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Frankly, Fox Network’s scheduling snafus aside, I can see why this fan-favorite was cancelled, as it’s a show that doesn’t know what it wants to be, nor does it handle its unwieldy ensemble cast well. However, I think had it been given life on a network with a better track record of stewarding young shows, Firefly had the potential to become a rather solid piece of storytelling and a mainstream success.

Firefly : The Complete Series
2 & 1/2 Stars

Let’s get this out of the way right now: What I’ve seen of Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn’t impress me, and am not to be considered an overall fan of creator Joss Whedon’s work. Some of my acquaintances consider that strange, since he and I are of the same age and grew up with all the same comic book influences, but the fact remains that I’ve yet to really be impressed with Whedon overall. So when we decided to spend a week discussing his work here on RazorFine, I volunteered to review Firefly, as it was a show I knew nothing about and hadn’t seen.

So what’d I think? Frankly, Fox Network’s scheduling snafus aside, I can see why it was cancelled, as it’s a show that doesn’t know what it wants to be, nor does it handle its unwieldy ensemble cast well. However, I think had it been given life on a network with a better track record of stewarding young shows, Firefly had the potential to become a rather solid piece of storytelling and a mainstream success.

But before we get to those aspects, let’s just cover the basics.

Firefly takes place near’bouts 500 years from now, when human beings have been forced to find a life in a new solar system. Overseeing this life is a Sino-American Alliance made up of the remnants of the last two superpowers China and the US. Though we’re not given much evidence of it, we’re led to believe that the inner planets are high-tech and as futuristic as you’d imagine, but the outer planets are barely livable rocks that aren’t that much different from Deadwood.

Scrapping together a tenuous existence in this wild west of space is Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of the Firefly class ship, Serenity. Reynolds and his second in command Zoe (Gina Torres) fought on the losing side of a separatist war with the Alliance, and they’ve no compunction about breaking the winning side’s laws. The crew of Serenity hits all the typical character types with only slight variations: the tortured leader (Fillion), the no-nonsense soldier (Torres), the wise-cracking cowardly pilot (Alan Tudyk), the dumb strong-man (Adam Baldwin), the cheerful mechanic (Jewel Staite), and the haughty courtesan (Morena Baccarin). It’s an unlikely group of people living and working together to say the least.

In the pilot episode (which Fox, in all their wisdom, decided to air after the show was already cancelled) Serenity picks up a few more passengers in the form of Shepard Book (Ron Glass from the great Barney Miller), a wandering missionary who may be more than he seems, and siblings Simon and River Tam (Sean Maher and Summer Glau), who are on the run from the Alliance for reasons that (in Whedon style) won’t be made clear until much farther along in the season.

Over the course of 12 episodes, the crew of Serenity take pot shots at the Alliance, bicker among themselves, and pull illegal smuggling jobs that invariably go awry. Occasionally there’s some backstory on the various characters, but mostly we’re asked to just accept the characters as they are, which is where some of the problems set in.

Whedon sets up Reynolds as kind of a Jesse James in Space. He’s a rebel both figuratively and literally, but without any political beliefs (or say holding any socially unacceptable practices like slavery) to bog down or give a reason for why he was fighting the Alliance in the first place outside of a vague concept of ‘freedom’. Having lost the war, Reynolds contents himself with being a criminal (running black market cattle, stealing payrolls, smuggling goods), but his morality won’t let him get away with pulling a job any more criminal than the harmless pranks Bo and Luke Duke pulled off in Hazzard County every week. Once it comes to behavior that would truly make him a bad guy, the morality kicks in and the crew of Serenity invariably does The Right Thing, sometimes at the urging of Shepard Book, but often due to an inscrutable changing of mind from Reynolds.

It’s easy to dismiss Firefly as a ‘what if’ take on Han Solo, except for the fact that Han Solo actually was a bad guy. Remember kids, that whole bounty thing came about because Han dumped a shipment of drugs he was smuggling. And he didn’t dump ‘em for moral reasons. Whedon has pretty much admitted as to what influences he’s cribbing from, but it’s done in a fan-boy homage way, so that element isn’t bothersome outside of it’s diminished quality. Maybe an easier comparison would be ‘What if the Sci-Fi Channel had come up with Deadwood?’ There’s a lot of the same double-dealing and bucking against the authority of yonder city folk, and there’s no escaping the fact that this show was far more a western than it was a Sci-Fi show.  Occasionaly that causes some problems even though those two genres have historically been easy to reconcile, but the real issues lay in some more basic areas of screenwriting.

