Firefly is a “space-western” series spawned from the mind of Joss Whedon whom, himself, has been promoted to near god-like status among his throng of devoted followers. He’s the guy that helped bring you such atrocities as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (series), Alien Ressurrection, and Speed, but redeems himself (and more) with his hand in Titan A.E., Toy Story, and the original X-Men. (And I am personally on the fence on how I feel about the movie Waterworld.) The guy has a whole resume’ of creative works and talent to back up his name, but when the Fox Network originally aired his strange brand of science fiction drama complete with faster-than-light engines with an equal amount of horse riding, the professional Nerding community called “foul” and rightfully so, due to Fox’s releasing the episodes out of order and ultimately canceling the series before even the first season could conclude. After watching them all on Netflix, I can say that I’m a little surprised the show wasn’t renewed for at least another season, though I don’t count myself among the moaning masses that demands they get one.

The first thing you’ll notice about Firefly is that it tries really, and I mean REALLY hard to blend almost opposing elements into a palatable and creative smoothie of science-fictiony goodness. You’ve got your oppressive gestapo police force, your saloon, your Chinese metal signs, your t-shirts, your space suits, your Smith and Wesson six-shooters (that make a pew-pew instead of a bang-bang), your interstellar face-eating cannibals, your cattle rustlers, your silk kimonos, your giant space cruisers, your galactically-educated Courtesans, and your strings of unintelligible cursing in a foreign language. (At least I can brush up on my Chinese….)  All of these objects, people, and concepts “meld” together just about as you’d expect, and even though there are the rare exceptions, Firefly is visually and conceptually a composite bastardization of things that ultimately don’t belong together. The words “Space Texas” and “Walker: Space Ranger” come to mind. (I half-expected to see a tumbleweed flit its way across the deck.)

Let me say however, that because America and China emerged as the main progenitors of space colonization, that a militaristic government tries to tighten its grip on an ever-spreading empire of refugees and dirt farmers, and because worlds are somehow pioneered and terraformed to resemble the Wild West as humanity makes the push to other star systems, Firefly makes a great attempt at explaining why this visual cacophany is assaulting your eyes. This culture frappe’ is amusing and unique, if not plausible and aesthetic. Yes, those are recycled armor plates from Starship Troopers and yes Firefly did excellent considering the small budget that had. The backstory is actually pretty intriguing as well.

Theme park photobooths create the most memorable souvenirs.

To rub salt on my wound, however, this show has the most atrocious opening song that I can recall, a twangy country drawl about the sky, that is neither catchy nor flashy, nor even a good song in its own right and not suitable for a WESTERN-western tv series much less a scifi-western. To put it lightly, I highly recommend replacing this scourge with the show’s own rousing drunken limerick of ironic anti-heroism found in episode 7 called “A Man Named Jane”. In its stead, the present music was the crowning glory, the snapping point, that made me want to take a cheese grater to my ears and delete the entire ill-fated series from my Instant Queue. And I came close to doing so, but once I bounced my initial reactions off of a friend who had recommended Firefly, he convinced me that the show was well worth it and I ultimately decided to give it a chance ESPECIALLY due to the brevity of the single season. I grit my teeth as I deliberately played all of each episode, excising the opening song with my mouse pointer.

And I’m glad that I did. Unlike what I was told, the show actually sticks with heavy western themes all the way to the end, with bandits on horseback, a train robbery, and transporting cattle via spaceship being just a few of the episode highlights. Fortunately for me, the writing, story-telling, and pacing are all superb, and incorporate the wild west elements expertly into the show’s bizarre choice of flight paths. Non-visually speaking, Firefly rides the cusp of nostalgic cliches’ with realistically modern suprise endings in the way it places you in a comfort zone before pulling the rug out from under you in delightful ways. It reminded me of Back to the Future 3 in a sense (and everything that entails), where intelligent present-day characters are thrown into the mix with crusty and unsavory archaic archetypes, reliving classic experiences from a new perspective.

