Catching the bug - Firefly & Serenity

I've been a bit late getting on this here wagon, but a friend recently leant me the complete series of Firefly, plus the movie Serenity, and I've spent most evenings of the last fortnight or so watching it with Nickname Pending and Mara in front of a nice warm fire, sometimes with popcorn or cake.

I can finally join the ranks of Maia and Make Tea Not War, not to mention some of the posters and commenters at Alas, and gush.

It's not just that it's got strong women characters (and some strong male characters who don't treat the women like dirt). It's not just that it's a western, in space (!) It's not even that it's the first sci-fi series I've seen in ages where you didn't notice the bad effects because the plot and characters were commanding all your attention.

It's funny. Really funny. And, after hearing it 13 times over approx 10 days, I wasn't sick of the theme song either (although I'm not sure I could actually sing it, unlike the fans on the Q&A extra).

I'm quite sad that there will be no more - the series was cancelled while they were still filming and the filum apparently didn't do well enough to secure a sequel.

But that does mean that I'm free to make speculations about what happens next which make me feel better.

In particular I'd like to think that Zoe is pregnant, it makes me feel less upset about Wash getting killed off in the movie. Zoe and Wash did have an argument about having a child in Heart of Gold, and a baby would be an interesting addition to the crew, especially now that River is no longer really a child.

While I liked the movie I did prefer the telly series - the violent scenes were shorter and less gratuitous, and there was more ability to develop the character arcs. Also the promotion for Firefly didn't seem to include dramatically inflating River's bust, unlike the graphics for Serenity which ticked me off.

So now that I've belatedly discovered the wonderfulness that is Joss Whedon, it's on to Buffy next!