This is an ensemble show, but all too often the supporting characters are left behind (and both literally and figuratively) to make room for more internal angst from Reynolds. While each character has maybe one episode with enough of a subplot to steal the spotlight, the show is firmly and fully focused on Capt. Reynolds, which ultimately proves a disservice to the show as a whole. Any backstory is filtered through his perception, and even in those moments where the show is focusing on another character, it’s always Reynolds who acts as the catalyst.  Sure he’s the captain, but he’s one with a very tenuous grip on his crew, who act more like a rather eccentric extended family than wiling followers of Captain Reynolds.

The fact is Mal just isn’t that interesting of a character.  Angst only goes so far as a character trait, and it damn well should never be used as a plot device.  Gina Torres’s Zoe is passionately dedicated to Mal, but we’re never given any clear reason for her devotion, outside of the fact that they fought together.  More than once I thought ‘she’d have left him for that’ after a couple of particularly boneheaded choices by Mal.  Sounds like they’re together, doesn’t it?  That did make for one of the more interesting episodes in which Zoe’s husband (the oft-wasted Tudyk) takes his wife’s place on a mission to see why she’s so devoted to Mal, but in the end no sufficiently offered.  Maybe the focus on Mal was due to the rather thinly sketched out nature of the rest of the cast, as they all fill pretty standard (okay, cliched) roles.  The wise man, the thug, the gear-head, etc. etc.  It’s sad really, because a writer more focused on exploring the dynamic might have come up with some very compelling stories to explain why these people stayed together as a crew.  It’s even more sad that such great actors were delegated to such bare-bones characters.  The potential of Firefly’s cast is astounding, and I for one would have like to see that promise made good.

I’d like to think that, had Whedon been given time to develop his concept (and characters) more fully, Firefly might have evolved into a truly engaging and entertaining hunk o’ television, but my experiences with the rest of his body of work doesn’t lead me to put much faith in that.  Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, as I’ll soon be giving in to some of my fellow RazorFine reviewers suggestions and sitting down with the entirety of Buffy and Angel, but seeing as Firefly was his third television show I think that will take some serious convincing.

At the end of the day, Firefly can still be entertaining, but it’s far from being among the best of either the Sci-Fi or Western genre.  (It’s certainly not going to win any ‘opening theme’ awards from me, either.  I died a little inside each time I heard the atrocious theme song. Joss, stick to dialogue.)  There are some chuckles to be had as well as some interesting episodes, but mostly it’s just kind of ‘okay’.

The sun is blocked out, the sky rains fire, Angelus returns, the unstoppable Beast smashes and crashes through L.A., and that’s just in the beginning.

Angel – Season 4
Custom Rating

So much happens in this season it will make your head spin.  The quest for Cordelia, the rise of The Beast,  the rain of fire and permanent midnight, the return of both Faith and Angelus, and the arrival of an ancient power who first takes control of Cordelia and then all of Los Angeles.  A packed full season that is one of the series best.

You just treat it all like it was up to you, the world in the balance, because you never know when it is.

Both Angel (David Boreanaz) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) are missing in action as Season Four begins.  Angel is finally freed after months at the bottom of the ocean by Wesley (Alexis Denisof), and will deal with the betrayal of his son Connor (Vincent Kartheiser).  Cordelia returns from her stint as a higher being, without her memory, just in time for everything to go to hell as The Beast (Vladimir Kulich) burrows his way up from hell, makes the sky rain fire, and blocks out the sun.  No one knows how to stop The Beast, all records of his existance have been destroyed in this dimension.  The only one who might know someting is….Angelus.

Since Angel cannot remember that specific period of time the group decides to bring back Angelus and find out what he knows.  Yeah, kind of like solving a bruised elbow by ripping off the arm and throwing it to the wolves.  Of course Angelus escapes and the group enlists the help of a Vampire Slayer, no not her, the other one.  Faith (Eliza Dushku) returns to help stop The Beast and bring down Angelus.  World saved right?  Well, not exactly.  Everything would be just fine except Cordelia turns out to be The Beast’s master and pregnant to boot.  The creature inside Cordelia gives birth to herself, an angelic Jasmine (Gina Torres) who creates a Utopia as any who see her or listen to her fall under her spell.  Slowly the gang is forced out of the delusional paradise and embark on a mission to end world peace…I mean Jasmine’s control.  Finally they return to the hotel to find an old friend who offers them a deal of a lifetime.

