When I got home today, I decided to sit down and finish the pilot of Firefly. Take that as my spoiler warning to those who haven't finished the pilot. There will be some Serenity spoilers as well, but I'll try to be veiled about them. Also, attribute the length of this post to blog withdrawal from weeks of silence.

I'll admit, I'm not new to Firefly. My Aunt Peggy says that she likes to flip to the end of books to know how they end, just because it's more fun that way. Having seen Serenity some time ago in the middle of the night on USA, I'm in the position of having flipped to that last page.
I can't say I'm sold on the approach, but I do think that it gives an interesting perspective. I know who lives and dies (aside from one character I don't remember being in the movie), and I've only seen the first episode. I wanted to use this episode to take a look at all the characters and my first-ish impressions.

My foreknowledge allows me to view characters in a slightly different way than is intended for viewers of the pilot. For instance, based on the ominous music and secret agent chic, I would guess that many thought Simon was a bad guy of some sort (that would be my initial reaction, anyway); however, I already knew from the movie that he just has a sister complex. He totally would've let Kaylee die if he thought it would save River, but his bite doesn't usually match up to his bark. He does talk a really good game, though.

Believe it or not, River is actually pretty cool (but why the cast thinks she's so darn purty is beyond me), although you wouldn't think so from the pilot. She can be frustratingly incompetent, but her intermittent badassery makes up for it. I seriously expected her to crush that Alliance guy's skull.

I distinctly remember being ambivalent about Mal in Serenity. I kinda hated him halfway through the episode, though, and I think the most clever thing about the pilot is how it contrasts Mal with the other characters, making them more likable, Simon and Inara especially. I really did not like Inara in Serenity, but when she stood up for Simon and River, she gained some major points. I'm still not a big fan of this particular take on the refined lady/hooker with a heart of gold archetypes, but I don't detest her anymore.

Shepherd Book feels a bit unnecessary. This is my vision of his conception- "Man, these characters are all kinda morally ambiguous." "Yeah, we need someone to be the moral compass." "Dude, what about a priest?" Yeah, I know Kaylee is the good one, but she's more a go with the flow type. Shepherd Book, on the other hand, stands up for what he thinks is right. Unfortunately, his discussion with Inara at the end of the episode felt really heavy-handed, so here's hoping they don't go down that route with the character.

Most of the rest of the characters felt rather blah. It doesn't help that many of them are treading dangerously close to Stereotype Land: Wash is a bit boring, clearly the Average Joe character; Zoe is the badass black chick/competent female second-in-command (who should really wrest the controls from Mal); Adam Baldwin is typecast as the overly gung ho musclehead; and Kaylee (although I do like her) is the perky, slightly vapid one. In Jayne's case, I attribute this to network censorship. Instead of dancing around the word à la Battlestar Galactica's "frak," why not just say fuck? He would be much cooler if he didn't say stupid things like "humped" or "rutting" all the time.

Why, oh why does Whedon insist on his weird fast forwardy moments? Is it supposed to make it seem more intense? Well, it doesn't, it just makes it distracting and artificial. And it isn't only action scenes- Mal is sped up on the ladder, the stairs, etc. If you're already fast forwarding through something, why show it in the first place? (I suspect whoever makes the final decision wants to have those artsy, lingering shots, but compress them to half the time.)

What is this show's influence? It clearly has a Western theme, what with the inexplicable horses, the gun draws, the stupid music, and the cowboy fashion, but most of the women's clothing (and seemingly all of Inara's) has an Oriental design. Could someone explain it to me? I'm honestly stumped.

And my last thing before I digress into pointless fanfiction: Cowboy Bebop did the space Western better, earlier, and with 50% less Western. Yeah, I went there. And even before Cowboy Bebop were Trigun and Outlaw Star.

As an aside which you can feel free to disregard, if Firefly ever had a crossover with Law and Order: SVU, River would totally be the autistic girl who Simon fervently believes was raped by Jayne after she turns up pregnant. There would be a heart-wrenching scene about how River wants to keep the baby, but Finn and Munch have their one liners for the episode when they find out that Simon is trying to have it aborted for her well being. The ADA of the week (who will always be Alex in my heart) arrives just in time with an injunction prohibiting the termination of the pregnancy. Huang interviews River and determines that she is competent enough to keep the baby. Then, the next victim, Kaylee, is found dead in the Lydia Hotel by Mal and Inara. Benson and Stabler think it is Wash (always the nice ones) from a partial DNA profile and try to bully Zoe into helping them. She refuses, but has doubts. She comes to the station with a crucial piece of evidence, only to have it thrown out in court due to spousal privilege. Zoe thinks that Wash molested their children, too, and shoots him. Warner finds out that the DNA is from a male relative of Wash's, and it turns out that Shepherd was Wash's father, and that he raped River. Stabler is devastated that a man of the cloth could do such a thing and gets violent with Shepherd. Cragen halfheartedly berates him before sending him home for a week. Stabler miraculously avoids assault charges once again because the ADA promises Shepherd that he can see his grandchildren in prison if he drops the charges.