftly drifted out of my mind. They’re ten-a-penny, and now I don’t even bother to start watching if I know that, over in Burbank, the axe has already been dropped. What’s the point of watching a show with no future?
And so when, a few of months ago, a friend pressed his Firefly: the Complete Series boxset into my hands, insisting that I’d love it, I was not enthusiastic. It may have been the work of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, but the way I saw it, if Firefly only lasted 14 episodes: a) how good could it be, and b) what’s the point of investing anything in the show?
But I’m a polite guy, so I watched the first few episodes … and was not convinced. It was an interesting enough premise to keep me watching, though: a western action drama that just happens to be set 500 years in the future in another solar system, coloured with Whedon’s quirky sense of humour. A civil war has just ended; our hero is on the losing side, and rather than live under occupying forces, he becomes captain of the small freighter Serenity and ekes out a living running inter-planetary smuggling jobs with his rag-tag crew of outsiders.
The show grew noticeably over its short run. By the end of the 14 episodes, the Firefly ’verse felt real, a living breathing place. The characters, many of whom had initially struck me as thinly drawn cliches, had grown in my affections immensely: the quality of the writing, and the actors’ performances bringing them vividly to life. The show’s myriad plotlines were just beginning to take root and develop - from my days of watching Buffy, I could sense the rich, creative, immensely entertaining future that Firefly would enjoy.
And then it died.
Cancelled shows, as I said at the outset, usually slip fairly quickly from my mind. Only Firefly isn’t your regular canned show. After all, how many cancelled shows have such a dedicated fan base that they’re resurrected as a big-budget movie? Star Trek achieved it, to huge success, but it took 10 years. Firefly was snuffed out in 2002, only to be back less than 3 years later as Serenity, written and directed by Joss Whedon. Part rebirth, part series finale, it wrapped up the series beautifully, and simultaneously took it to another level: a grander scale for the story, bigger and better SFX, the larger budget shining through in every area, and the cast clearly relishing the opportunity to inhabit their characters again. Whedon’s script (the most difficult thing he’d ever had to write, he says) tied up most every loose end from Firefly, and the film was also one mother-frakker of a fun ride (sorry; switched franchises with my sci-fi curse words there) 
But after the big, fat Serenity grin had faded from my face - now, in fact, months down the road, I still feel the urge to hunt down and strangle the Fox network executives responsible for killing the show. Was Firefly a truly great show? In all honesty, I’d have to say no, not quite - but it was well on the way. It had the potential to be so tremendously good in the long run … and never got the chance. That’s what makes it so hard for me to swallow.
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