Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly

Unlike "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," Joss Whedon's television series "Firefly" only last fifteen episodes. Of those three were never shown and the two-part pilot aired as the eleventh and twelfth episodes. FOX had cancelled "Dark Angel" after two seasons to spend its limited special effects budget on "Firefly," and then decided halfway through the season to cancel the show. In retrospect it is clear that while "Firefly" had a small audience it was extremely loyal, which explains why Whedon was able to reunite his cast for the theatrical film "Serenity" and provide some sense of closure regarding the ship and its crew. Consequently, with only those fifteen episodes to consider it seems unlikely that "Firefly" will receive the same sort of critical attention that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has received, which is why "Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's 'Firefly'" may be one of the few to do so and why it is ultimately geared more towards fans than academics. In other words, the twenty-one pieces in this volume edited by Jane Espenson constitutes a mixed bag of deep thoughts and biting humor. The first essay, "The Reward, the Details, the Devils, the Due," in which artist Larry Dixon looks at how the "Firefly" universe was fleshed out in terms of set design, set dressing, and cinematography, gets the book off to a good start. Author Lawrence Watt-Evans critiques the Reavers from the perspective of an earth legend regarding cannibalism in "The Heirs of Sawney Beane." Leigh Adams Wright's "Asian Objects in Space" critiques the use of Asian culture with context in the series (i.e., what is the point of the curses in Chinese?). The title of "'Serenity' and Bobby McGee: Freedom and the Illusion of Freedom in Joss Whedon's 'Firefly'" gives away Mercedes Lackey's thesis in her look at the politics of the show. Philosophy professor Lyle Zynda explores the emotional truths of Whedon's show in "We're All Just Floating in Space," where Whedon gets treated on the same level as Camus, Nietzsche and Sartre. In the humor department Glenn Yeffeth makes up a series of memos from Early "Nutcrusher" Jubal, Vice President of FOX Programming to explain, "The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of 'Firefly' (the behind-the-scenes story)." Ginjer Buchanan's "Who Killed 'Firefly'?" provides a more reasoned explanation for what happened. But Keith R.A. DeCandido makes a compelling case for why skipping the pilot was a big mistake in "'The Train Job' Didn't Do the Job: Poor Opening Contributed to 'Firefly''s Doom." Don Debrandt offers an analog between "'Firefly' vs. 'The Tick'," a comparison few people would make. Michelle Sagara West explores the Zoe-Wash marriage as "More Than a Marriage of Convenience." Other pieces look at single characters, with fantasy author Tanya Huff's "'Thanks for the reenactment, sir.' Zoe: Updating the Woman Warrior," and therapist Joy Davidson's "Whores and Goddesses: The Archetypal

I just completed the book and I was thoroughly impressed. The commentary on this wonderful, short-lived television series was insightful (from both critical and complimenting views) and interesting. It is interesting to see the varied individuals that Miss Espenson gathered to make comment on a series that should have gone on and on for at least 6 or 7 seasons. The book is rife with enthusiasm and anticipation for the new movie to be released on September 30, 2005! I also loved Jewel Staite's (Kaylee in the Firefly series) insightful commentary on her favorite episodes and behind-the-scenes stories. Overall, I bestowed a 5 star rating because of the fact that you can read this book in chunks (each chapter is 7-10 pages or so), and that each chunk has a life of its own and gives insight into the mainstream authors and industry professionals that wrote them. Highly recommended.

Firefly has clearly inspired not only regular, tv-watchin' sci fi fans, but also some pen-totin' SF writers, including Mercedes Lackey, Michelle West, Tanya Huff, and Lawrence Watt-Evans, among others. Editor Jane Espenson, a scriptwriter for Firefly, has done a brilliant job of choosing and introducing these essays, which discuss many of the fascinating aspects of the Firefly 'verse. Why are we so compelled by a hybrid of science fiction and westerns? Why do the Firefly characters feel so real? Just who are the Reavers, anyway? These are terrific essays by some very fine writers who bring their own experience and ideas to the discussion of why Firefly rates among the best science fiction television. If you enjoyed the series, short-lived though it was, this is a must for your bookshelf. If you're a Browncoat and you haven't read it yet, get your hands on a copy before Serenity hits the movie theaters September 30.

