Firefly

I know a few of you are waiting for the “Firefly” review. Well. I watched the pilot. I should preface my remarks, by way of explanation, with a confession of prejudices. Western stuff doesn’t do much for me - horses, six shooters - and it’s not what I look for in my sci-fi. And I find myself less and less interested in committing to another sci-fi world, since the ones in which I invested anything either disappointed (Star Wars, Matrix) or went on too long (Star Trek. In fact, the only reason the last season of Enterprise was so good was because they went back to the source to explain the first series - a clever move, well done, but not exactly an endorsement of the story’s vitality.) When “Firefly” first came out I read good reviews, and stayed away because I was certain it would be cancelled, and I would be annoyed. There was also a certain amount of Buffyness hanging over the project, and I’d managed to completely miss that one as well. So I watched the pilot Friday night out of obligation, really - arms crossed across the chest, remote in hand on the FF button, looking for an excuse to bail, because it just can’t be that good.

About fifteen minutes in, I thought: well, this is just the best sci-fi TV pilot ever. An hour into it I hit pause, shrunk the screen and hit Amazon to see if they had any Serenity toy ships. I enjoyed every minute. Every half-minute. Sometimes I rewound and did a frame by frame so I could enjoy certain seconds at my leisure. I’m sure there will be lesser episodes and better ones; I don’t care. I love it. And, as usual, I’m late. But at least I don’t have to worry about it being cancelled; as far as I’m concerned, it’s just begun, and it ends with a big movie. Happy day.