Whew, you get all that?  We also get new characters such as the wonderful and wickedly sexy thief Gwen (Alexa Davalos) as well as the return of several familiar faces including Faith, Skip (David Denman), Lilah (Stephanie Romanov), and Darla (Julie Benz).  This season also asks the question, can you copy from yourself?  If Spin the Bottle looks familiar it because Buffy did it much better in Season Six with Tabula Rasa.  And if House Always Wins gives you a sense of deja vu you might want to go back and look at Double or Nothing from Season Three of Angel.

Aside from those misques, there are some great episodes here and although I prefer The Beast / Angelus story arc to that of evil Cordelia / Jasmine there is much to enjoy in both.

The Beast

Apocalypse Nowish / Habeas Corpses / Long Day’s Journey

The Beast burrows his way out ouf hell to arrive in Los Angeles and reak havoc.  First he tosses around Connor around the alley like a ragdoll, then dispenses the Angel crew without breaking a sweat.  Can a guy made out of rock sweat?  What next?  Well he makes the sky rain fire, but he’s just getting wamred up as he walks into Wolfram & Hart and kills everyone he sees stealing the power of the conduit to help him block out the sun.  The rain of fire is spectacular and The Beast is a powerhouse of a villain.  Whedon’s trademark for turning things sideways is in full force as The Beast doesn’t join the evil law firm, but massacres them.

Salvage / Release / Orpheus

Angelus has been brought back to learn how to defeat The Beast, but he escapes the hotel and roams Los Angeles enjoying the havoc permanent night has brought.  With no other options Wesley calls on Faith to track down Angelus and capture him alive.  The scenes between Wesley and Faith show how much each character has changed since Season One.  The method of capture is paticularily interesting as Faith and Angelus are trapped in his mind as the group, with the help of Willow (Alyson Hannigan) tries to recapture and restore Angel’s soul.

Inside Out / The Magic Bullet

Darla

My two favorite episodes of the Jasmine storyline.  The first is the birth of Jasmine where Kartheiser gives his best performance of the series.  I especially love the scene between Darla’s “ghost” and Connor; the scene ends showing how irredeamable Connor has become.  That final shot of Darla looking up at him is heartwrenching.  The other episode involves Fred versus the world as she is the only one who can see through Jasmine’s spell.  Some great conspiracy monments here and I really enjoyed Patrick Fischler as the owner of the conspiracy bookstore.  I love how the cast reacts to knowing and understanding that they now know the truth, yet acknowledging how each of them still craves the lie.

The collection contains commentary for seven episodes (Spin the Bottle with Whedon and Denisof is pretty funny stuff, and I can almost forgive them for ripping off the Buffy episode).  Also included are a season overview and a collection of outtakes.  A set of featurettes about the Hyperion Hotel, Wolfram & Hart, and the Beast storyline round out the collection.  The Wolfram & Hart featurette is especially interesting as it gives you a look back and helps set the stage for Angel and the gang’s new surroundings in Season Five.  In all a pretty good collection of extras.

A nice collection of extras and some pretty damn good storytelling make this a great little set to add to your Buffy / Angel DVD collection.  The Beast and Angelus storylines are particularily well done, and the Jasmine storyline is interesting as it shows us a completely different type of villain.  One thing Angel does as a series is show how much the characters live in shades of gray, can be tempted, and often make bad decisions.  And bringing Lilah back to point out that by stopping Jasmine they effectively ended world peace and have thrown the world into chaos is cool.  They had to stop Jasmine, but did stopping her actually improve the world or did they do more harm than good?

Though much of the Buffy “fan-dom” views Season Six as mis-step, I couldn’t disagree more.  This is the season where I became a Buffy fan and supporter and I think it ranks as the best of the series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 6
Custom Rating

Josh Whedon took some hits as Buffy fans, in general are not that fond of Season Six.  Let me just say that not only do I think this is the best season of the series but also that without it I would not be such a huge supporter of Whedon’s work.  Yes the season is dark and depressing but at the same time it includes some of the funniest episodes of the series entire run, and let us not forget a little musical episode as well.

The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.

As the season opens the Scooby gang has decided to resurrect Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) the consequences of which will effect the entire year.  Buffy is successfully brought back to life, but seems lost in a morose fog as she tries to readjust to the world unable to make connections and finds more comfort in the company of Spike (James Marsters) than with her friends.  Willow (Alyson Hannigan) starts to become addicted to the magic, which leads to her separation from Tara (Amber Benson) and a dark journey of her own.  Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) feeling abandoned and ignored by Buffy looks for and finds her own trouble.  Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Anya (Emma Caulfield) bicker about their appending wedding.  And Sunnydale will be terrorized by the new villains, the evil trio – Warren (Adam Busch), Andrew (Tom Lenk), and Jonathan (Danny Strong).  One of them will commit one of the worst crimes on Buffy and will cause Willow to become the “Big Bad” for the final arc of the season.

