CRITICAL EVALUATION OF FIREFLY, EPISODE-BY-EPISODE, PLUS REVIEWS OF FILM, COMICS, AND BOOKS

By Atlas Bugged, (c) 2005-2006

Following up on a recent discussion with David Buchner , I mentioned you cannot really meaningfully rate Firefly 's episodes in a strict "Top 10" (or Top 14eps, or 15hrs, or 17hrs adding BDM) kind of way.  So I use a "four star" system where 4 means great, 3 means good, usually really good, 2 average, and 1, a stinker.  Yes, I've not seen any 1's in Firefly so far.

****SERENITY (Both of them, the Pilot and the Movie )
WHY THEY'RE GREAT : Both of these picks have the enormous advantage of double-time to tell their stories.  But that wouldn't cut it alone.  The Pilot utilizes that extra time, however, to combine one electrifying action scene (where Kaylee is shot), followed by another double-climax action scene (the Patience interaction followed by the Reaver attack) and still has plenty of time to flesh out the character interactions.  And one of the best ever is that first dinner table scene.  What is Jayne's job on Serenity?  "Public relations," we learn.

The BDM actually makes a compromise here and there because it has to make the newbies happy in its fleeting two hours (less one minute.)  But the film is still hard to fault.  The action climaxes are spectacular, if occasionally taking up too much screen time, and there are some six of them, too many.  But the character interactions are also very detailed and well conceived. And the story is a terrific tale.  Not only does the Alliance not "see this coming," but neither do we.  Also, there is the inestimable advantage, especially for fans, of tying up several story aspects that had been arced over the series, most especially the story of River.  Had the BDM not been made, I would have looked back on River as the worst aspect of Firefly since her story was mostly babbling questions without answers.

One other insightful observation by Buchner:  The pilot used its double-length to luxuriously tell us a minimal story - Our Gang trying to fence some goods, while the movie is trying to fit the fate of the universe in 119 minutes.  The movie, nonetheless, tells its "big" story well, albeit frenetically.  So I still give them both top-honors.

****ARIEL:
WHY IT'S GREAT :  Mostly, the fabulous sequence in the air lock with Jayne.  That was unheard-of quality for sci-fi, for TV, for storytelling itself.  Brilliantly played.  Also, the main tale was a near-perfect self-contained yarn in the style of Mission: Impossible, but with all the extras M:I never had, such as humour, dialogue, characterization, and expensive sets due to FF 's higher budget.

****OUT OF GAS :
WHY IT'S GREAT :  Obviously, half of this episode is added backstory.  But that's not why it's great; the backstory isn't just there to fill us in, it's there because all of the flashbacks are individually good story ideas on their own merits.  The flashback for Jayne, particularly, sets the stage for ARIEL's subsequent brilliance.  The main story is also compelling, a classic Heinlein/Clarke-inspired space tale in the best tradition - technology is central to being human, so we need to consider what happens when it goes wrong.  Then, the electrifying conflict with the "rescue" ship. 

***OUR MRS. REYNOLDS :
WHY IT'S HOT :  Ms. Hendricks, obviously, and her character's scam is just plain compelling.  Once the game is revealed, things move along in an exciting, fast-paced sci-fi frenzy - so much better than the horses and wagons that start the episode.
WHY IT'S NOT :  Too much comic relief rarely makes an episode great, and here we have special hell, the Vera trade, Mal's imagined lezbo kiss, and more.  This would be fine if the show had some intense interactions going too, but it's a little short on them.

***THE TRAIN JOB :
WHY IT'S HOT :  Dispatching Crow was both electrifying and sent the message:  This isn't your dad's sci-fi, nor his network TV, for that matter.  Nor is it for your kids, at least if they're very young.  Neither was Mal being portrayed as the flawed hero, or even the entertaining villain;  Crow got what was coming to him, this odd new show announced in its first appearance, and why the fuck shouldn't he?  The inversion of hooker as highest-status was refreshing, but the implication that she'd have an indentured servant took some of the glow off that.
WHY IT'S NOT :  The caper itself wasn't especially brilliant - easily far behind the cleverness of ARIEL and even TRASH.  Characterization seemed limited to the fun but cliched opening sequence.  TRAIN JOB looks like it was written in a hurry, as it was.

