Firefly: The Message Review

Generations of charm.

Firefly continues to oscillate between the satire and the saccharine, the mindless and the maudlin. It's starting to feel like the wheels are falling off the show a little bit, particularly with the extremely weepy conclusion to The Message. Which is something of a shame, given how tight the episode feels overall. Slightly deeper research however, reveals an explanation for The Message's jarringly heavy-handed conclusion; the news of the show's cancellation came during the production of The Message. Whedon and Minear used the final moments of the episode as a vehicle for their own farewell to the show. Cast in this light, the episode's conclusion is no less jarring but is, at least, forgivably so, putting The Message up there with the series' best.

Firefly: Bushwhacked Review

Whoa. This show is really starting to flex its atmospheric muscle. Humor: check. Drama: check. Horror? After seeing Bushwhacked, that is a resounding check. Given the previous reviews' complaints about camp, one would assume that a horror-themed episode would be one of the worst offenders. Horror is, after all, a fertile genre for low budgets, bad acting, and over the top gore. So the restraint and true fear this episode evokes is doubly effective for overcoming this reviewer's prejudices.