A buddy at a BBQ last month made me rethink Firefly

I was going on about how Firefly got robbed, and my friend Dave just shrugged and said 'it was good but it didn't know what it wanted to be yet.' That hit me different because he's right - the show was still finding its footing between space western and drama when Fox pulled the plug. I really wanted to see where they would have taken the whole Alliance vs. Independents story after the movie wrapped things up too clean. Anyone else think the show would have aged better if they got a full second season?

2 comments

2 Comments

jones.blake13d ago

That thing Dave said about it not knowing what it wanted to be - that's fair, but I wonder if it's more about the network not giving it room to figure itself out. Like, take the episode "Shindig" - it's all fancy parties and manners, then "Bushwacked" is straight up horror on a ghost ship. The tone jumps around a lot. Did Dave think the show was ever going to find its groove, or was it just doomed to be messy?

the_susan13d ago

Jumping right in - yeah, @jones.blake, you hit on something real there. "Shindig" felt like a completely different show from "Bushwacked," like someone spliced two networks together. Dave probably saw the network suits breathing down his neck every week, switching gears from space horror to ballroom dancing like they were trying to please everyone at once. That's a recipe for a mess, not a groove. I bet half way through the season they were still arguing over whether the show was about survival or social climbing. No wonder it never settled down.