Firefly Season 1 Episode 6

The good;

Kaylee is the belle of the ball and isn't she WONDERFUL! Mal swordfighting and lots of good stuff with Badger, especially his conversation with River. Adore Mal's looks of amazement as Jayne knows what 'pretentious' means.

The bad;

The cows in the final scene are amazingly quiet whilst Mal and Inara are talking.

Best line;

Kaylee; "Great party, huh?"

Debutante; "Not as good as last year"

Kaylee; "Why, what did they have last year?"

Debutante; (looking Kaylee up and down) "Standards"

To quote Cameron on The Sarah Connor Chronicles 'Bitchwhore much?"

Also like;

Kaylee; "Maybe that's him over there?"

Mal; "That's the buffet table"

Kaylee; (hungrily) "How will we know if we don't ask?"

Packing heat;

Swords this time. Badger's men use an MP40 Schmeisser, an Uzi and an AK-47, the guest at the party seems to have a Colt .32 pocket pistol. Jayne packs what looks like a Mossberg shotgun on the Serenity.

Kinky dinky;

Naked Wash and Zoe get it on again, Zoe complimenting Wash that he 'knows all the steps'. Inarra's outfit at the party is also quite something. Kaylee comments that Mal's outfit shows off his backside and Inara subsequently spanks it with her sword.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inara is hired for the evening but we've no idea if they have sex or not so I'll put him down as a possible.

Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.

Wash; 1-the missus

Zoe; 1-the hubby



Capt subtext;

Wash jokingly refers to 'jealous men like me' regarding Zoe but is he really joking or sending Mal a not so subtle message? When Kaylee says 'Look at the pretties' Mal asks if she means the girls or the clothes? Mal and Jayne s*** as Badger implies he has his hands on some diamond testicles. Mal observes Atherton is such a catch 'I'm liable to sleep with him myself'.

How'd they get away with that?

Mal gratuitously stabbing Atherton after he's defeated him in the duel. Mal's remark comparing Kaylee to a sheep dancing on it's hind legs is INCREDIBLY insensitive, Jayne's gynacologist joke in the ep Serenity is less offensive.



Subverting the Hollywood cliche;

After sex it's Zoe who wants to sleep and Wash to stay awake. When Mal claims he cannot run Inara correctly points out that he runs away all the time. Mal is far from stoic when complaining about his wounds later.

Whedon cliches; (see I spelt it right!);

Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys.



Women good/men bad;

It's not enough for Atherton to simply hire Inara for her charms he wants to own her completely and deny her to other men, like she's some form of possession.



Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!);

Inara greets several other companions at the party. They are used by rich men as status symbols, who has the best one get's the most kudos. At the end she freezes him out, no other companion will now work for him after how he's treated her. Mal refers to the companion training school as a whore academy (jeez the man has NO CLUE!)

Know the face?

Larry Drake is familar to 80s TV viewers as Benny in LA Law, the nicest man in the world and to horror fans from Darkman and Dr Giggles where he plays the nastiest men in the world. He also stars with Whedon alumnis Alyssin Hannigan in American Pie 2 and Amber Benson in the dreadful B-movie Gryphon.

Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)

Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible

Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel

Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)

Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel

Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.

Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.

Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.

Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.

Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4

Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.

Alliance good or bad?;

Would the Alliance allow slavery (or dueling?) on their worlds? Or are they like the Union forces in the American Civil War/British Empire in the 18/19th century, abolishing it wherever they go?

Fanfic;

Mal and Inara getting together after this ep is common but a sizeable minority like to pair her up with Atherton, presumably the same folks who think Kate Winslet should have stuck with Billy Zane in Titanic (Mae West's quote of wanting a man who's "handsome, rich and cruel" springs to mind") If you like things a LOT more adult there's also one where Kaylee's admirers invite her to an after hours party and then indulge in group sex with her, more or less consensually (ie she starts off as less but ends up as more).

Missing scenes;.

Reputedly there was a scene where we see Mal unload the walking arsenal he carries in his pockets before entering the ballroom plus a derringer he has Kaylee carrying for him in her stockings tops. Also a scene where we Larry Drake's character and Badger fall out and Inara gossiping with her fellow companions at the dance.



Western cliches;

Nice in a western series to finally have the Serenity with a hold full of cattle, once again food is one of the most precious commodities in the Fireflyverse, especially some good steak as Jayne observes earlier in the episode.

