Sunday 10 August 2008

Monday Review Madness! - Firefly

Well it's Monday so you all know what that means! Actually you more than likely don't, so I shall elaborate on my newest idea.

Mondays are boring. They suck. If I had a job I'd need to go to it! Which is why I thought "What if people had something to do on Mondays?..."

"What if" indeed, so, every Monday, I will review a product that can fill your Monday, your week... maybe even your life with joy and entertainment.

Alrighty, let's spank this pony! As the title may have teased (or completely given away if you're not too slow), this weeks review is of one of the best T.V. programmes of the past 10 years:



















Firefly is a T.V. show conceived by Joss Whedon (the creator of the Buffy and Angel T.V. series) with a fairly simple concept: Cowboys in space.

The backstory to the series is well thought-out and complex (So get comfortable). The basic idea is that at some point Western Culture (America) and Eastern Culture (China) both meshed into one, forming The Alliance, basically the ultimate superpower. They took over Earth and ruled it in a dictatorial fashion. The mesh of cultures means that everyone in the Firefly universe can speak Chinese, from diplomats to doctors, to peasants and thieves, it is just one of those things (though in the show Chinese is usually, very cleverly, used in place of swearing). At some point the population of the Earth grew too large so mankind started to spread itself out across the stars by terraforming distant planets. The Alliance, determined to govern every human, also spread their influence out to the other planets, an action which started a Civil War among humans all over the galaxy, between The Alliance, and those humans who want freedom.
(God I hope you're still reading this, otherwise I've wasted some serious energy)
The Alliance eventually win the war and the series picks up several years after, following one of the wars most decorated officers Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew aboard Serenity, a Firefly Class smuggling Ship. It has no weapons and is about as old a spaceship as you can get in the future but it's the one place the crew can call home without being under the Alliance's thumb

Whew, that was exhaustive. Anyway, one of the most startling things about Firefly is that it has 9 (yes, 9) main characters. Now I'm sure when you see "9 main characters" you're instantly turned off, but don't be! Each of the characters has so many endearing qualities, from the sarcastic wit of the Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) to the self-absorbed mercenary Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and even the Enigmatic River Tam (Summer Glau) there isn't a single character you wont fall in love with.

Bringing up the sarcastic wit of the captain brings me onto the subject of the writing. It's excellent. There are more witty remarks in one episode of Firefly than an entire army of Frasier Crane's with Tourette's syndrome. Simply put Firefly is a joy to listen to... as well as look at.

The series did not have a huge budget but that doesn't stop the visual effects being fantastic. The design of the spaceship itself is perfect and never does it feel fake. It always looks like a real spaceship instead of a visual effect, something very hard to pull off.

Now, despite my claim of it being easily one of the best T.V shows of the past 10 years it was only on for 1 season. Unfortunately when it was on telly nobody watched it, which was a shame but turns out being good for us. The whole series can easily be found for very cheap due it's lack of original popularity, however, DVD sales are fairly constant (the series now has a cult following among Sci-Fi fans), now it wont be long until retailers pick up on this so I'd buy it sooner rather than later.

I honestly, truly, wholeheartedly, 100% believe everyone who reads this will love Firefly. If you find my Creative Writing even remotely tolerable you'll probably go ga-ga over this series like I did. If I achieve just one thing by creating this whole blog, I hope it's that 1 person buys Firefly. It's THAT damn good.

GaZZuM Rating: 10/10




- obviously you can shop around if you're interested but this Amazon price is great for you Americans, especially if you buy it 2nd hand ;). Every good online store will stock it though.

- The movie Serenity continues the story of the series, but still leaves it open for maybe another series in the future (here's hoping) and is also unbelievably cheap.

- Please buy it, I know you'll love it. ^ ^

Read More...