Firefly
Came
out; 2002-2003
Episodes:
14
Where
to Watch: Hulu
Rated:
TV-14
Rating
8.9/10
Rotten
Tomatoes
Tomatometer:
77%
Popcornmeter:
96%
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Staring:
Nathan
Fillion as Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds
Gina
Torres as Zoe Washburne
Alan
Tudyk as Hoban “Wash” Washburne
Morena
Baccarin as Inara Serra
Adam
Baldwin as Jayne Cobb
Jewel
Staite as Kaylee Frye
Sean
Maher as Dr Simon Tam
Summer
Glau as River Tam
Rob
Glass as Shepherd Derrial Book
Christina
Hendricks as Saffron
Premise:
Captain
Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds is a former galactic war veteran who is the
captain of the transport ship "Serenity". Mal and his crew,
ensign Zoe Alleyne Washburne; Zoe's husband, pilot Hoban 'Wash'
Washburne; muscular mercenary Jayne Cobb; young mechanic Kaylee Frye;
former Alliance medical officer Simon Tam; his disturbed teenage
sister River (both on the run from the interplanetary government "The
Alliance"); the beautiful courtesan Inara Serra; and preacher
Shepherd Book do any jobs, legal or illegal, they can find as the
Serenity crew travels across the outskirts of outer space
Overall
Thoughts:
We
decided to watch this and the movie which will be reviewed below
because we kept coming across articles of people upset that it only
lasted one season.
Nathan
Fillion is generally a good time so it didn't hurt to try it. We were
immediately hooked.
This
is a space, cowboy, almost Guardians of the Galaxy without the
aliens. I understand how and why it had such a cult following
Episode
1:
Serenity
Captain
Malcolm
"Mal" Reynolds
and
his crew aboard Serenity
illegally
salvage goods from a derelict
ship.
Because the Alliance marked the goods, and an Alliance ship spotted
an obsolete Firefly-class
freighter leaving the scene, Mal's fence Badger refuses to handle the
goods and Mal has to sell elsewhere. To make extra money, the crew
picks up passengers: Shepherd
Book,
Simon
Tam
and
Lawrence Dobson. En route to the new buyer, Patience, Dobson turns
out to be an undercover Alliance agent tracking Simon. Dobson
attempts to arrest Simon, but he is taken prisoner. Simon reveals
that his genius sister River
Tam,
hidden in his luggage, was experimented on by the Alliance and that
he is trying to smuggle her to safety. Patience tries to rob Mal, but
he takes the payment after a shootout. Lawrence escapes and holds
River hostage, but Mal shoots him and offers Simon and River haven
aboard Serenity.
Episode
2:
The
Train Job
Crime
lord Adelai Niska hires the crew to rob a train of unspecified goods.
The crew can transfer the goods to Serenity
flying
above, but Mal and Zoe
Washburne
are
forced to stay behind on the train. They learn that they have stolen
medicine desperately needed by the locals. The crew argues whether
they should deliver the goods to Niska. Ultimately, they decide to
rescue Mal and Zoe first through subterfuge. Mal decides to return
the medicine. However, Niska's thugs track them down. After killing
some of them and capturing the rest, Mal and Zoe take medicine to
those in need of it and refund Niska's money.
Episode
3:
Bushwacked
The
crew discovers a derelict ship that was attacked by Reavers
and
take aboard the sole survivor. Shortly after, an Alliance cruiser
orders Serenity
to
dock to it. Simon and River hide to avoid capture. The rest of the
crew are interrogated. Refusing to believe in the existence of
Reavers, the Alliance's Commander Harken decides that the crew will
be charged with attacking the ship and murdering its settler
passengers. However, the survivor kills some of the Alliance crew and
escapes back to Serenity.
Mal convinces Harken to let him help find the survivor. Mal kills the
survivor, saving Harken's life in the process, and the crew is
released.
Episode
4:
Shindig
Inara
Serra
is
hired by Atherton Wing, one of her regular clients, and accompanies
him to a formal dance. Badger hires Mal to meet a contact at the same
dance and try to set up a smuggling job. When Mal hits Atherton for
the way he treats Inara, Mal finds he has unknowingly challenged
Atherton to a duel with swords. Atherton is a skilled swordsman and
duelist. Inara tries to teach Mal how to use a sword overnight.
Despite all expectations, Mal wins the duel. The contact, who
personally dislikes Atherton, agrees to hire the crew to smuggle
cattle to the Rim.