Firefly speak;

Gorram=goddam.

Weak tea=not good

Back birth=idiot

Companion=high class courtesan

Gengish=competent

Doh-ma=understand/understood?

Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)

Chin-cha-da=hell

Purple belly=officious bureaucrat

Ta-gow=Oh god!

Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate

Gosa=excrement

Shot; .

Mal; 1-

Kayleigh;1-

Jayne;1-

Crew injured;

Mal pretty badly sliced up in the duel at the end.

Reminds me off;

Deranged River talking in her faux cockney accent is VERY Drusilla indeed. Inara the high class lady of the night is very Darla and her love/hate relationship with brooding hero Mal somewhat akin to Darla and Angel. Mal's hatred of slavery is reminiscent of Han Solo. The bitchy girls at the party are awfully like the Cordettes on Buffy. Kaylee's hilarious expression as Mal tells her that he has a job for her is very like Willow's when Riley's wife Sam makes suggestions for Xander's wedding in the s6 Buffy ep 'As you were'. Wash is a bad poet, much like Spike and not really an action man as with Xander. Jane comments that the Serenity crew are the misfits who don't fit in much like the Scoobs at Sunnydale High.

Kaylee's rescuer at the party does indeed remind me of an older Clark Gable as the commentary observes but also of Dr Huer from the old Buck Rogers TV series.

Questions and observations;

They still have the peerage system in the future. Unfortunately they've also got slavery too, even on a fairly civilized world like Persephone . 'Magic' Jane Espenson, hooray! Inara seems to have a thing about slumming, she really is out of place in the Firefly crew and certainly in the bar Mal and Jayne take her to. More social climbing by Badger but he's useless at it, crustless sandwiches (cucumber?) mixed with wood alcohol hooch, no wonder he needed Mal to be the middleman for him in the deal, at least he can fake class convincingly. Kaylee's surname is Lee Fry. She once again shows her love of fruit, both mangoes and strawberries as does Badger who's at the apples again. Zoe's remark about Jayne slitting her throat and taking over the ship again suggests he's the unofficial 3rd in command. However he wants to rescue Mal when Badger comes to the ship.

Mal is in many ways too honest and honourable for the criminal world, he's probably more like the Alliance than he cares to admit but can't stand submitting to their authority.

Marks out of 10; 7/10 pretty good .

Written by Jane Espenson, one of my favourite TV writers, 'Shindig,' rather unsurprisingly, is an exceptionally witty piece of Sci-fi, with some fantastic set-pieces and brilliant performances.





As much as it is Mal and Inara's episode, I think Kaylee stole the hour for me. When Mal shot her down, saying that she'd look like a sheep waling on its hind legs, I wanted to jump in and clock Mal in the face just like he did Atherton. As for her dress, it just made Kaylee as a character more endearing. And that scene where she has an entourage of men around her was simply icing on her frilly cake dress.





The rapport between Nathan and Morena is exceptionally genuine. Their dialogue is certainly prodigious, and if in the hands of lesser actors, could have come off sounding rather pretentious. I generally don't enjoy the kind of relationships that fall into the realm of 'will they/won't they?' but the comedy is underlined with some serious drama – Mal's warped sense of morality being a big one – and it's tackled with a sincerity that compliments the almost sit-com-like situation.





Overall, it may not be a personal favourite, but this is a seriously good offering from the series. It is a different Firefly than the norm, one that definitely stands out. Mal also gets one of his best moments in the show's small history:





Mal: "Mercy is the mark of a great man."


(stabs Atherton)


"Guess I'm just a good man."


(stabs Atherton again)


"Well, I'm all right."

Inara goes to meet her client on persephone and mal goes to meet badger for a job.Due to an extreme and rather lazy contivance they end up at the same party(small planet).Mal soon ends up annoying the local gentry and finds himself in a duel to the death with inara's client.


Badger holds the serenity crew hostage so they dont try to rescue the captain and annoy the locals on his place of business.Mal must fight the master swordsman on his terms but he is yet again outclassed.