The theme of the season of being lost and disconnected works very well and plays on many aspects of the characters.  I enjoyed the Buffy / Spike relationship as well as Willow’s dark turn.  I mourned the loss of Tara, but her death led to some great storytelling well into Season Seven.  For me the seasons of Buffy that hold the most meaning are when people close to the group die and the characters are forced to deal with the consequences of those deaths.  Yet with the darkness there are great comedic moments, mostly from the evil trio which Joss Whedon himself admits as his favorite villains of the series.  Some of the funniest episodes of the series like Life Serial, Gone, and Tabula Rasa all take place in this season.

Something to sing about!

Once More With Feeling
This is simply one of the best hours of television ever.  What makes the episode so great is it is not a stand alone episode; it actually moves the storyline along and provides the situation (as Hush did in Season Four) for the characters to say and do the things that they could not have done in another episode.  Xander and Anya admit to their concerns over marriage, Giles finally comes to terms that Buffy might be better off if he left Sunnydale, and Buffy herself can finally admit that her friends didn’t save her from some awful hell dimension, but instead yanked her out of an idyllic heaven where she was happy and finally at peace.  Whedon provides some wonderful songs and the cast all perform their own numbers.  Great, great television!

Tabula Rasa

The very next episode in the run and just maybe the funniest episode of Buffy ever!  Willow’s attempt to make Buffy forget her time in heaven backfires and actually causes the entire scooby gang to lose their memories.  Hilarity ensues as Spike believes he is Giles son Randy, Giles and Anya think they are engaged, and the group is attacked by real life vampires!

Normal Again

Normal Again

Is Buffy Summers really the Vampire Slayer or just a confused girl in a mental institution in L.A. that has drempt all this?  The question is explored fully as Buffy is infected by a demon and starts to be concious of two realities, one where her parents are alive and together and she no longer has to worry about vampires and demons.  As Buffy must ask herself, which reality is more probable?  Truly cool, and the closing shot is perfect.

Of all the DVD sets this one is my favorite for features as it is stocked full of fun goodies.  We are given commentaries for six episodes including a wonderful commentary by Josh Whedon himself for the musical episode Once More With Feeling.  The musical also gives us a documentary that explores the creating and shooting of the episode and a short little sing-along for a couple of the songs.  Included is a season overview, outtakes, and a short entitled Buffy Goes to Work which talks about Buffy’s need to find employment and eventually work at the Doublemeat Palace.  The writing staff and producers each talk a little about their first real jobs.

Aside from these extras, Season Six also contains two more terrific extras.  The first is the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Panel Discussion that took place the summer after Season Six aired.  It includes Whedon, Marsters, Hannigan, Trachtenberg, Brendon, and Marti Noxon and set designer Carey Meyer.  Realy, really, really cool.

The second extra-cool extra is the documentary Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Television With Bite which takes a look at the creation of the Buffy character from Whedon’s original conception to the movie, and the creation and change of the show over time.  It’s a great documentary that may have been more appropriate to throw in on the Season Seven DVD set, but hey you get it here along with all the other extras for this season.

I freakin’ love this set.  An awesome collection of great episodes and packed full of wonderful extras.  My only real complaint is the two-part opening episode Bargaining 1 & 2 which ressurects Buffy and brings her back to Sunnydale.  It is probably the weakest opening episode to any season and it’s two hours.  Thankfully they have provided commentary for this one so you don’t have to pay attention to the demon bikers quite so much.  That said, from the very next episode on we get greatness throughout.  The passionate but doomed relationship between Buffy and Spike explodes, sometimes literally, on the screen.  Our season villains, the evil trio, give us some wonderfully funny moments as they try to take over the world and become Buffy’s “arch-nemisises.”  The season also ends on a poignant note as Tara’s death makes Willow go over the edge on a huge bender of bad magic and provides the unsung hero of the show the opportunity to save the day (and the world).  A wonderful set here for any collection.

