Summer Project: Thinking Critically About Firefly

A few months ago, I started reading Alan Sepinwall's TV blog (formerly at Blogger, now at Hitfix). It's some great critical writing with a focus not on any sort of feigned objective evaluation, but on involved discussion of shows that he genuinely cares about with honest attempts at determining what's working and what isn't. I don't always agree with him (season 3 of 30 Rock being a major point of dissent), but that's not the point of criticism. Each summer, when the amount (and quality) of new TV lapses for a few months, he revisits older series he didn't have a chance to discuss when they were on the air. I once failed to study for a biology test reading his episode-by-episode coverage of Freaks and Geeks while regretting that I would never be able to write about this brilliant series without stealing, at least in part, Alan's thoughts. As such, I had mixed feelings about what I was hoping he would write about this summer. On the one hand, I am definitely interested in seeing what Alan thinks of great shows that I like. On the other, there are series I would like to discuss here myself and know that my thoughts are my own.

Well, my worst fears came to pass, and Firefly is one of the shows Alan is covering this summer. I've been meaning to write about Firefly ever since I first started this blog, but since virtually everybody I know is already familiar with it, I didn't want to take the same basic overview approach I have with other media. So, I'm going to try and beat him to the punch. Alan's Firefly reviews won't begin until June 8, at which point he'll be doing an episode each week. So, a couple of times a week, starting this weekend, I will be writing in detail about an individual episode of this series I love so much. I admit that objectivity will be somewhat difficult, but I think we can all agree that, as great as Firefly is, it isn't perfect (Safe comes to mind immediately as a less-than-stellar episode). Just for fun, once the main series is over, I'll try and toss in the Better Days and Those Left Behind comics and Serenity to round things out.

Anyway, since I know none of you really care, this post is basically my contract with myself. Hopefully the results are interesting and I learn a little something in the process.