TV on Netflix-Firefly

I will admit that I did not watch Firefly when it came to TV in 2002. Not only did it air in opposition to another show already on my schedule, but I watched the 2nd or 3rd episode and did not think it was that great!

But oh crap, was I wrong or what? Firefly was a tremendous show, good in almost every way TV can be good...which is probably why it did not survive. Good story lines that had complex ideas beneath, great characters, good overarching plot, great production values, great cast...it was a damn good show.

Firefly is set about 500 years in the future...there is not even an Earth anymore, and humans have moved far out into space, populating other planets and systems, all ruled by the Alliance. There was a war that the Alliance won, and the captain of the small cargo ship, Serenity (a firefly class ship), fought against the Alliance, and lost.

Now he and his crew fly in the outer worlds, worlds not quite fully dominated by the Alliance, and ship cargo....some might say, smuggle cargo, for various employers.

In addition to Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, the crew is his first officer (and fellow rebel), Zoe, played by the luscious Gina Torres, her husband the pilot, a mercenary to supply the muscle, played with wild abandon by Adam Baldwin, and a childlike engineer, Kaylee. They also act as the the delivery ship for a contractor going from world to world...a high class call girl named Morena. At one stop they are joined by a preacher, who becomes the cook, and a doctor and his strange sister. This sister, played by Summer Glau, is the key to the story, as it seems the Alliance is looking for her.

Most episodes are self-contained, but the show is better watching it in continuity as the themes and stories build nicely.

There are not good comparisons to Firefly. Some say it is like Star Wars. Only if Star Wars were gritty and its characters were all less noble than Han Solo, though there are some similarities between the Alliance and the Empire. Some say it is like Star Trek, but only if James Kirk felt like the Federation was an unholy bureaucratic system, that was run by corporations to the detriment of human freedom, and decided to drop out of it.

While those comparison don't hold, the series is as good as any sci-fi out there, and as good as any TV out there. Firely was a winner all the way around.

At least that is my opinion.