The Ballad of Serenity

First of all, a warning: This post contains spoilers about what happens in the television series Firefly, and the hit movie Serenity. If you read it and are currently watching the show, or plan on watching it, certain things will be given away. I’ll try my hardest not to spoil anything for the readers and future viewers of the show/movie, but I make absolutely no promises.

So. I ordered Firefly and Serenity on DVD a little while ago, right? And I said that it came in the mail last post. Anyway, it was … awesome while it lasted, but my feelings about the show were doomed from the get-go.

What do I mean? Well, when I first downloaded the two-hour pilot episode “Serenity” off of Direct2Drive for $1.99, I knew that I couldn’t fall in love with the show. But… after the first gorram episode, I did. I immediately raised a bit o’ cash doing some work, and ordered Firefly and Serenity off of Amazon.ca

The DVDs came. I laughed, I cried, I even got angry when things happened to the crew of the Serenity. But again, I couldn’t fall in love with the show. I did, but I couldn’t fall in love with it as much as I could’ve; if that makes any sense.

I knew that there were only 14 episodes. I knew I had already seen one, and I knew that after that there was a 2 hour movie. After watching the last episode of Firefly I felt awful. Thinking of how the people who had watched it on TV must’ve felt after just being cut off from this wondrous universe. After each episode, I counted how many I had left. I tried to space them apart, make them last as long as possible; but once I only had three or four left, I set aside a day, and I just watched them. All of them, in a row, no breaks, no pauses more than a minute or two to use the washroom or get a drink. And I watched Serenity. And I finally understood the history behind River Tam–though as a side note… they never really explained who the men with hands of blue were, or what part they played in River’s story–and I felt… awful. Some of my favourite characters died, and all the mystery surrounding the show just… disappeared. I might have actually been happier if I had just never watched Serenity at all, because I’d be free to ponder. But now that I know what happens… I just have nothing else to think about. The story is over, the crew of the Serenity are still out there in Joss Whedon’s mind, having new encounters and new problems with the Alliance every day. I’m sure that once and a while, he just sits and writes down a bit of a script, or at least the general plot behind an episode. Hell, he probably still does that with episodes of Buffy and Angel, as well.

But what I’m really trying to say is that all throughout watching Firefly I knew that I couldn’t expect to see a new episode each week, or have another few seasons to watch. I knew I had one small season and a movie that would tie up all the loose ends… but I still hoped, after each and every episode that after watching them I’d go peruse Digg and find a story about Joss Whedon bringing back the show on another network, or something. Didn’t happen of course. Knew it wouldn’t all along, but it felt good to hope.

Anyway, just like any truly good television show, Firefly helped me grow, and further understand the world we live in. It made me think about things, and it gave me happy moments to think back upon. But the warm feeling of pure bliss and joy that I got whenever watching the opening titles before a new episode is just gone. If I hear the theme, it fills me with nothing but sorrow. Sorrow at knowing that I’ll never see Mal shot again, unless I see it coming. I’ll never see Wash make more jokes, and I’ll never find out what Shepard Book really was.

Anyway, (And by the way, I use “anyway” way too much, and I’m aware of this.) I enjoyed it to no end when I watched each new episode, but for now, whenever I look at my book/DVD/CD/game-shelf to grab something, and I see the box with Mal standing on the side looking at me, I’m just going to feel awful.

Finally, if I was to rate the series, I’d give it a 5/5 easily, because of how easy it was to fall in love with the characters. But the movie Serenity? Probably a 4. It was nice to go back into the ‘verse and see the Alliance and the crew of the Serenity (as well as the ship itself) again… but it was just too good at what it was supposed to do. It tied up too many loose ends. It left me with no hope of ever seeing the show again, and nothing to ever wonder about.

But I know that I will go back and watch the series and Serenity over again. Probably every year… at least once, during a boring summer. And each time I’ll get that pure joyous feeling again… but after viewing it, I’ll feel the way I do now again. I do that with many things. I just get too attatched.

Finally, a quote:

Take my love, take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand;
I don’t mind, I’m still free.
You can’t take the sky from me.

Take me out, to the black;
tell ‘em I ain’t coming back.
Burn the land, and boil the seas,
You can’t take the sky from me.

Have no place I can be,
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me…

October 28, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Buffy, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects

Comments

One Response to “The Ballad of Serenity”

  1. Jerry on November 18th, 2006 12:44 am

    Thanks for the spoiler alert. The show is only like.. five years old or something. Glad you finally got around to seeing it before someone else spoiled it for you. :P

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