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I had never heard of this series. I ordered the DVD set on a lark. I have always like Science Fiction and have looked for film/video adaptations. I have usually been disappointed but I keep trying. Finding a gem like this one makes the effort worth while.
The basic premise is of the crew of a tramp freighter who make their way by carrying freights, the occasional smuggling job and a few other less than legal operation. These are invariably conducted against people who deserve to have been on the losing side. The captain and first mate are old war buddies. They were both on the losing side of a civil war. The mate is married to the ships pilot. The ship's engineer is a sweet, somewhat naïve and technically competent young lady. A tough, mercenary type rounds out the regular crew.
In the first episode, they take on a series of passengers. One of them is a "shepherd", which is a sort of itinerant Christian priest. He has a mysterious past we never really learn about. A brother and sister also come on board. The brother is a highly skilled surgeon and the sister is a genius who had secret experiments run on her by government agents. They are on the run from the same government agents. The other "permanent" passenger is a courtesan. She leases one of the ship's shuttles as her place of business. While the crew is doing their thing, she does hers.
Much of this series seems like a cowboy picture, right down to the horses, saloons and brothels. In a strange way, it works well in the context of the series. It is well done. I am very sorry that the series was cancelled because it is very good.
Synopses of the episodes appear below:
Serenity - the crew of the Serenity agrees to pick up a less than legal cargo but gets stiffed on their fee when they try to deliver it. Unless they can find somewhere to sell it, they won't have the cash for parts, fuel, salary or anything else. So they try to less it on some border areas. To help pay the way, they take on some passengers also. One of the passengers turns out to be smuggling a fugitive and another is a federal agent sent to bring in everyone. I get the impression that the government types are not very nice. When you throw in a courtesan, some cannibals and a preacher, things get interesting.
The Train Job - This one seems more like a western but doesn't suffer from that. The crew is hired to rob a train on a frontier planet. The goods they are hired to purloin belong to the Federation government so no one really minds or things it is "wrong". They also enjoy doing the job right under the noses of Federation troops. The crew doesn't really know what they are stealing. It is only when the train gets to it destination that they learn that they have stolen desperately needed medical supplies. The leads the crew to try to return the goods without getting caught by the feds or the crime boss they were doing job for. This is to be done while the crew is still be pursued by the secret government agency from whom one of the passengers escaped. It's a good and exciting episode.
Bushwhacked - While doing nothing in particular, the crew of the Serenity encounter a derelict floating in space. When they go aboard, they find that the crew has been slaughtered by the Reevers (cannibal lunatics) mentioned in the first episode. They left one survivor and a valuable cargo. The crew attempts to help the survivor and salvage the cargo but their efforts are interrupted by a Federation ship. The captain of that ship assumes that it is the crew of the Serenity who committed the atrocities. The crew have to protect themselves, establish their innocence and hide the fugitives who have become passengers.
Shindig - The crew returns to the planet Persephone, where the series started. They are looking for business opportunities as usual and a possibility pops up. The captain sees an opportunity for a smuggling run and goes to make contact at a fancy party hosted by the local gentry. To keep this episode interesting, Innarra, the staff courtesan has a date with a local bigwig. He and the captain have a bit of a tiff and wind up in a duel...with swords. There is not a lot of call for swords on spaceships.
Safe - In seems that nothing can go right. The crew of the Serenity make planetfall with the consignment of cattle they picked up in the last episode and are about to collect their payment. Then things go wrong as they inevitably must. The local law shows up to arrest the cattle buyers just as the money is changing hands and the crew get involved in the shootout. They help out the law but the parson gets himself shot...very seriously shot. The only two missing from the scene are the two fugitives who have wandered off. The captain thinks they might get in the way of the deal making but now the doctor's services are needed. Unfortunately, he and his sister have gotten themselves kidnapped by some religious types who live in the hills. They are glad to have the doctor but they think the sister is a witch and must burn. Saving the preacher and rescuing the siblings proves to be a sticky situation.
