Saturday, 21 December 2013

Firefly (2002)

Firefly was an American space western TV series created by writer and director Joss Whedon that ran for only 14 episode before getting cancelled.
The show explores the lives of a group of people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and who now make a living on the outskirts of society, as part of the pioneer culture that exists on the fringes of their star system.
Much like Babylon 5 I watched a few minutes of this back in the day and lost interest almost straight away.  And I managed to maintain this indifference despite being told it was fantastic on a fairly regular basis and also being something of a fan of Whedon's Buffy\Angel work!  I can't explain it other than the fact that however good the writing may have been, the very idea of a space western is so obvious and trite as to induce yawns even thinking about it.
The failure to engage is mine, I'm sure, and I'll even concede it must have something going on for it to have such a passionate fan base and to still be held in such high regard.  However I'm never going to watch though.
All that said; it does have some very nice Spacesuits... with neither chaps or a pair of spurs in sight.








Update - Helmets with top-lights and armoured suits are from Soldier (1998) and yellow suits are from Storm Catcher (1999) Pointy chinned helmets with side-lights are from......?

Steve
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11 comments:

  1. DeadSpiderEye22 December 2013 at 03:42

    Buffy has unfortunate associations so I never got into it, I quite liked this though. I'm sure I must've groaned at the space western thing too but it kinda works here, It borrows from Rawhide very heavily, Malcolm is Gil Favor and there's maybe a bit of Wanted Dead or Alive in there too. As a consequence it's not stuck in the-remember we're in the wild west- thing that occurs when someone comes up with stunningly original mix of genre, that no one's ever thought of before.

    I never crossed paths with Weadon much before this, so it was a bit of surprise when I did catch up with the rest of his work because it seems incongruous in the context of his normal preoccupations. I don't want add another voice to the tiresome chatter of those telling you how fantastic it is, because well, that's tiresome but I got a buzz out of it. It was rare encounter with old style -guy stuff- before it became mandatory for such material be borne on the back of a body builder toting an M60, the kinda thing we got with -architect- David Vincent or indeed Gil Favor.

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  2. Steve22 December 2013 at 07:07

    Appreciate the review. I would much sooner be positive about the stuff I post here but if it's not my thing then I'm always grateful when somebody else steps up to do the job for me. Cheers. And as I said above, I never really gave it a chance to shine so it could the mutts nuts. I here by promise that should it ever pop up on TV again I will try at least the first two episodes. Until such times...
    What's Serenity like and does it stand up on its own?

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    1. DeadSpiderEye22 December 2013 at 07:49

      I've seen it but it's difficult to say if works as a single hit, because I'd seen the series. They do make an effort with some exposition, to be honest that makes it drag a little in the first act, we get re-introduced to some supporting characters, in neat sequence. If feels like a needless re-hash if you're familiar with the back story, except for the Tams, the expansion of their back story is quite effective but that's probably because it's central to a main thread of the film. I would say give it a go, it does have its moments and it's a little broader in its appeal than the series.

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    2. Steve22 December 2013 at 11:33

      Cheers, I'll pencil it in for the new year

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  3. William22 December 2013 at 07:25

    You could watch Firefly on the free version of Hulu, and give it a try before buying it. I love Firefly...brave stuff with great writing and acting. Seriously good fun. Fox TV will go to the special hell for cancelling it. The movie is only good if you've seen the series. I always really enjoyed the spacesuits used by the crew of the Serenity, especially the armored plating on the shoulders.

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    1. Steve22 December 2013 at 11:36

      I like the idea of a special hell for people that cancel TV Shows...That's a TV show in its self.....And of course it would have to be cancelled mid-season

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  4. Tim Armstrong31 December 2013 at 19:32

    The firefly suit is actually a modified version of the suit from the movie Soldier [1998] starring Kurt Russel that was supposedly set in the Blade Runner universe,they`ve added extra plating to the suit,a different set of booties and a new helmet which doesnt at all match the original neck ring,funnily enough the original helmet has been reused on the second firefly suit,the yellow-green one in the fourth picture with the open visor
    http://7rea.com/d/1388414795481.jpg

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    1. Steve1 January 2014 at 09:05

      A nice bit of trivia there. Soldier also sits in the pending files however I'm not sure I would have spotted that bit of re-cycling. good eagle eyed work

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  5. Brent Kling4 January 2014 at 16:25

    Loved Firefly, After the series was cancelled, never saw the original run since Fox pretty much killed the show during it's limited run. Very similar these days to Defiance.

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    1. Steve6 January 2014 at 14:54

      Thanks for the thoughts. There's still a lot of love out there for firefly

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  6. Tim Armstrong9 August 2015 at 05:06

    I `ve found another appearance of the firefly suit,its in a short film called Grays
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZJ6JrmIDB8 [3:10]

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