Firefly
The Sci Fi channel is my saviour. As if Friday nights weren't cool enough with new episodes of Stargate and Stargate Atlantis, the Sci Fi channel just started airing the full run of Firefly, including those never aired on Fox and in the proper order as Joss Whedon intended (Why they don't just buy the rights to the show and continue producing it I don't know but perhaps that's hoping for way too much anyway). I've never seen Firefly before but I've heard good things. The reason I missed it is because the commercials Fox put on tv for it made it look like the dumbest thing ever. So tonight was my first encounter with the show and damn it, it is good!
I'll say right now I wasn't the biggest fan of Joss Whedon's other shows (Buffy and Angel). Not because I didn't like them as much as because vampires aren't my cup of tea and because I very simply missed them. But sci fi is my thing and as much as I can tell from just one hour of the show, they got it so right. Firefly works for me because it combines all of my favourite qualities from anime cartoons (and doubtless Mr. Whedon was influenced by the medium): a motley crew of futuristic vagabonds with a seemingly unethical philosophy on life who aren't all that bad (or even good) when you get to know them; Christian elements/symbolism; a hooker with a heart of gold; and, most importantly, Old West United States meets Far East. No vision of the future is complete without a mixture of Old West and Eastern cultures. Take Cowboy Bebop and Trigun as examples. Most everyone in Firefly speaks with some variation of a southern/southwestern American accent, but with Chinese slang thrown in. They carry guns and call themselves cowboys but they wear Chinese clothing and hang Chinese calligraphy on their walls.
And is it just me or is their engineer the most adorable engineer ever?
I must own this show, but I know it's going to turn out to be an experience I simultaneously appreciate and regret. Appreciate because it'll be an awesome sci fi viewing experience. Regret because the show was canceled prematurely, never to return. Damn you, Fox, suckiest channel ever.