Firefly is, in my opinion, the greatest show to last less than a season. Usually when people think of shows that have been cancelled, especially shows that have been axed that quickly, they think of something with terrible writing, bad acting, and low production value. However, there have been short-lived shows that were killed way too quickly. Wonderfalls and Greg the Bunny each barely got one season while shows like Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Tru Calling and Titus didn't get much more (Family Guy would have fit into this category last year, but it has come back to the airwaves). All of the shows that I have just mentioned have either been edgy or quoirky, and that has led to their early, yet unwarranted demise. Each of those shows had a quality to them that many long-running shows could never dream of achieving (such as the Simple Life). But Firefly blew them all away. This compilation of essays has some very interesting contributions. One essay investigates the question of just who killed the show (besides the network brass at FOX). Another looks at the role of Inarra (Morena Baccarin) on the show, and compares her to women of similar positions throughout history. Some of the episodes are just hilarious, such as the one with the supposed network notes from FOX exec Early Jubal (a take-off on one of the villains from the show), or the Firefly vs. Star Trek: Enterprise adventure. Some of them are strangely contradictory; one author writes that the women of the show are the smartest, ablest, and best characters, and that the men of the show would be nowhere without them (think about it; the most dangerous person on the ship is a 100-pound teenage girl). However, another writer claims that, because this enters into the western genre, the women are subdued and secondary to the male cast members. Also, at the end is a glossary of all the Chinese phrases used on the show, and some of them are pretty funny (although, probably unintentionally so). Finally, there is the essay from Jewel Staite, who plays Kaylee Frye on the show. Basically, it lists her top 5 favorite moments from each episode. I'm not sure if its my favorite (that honor may be reserved for the Firefly vs. Enterprise one), but I do see it somewhat differently than most of the others. Maybe it's because it came from an actual cast member, or maybe because I'm in love with Kaylee (but that's a different story all together). This is certainly a fun little addition to the Firefly universe. While some of the essays won't be completely accurate come September (some stuff in the film contradicts some of the theories and ideas a few of the authors had), it will always be a good read.

For a brief period of time at the end of 2002, Joss Whedon, the man responsible for "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," had a science fiction series on FOX television called "Firefly." Only eleven episodes aired before the show was unceremoniously cancelled, but the show lived on for its fans when all eleven episodes, plus three unaired shows, were released as a box set. In this way, the show kept its original fans and gained many more. The boxed set sold so well that Universal Studios acquired the rights to make a film based on "Firefly." Jane Espenson, the "Firefly" writer who announced news of the film in 2003, has now edited Finding Serenity, a collection of essays about the television show, its universe, and characters. These essays run the gamut from larks, such as Glenn Yeffeth's attack on the FOX executives who cancelled the show to Keith R.A. DeCandido's well reasoned explanation for why the pilot-as-aired did not manage to attract an audience, to Lyle Zynda's complex look at the existential philosophy found in the series. Many of the essays tend to focus on the same topics, although from different points of view. One of those topics is the strength and abilities of the women of the cast and crew. However, even as Tanya Huff describes the abilities of the second-in-command, Zoe Warren, or Robert Taylor lauds the women as the stronger portion of the crew, Nancy Holder sees them as weak and stereotypical. One of the strengths of "Firefly" is that in just over a dozen shows (including the un-aired episodes), Whedon was able to create enough hooks and mysteries that the twenty authors represented in Finding Serenity are able to tackle a wide variety of topics, from the aforementioned question of the strength of characters to the existence of the Reavers, a bogeyman who the crew of the spaceship Serenity meet up with. Nevertheless, there are numerous other questions which are only touched upon in the essays, such as the mysterious history of Shepherd Book (played by Ron Glass) or the agenda of the equally mysterious Blue Sun corporation. Several articles compare "Firefly" to other television shows, most notably Star Trek and its sequels, but also Don DeBrandt's comparison to the cult show "The Tick." These articles rely, to some extent on familiarity with not only "Firefly" but also the other show. "Mirror/Mirror: A Parody" requires the reader to have some idea about the characters and situations of "Enterprise," as well as share Roxanne Longstreet Conrad's opinions of the two shows. One of the high points of the anthology is the inclusion of an article by Jewel Staite, who portrayed the Serenity's mechanic Kaywinnet Lee Frye. Staite's essay looks at her five favorite moments from each of the episodes of "Firefly" and provides an adjunct actor's commentary to the various commentaries available on the DVD sets. It also serves to demonstrate that the actors, or at least one of them, is as big a fan of the show as the people who watche