First Contact
So, it would appear that my little experiment has now shown up to the blogosphere at large. I have received my first unsolicited comment and have been getting more hits, mainly due to the Firefly tag I put on one of my other entries. Since that was 4 hits worth of popular and because I am a bit of a Whedon evangelist, I figure I will discuss the show a little more in detail.
Firefly is set in 2517, humans have consolidated into the Anglo-Sino Alliance (or just the Alliance), which is dominated by American and Chinese culture, hence the Chinese language (mostly long and colorful swear words) which are incorporated into dialog. Centuries before, the humans were forced to leave a polluted and depleted Earth to settle on new planets in another solar system.
This brings us to Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, captain of a Firefly-class ship named Serenity, and the show’s “anti-hero” if you will. He leads a renegade band on his little ship, taking work as it comes, mostly of a less than completely legal variety. Other crewmembers include Zoe, his first mate and partner from the failed war against the Alliance, her husband Wash, the pilot, Jayne the mercenary muscle and Kaylee the eternally happy engineer.
Another frequent flyer is Inara, a companion, basically a unionized and well respected whore, as Mal is quick to point out at any available opportunity.
In the first episode, Serenity picks up a preacher named Book, a young doctor, Simon and his mentally unstable sister River.
Anything beyond this delves deep into the realm of spoilers but I will say that the world of Firefly is rich and complex. It seems real even though it only has 14 episodes to develop. Maybe this is on account of all the dirt.
You can watch the whole series on Hulu.com (link to the right) so check it out!
In summary:
Watch if you like: Joss Whedon, Space operas, Cowboys, Amazingly funny stuff
Avoid if you don’t like: Awesomeness and a little country-sounding music (Check out the opening credits above. If you don’t like it, don’t worry it grows on you.)
Jordan Keagle is a leaf on the wind.