***SAFE:
WHY IT'S HOT :  Breezy, wonderful sense-of-life sequences with the cows and the dancing interlaced with compelling danger when Book is plugged.  Then, Whedon's powerful double-whammy where he draws the moral relativists in with small sect that seems kind of cozy after the initial kidnapping, after all, they just need a doctor, they need to survive, right?  Then we see that kidnapping is only the beginning of evil when a society is blindly ignorant.  Ignorance isn't bliss, it's deadly.  Whedon's radical responsibility (from existentialism) shows up here; Simon tells the villagers that their (proposed) murderous act is their responsibility, not any deity, or even their ignorance.
WHY IT'S NOT :  Well, just why *is* Book getting that first-class treatment?  We may never know.  The plot is mechanistic in that sense, and Whedon already had Islam (or general religious madness) covered with the Reavers, so we didn't need the villagers in SAFE.  That said, the villagers were more "everyman," making them a more powerful and realistic statement than Reavers.

***THE MESSAGE :
WHY IT'S HOT :  Great bit of space-chase.  Truly affecting funeral scene at the end.  Very cool the way Book figures things out and saves the day.
WHY IT'S NOT :  Idiot plot intervenes - why doesn't Book tell the kid they aren't really intending to give him up?  All the tragedy that follows is essentially unnecessary.  The same scene is played with Simon in BUSHWHACKED, but Simon makes the decision to trust the captain and Book.

***BUSHWHACKED:
WHY IT'S HOT :  Good action on board.  Those terrific interview scenes.  Mal's brilliant leadership when they're pulled over, especially the decision to hide the Tams in space.
WHY IT'S NOT :  This whole business about the "Stockholm Syndrome" (where the Reavers' victim becomes one of them) is very much a stretch.  And how does Mal know about it?  And we're tired of everyone always getting loose (including River in the BDM and Dobson in the Pilot.)  Doesn't anyone know how to bind someone properly when your life depends upon it?

***OBJECTS IN SPACE :
WHY IT'S HOT :  Fabulous opening, "corner of no and where" and ten other good lines.  Jubal Early is oddly fascinating, a verbal tour-de-force , though Whedon ultimately makes it clear he's a shit.  Somewhat rational River (finally!) presages her central role in the film, and becomes interesting for the first time as more than just a plot device.
WHY IT'S NOT :  Instead of River rambling, it's instead Jubal Early, and this gets irritating.  After he threatens to rape and murder Kaylee, I found his home-spun homilies a bit less than entertaining.  This episode is far more Whedon than Minear, and this shows to ill effect.  The philosophy is existentialism, a huge shift from all the other shows.  And Whedon's "family" fixation is in evidence, with cliched, self-centered River feeling rejected, then loved again, boo-hoo.  Also the stupid "No guns!" declaration, another symptom - this one virulent - of Whedon-not-Minear.  And I couldn't accept Jayne sleeping through it all.  Definitely bad that Whedon recently announced Early's not (necessarily) dead.

***HEART OF GOLD :
WHY IT'S HOT :  They're whores?  I'm in.  Yes, I love Firefly's inversion of our present society's sexual fear and lunacy, and here again it's the sex-folks who're heroes, and the repressive jerk, the villain.  Very cool the way Mal is realistic about the upcoming fight, the opposite of the fairy-tale lunacy of SHINDIG.  Terrific development of Firefly 's best guy-gal arc, which is obviously Inara and Mal.  And more frontier justice, or rather, I should say, justice.
WHY IT'S NOT :  Poorly developed B-story over on Serenity, and faux Road Warrior  villains look a little silly.  Comedy bits should be reserved for non-critical plot points, so it's annoying when Mal is rescued by "low battery."  And what's with Book and the garden hose?  Juvenile elements like that stick out like a sore thumb in the remarkably adult world of Firefly .

