Firefly - Fox, 2002
This show has always been problematic for me. On the one hand, I really enjoy 90% of the characters. Like, really really enjoy. Enough that I'm more than willing to watch the various actors in whatever gigs they land, which is one of the reasons I like Castle, though I don't really think Summer Glau's ever landed any other gigs that are worth mentioning. Certainly not the Terminator series.
What's more, the episodes that are on are really, really on. The episode where Wash and Mal are tortured? Everyone on the cast was spot on for that. That was a good hour of TV, with character drama, sci-fi action, and some vaguely foreign-ish bad guy with a terrible accent. The hospital raid on Ariel, likewise, is some damn fine sci-fi TV. When the show's on, it's on.
Alternatively, you have episodes like The Train Job, which the less said the better.
There are other issues as well, mostly in the premise. I'm ok with some overpowering and extremely evil galactic government. That's cool! I'm ok with bands of less-than-legal ne'er-do-wells that rub up against other unsavory elements. That stuff's cool! I'm all for it.
But then Whedon goes and couches it in terms of "War of independence", even going so far as calling the rebel forces "Brown Coats". I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some people called the war the "War of Central Aggression". The entire thing smacks of the Civil War, and while, not necessarily apologism per se, there's an uncomfortable acceptance of the Southern point of view. I know slaves weren't a piece of this war, and that this was all about
Then there's the way that the series handles the very characters I enjoy so much. Let's look at Jayne for a moment. Jayne's a sociopathic money grubbing mercenary character. He cannot, and should not, be trusted. He often isn't treated as such though. He's disparaged a lot, yeah, but no one really seems uneasy around him. The one time he does something that is against any of the crew is fantastic. Everyone who knows about it (Mal at first, then Simon) actually responds realistically, and then Jayne has the beginnings of a semblence of a character arc. This is conveniently ignored pretty much everywhere a few episodes down the road.
Then we come to the leader, Mal. I love Nathan Fillion. I think he's a great actor with a sense of charisma akin to Harrison Ford circa Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Mal, and the way that everyone reacts to him, is annoying, if not down right terrible. The problem isn't that he's shown as an unrepentant, obsessive, and crazily flawed man. I like that. I like that there are certain things he can't get over that he rightly should. I like that he has a past and beliefs that he'll die for before betraying. I like that he has some ridiculously crazy plans that don't always work.
But no one calls him on his shit in any meaningful way. A major part of this is in his treatment of Inara, the ship's own Companion, a sort of high class prostitute with a crazy amount of regulation and standards. They choose whether or not they even meet with a client, much less have sex with them. And yet Mal continually and unceasingly refers to her as a "whore". Which is honestly ok, the first few times. He's just human after all, and he has his own failings and foibles. But nothing bad ever happens because of this insistence to not refer to her as a normal human being. This isn't exactly relegated to just Inara either. Regardless of what he does, regardless of how he treats the rest of his crew, they all forgive him. He can't really do any wrong, after all. He's the great Malcom Reynolds. He acts like a right ass, a complete bastard, and still the crew respects and likes him. I can understand that from Zoe, but Wash? Book? Jayne?
That just bothers me, I guess. I don't think that the series is bad, honest. It's an enjoyable ride for most of it's tenure. It's not as good as everyone wants to say though. And the less said about Serenity the better.
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