Episode
5: Safe
The
crew delivers cattle to the Rim, but Book is gravely injured when
they are stuck in the middle of a shootout. At the same time, Simon
and River Tam are kidnapped by locals while sightseeing in town. Mal
chooses to leave the Tams behind to seek help for Book. Desperate,
they turn to an Alliance ship. At first hostile, the Alliance officer
they speak to provides medical aid after seeing Book's ID. Meanwhile,
the kidnappers belong to a community in desperate need of an actual
doctor, and Simon tentatively hopes he has found a haven for himself
and River. However, the religious residents believe River is a witch
and attempt to burn
her at the stake.
Serenity
returns
just in time to rescue the siblings. When Simon asks Mal why he came
back, the captain tells Simon that he and River are part of the crew.
Episode
6:
Our
Mrs. Reynolds
After
completing a job for a small settlement, during the ensuing
celebration, Mal learns that he inadvertently married a young woman
called Saffron,
part of the payment. Although Mal insists they are not married,
Saffron is determined to fulfill a subservient wife's role. Saffron
is not what she appears to be. She later knocks Mal out, locks the
ship into a course for murderous ship scrappers, and flees in a
shuttle. The crew barely escapes.
Episode
7:
Jaynestown
The
crew lands on a planet to meet a contact. Although Jayne Cobb insists
he is wanted there, they are dumbfounded to learn that the locals
revere him as a folk hero. Mal attempts to use Jayne's status as a
distraction to move smuggled goods across town. However, Magistrate
Higgins releases Jayne's former accomplice Stitch Hessian, whom Jayne
abandoned years ago during a botched robbery and now seeks revenge.
Stitch publicly confronts Jayne, revealing what the townspeople
believe happened to be false. Stitch shoots, but a villager jumps in
front of Jayne and dies. Jayne kills Stitch and urges the townspeople
to stop viewing him as a hero. Serenity
is
"land-locked" by Higgins' order to try to capture Jayne.
Higgins' 26-year-old son Fess, encouraged by Inara to stand up for
himself after losing his virginity to her, as paid for by Magistrate
Higgins, orders the unlocking of the ship, and Serenity
departs.
Episode 8:
Out of
Gas
An
explosion in the engine room leaves Serenity
with
a dead engine and inoperative life support system, and no backup
options. With only a few hours of oxygen left, Mal has the crew leave
in the two shuttles while he remains aboard with hope to contact a
passing ship. In a series of flashbacks, Mal convinces Zoe, Jayne,
Inara, Hoban
Washburne,
and Kaylee
Frye
to
join his crew. In the present, Mal hails a ship and secures the part
needed to fix the engine, though he is shot by the other ship's
captain in a failed attempt to take over Serenity.
In what appears to be his final act, Mal repairs the ship and
collapses. The crew returns to Serenity
in
time to save Mal's life.
Episode
9:
Ariel
While
waiting on the Core planet Ariel, Simon hires the crew to help him
smuggle River into a local hospital for a thorough diagnostic. In
return, he will tell them how to loot the hospital for valuable
medicine. Once inside, Jayne attempts to turn in Simon and River for
the reward. However, the Alliance officer arrests Jayne as well to
keep the bounty for himself. The crew escapes, but Mal realizes that
Jayne betrayed Simon and River. Mal arranges for Jayne to suffocate
when Serenity leaves the
planet's atmosphere, but then lets him live when he shows remorse.
Episode
10: War Stories
Angry
that Zoe and Mal have an unshakeable bond as war veterans, her
husband Wash demands to take her place on a seemingly routine
mission. Mal begrudgingly allows Wash to go along. They are captured
by Niska, out to restore his reputation after they failed to complete
the robbery he commissioned in "The Train Job". Zoe has
only enough money to ransom one of them. She unhesitatingly chooses
Wash. The crew band together to rescue Mal.
Episode 11:
Trash
When
Saffron crosses paths with Mal again, she asks him to help her rob a
precious antique weapon from a wealthy man. Once Mal and Saffron are
inside, they are discovered, and it is revealed that the man is
married to Saffron. Although the man seems initially oblivious, he is
aware of Saffron's true nature and called the authorities. Mal and
Saffron escape, but Saffron betrays Mal, stranding him naked in the
desert, and tries to pick up the weapon. However, Inara gets there
first. She leaves Saffron locked up in a storage container for the
authorities, and the crew escapes with the weapon.
Episode 12:
The Message
Mal
and Zoe receive in the mail the body of Tracey, a comrade-in-arms who
fought with them at the Battle of Du-Khang, and they attempt to honor
his recorded wish to be returned home. However, a corrupt Alliance
officer demands they turn over the body and the goods the soldier was
smuggling. While searching the body for clues, they learn that Tracey
is still alive and is smuggling organs. Tracey had double-crossed his
employers, but they killed his new buyer. Mal is ultimately forced to
kill him to protect the crew, and Book blackmails the officer into
leaving. Mal and Zoe take Tracey's body home to his family.