***TRASH:
WHY IT'S HOT :  Hendricks, again, of course.  The caper is a good one, too, same great writer on board here as in ARIEL.  Zoe throws a well-deserved punch.  The incomparable Jayne story-arc that started in ARIEL is concluded.  And it's a fun ending, both with Inara's triumph and with Mal's breezy nudity.
WHY IT'S NOT :  A little too much comic relief, especially in the time-critical midst of the burglary.  And how could Mal let YoSafBridge get his gun?

**WAR STORIES :
WHAT'S WRONG:   Far too much violence onscreen, a lurid episode that's hard to watch repeatedly.  Lesbo fantasies aside, there isn't a whole hell of a lot of great stuff in this ep.  I've seen some fans top-rate this one; I suspect they do so because the level of brutality is also refreshingly honest for a network TV show, much the same way I appreciate the straightforward treatment of sex in Firefly .  But I don't think horrendous violence is all that original in video, and it certainly ain't fun on its own.
WHY IT'S GOOD ANYWAY :  Niska's a good villain, that's for sure, definitely scarier than most any other single villain.  And, what, Inara wasn't already sexy enough?  They had to make her bisexual?  OK, I'll deal with it.  Surely the most pain and pleasure combined in any single show.  Then, that important story development with River.

**SHINDIG:
WHAT'S WRONG :  Story looks far too much like the usual TV junk - has a juvenile-novel tone that is simply not the usual FIREFLY motif, at least until that redeeming end where Mal sticks the sword in his adversary - because he feels like it. Dueling for "honor" hasn't been honorable for several hundred years past, so I have trouble buying it 500 years hence. It's the one episode where I don't get the sense that the people are actually behaving realistically.  It seems very contrived.
WHY IT'S GOOD ANYWAY :  Firefly's most beloved gal finally gets properly dressed.  Probably the handsomest show visually of them all.  It's dumb fun, but Firefly almost never did dumb anything, so it's jarring.  But it's undeniably good to see Mal take a pound - well, maybe just an ounce or two - of flesh.

**JAYNESTOWN:
WHAT'S WRONG :  A bit of a too-contrived setup, which makes the episode either unbelievable or too whimsical/comical, take your pick.  Jayne's ultimate speech seems a little stagey.  The rest of the episode sure isn't much.  And how sensible was it to allow Jayne to leave the ship at all after discovering where they were?  The idiot-plot rears its head.
WHY IT'S GOOD ANYWAY :  Whedon obviously wants to make a statement, which he spells out in so-many-words at the end.  It's a good statement, but with Firefly , we like to enjoy getting there as much as the destination.

OTHER RESOURCES

***SERENITY - THE NOVELIZATION:

Obviously, the biggest problem is that this isn't a new story if you've seen the film.  The good news is that although Whedon didn't write it, the author Keith R. A. DeCandido, is good enough so that you wouldn't know it.  And the author did have the inestimable advantage of working from the film's shooting script, and this script is much more than Whedon's outline, for nearly every line of significant dialogue appears in the novel almost verbatim.  Again, this is somewhat bad if you've seen the film, incredibly good if you have not. 

The best news of all, for my money, is the extra background material added by the author.  We learn details unavailable anywhere else and anywhere previous, such as the backstory between "Mr. Universe" and Wash, who both competed for top honors at flight school.  We also get more about Inara, arguably the most fascinating Fireflyer , even when not realized visually. 

These extra background bits must be understood, however, as a sort of semi-canon, because Whedon takes the dual-view that he has allowed them but not reviewed or approved them (he's even indicated he never actually read the book made from his script.)  But DeCandido is privy to a bit of inside info, and he shared some interesting extras  in our newsgroup, <alt.tv.firefly>.  There is a great DeCandido interview here , too.

The novelization also functions to clear up ambiguities in the film here and there; many fans don't realize that's Mal firing on the Reavers atop Serenity and others weren't clear that the final "space" battle actually takes place in "atmo," which is why it's noisy.

I'm going to call this the weakest major Firefly resource currently available.  It's a collection of essays regarding various meta-topics, and it would be entirely fair to say it is all over the place.  The editor is Jane Espenson, who was the writer of one of Firefly 's worst episodes, and it looks like the haphazard choices, which include some poor-quality essays, was her doing.  That said, a few of the essays are pretty good, though I haven't found a great or indispensible one.  Completists will find some worthy stuff, but this one barely misses the dreaded single star taken as a whole.