The Firefly’s crew members aren’t heroes by any means, but they’re given the blemish-free personalities of heroes. In fact, they’re almost stiflingly wholesome. I was never under the impression that they were not real people struggling to earn some cash as smugglers and legitimate transporters, and although they aren’t as multi-dimensional or interesting as I might come to expect from shows similar to this one, the main characters are likable and entertaining to say the least. You couldn’t separate them from each other with a scalpel they’re so loyal, despite occasional thoughtless put-downs delivered by Captain Mal (more on him later) and a particular individual that explicitly says he is biding his time before betraying them all. The cast members have a synergy, a rapport, a general LIKING of each other that is a little weirder than you may think would suit this show’s framework: a rag-tag group of miscreants that sometimes functions as a team. No. This is an actual team that functions as an actual team, and although there are moments of doubt or discourse, the characters are almost completely benevolent and encouraging to each other, despite various backgrounds and ideologies.

So “encouraging” that the Chaos in me wanted dissension in their ranks! I wanted tension (due in no small part to having just finished Battlestar Galactica), but I recognized this mindset early on and tried to put it aside in order to judge Firefly on its own merits and choices. Oddly enough, even though no actor has any real “screen presence”, no real heft or scene-chewing, their kind of collective chemistry simply can’t be scripted and leads to a genuinely palpable camraderie and humor amongst real people, each member fufilling their own role in the saga, having their own air of mystery (to a degree), and delivering the lines the very best the actors are capable. I almost feel like I’ll hurt someone’s feelings if I say that the stilted Texan accents ruined a few moments for me.

T’aint y’all I’m lampooning but I reckon you don’t care for my opinion none too much.

That scowl is deadly. Keep a straight face for this ridiculousness.

Okay, now Captain Mal. This guy is the embodiment of cool and the epitome of tempered impulsive violence, devilishly funny reactions, and quippy one-liners. He’s been heralded as one of the most infamous science fiction characters of all time and I whole-heartedly agree. When he’s on screen, I know the situation is either in control or is at least going to be as hilariously violent as I could hope it to be. Ex-military and a bit of a free spirit, he commandeers the Firefly and makes all of the risky decisions that inevitably puts everyone in or out of harms’ way. The actor reminds me of James Van Der Beek in Varsity Blues (or Charlie Sheen) in a bad way, but after witnessing his performance, I can’t imagine another actor carrying the mantle. Just as Mal is the glue that holds the crew together and keeps them in line, so too does his performance/dialogue keep the Firefly series from falling apart at its roughspun stitchings. All things considered though, Mal rounds out a group of characters that are humorously [as of yet] one-dimensional but have their own tale to tell through time, along with a laughably complex way of surprising you with simple phrases and actions.

You THINK you know the characters, they do something that initially surprises you, then you re-evaluate the situation and realize that you actually knew them all along and that you fell to deceptive cinematography and situational queues. This kind of familiarity with a cast within a few episodes is a rare and uncanny thing. You’ll know it when you see it, anyways. Watch a few stories and you’ll soon be laughing at the pranks they pull on each other, wincing if Mal says even the smallest derogatory thing, and screaming with laughter when the bad guy looks like he’s getting off scott-free before he’s unceremoniously booted into the intake of a spaceship’s engine.

So what is my final verdict for the stupid-looking quadrapalegic space-goose of a Texas-themed galactic transporter known as the Firefly? It’s actually pretty good. The fight scenes don’t have convincing fist impacts, the minor character actors are poorly done, and even after adopting themes the show pushes on you, the distribution of technology doesn’t make sense sometimes (flickering digital billiard balls in a town that may not have running water and a hovering maglev train without a way of detecting a spaceship on top of it).  But even the Frankensteined Chinese, Western, and Space visuals hit their high points amid the rough patches sometimes. Case in point: a Victorian-era gala complete with ballroom/oriental dancing that easily assimilates textured silk suits and robes, a laser weapons screener, gentleman-ly sword duels, and a hovering/morphing chandelier. Firefly is actually onto something here and hits this mark inconsistently. One can only imagine that, given the chance and resources, this Whedon production could have come into its own and solidified a style. The story-telling and characters are already top-shelf, but with a better budget and time to gestate, I’m certain that this little ugly duckling would find its wings and fly with the best of them.

Godspeed space-goose. At least you had a movie. [Edit: And it’s a good one too.]

"Gimpy" was the least-loved transformer in Beast Wars.