Episode 13:
Heart of Gold
Nandi,
an old friend of Inara's and a former Companion, runs an unlicensed
bordello
on a barren planet. The bordello is frequently
patronized by Rance Burgess, a tyrannical ruler who keeps the
community excessively poor so that he can govern it as a cowboy.
Burgess, whose wife is infertile,
believes a pregnant prostitute named Petaline is carrying his child.
With Burgess promising to take the child once it is born, Nandi
contacts Inara and asks her if the Serenity
crew can help defend her establishment. Mal agrees, but
upon arrival realizes that Burgess' cavalry
is too powerful to fight and advises Nandi and her
working girls to leave the planet immediately. Nandi refuses to lose
her establishment to Burgess, and her resolve impresses Mal enough to
encourage the crew to stay and fight Burgess. Nandi and Mal sleep
together, and Petaline's child is born. Although Inara is outwardly
pleased that Mal has put his intimacy issues aside, secretly she is
heartbroken that her attraction is unrequited. With the help from the
crew, Burgess's forces are defeated, and Petaline kills Burgess, but
Nandi is killed in battle. Later, Inara confesses to Mal that she
wants to leave Serenity.
Episode 14:
Objects in Space
River
telepathically hears the crewmembers' innermost feelings. When she
picks up a gun in Serenity's
cargo bay (which she perceives as a tree branch), the
others discuss if she's too dangerous to be kept aboard. Bounty
hunter Jubal Early sneaks
aboard the ship, intent on claiming the bounty set for River and
Simon. Early incapacitates the crew and forces Simon to help him
locate River, who has seemingly vanished. While searching the ship,
Early recites existential
philosophy, claiming to not be
evil, simply incentivized to do what is necessary. River's voice
appears on the PA
system, claiming that River
melted and fused with Serenity.
Early is disbelieving, but the voice is omniscient, knowing extensive
details of Early's delinquent behaviour. The voice muses that Early
enjoys violence and is not merely incentivized to be violent.
Secretly, the voice individually mobilizes the crew in a plot to
force Early off the ship. Early realizes River has snuck aboard his
own spacecraft. River tells him she will go willingly. Heading back
to his craft to join her, Early is ambushed by Mal, who pushes him
away into space – carrying out River's plan. River is embraced by
the crew. Early floats alone in space.
Serenity
Came
out; 2005
Time;
1 hour 59 Minutes
Watched:
Amazon
Rated:
PG 13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual
references
IMDB
Rating; 7.8/10
Rotten
Tomatoes:
Tomato
Meter 82%
Popcorn
Meter 91%
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Nathan
Fillion as Mal
Gina
Torres as Zoe
Chiwetel
Ejiofor as The Operative
Alan
Tudyk as Wash
Morena
Baccarin as Inara
Adam
Baldwin as Jayne
Jewel
Staite as Keylee
Sean
Maher as Simon
Summer
Glau as River
Ron
Glass as Shepherd Book
Story
Line;
Serenity
continues the story of the TV series it was based upon ("Firefly").
River Tam had a secret - one in which she's not even aware - so
dangerous, no one's safe, as an Alliance operative's sent to capture
her, and all others are considered irrelevant to his job
Thoughts:
I
feel like this was either an effort to re-start the show or to give
the fans closure. I like that River's experiences were explained more
It
was cheesy because it's an older movie but good in storyline and a
great ending
CAUTION;
Spoiler Alert
In
the 26th century, humanity has left an overpopulated and decimated
Earth and moved to a new star system, colonizing many planets and
moons.
The central
planets are ruled by an Alliance that has won a war against the
Colonies, less established planets in the new outer solar system. The
colonies refuse to accept the Alliance rules & are at war.
A
young girl named River Tam (Summer Glau) is the most promising of a
number of young people being mentally and physically conditioned
against their will by Alliance scientists. The Alliance wants to use
these kids as weapons against the colonials. River was actually a
colonial herself, being used by Alliance to fight against her own
people.
Rescued
by her brother Simon (Sean Maher), the two find refuge aboard the
Firefly-class transport ship Serenity, captained by gun-for-hire
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a colonial
veteran. An Alliance agent, the Operative, is charged with finding
and killing River, as high Alliance politicians have accidentally
exposed top secrets to her psychic abilities.
Aboard
Serenity, Mal takes River along on a bank robbery (As River is a
psychic & Mal can use her to know about events before they
happen), against her brother's objections. Simon is the resident
physician aboard the Serenity. Kaylee is the engine mechanic.
