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Blueballed by Firefly

Recently, Gav bought me Firefly on DVD. I'd heard so much about it, and I've been wanting to see it for ages, so I was very excited and already had a lot of expectations. I've heard it called 'the show Star Trek could have been.' Well, pfft. Pfft I say!

It only took me a few episodes to decide I didn't like it. It was absolutely nothing like Star Trek, and if River didn't stop being mystical all the time I was going to demand that she be thrown out an airlock. I was all ready to announce to the world that Firefly was overhyped, and not that great actually.

But... I began to like the characters, Kaylee in particular. And I began to understand that what Firefly actually is... is a Space Western. Not sci-fi. So, more Wars than Trek, more guns than phasers, more sex than diplomats. You get the idea. And after that realisation, I really warmed to it fast!

Of course, as we raced through the episodes towards the inevitable end, I remembered why Firefly has such geek cred in the first place. It's because it's obscure. Not massively, not any more, but it has the rare 'limited edition' feel of a truly wonderful programme that was foolishly cancelled just before it found its audience.

Joss Whedon, the creator (also the creator of Buffy which shuttup was totally awesome), wisely chose not to try and explain everything in the last two episodes. There were a lot of loose ends that he could have tried to tie up in a hurry, but he didn't, and the series is much better for it. It gives the impression that somewhere out there, they're still flying.



The interesting thing of the day, in keeping with the blueballed theme, is a fantasy webcomic that I absolutely adore but was abandoned before completion. I'm not sure entirely of the reasons, but I think the artist / author found out there are mean people online, and left the internets foh evah. (Actually, it seems that he's updating again now! Ace, where did I get to...)



(Regarding the title: I realise that, as analogies go, this is a fairly crude one, but nothing else quite sums up the sense of enjoyment culminating in eventual disappointment and frustration with quite the same bluntness.)

I love you, Randall Monroe