Firefly/Serenity Spoiler-Free Review

As a Science-Fiction fan, it is surprising how long I waited to sit down and watch Firefly, the space frontier TV series from Joss Whedon. Over the past year, I have slowly watched all of the Firefly episodes on Netflix on-demand and then followed it up with Serenity, the full-length motion picture sequel to the series.

Firefly is the story of the crew of a Firefly-class spaceship, Serenity, traveling to frontier planets in human-controlled space. Earth is only mentioned as where mankind came from but is never shown in the series/movie. On Serenity, we have Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), his first officer Zoe Washburn (Gina Torres) and her husband - the pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk). The rest of the crew includes hired gun Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) and ship maintenance expert Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite). Also on board is a companion, a kind of escort/courtesan that carries a level of prestige in the future, named Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) who rents one of Serenity's shuttles. There are other characters added to the ensemble cast over the course of the series as passengers come on-board Serenity.

The crew of Serenity travels between planets and terra-formed moons to trade, do commissioned jobs or smuggle. The controlling government of the area is called the Alliance, having taking control a few years in the past after winning a civil war. A war that Mal and Zoe participated on the losing Independent planet's side. During the show, Mal tries to steer his ship clear of the Alliance and keep himself and the crew off the government's radar.

Firefly does a great job of mixing wild-west feel with space opera elements. You really feel that the crew is working on the fringes of society and just barely scratching out a living. There are also great tension moments brought on by the various bad-guy elements brought into the story. While the tv series is fairly episodic, there are some underlying story threads throughout and these are expanded on and brought to a satisfying conclusion in Serenity.

I can understand why the series and film have such a wide following and why fans were so upset when the show ended after only a few episodes (only 14 episodes were made plus the movie). Luckily, the show did get a follow up movie and has had several prequel/bridge and upcoming comic/graphic novel tie-ins created to expand the story (similar to what was done for Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series).

Hands-down my favorite character in the series is Kaylee and the way she blends optimism with capability (in how well she keeps the ship humming along despite sometime difficulties in getting parts) - Jewel Staite does a great job in this role. The other actors/characters are also good with Nathan Fillion a believable Captain and Gina Torres very good as his strong 2nd-in-command. The stories are often fun, adventurous and tension-filled. Serenity, the movie, expands things even further in scale and scope while remaining tied tightly to the story-lines that developed throughout the series.

Realistic, gritty, funny and sometimes poignant, Firefly and Serenity are a must watch if you are a space opera or science fiction fan. That they are continuing the story in graphic novel/comic format just means there will be more story to enjoy in the future as you will want to keep coming back to these characters and the setting. Firefly and Serenity get 4.5 Mick Happies. Now if only they would make a Mass Effect-style game set in the universe either letting you travel about like the crew of Serenity or even a more combat-oriented game set during the civil war. I would play it without a doubt.

P.S. Researching links for this review I found out that Steven Brust (a very good author - read the Vlad Taltos series) wrote a Firefly novel, My Own Kind of Freedom, that was ultimately not approved/released, but is available for free via download under a creative commons license from his website here.

Chuck Season 5 (DVD) Review

It was slightly bittersweet catching up on the final season of Chuck on DVD over the past few weeks. On one hand it was nice to finally see the episodes and see how the show would end and on the other it was like saying goodbye to a fun friend for the last time.

Chuck, created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, is the story of a smart “nerd” (Chuck, played by Zachary Levi) who has a government database (the Intersect) downloaded into his head and over time becomes a spy. It is also the story of his family, friends, handlers and co-workers who all are part of his normal and spy life over the course of the five seasons of the show. Chuck never takes itself too seriously and while there are poignant moments, for the most part it is a fun comedy with action and unique characters thrown in.

Season 5 finds Chuck and his team no longer working for the CIA and trying to make it on their own as independent contract spies. The season also explores what it is like when Chuck doesn’t have the Intersect…will he be a spy without it? We also get to see Morgan (played by Joshua Gomez) take up the spy and deal with the Intersect.

Some of my favorite parts of Chuck often have to do with the other characters in the show, the people working at the Buy More – Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay), Chuck’s Sister (Sarah Lancaster) and her husband Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin). These characters often get involved in Chuck’s spy missions without even knowing what they are caught up in and help save the day (or make it more difficult). Probably the best thing that can be said is that the characters of Chuck are the type of people you would want to hang out with and Chuck makes an electronics store like the Buy More look like a fun place to work.

The only downside for me was that it was the last season and it was over too soon (but doesn’t feel rushed). The show definitely stayed fun the whole way. The final episode was great. Almost like a clip show, but not. On the DVDs, you get an extended cut of the final episode in the Extras, it doesn’t change the story, but adds some length to many of the scenes that just give you more time with the characters before they are gone. You may even get to see Jeffster one last time.

Chuck is a fun show and hopefully will find life with a follow up movie sometime in the future. I didn’t mention them above, but Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin are great as Sarah Walker and John Casey. If you haven’t seen Chuck, go get the DVDs (Netflix, buy, however you need to). If you have seen Chuck but not Season 5, what are you waiting for? Chuck gets four Mick Happies. Don’t forget to look through the extras on the DVDs – seeing the Buy More set broken down (was a little sad) and the cast discussing where they thought the characters would be in the future  (was interesting) and of course the bloopers (fun). Now, when can I call the Nerd Herd to do some work for me?