"Firefly (2002) - # 1 Serenity"

A few days ago I read the three hard cover editions of the Serenity comics, combined including every piece of Serenity stories released in comic form. I'll get back to those comics in later posts, but as usual just a tiny piece of Serenity is enough to get my Firefly-lust going again. I watched it last march, I revisited it in October after watching a few Youtube-videos from the show, and now I've just finished watching the entire show as a result of those comics.

This time around I'll give each episode a little post on its own, and as such there will be the kind of spoilers I usually try so hard to avoid. These posts are as such meant for seasoned Browncoats, and is also my little take and evaluation of each episode and the feature film. I did of course watch it in the intended order, Fox be damned for screwing it up in the first place, and so should you if you get hold of it on DVD or blu-ray. I suggest the finest blu-ray edition you can get your hands on, for this is truly TV-history worth owning your own little piece of.

Wash and the sudden but inevitable betrayal

Episode:	# 1 Serenity  (double opener)
Writer:	Joss Whedon
Director:	Joss Whedon

How Fox could skip this double opening episode for, in their opinion, a more action packed The Train Job, is far beyond me. As openers go, this is a gorram good one. It sets the 'verse, it gives us some insight into the characters and it tells the story of why River, Simon and Book find them self among our raggedy crew of Serenity.


We're also introduced to a few other raggedy characters like Persephone's Badger and Whitefall's Patience, giving us a little insight into the world of crime and shady ways of the outer worlds.

Kaylee and the strawberry

It also manage to nail one of my all-time favorite simple characters, Kaylee. From the way she describes Serenity to Book and the way she speaks to her ship after the Crazy Ivan-maneuver, to the way she enjoys her strawberry, her shiny way of seeing potential passengers and her ways around her captain. Kaylee isn't nearly as complicated as the rest of the crew and Serenity's passengers, but she's still a great character in my book. A pure and cheerful soul who always look for the best in people, and who loves her ship in a very proud way.

Kaylee has more of a part to play in the double opener, than she ever get to have again before Fox pulled the plug. I guess it makes me even more inclined to rate it highly.

Creator, and this episodes writer and director, Joss Whedon nails his crew from the opening. His witty writing and the crews ways around each other takes us into their world from the get go. There's a lot of great one liners in typical Whedon-fashion, but he also finds time to really capture the core of captain Mal Reynolds. Especially so in the final scene between Mal and Simon.

There's a lot more to the episode, but I'm not writing a review here. I'm not gonna go looking into all the smaller or bigger positives and negatives from each episode. I'll try to stick with the bigger issues. I do still laugh and giggle over a lot of the things not mentioned, even if I've seen it several times before.

"Your mouth is talking, you might wanna look to that"

"I was just wondering what his job is... on this ship?"
"Public relations"

"If they take the ship they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and saw our skin into their clothing. And if we're very very lucky, they'll do it in that order."

To take note on that last part. Introducing the reavers is also an important part of the shows mythology, and finding it from the beginning is as interesting as it is well done. Other noteworthy parts of this major opener includes River's introduction from the cryo-box naked, the double-crossing deal with Patience, Mal's practical joke on Simon about Kaylee died and the crew's reaction when he retells the story, and the simple and very efficient way of ending Agent Dobson's journey at Serenity.

As opening episodes goes, there's not a whole lot to put your finger on about this one. Gorram Fox who screwed up from the beginning by airing The Train Job as opener instead.


★★★★★ # 1 "Serenity"