An ok episode .the usual tension between mal and inara and the usual trouble for mal and his belief structure.Unfortunately one moment screams out as awful.As this is joss whedon this moment stands out quite a bit.The uniformly brilliant summer glau makes her entrance into the episode as a "step in time ,gawd bless ya marry poppins, loveble chimney sweep, cockney flower".She has attended the dick van dyke school of british accents and it really shows.Embarrasing oh dear oh dear.Not great

They get off the ship for some time, Inara has a job and she is going to fancy ball. But it does not go without problems as captain is getting a new job too and goes to the same ball, with Kaylee who gets lovely layer dress.. It's great to see her in different envelopment and I most say she really was somehow the center of her episode with that lovely attitude on the ball.





And ofcourse captain on that kind fancy ball - it ends up with problem as he tries to protect Inara's honor and manages to get himself a duel - a swordfight..





But all ends great. I most say this episode really had that kind of different feeling, atmosphere.. the ball - it was so nice to get change to have them in those gorgeous costumes.. Inara had stunning dress.





And the one scene with River - when she managed to be so normal, somehow scary..

This is a great episode and fun to watch. It starts of with Mal and jayne getting into a bar fight which was really great to watch. Which was a great and funny way to start the episode. But the focus of the episode is the Mal and Inara interact. Mal ends up getting into a duel because he hit Inara's "date". The Scenes with Kaylee trying to mingle with the other guests at the party were very enjoyable as were the rest of the crews plans to make a diversion and come and rescue the captain. Which just before they are about to put in action, the captain and Inara walk in.


Great episode and i think every firefly fan has to see it at least once.

Shindig is another fantastic episode of Firefly. With a very unique, original storyline, fantastic dialog, beautiful sets this is just an all round great episode.





We begin with another great scene in a bar - it is highly amusing for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the snappy dialog and the great set. Firefly is such a great series because, so early on, it knows exactly what it is and what it wants to achieve. Almost everything is tongue-in-cheek but it never feels that way. Every scene has a sincerity and a feeling of genuine reality that it is a joy to watch.





The focus of this episode is Mal and Inara, which is a refreshing change from the more action-heavy episodes previously. Although I am still not sure about how I feel towards Inara, I appreciate the relationship and tension between the two characters. This budding relationship could very easily have been a cheesy romance-of-the-week sort of thing, which so often happens, with the constant 'are they together or aren't they?', 'will they hook up?' fading in and out of episodes. Instead their relationship is handled much more realistically and far more enjoyably. Mal's approach to Inara is to insult her instead of flattering her, but it is very endearing and thoroughly enjoyable.





There are so many good things about this episode - the party is beautiful with wonderfully extravagant sets and costumes, not to mention Kaylee's dress! She is such a sweet character, it is impossible not to like her immensely.





The duel is also brilliantly done, and is such a great way to tie the end of the episode together. I am constantly impressed with how well-written the episodes are, because they are so interesting and original.





We also get an interesting look at a very different side of River which, while not getting an explanation, definitely leaves you intrigued.





With a great ending, the whole episode stands out. From start to finish there are just so many interesting aspects, all glued together with a script that is just so impressive I cannot say enough about it. Definitely a winner of an episode!

What a fabulous episode, best one of the series so far (following the correct episode order from the DVD).





When Inara's customer isn't as polite as Mail would like hime to be, he hits him, thus challenging him to a duel, with swords!





I love how Mal follows his own logic, calling Inara a whore but being offended when someone else does it, doesn't seem to make sense, but to him it does.


I also loved how the old man put down the girls who were rude to Kaylee, that was fantastic.





Finally, husband and wife having somr private time was good, as were the cows at the end.

I really enjoyed this episode. I thought it was fun watching Mal and Inara interact. Those two characters have such chemistry that any time they are on the screen together is an awesome sight indeed. I thought it was great that Mal thought he was defending Inara only to find out that he was going to be fighting a duel he probably would never win. I loved all the scenes with Kaylee, she is such a great character. I also laughed so hard with the crew left on the ship. How they spent all this time trying to come up with a deversion, only to have Mal and Inara show up before they even started. Awesome episode with good writing and acting.

All in all this was a cute episode that was well written. I love that Kaylee was all excited about being at a fancy party wearing a poofy dress. I also love that everybody that went to the party got dressed up. All the guys love Kaylee, it was funny. Mal gets in a sword fight because he punched Inaras date. River gets a couple minutes to go crazy and make sure people would have a few mystery meals. Jayne got to cheat at cards. It was very catchy writing it was funny. I like that inara taught him how to duel. Summer Glau is such a good actress.

