Serenity Review

"Wait...Buffy and Angel? Aren't those...like...vampire shows?"

Serenity has a difficult line to straddle. It must be accessible to those not steeped in Firefly's universe (not a small percentage of the population given the low ratings and subsequent cancellation of the show) while not retreading so much ground as to be redundant to the faithful (for whom, it must be noted, the movie was almost exclusively created). In short, it must be a movie for everyone and a last ditch, Hail Mary of an attempt to stir up enough interest to get the show back on the airwaves. Does it succeed? In all ways but one.

The show, after all, was never resuscitated.

Firefly: Heart of Gold Review

Firefly seems to make an economic assessment on the value of water along the lines of the econ 101 thought-experiment of the water-diamond paradox. (Said thought-experiment simply noting the primacy of scarcity over function in valuing a good on the free market.) In Firefly's future, it would appear that water is an expensive commodity, at least when bought for terraforming. The poorer the planet, the drier the climate and Heart of Gold is no exception. Unlike the wild-west styled dust-balls of Our Mrs. Reynolds and Safe, or the muddy mess of Jaynestown, Heart of Gold takes place almost entirely in a desert.

Firefly: Shindig Review

"Well, I'm alright."
                   - Mal after stabbing an unarmed and wounded man on the ground.


That you are Nathan, that you are.

Young love.

Shindig is the perhaps the tightest episode thus far, focusing almost solely on the events at a fancy-dress ball on Persephone. It is also the first episode to dabble in themes beyond the purely emotional. Though previous episodes have broad moral arcs, they are mostly black and white by their resolution. Give the medicine to the sick people, survive the Reavers, etc. Shindig, focusing as it does on Inara's world of 'companions' and female status in this sci-fi future, actually provides the viewer with a meaty issue to chew on.