They
are attacked by Reavers, wildly savage humans who eat their victims
alive. They escape, but Simon decides that he and River will leave
Serenity at the next port called Haven. While Mal meets fences Fanty
and Mingo at a bar to sell the bank robbery loot, a TV commercial
causes River to attack the patrons with effective martial arts. Just
before she can shoot Mal, Simon arrives and shouts a "safe word"
which causes her to fall asleep. Mal carries River back to Serenity,
but the incident is captured on camera. The crew contacts a reclusive
hacker known as Mr. Universe who analyzes the commercial and
discovers a subliminal message being broadcast across Alliance space
designed specifically to trigger River. He notes that River whispered
"Miranda" before attacking.
While
hiding out on Haven, a mining colony and home of Shepherd Book, Mal
receives a call from Inara, a former passenger, offering work.
Suspecting a trap but fearing she is in danger; Mal goes to her
sanctuary and is confronted by the Operative. He promises to let Mal
go free if he turns River over, but he refuses and, thanks to Inara's
quick thinking, she and Mal escape. After another of River's
outbursts, the crew discover that Miranda is a remote planet that had
become uninhabitable because of an Alliance meddling. Serenity
returns to Haven while the crew ponder their next move. They discover
that the outpost has been destroyed and the residents slaughtered.
They then learn The Operative is killing all of Mal's contacts to
deny him a safe haven. He promises that he will pursue them until he
gets River. Mal decides to travel to Miranda to see if he can learn
the truth of the situation.
Inara
fears the Operative as she thinks of him as a believer in the
Alliance's cause. She knows that the Operative believes that it is
best for River to die for the greater good of the Alliance, which the
Operative believes to be working for the forces of good.
The
route to Miranda is blocked by a region swarming with Reavers, so Mal
disguises Serenity as a Reaver ship (an act that his first mate, Zoe
(Gina Torres), strongly protests). After sailing through a fleet of
Reaver vessels, the crew discovers a habitable planet with cities
filled with mummified corpses. They discover a recording by an
Alliance survey team explaining that an experimental chemical,
designed to suppress aggression in the residents, was introduced into
the air processing system. The agent worked too well, and the
colonists literally lost all emotional drive, eventually starving in
droves when they lost interest in basic survival. However, one person
in a thousand had an opposite reaction and became what was now known
as the hyper-aggressive and unstable Reavers. So, the Alliance
experiment was responsible for the greatest threat facing humanity in
the universe today.
Mal
contacts Mr. Universe to arrange to have the log broadcast to the
solar system to get the colonials to re-energize & fight for the
new solar system, but the Operative is already there and has Mr.
Universe lure them in, before mortally wounding him. Mal suspects
Serenity is heading into a trap, so while traveling back through
Reaver space, he opens fire on one of their ships. The Reavers pursue
Serenity to Mr. Universe's planet, where they stumble upon the
waiting Alliance fleet and begin fighting. The Operative's ship is
destroyed, but he uses an escape pod. Serenity is damaged by a
pursuing Reaver ship but manages to crash land.
Shortly
after the crash, Hoban "Wash" Washburne is killed by
Reavers that attack the ship, and the crew flees. Finding Mr.
Universe dead and his equipment wrecked, Mal learns of a secret
backup transmitter from a message recorded by the dying Mr. Universe.
The crew makes a stand against the Reavers to buy Mal the time to
send the message. After a firefight, the crew retreat behind a set of
blast doors, but the doors only partially close. Zoe and Kaylee are
wounded. Simon discovers he has left his medical kit behind; as he
rises to retrieve it, he is shot. He apologizes to River for failing
her. She replies that it is her turn to take care of him. She charges
through the opening in the blast doors, triggers the closing
mechanism and throws the medical kit through the opening before the
Reavers drag her away.
Mal
reaches the transmitter, but The Operative is close behind. In
hand-to-hand combat, Mal manages to disable his opponent and bind him
to a railing, forcing him to watch the recording. Mal returns to his
crew. The blast doors open to reveal that River has dispatched all of
the Reavers. The wall behind her explodes, and Alliance troops rush
in. The Operative recognizes his defeat and that his vision of a
'better world' is inherently flawed and orders his men to stand
down.
After
the crew erect memorials to their deceased friends on Mr. Universe's
moon, they patch up Serenity. Kaylee and Simon consummate their
relationship. The disillusioned Operative tells Mal that the Alliance
government has been weakened and that he will try his best to present
his former foe in the best light but cannot guarantee that others
will not be sent after Mal and his crew. Serenity lifts off with
River as Mal's new copilot.