Though it’s been dealt with to some small extent in the previous episodes, the relationship between Mal and Inara finally takes center stage. To say that it’s complicated would be one of those famous understatements. Certainly there is an attraction and sexual tension between them, but that tension doesn’t always seem to express itself in the most healthy of ways. Mal is a man of contradictions, to be sure, but his mantra appears to be “freedom”. However his time in the war ended, it left a terrible weight in his soul, maybe even a sense of inevitability that everything he holds dear will be subsumed by the expanding federalism. As Inara notes, it’s not just the imposed order of the Alliance that Mal rejects, but the rules that come as a response to the Alliance among those acting outside of the law. Either way, it’s the Alliance and all that it represents controlling behavior, compliant or adversarial. It’s interesting to see Mal speaking so badly of Inara’s profession, especially since there is very little difference in what they do. Just as Inara sells her services, Mal sells his. But Mal apparently believes that there’s a difference in the way that they approach the deal. Inara works within the system, and that makes her a victim of the code she lives by. Mal, on the other hand, uses his illegal activity as a means to simply be. That’s what he appears to want for Inara, but he sure has a tough time saying it. He regards her highly, and quite possibly is already as much in love as he can allow himself to be. And maybe that’s why he feels the need to push her so hard. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t keep trying to get her to take a hard look at her life. Of course, does he really need to try so hard? Unless he’s a fool, he has to see that Inara is just as interested in him. And she’s already taken the step to travel with Serenity, which is hardly what someone slavishly following the rules of the Alliance would be doing. Granted, we still don’t know her reasons for joining Mal and the others. But she doesn’t seem too put off by his activities in the end. That’s where the genius of the dancing scene comes into play. Mal sets the stage by commenting that he knows that particular dance, and the rest is the game of cat and mouse that they seem used to playing by now. There’s the heated dialogue, to be sure, but there are also the thinly veiled looks. For all that Mal insults Inara’s choices and she points out his lack of sophistication, in the end they find a sense of happiness together. Inara’s not the only victim of Mal’s attitudes about the lures of a “civilized” life. His attitude with Kaylee is clearly related to his dislike of Inara’s adherence to high society. It’s almost as though he sees Kaylee putting on airs, when it’s really just the simple dream of a young woman who knows that she will likely never have the life that is so widely glamorized. Kaylee still dreams, and in the end, that’s something Mal can only partially disapprove. The other characters get some small moments. We finally get to see the depth of Wash and Zoe’s love for one another, something we now understand was hard earned. Jayne is his usual mercenary self, whether it’s a friendly game of cards or serious business. It’s interesting to see Simon turning into a man of action as time marches on. It’s nearly impossible to figure out what’s going on with River, though it’s clear that her lucidity comes and goes with little warning. Still, in the end, this episode is about Mal and Inara, and to a lesser extent, Kaylee. And it’s the characters that make such a simple plot device work. If the complex interplay between Mal and Inara hadn’t been there to begin with, would the conflict in this episode have been nearly so interesting?

This episode is my all time fav Firefly episode, followed by Safe and Out of Gas. I think in this episode you get the best mix of science fiction, and old westerness. I love the interaction between characters. Inara and Mal have so much unspoken chemistry... the looks they give each other say all the words they refuse to. River is also awesome in this episode, her few lines are some of the best she ever says. Her whole bearing just makes you fall in love with her character. Jayne's lines are great too..... its just all round a great episode. :) Tune in!





I give it a 10, because there is not a thing I don't like about this episode. DeChicka

Shindig is where the tension between Captain Malcolm Reynolds and the companion Inara Sierra come to a head. It shows the contrast between Inara and Mal's life with the begining in a pool hall with shadowy characters and how out of place Inara is. The shindig is a yearly event on Persephone where Badger needs Mal to attend the gig representing him for a deal with a high society man. Mal who is out of place now in Inara's world makes contact. Inara trys to get Mal's attention while dancing with a suitor. The suitor who becomes jealous insults Inara's honor. Our hero Captain Mal steps in to defend her. Now in a swashbuckling sword fight duel Mal is in over his head. But it all comes together. A romantic comedy episode geared more for the ladies but worth watchng as a man.

