Serenity (and Firefly)

In 2002, Joss Whedon (he of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) created an incredible television series that aired on FOX. That series - Firefly - was set 500 years in the future and followed a crew of a cargoship as it took different jobs - legal and illegal - while travelling the outer rim of the known galaxy. The show ingeniously combined both Western and Sci-fi genres to make wonderful atmosphere and dialogue. Unfortunately, Firefly was shamefully cancelled after FOX aired only a small portion of the completed episodes (and on varying nights, of course).

When Firefly came out on DVD, it was gobbled up by hundreds of thousands of rabid Firefly fans. And Universal took notice. The unthinkable then happened: Universal greenlit a movie with a $40 million budget, and gave Joss Whedon his feature film directorial debut. That movie is Serenity.

Now, I LOVE Firefly. I own the series on DVD, and introduced the series to no less than ten people who had never before heard of it (thank you, FOX, for your crack publicity team). And all of them instantly became fans. The series is wonderful. The Sci-fi Channel has been re-running the series (including the four or so episodes that never originally aired). If you get a chance, watch an episode. Any episode. The great thing about Firefly is that you can jump into the middle of the series and watch any episode and not get lost. Each episode is for the most part self-contained.

Anyway, that whole preface brings me to Serenity, the movie. To explain - Firefly is the class of cargo ship upon which the crew travels. Serenity is the NAME of this particular Firefly class ship. The entire cast is back for this movie. And it is awesome.

I won't get into specifics about the film. Suffice it to say that the characters are wonderful and, true to Joss Whedon form, expect deaths amongst those characters. Heartbreaking deaths. However, if you haven't watched the TV series, do not expect those deaths to resonate within you to the extent of a Firefly fan. You can (and will) like Serenity, but you will not be as emotionally invested in the characters without having seen the series.

So, what does all this mean? It means that you should see Serenity. But, if you truly want to enjoy Serenity to the extent I did, I suggest you first see at least a couple Firefly episodes. And for those of you who like really good sci-fi (and westerns!), I recommend that you just bite the bullet and BUY Firefly on DVD. Because this series is fantastic, and has great re-watching value! THEN, BUY Serenity.