TVScape.NET

Basic Facts:

Episodes: 14
Runtime: 42 min.
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Premiered: 2002

Format:

Series

Genres:

Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

Created By:

Joss Whedon

Actors:

Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Sean Maher, Summer Glau

Made In:

USA

Premiered at:

FOX

Without the doubt, Fire­fly is one of the best sci­ence fic­tion shows ever cre­ated. Even that was not enough to pre­vent shows pre­ma­ture can­cel­la­tion by the FOX tele­vi­sion. Cre­ator of Buffy and Angel, Joss Whe­don is behind the Fire­fly, and for me, this is his finest work yet. Fire­fly is much dif­fer­ent from usual genre shows we have seen because it doesn’t have aliens, nor some fancy hyper mega warp dri­ves, a human only sci fi.

Series is set in 26-​th cen­tury, humanty now lives in new solar sys­tem with many inhab­it­able plan­ets and moons, and it fol­lows adven­tures of a crew of the ship called Seren­ity, Fire­fly class. Part of the series con­cept is revival of the old west in space, replac­ing stage coach with space ships.

Char­ac­ters

It’s quite unusual, but I really like all of the char­ac­ters on the Seren­ity crew. Cast­ing is spot on. Adam Bald­win has proven once again that he is an excel­lent actor, and he is my favorite Bald­win. I would also like to point out excel­lent per­for­mance of Sum­mer Glau, play­ing secre­tive and some­what dis­turbed River Tam. FOX TV had a great deal of influ­ence on shap­ing the char­ac­ters, but that maybe proven to be a good thing (usu­ally it’s really not).

Fire­fly Cast

Writ­ing

Main plot and some of the episodes were also under the influ­ence of FOX, and the pilot episode has gone through many, many changes. But, the writ­ing, main plot and all episodes are well writ­ten, and I can’t really point out any prob­lems or week spots.

In the cen­ter of the series is a story of River Tam and her brother, chased by the Alliance author­i­ties. This sto­ry­line will con­tinue until the end of the series and into the Seren­ity movie.

Music & Sound

One of the best qual­i­ties of the show is excel­lent music, start­ing with the main theme to over­all great blend of old west­ern sound, and asian influ­ences. Music is com­posed by Greg Edmon­son, and title song ‘Bal­lad of Seren­ity’ per­forms Sonny Rhodes. Also, this is the only sci­ence fic­tion show (that I know of) that has no sound for the space scenes, because vac­uum of space can’t con­duct sound.

Pro­duc­tion and visuals

Spe­cial effects are really great, from the design of the Seren­ity, and other space ships to over pop­u­lated plan­ets. Fire­fly con­cept is excel­lently done, and resem­bles fire­fly insect. FOX has orig­i­nally aired only 11 episodes, skip­ping even the pilot episode. DVD and Blu­Ray sets con­tain all 14 episodes.

Con­clu­sion

Show has received a num­ber of impor­tant awards and has a huge fans fol­low­ing. This is really a must see for any sci­ence fic­tion fan. Movie Seren­ity is the con­tin­u­a­tion of the series used to com­plete the main plot ark.