Rough and tumble Mal infiltrates polite society in order to secure a smuggling job only to find himself completely out of his element and hours from certain death. Almost Shakespearian in plotting, the rough hewn Mal gets into trouble when he crudely defends Inara\'s honor at a society ball. Forced to take part in a duel (with swords not guns) he is out of his element and will certainly die at the hands of the arrogant Atherton Wing who wants to keep the beautiful Inara as his personal, paid \"companion.\" Throughout the episode Mal finds his smart mouth getting him into trouble only to find that when he has the chance to tell Inara his true feelings, he is unable to say the words. A fun story with lovely romantic overtones.

No, really - why does everyone on the ship pick on the mechanic? It's not like she's the only one who keeps that heap running. Plus, she's hittably cute, which is never something you want to pass up on. But on the other hand, that was a thoroughly ridiculous looking dress, and someone needed to give her the hint. But if it makes the poor girl happy, I guess.





This episode really didn't hold up to the standards of Bushwacked, which I suppose was the previous episode, if the DVDs are to be believed. A liitle goofy, a bit heavy-handed. At least now it's much clearer that Mal feels something for the whore that he hauls around. Why do I have the feeling that we'll not see anything come of that for awhile? Maybe for the finale...





They came down pretty hard on slavery in this one, which is a pretty easy target these days; but it makes no mention of the non-human slaves that Serenity picks up at the end. Star Trek would have said something about it. I don't know if that is what's right or what's wrong about Star Trek, but that's what they would have done.

There's a change of pace in this episode, it is set in a city. In this episode, we visit a society that reflects an old Earth society in Europe were business disputes are settled through duels. It sort of shows that in the Firefly universe, it's a far off future but people are still the same, they are still ignorant, arrogant and barbaric. A duel is still accepted in this society even though it's far off in the future. Mal almost gets himself killed, but by sheer luck he lives through this ordeal. The writers did another great episode, they just keep coming up with great stories.

Some people regard this as a "girly" episode, but I can't help it - I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic. Not that it's all romance - there's Kaylee being hopelessly sweet in her achingly ugly dream dress, the gang enacting their 'daring' escape plan, not to mention River digging like a mole into Badger's head.





But who am I kidding - I just want to watch Captain Tightpants out of his element, dancing up a storm, hitting the bad guy, defending Inara, learning how to chip pillars and generally being a bad-ass old-fashioned hero. Alright, a good man. Well, he's alright...

A very feel good, fun episode about the love between Inara and Mal.





The best thing about this episode will have to be the ball scene and the swordfight scene (who doesn’t love those?)





It begins with a man asking Inara to come to his party, he seems like a nice bloke (oh boy, am I wrong).


When Mal is offered a job as well he has to go to the same party, he needs a date and asks Kaylee who was a bit mad at him for being mean at her but he bought her the dress she wanted so she’s now Kaylee-happy.





At the ball, Inara sees Mal and he asked her to dance but her partner isn’t very pleased with everything and asks Inara to leave with him, Mal has issues controlling and feels like he disrespects Inara so he beats down the little bitca-man which obviously leads to a swordfight (happens at all the parties).





Inara wants Mal to leave the fight but he refuses, but he’s also very slow and bad at the swordfighting. During the duel the guy wounds Mal but when Inara asks him to spear Mal’s life, Mal takes his chance and pokes the guy without killing him.





Back on the ship Inara tells Mal that she wouldn’t have left him because there isn’t a reason for her to leave Serenity, not even all the cows.





‘Shindig’ is not the biggest masterpiece, but it’s still brilliant. Inara is a wonderful character and her thing with Mal works very well. River proves to be a very neat character as well, acting like an Irish bloke and as if she’s sane while a while ago she was going nuts.





A nice episode that doesn’t really add that much except for a lot of fun and developed the Inara/Mal relationship.

Of all the episodes of Firefly this one is the one that has the silliest, but funniest plot: Mal gets challenged to a sword duel. The idea of it fits the show perfectly becuase the show is essentially about a crew of space pirates (and their passengers on their ship)and sword fights is a thing that proabably comes to mind to a few people when the word pilot is mentioned. What this episode does is re-enforce the show's blend of past and future perfectly. It also nails how Mal is just a down and dirty guy who is thrown into high society and then high society fighting. One of the best (and funniest) episodes.