Our Mrs. Reynolds - Somehow, we don't really know how, the crew of the Serenity find themselves helping a rural community defend themselves from bandits. After the big celebration, the crew get back on board take of and find that they have an extra passenger. It seems that, according to the local customs, the captain has gotten himself married. That is news to everyone. The young girl is seemingly naïve but she is not what she seems. Someone wants the Serenity for scrap.
Jaynestown - Jayne Cobb is perhaps the least likeable member of the Serenity crew. He is selfish, not too bright and always ready to fight. He has a long history of leaving planets behind while being on the run. In this episode, the crew sets down to pick up an illicit cargo and Jayne is worried because he knows he left the place on the run. He adopts a disguise. Much to everyone's surprise, everyone learns that Jayne Cobb has become a folk hero to the people on the planet complete with a statue in the public square. All of this came about because of a misunderstanding. He never intended to help those people; he did it by accident but he is still a hero. Heroes have people who don't like them and on this planet that include the local magistrate.
Out of Gas - Most series wait until at least the second season before having a retrospective episode. This one takes place halfway through the first season but it has a difference. Instead of recycling footage from old episodes this one has all new footage. The situation involves a serious mechanical failure while the ship is in transit. Life support is failing and the captain sends his crew off in the two shuttles while he stays aboard to try and fix things. While this is going on, we are treated to flashback showing how the crew came to be assembled.
Ariel - When the mysterious female passenger with mental problems starts getting worse, her brother the doctor comes up with a seemingly simple scheme to serve everyone's needs. The crew is to help the doc smuggle sis into a hospital for some tests and the doc agrees to help them steal some high dollar drugs to sell on the fringe planets. These are not recreational pharmaceuticals but vital medicines in short supply. The plan seems to work smoothly until treachery becomes apparent.
War Stories - In the second episode, the crew is hired to pull a train heist. They pull it off but, when all is said and done, they find that they don't want to keep the goods. The natives need the stolen medications more than the crew needs the money. This is all good and noble and such but it hacks of the crime boss who put them up to it. The crew returned the money but the boss wants revenge. In this episode, he manages to capture the captain and the pilot. It is up to the rest of the crew to get them out.
Trash - A few episodes back, the captain got himself accidentally married. The blushing bride turned out to be a con woman and they only barely got away with their lives and their ship. This time, at a Smuggler rendezvous, the captain runs into an old war buddy who happens to have gotten himself married to the same piece of trash. When the story comes out, the wife gets stranded. Captain Mal is about to strand her as well but she manages to talk him into one of her schemes. Naturally, the "lady" has an angle of her own. Make that lots of angles...and curves...and treachery. The crew has a few ideas of their own but nothing is going to go as planned.
The Message - When the crew stops at a station for a mail call, they get a surprise. A corpse has been mailed to the captain and Zoë. The corpse turns out to be an old war buddy. His last request is that the Serenity take him home for burial. Things are not as they seem, however. The corpse is not dead. Instead, he is smuggling body parts and there are other who want the parts, without the rest of the body. As everyone turns on everyone else over conflicting loyalties, the situation gets tense.
Heart of Gold - When Inarra, the courtesan, gets a distress call, she talks the crew of Serenity into helping an old friend of hers who is the madam of a bordello on a backwater planet. A local powerbroker with a barren wife want to sire an heir on one of the house girls. He manages to plant his crop and intends to claim it by force. The crew intend to prevent that. And a good time is had by most.
Objects in Space - River, the female fugitive, continues to get more and more erratic. This troubles the crew who fear not only for themselves but for her as well. Things are not helped in that there is a very large reward for her capture. This tends to promote suspicion with many of the people with which they deal. In this episode, a bounty hunter manages to sneak aboard and waylay the crew one by one. River, though, is not without her own methods.
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Reviews with images
Shattered case.
I am 100% apart of the Firefly crazy following. My review is based off the fact that the whole bottom of the case was shattered on delivery. Not sure if it happened before it was sent or in transit but I'm lucky none of the discs seem scratched or damaged. I'll have to place them in a new case.
Top reviews from other countries
Bountyhunter
second hand Firefly box set-entire series. Perfect Condition.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2024