Warning: before the review for season five begins, I’m feeling the need to tell you a little story on how my summer fling with Buffy came about. If you think such personal touches are bullshit, then feel free to skip ahead a few paragraphs. But know that by doing so you’re a bunch of heartless bitches!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 5
Custom Rating

So I got into Buffy almost by accident. A friend of mine was having a “Buffy Party” and I went mainly for the people, the booze, and the food (not necessarily in that order). I figured if I had to see some of that dumb show that I had purposely avoided all these years, the beer could always numb the pain. Well, we started off by playing the Buffy board game (which I kinda thought was lame) and as I am no stranger to geeky obsessions and even geekier people, I went along with it even though I had no idea who in the hell Xander was or what on earth a Hellmouth could be.

After a few adult beverages and the two-part series opener flashing before my eyes, I began to see that there was perhaps something to this little teenage comedy/drama with demons and vampires and things. I borrowed the first season DVD set from the host and started watching. After three episodes I was hooked. Soon after this I could be found sheepishly admitting to my friends that the reason they hadn’t seen me a week was because I’d been holed up in my room watching Buffy and the gang dust vamps and go through many apocalypses together (what exactly is the plural of “apocalypse” anyway?). Not too long after that I could be found proclaiming to anyone who would listen that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best goddamn show that had ever been on TV. Period.

My friends still think I’m nuts.

Anyway, after watching the first season I devoured the next five in a matter of about a month, mainly borrowing the DVDs from obsessed friends and even actually purchasing the fifth season when no copy was available to borrow. So here I stand, a Buffy convert, nearly a year after the fact. I still haven’t seen the seventh season and the only one I own is still that fifth. Too bad it’s a fairly week season, even though it contains a few outstanding episodes and some events that are very important in leading up to what I believe is the best (season six).

And that’s what brings me to this review. I was chosen for season five because that’s the only one I have easy access to. Well, it’s time to dust it off (literally) and give my interpretation of what happened in the weird and wacky world of Buffy during that time:

HEARTLESS BITCHES START READING HERE!

Season Five continues in the transitional vein of the fourth, with a growing sense of doom and morbidity that leads up to the extremely gut-wrenching sixth season. As we watch the relationships of Willow & Tara and Xander & Anya grow, Buffy and Riley’s relationship begins to unravel (which is fine by me because I think that Riley really sucks). The still-chipped Spike goes from trying to kill Buffy to falling in love with her. Giles and the gang take over the magic shop and Willow becomes more skilled at being a witch. Warren makes his first appearance in a rather bad episode about a robot girl who has travelled a long distance to find him. Joyce dies and leaves Buffy shattered. All of these things are the beginnings of important plot points that rear their ugly heads in season six.

Of course the first thing that comes to mind about season five is the arrival of Dawn. I don’t think I’ve experienced a more “What the fuck?” moment on TV than when Buffy suddenly has a little sister at the end of the rather dumb “Buffy Vs. Dracula” episode that opened up the season. What actually pissed me off a bit was how during the next few episodes the characters acted like Dawn had always been around but we just somehow didn’t know she was around. My intelligence felt truly insulted as I watched these episodes in disbelief, thinking that they had actually committed one of the dumbest crimes in television history. Well, when it was finally revealed that everyone’s memories of Dawn were planted by those wacky monks from centuries before and that Dawn had only existed from the moment that us viewers met her, I realized that Joss and company had pulled off one of the more clever events in TV history.

The main story arc of season five concerns Dawn being the “key” and Glory trying to use her to bring about the end of the world. So the character of Dawn actually ends up serving a purpose rather than just being a young cute face to keep the kiddies watching the show. After finding out the Dawn was “planted” to bring about the apocalypse, Buffy’s love for her actually grows to the point where she is even willing to give up her own life in order to save Dawn’s. Buffy won’t accept the idea that Dawn must die in order to stave off the end of the world and turns inward for an answer. Buffy has spent the entire season seeking the true meaning of being a slayer and finds it by dying in order to save the world from destruction.

Buffy’s death is undoubtedly a big moment in the series. Not only does it bring forth the most noble and important qualities of the slayer, it paves the way for the complete horror and emptiness that Buffy feels when she is ripped from heaven and forced to live again in misery on Earth in season six. Also, Buffy’s death has a rather large impact on Angel in the first few episodes of that show’s third season. It’s a rather neat world that Whedon has created and the interplay of characters and shows is sometimes staggering.

Even though there are rather stupid episodes like the Dracula one and the episode with the Buffybot, every episode has at least one important event in it that warrants a viewing. The weaknesses are more than made up for in the episode “The Body” (a rather horrifying and beautiful episode in which Buffy finds her mom dead in their living room and struggles to cope with the situation), one of the best episodes of the season and of the entire series. While it is not the best year of the show by any stretch of the imagination, season five is still an important part of the Buffy story and is essential viewing for any fan.