I have made the case (in the FAQ ) that life is the central theme of Firefly, though a number of secondary themes run concurrent.  Liberty is a biggie, however, and the only essay dealing with freedom essentially argues that the Fireflyers are deluding themselves into thinking they have it.  This essay is philosophical hokum, much akin to suggesting your need to eat or pee means you cannot ever be truly free.  The essay notes the Serenity crew are driven by the Alliance and their overall life situation, but who isn't?  The discussion of liberty in this essay fails utterly to understand the concept; freedom isn't "just another word for nothing left to lose."

Other essays routinely miss the mark as well. One argues that "The Train Job" killed the show by airing as the first episode, but "Train" is far from the worst of Firefly, and indeed sets the tone by shredding the unrepentent Crow.  Yet another poorly imagined essay blames Gene Roddenberry for killing the show, not FOX execs, and not a word about the real deal, which is that Firefly was just plain out in front of public sensibilities.  As a whole, the book is an incorrect analysis of the show.  I think my FAQ is a far better and more concise (and even better referenced) guide to the show's primary themes. One of them is that each of us is responsible to make our own judgments, so you decide who's right.

Whedon is explicitly partial to Sartre's existentialism, and the essay dealing with that is both informative as to existentialism itself, but also makes the clear connection and implications with the show.  And the author is a real-deal professor of philosophy.  But you can glean the latter half just as well in this webbed essay without shelling out for the book.  There's also a fairly uplifting essay on the power of Firefly's women.  And a few other moderate gems.  But overall, I was underwhelmed, and felt the price of the book was worth it mostly because I'm fairly obsessed.  That's a lie.  I'm really, really obsessed.  I think I'm going to purchase any book about Firefly even if it's stupid.

The best part of the book is Jewel Staite's rendition of her top-five scenes from each episode, but there is very little remotely philosophical about this - it's just fun to re-live the moments with someone who was there.  So this volume does rank two stars - barely.

The problem here is similar to the novelization noted above - the bulk of this book is the shooting script for Serenity .  Unlike the episode scripts, which are freely available online , the film script is not, and it has lots and lots of good lines.  Moreover, the shooting script has a few surprises because it is not identical to what made it onto the screen.  Still, such stuff is for completists and nutz like me.  But there's more here than the script, it's also a handsome volume with some behind-the-scenes commentary and some gorgeous photographs.  This one gets two stars, but earns it easily.  But two stars it is, because there's very little here you don't already know, and the DVD gives you the virtually the same script plus better behind-the-scenes goods with Whedon's engaging director's commentaries.  And never mind the great extras, out-takes, and deleted scenes.  This all dwarfs the Companion.  Worth the price only if you are as crazy as I am, and I know there's plenty of you.

I really wanted to give this three stars, especially since fans really ought to buy it.  Unlike all of the above, this is fresh, new, original, previously-untold Firefly adventure.  It's even canon since it has Whedon's name right on it.  And it fits in perfectly, depicting events that occured explicitly between the final series episode and the beginning of the film.  And like the film, certain story aspects are wrapped up.  Unfortunately, however, Whedon seems to have done the outline, and left the execution to far lesser (if reasonably capable) talent.  The story just doesn't sizzle the way Firefly tends to even on its worst day.  And the artwork - no small factor for a comic - is variable in the extreme.  Book is so well-drawn that you almost think you're looking right at Ron Glass.  But Wash is virtually unrecognizable, and you'd doubt it was him if he didn't show up in the pilot's chair when first depicted.  I can probably deal with a mangled Wash, but Inara and Kaylee don't fare too well either. 

I am merciless in my view that the most important things, regardless of medium, are (1) story, (2) story, and (3) story, and this one's not bad.  But it's simply not Whedon hitting the mark, and that's the problem.  Then you add the variable artwork, and the verdict is only two stars.  But this one, unlike the Companion or the philosophy tract reviewed above, is important for all regular fans, because it's fresh new story, and you don't want to miss any of the saga.  And Whedon has said, yay!, that more comics will be forthcoming.