Less Superheroes, More Firefly
I just finished watching Firefly this weekend (I don’t know why it took so long). Anyway, after getting my fill of the 14 episodes, I re-watched Serenity. The movie and the TV show are such high quality, while Hollywood treats us to the same buffet of superhero movies (The Wolverine, Iron Man 3), sequels, and reboots. I truly hope for the show to be resurrected or a sequel to Serenity (I know I just took a shot at sequels) in order to provide greater diversity from the unoriginal junk coming from Hollywood.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy superhero movies. It is just that Hollywood is spending ridiculous amounts of money pumping out four or five a year, for the past few years. This year, all of them were either sequels or reboots. It’s time for something new.
Firefly is steampunk speculative fiction. The technology is a hybrid of 19th century wild west and near future tech. While it takes place five hundred years in the future, there wasn’t 500 years of scientific progress. Steampunk is often alternate history or actually utilizes steam technology, while Firefly does not. I don’t want to get into a debate about the definition of steampunk. Instead, let’s just say Firefly has a collision of past and future technology that is highly similar to steampunk fiction.
However, for me it is not this mashing of eras that makes the show great. I love Firefly/Serenity for three reasons: its frontier individualism theme, awesome characters, and brilliant dialogue.
The universe of Firefly lays out the classic struggle between social collectivism and individualism. The crew all seek to live away from the regimented, controlled, ordered societies of the inner planets, known as the alliance. They are individualists who have decided on exile rather than fight for their ideals. On the frontier, there is very little government, religious institutions, or anything else resembling modern society. The planets are sparsely populated, with limited resources, yet the people there work to make a life and don’t complain much. Some trade the modern technology and urban lifestyle for the more primitive but freer worlds. They certainly aren’t perfect, like many towns in the old wild west, but every person has a greater voice in their own destiny.
The people are forced to deal more closely with one another rather than with an impersonal government. This hits on the veneration of rural pastoralism and the critique of the urban industrial, and post-industrial eras. In the show, the cities are totalitarian, corrupt, and cold, while the villages are free, warm, and virtuous.
There is also the portrayal of self-reliance. Individuals defend their own lives, property, and rights through force rather than relying on the police, the courts, or the military.
Firefly is show about liberty. It is extraordinarily well done and avoids the common cliches you see in political discussions of libertarianism.
It is particularly powerful because the characters are so unforgettable. Malcolm Reynolds, in particular, is a fantastic leading character and hero. Nathan Fillion fills the role perfectly. He is a soldier, with an aura of command and authority at times. At other times he is a playful guy, preferring to be an equal to his crew. The war crushed his idealism, turning him into a cynic when it comes to politics and religion. He wants people to think he’s just a typical pirate/smuggler who cares only about profit. In reality, the idealistic soldier is still there just underneath the surface. Mal is a hero, whether he wants to be or not.
In many ways, he is similar to Logan/Wolverine. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong, and simply cannot stand idly by when wrongs are being committed. It is in their nature to protect the innocent and dispense justice.
Wash and Zoey are a great couple. Wash is the wise-cracking pilot, with great lines but gets serious when needed. His wife, Zoey, is the stoic second in command, but has a sarcastic side herself. Jayne, is a stereotypical redneck idiot who has few principles. He is driven by greed, and lacks good sense. The show throws him plenty of curve balls but he is simply too dense to learn anything. Still, he can be very funny, especially when he struggles to keep up with the rest.
Kaylee is simply adorable. She’s attractive and smart with a childish innocence. She is an eternal optimist and loves being around people. Despite the rough setting, her line of work, and the horrible things she sees around her, she maintains her untouchable innocence.
What I love about these characters is that Whedon did not try to glorify them or make them superior to the alliance citizenry. They are very human, flawed in one way or another. None of them are particularly well-educated, aren’t good examples for others, tend to make several mistakes on their jobs, and aren’t terribly inspiring.
In a way that is hard to explain, they are truly glorious and beautiful people.