An average episode which drags on a little but has some fun quirkiness to it, Shindig sees Mal defending Inara's honor from her slimy date at a ball, unknowingly getting himself involved in a sword battle with the date.





The episode is essentially centered on Mal and Inara's relationship. The pair so blatantly love each other, it's amazing they haven't fully revealed their feelings yet. Whilst on other shows I find myself becoming annoyed by "will they-won't they" relationships, Mal and Inara's immediately hooks you, mainly due to the believable performances by both Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin.





The stand-out scenes of the episode involve the big "shindig" of the title, namely the big social event Inara is taken by Atherton. The set designer for Firefly has got to be commended on an absolutely amazing set. With so many different styles, colors and outfits, you would think it would look vomit-inducing when, in fact, it looks stunning. The dress worn by Kaylee looked hideous though, but her love for it (as seen during the closing moments) only helps in making Kaylee even cuter.





As with the previous episodes, there's another one of those "ooh... look how weird River is" scenes, this time featuring the Crazed One suddenly breaking out in a cockney accent. Sadly, Summer Glau sounds just creepy when speaking in a different accent and the whole scene is pretty much one of those moments where you desperately try and find the fast-forward button, in case your ears blow outward. No offense to Glau, but she cannot. Do. Cockney.





Despite some moments of greatness, there's an air of annoyance about this whole episode. The duel scene goes on a little too long whilst much of the episode screams "filler episode!". Thankfully, there are just enough character moments and entertaining set-pieces (like the dance between Mal and Inara) to save the episode from being unwatchable. And, of course, there are the cows. And cows always rock.





Director: Vern Gillum


Writer: Jane Espenson


Rating: C

With every episode I watch I am loving Firefly more and more. I can't wait to finish it and go watch Serenity at the movies. This episode was great. I love how in movies, everyone always knows how to dance the really big dances. But I guess it is because it was a high-up social event and they are trained to do that. The sword fight was great, but the last scene where you see all the cattle was hilarious.

Like so many Firfly episodes, this one starts off with the gang in a fight. It seems the crew just attracts brawls. It seems the crew is on their way to Persephone for a quick restocking and looking for work. Inara has an old customer, Atherton Wing, that she's going to see.





A lot of this episode deals with Mal's feelings for Inara, as well as her feelings on Mal and Serenity. It also forces Mal to portray himself as more-or-less upstanding citizen, which is just fun to watch.





In the end, it comes down to a swordfight for the Inara between Mal and Atherton, and I couldn't think of a better way to end it.

This was my first time watching Firefly, a show I had heard mostly good things about. This is not without precedent, unfortunately, I caught on to Carnivàle only after the first season had ended. Firefly seems to be an episode-based scifi series not unlike another comtemporary show I enjoy, Farscape (which I also caught on to only after it had ended). By this I mean that there is little continuity between the episodes. Of course being as how I have only seen this one episode, I can not know that for sure. But the show certainly was self sufficient, with no prior knowledge being necessary to enjoy it.





Without knowing the characters too well, I am unable to comment on how they are played in the series. I can certainly tell that characters don't seem to be too important, and seem to be the standards of what you would expect from this kind of scifi series. This series is certainly unique in the way in which it combines an old-west and outer space atmosphere that I believe makes it a lot more approachable than other scifi series (such as Stargate) do not do. What I like most about this series is that it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, which is common with Farscape as well. Without relying too much on drama, it's a lot easier to accept the high tech world in which these people live.





The episode itself is what you would expect from such a show. We've all seen this sort of thing done before on Star Trek or Buffy. Jayne plays the hero to Inara, an escort, who is insulted by a rich man. What Jayne doesn't know is that when he punches this man, named Atherton, is that he is challenging the man to a sword fight; which is Atherton's specialty. Fighting for a woman's honor is nothing new to television, but luckily it isn't done too cliché here. Inara isn't portrayed as a defenseless woman who needs the help of a strong man to save her from some jerk.





Firefly gives me exactly what I expected from the mostly warm reviews I have read. It doesn't attempt to challenge the viewer, or force him to think much. At the same time the show isn't overly dramatic, which really exposes the mediocrity of most scifi series. Instead Firefly keeps it light, which is enough to make me want to see another episode.