"Drunks are so cute." -- Malcolm Reynolds
There's some good dialog which you'd expect from a Joss Whedon series but it doesn't sparkle the way Buffy the Vampire Slayer's dialog did from day one. Maybe it's because the show is set in the future and Joss can't put in a lot of pop-cultural references but in keeping with the western motif of the show, there were a few references to the Civil War ("I'm thinking we'll rise again").
Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the ship Serenity is the anti-hero of the show. He's likeable and cynical. The actor, Nate Fillion has dense, deadpan delivery which works well for the most part -- it's very reminiscent of Angel in his "goofy Angel" periods in third season of Angel.
Despite his cynicism, he has taken on board a priest and a pair of fugitives. He rationalizes this, the priest pays his way -- but the priest himself points out that his fare is a fraction of what they make on one of their "jobs" or "perfectly legitimate business enterprises. Because one of the fugitives is a doctor and he needs a doctor for his ship is the way he rationalizes them but when pressed adds that "it's the right thing to do" to take them in when they are being pursued by the Alliance.
Kaylee is the ship's mechanic. She's a small, shy, cute girl who is very Willowy. Joss may have inadvertently answered the Willow, gay or bi? question -- Kaylee is clearly a descendant (at least spiritually) of Buffy's Willow Rosenberg.
Jayne is supposed to be Firefly's resident bad ass but he'd hardly be a match for Andromeda's Tyr Anasazi. In fact he'd be hard-pressed in a fight with the first season of TNG version of Worf. Jane doesn't seem very bright, he's just a big, dumb lug who seems to have convinced himself that "Mal" is an even more ruthless bastard than he is and thus worthy of near blind loyalty. At this point, he's little more than a grown up, still closeted version of Larry, the uncouth football player that got killed off in "Graduation Day II," Buffy's third season finale.
Book, is a quiet spiritual man who is played by Ron Glass who is best known for playing detective Harris on Barney Miller. It's great to see Ron Glass working again. Like all quiet, spiritual men, he can frequently be found offering advice to often reluctant crew members and being the voice of reason when reason is rare.
He narrates the opening scene that explains how the "Alliance" united all the planets in a big war and people like Malcolm were pushed to the outer edges of known space where they eked out a meager existence with relatively primitive technology. He'll probably be doing a lot of exposition.
It's interesting that on the Serenity, the most respectable person is a prostitute, Inara. She's a high-class prostitute who seems to hold most of the people she meets speel-bound with Malcolm being the notable exception.
Zoe spends almost as much time on screen as Malcolm but her character remains largely undefined in the series premiere. She appears to have fought at Malcolm's side in the past and they clearly make a great team. It's just not clear what makes her tick behind being the voice of common sense that Malcolm keeps ignoring.
We do know that she is married to Wash, the ship's pilot who bears a suspicious resemblance to Andromeda's Seamus Harper -- although Wash doesn't seem to have Harper's Bugs Bunny on speed personality.
"That young man is very brave." "Yeah. He's my hero." -- Book and Malcolm.
Rounding out the cast are Simon and River, the two fugitives. River was taken away to some "academy" where undetermined creepy experiments were performed on her. Her brother Simon apparently lost his entire fortune rescuing her from said academy and went on the run until Malcolm took them on board his ship. Simon's cultured personality is similar to a toned down version of Wesley in Buffy's third season.
According to www.fireflyfans.net, River is a "borderline psychic and resident genius." But here she is rarely coherent -- I guess this makes her the Fred of the cast, although Fred was a lot cooler when she first appeared on Angel. It will be interesting to see how her character develops but the so cute, she's crazy routine could get tiresome if she doesn't pitch in and contribute the show.
The basic story is simple. A wealthy but scary mobster type offers them a job -- stealing a couple of crates off a mag-lev train on a mining planet -- no questions asked. They do the job and other than a bullet in Jayne's leg and it goes off without a hitch. Well there is the hitch where Mal and Zoe can't get off the train and are stuck at the station where they can't leave because of the train robbery.
There, they discover that the crates they stole contained medicine that help treat a degenerative disorder that affects all of the residents of the mining planet. Pangs of guilt begin eating at Mal. By the time Inara rescues him and Zoe, Mal has decided to return the medicine. This leads to trouble with the scary mobster's henchmen which leads to a nicely staged fight scene. Malcolm commits his first and only ruthless act by tossing one of the thugs into the path of the ship's engines which promptly suck him in like in a non-gory Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. They return the medicine and the sheriff seems way too forgiving. This leads a relatively weak ending.
As for the ship itself, the Serenity rather ugly but nifty little machine. It has one big engine surrounded by two smaller engines set on pivoting nacelles. This is a nifty set up for the Serenity -- which gives it a shape which fits the name of its ship class, Firefly. The big engine gives it most of its thrust and appears to be the FTL drive while the two smaller engines enable it to land and maneuver. It has a nice big cargo bay that puts the Eureka Maru to shame.
The show's special effects are quite good although the FTL effect with the big engine emitting a wispy blue-green vapor trail as the ship flies away from the camera looks a bit underwhelming compared to what you'd see on Star Trek. There is a very pretty shot early on of Mal in front a daytime sky that is dominated by a gas giant and two of its moons which is followed by a great shot of the Serenity rising over a mountain cliff to pick up its crew.
Note to the people who bring us Enterprise: please pay close attention to the opening credits of Firefly -- now that's what an inspiring theme song sounds like.
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