The Tams are different. They are the children of a wealthy, upper class family who lived within the collectivist system. Simon doesn’t have much interest in assimilating into the new individualist culture, and sees his time on Serenity as a means to an end, namely avoiding prison. His life is dedicated to his sister. In the show and the movie, Simon will sometimes become attached to the crew but quickly detaches. It is likely he doesn’t want to admit he genuinely likes them and admires them. His elitist upbringing makes it difficult for him to see them as anything more than a ship full of redneck criminals.
River is severely troubled, suffering from symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Her constant breakdowns and gibberish get annoying at times, but in the movie she rises out of insanity to become a semi-lucid member of the crew. The fact that she’s a 100 pound weapon certainly makes her character more interesting.
Inara and Shepherd are not as compelling. The pairing of an escort and a preacher on the same ship sounds like the premise of a comedy, but, in reality, the two rarely interact. Shepherd is barely a preacher anyway. Like many modern movies and TV shows, the story tends to bend away from constricting religious morals and ideals. This show makes a mockery of it, pushing the character Shepherd into committing acts against his beliefs. He does almost no “shepherding” during the show, but plays that role in the movie.
Finally, there is the dialogue: it is brilliant! They are so damn witty it makes me sick. The mixing of Mandarin and English is pretty original too. The southern/western redneck dialect plays well even as they throw in Mandarin and the occasional big word. It reminds me a lot of the dialogue in Pirates of the Caribbean.
It is like that old cliche “never judge a book by its cover.” You look at the crew of Serenity and hear the way they talk, you’d expect them to be uneducated idiots with nothing much to offer. Instead, they are quite wise, insightful, and are heroes in their own right.
Firefly/Serenity is smart, funny, creative, and at times emotionally intense. I think this is a recipe for success. If you look at Game of Thrones, Ender’s Game, True Blood, and Doctor Who you see shows with compelling characters, smart dialogue, and story elements that you don’t see very often.
Sometimes we all need to watch a summer action movie that is easy on the mind. The abundance of explosions, sexy female leads, cliche supporting cast, funny one-liners, and logically ambiguous plots can be a lot of fun, but there are also those times you want to see something with a little more substance. Firefly provided that for one season.
Despite the desperate attempts of their small cult following, the show has not been resurrected and no more movies are coming. That fact is neither the show nor the movie did well. The cult just isn’t big enough I guess.
In terms of storyline, I am not sure a resurrection is possible. The movie killed off two main characters and closed a major part of the story line, mainly the government’s pursuit of River Tam. It also revealed the origin of the Reavers. I don’t think the show can function with that much trauma to its core. Like I said, the characters are the key. The movie also shifts the footing of the show from frontier individualism to outlaws fighting Big Brother. This takes away from the frontier individualism, and instead replaces it with a crusade of sorts.
The only way for the show can be resurrected, in my opinion, is to ignore the movie and start from the last episode of the TV show. Before, anyone can think about what the resurrected show would look like, the rights to Firefly must be wrestled away from FOX.
Here’s one idea: if the fans could organize a boycott of FOX, all of its shows and sister stations (FX), it might help lower the asking price for the rights. I could definitely get on board since there is nothing on FOX I watch any more. This could pose a problem for others because it would involve rejecting Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, Bones, American Idol, The Cleveland Show, Glee, and X Factor. TV stations get most of their revenue from advertising, which has its costs calculated by ratings. If the fans could damage the ratings of FOX, by encouraging others to stop watching the channel and it’s affiliates (FX Channel), plus avoid watching episodes on NetFlix (probably another source of revenue), it is possible.
Even if the fans can’t help resurrect Firefly, there are other shows that help fill that void left behind. Doctor Who certainly has loyal followers. Warehouse 13, Alphas, Falling Skies, and Continuum are all trying fill that unusual niche of speculative fiction with thoughtful characters and story lines. None of these are as good as Firefly, but they deserve credit for trying. Also notice none of them are on the big four (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX). If viewers want this kind of product, it will probably be on a cable channel.
I guess maybe I’m hoping the trend extends to movies as well. 2013 has not been a good year for the genre in terms of movies. Ender’s Game is on the horizon and there are a few that are intriguing for next year but I think overall Hollywood seems stuck in a rut.
Jacob
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