Firefly “Serenity”
The podcast with nothing much ado about aircrafts, and potentially everything ado with first episodes of a filmic series.Join us today as we cast judgement and determine if the Sci Fi western Firefly will be hoisted, or not hoisted: that is the question!
- Petard = bomb
- Hoist a pilot = bad episode
- Not hoist a pilot = good episode
- Limp Bizkit- disappointing from what you remember
Show Notes
Episode announcements: Jimbo coins a new term. Zero inspires some serious shop talk.
Background: Jimbo and Drew both had watched Firefly with their dads, and had nostalgia prior to watching. Mo was viewing fresh.
Summary: In a far flung future the human race has abandoned Earth for the stars! But life on the outer rim of the known universe can be downright harrowing, technology and amenities have to catch up so this new future has become the new “old west.” Smugglers and six shooters accompany mercenary Captain Mal Reynolds and his quirky crew as they try to stay one step ahead of the monolothic Alliance of Planets government and off the radar of the savage Reavers! And what secrets are the passengers of the Serenity hiding? Find out on the pilot episode of…FIREFLY!!
High Points: Capt Reynolds. The ship and the geography of the ship. Soundless space and the space setting.
Low Points: Sooo much! Everything the he Mole. Slow pace. The length and disjointed storytelling of the pilot. Too long. Too many unlikeable characters. Three convoluted adventures. And so fucking corny
Crabman Award: Crabless
MVPs: Capt Reynolds development in the opening scene. The world building, this is an impressive “sandbox.” Inara
Dangling Threads of Interest: The Browncoats/Losers of the war problem. Fox executives forcing the 2nd episode to be the series premiere, and the 1st vs 2nd episodes. Prostitution and madams in the Old West. Sex workers. Inara as a mary magdalene figure. A bit of the REAVERS. And no Chinese people.
Watch or Rewatch: Jimbo will rewatch again someday. Drew would rather watch something new. Mo sounds like she could.
To Hoist or Not to Hoist?: Hella hoisted.
Quest for the best: Firefly is taking the 9th spot between Supernatural and Wonderfalls.
Petardar:
- The sci-fi series Expanse
- Serenity the 2005 Firefly film.
- The sci-fi series Battlestar Galatica
- Castle the comedy-drama staring actor Nathan Fillion (Malcom Reynolds)
- Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog created by the Whedon’s s staring Nathan Fillion
Next Week: Nick Edwards our PC Moz bud chose the Revolutionary AMC drama Breaking Bad
Plugs: Pilots and Petards official closing music is an instrumental Entheos remix of Alive. Official ad background music mixed by Jake Drew. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or join our facebook group.
Shop Talk 2.0 JAM Sess: Review from Liam. Shop talk gets serious with people of color, and using offensive language!
Pilots and Petards Podcast 
Wow you guys really slammed Firefly and 0. You might have heard the last him, just because he thinks “mentioning someone as a person of color is racist”.
You missed the whole premise of the show, so let me break it down for you, Captain Reynolds is a no nonsense guy. You’re lucky if you get a first chance, let alone a second to fuck him over.
I can’t believe you said it was predictable. Did you predict that Mal and Zoey were going to shoot down the ship and when the battle was over be told they were going to be left behind? Did you wonder why Zoey and Mal turned to a life of crime? If Moe predicted that the cute guy she liked was going to die why didn’t she leave the room before she started to cry?
You never mentioned the great guitar music in the back ground kind of like the blues. The humor was great. The casting was awesome. I don’t usually like actors named Baldwin, but he played Jayne perfect: an asshole, prick, who only cares about himself, not loyal, and chokes the doctor every chance he gets. Great acting for a Baldwin. Did you know Zoey was married to Wash even though she spends more time with Mal? Did you know that whore you like shot Mal once? Other points: The captain never trusted the creepy Dr in black and didn’t like his cargo; That there was a girl submerged in water in the doctors luggage and he was protecting his sister cause somebody did something bad to her; that there was a strawberry in the box that the shepherd showed her; How did you guys possibly predict all that stuff. I guess there is a lot more learned in the Peace Corp and 7 years of college than I knew about.
Personally I think you’re better off without 0. He is offensive, controversial, and ask to many questions. Fuck 0.
Firefly should be number 1 in your quest for best. You know Drewbert is all about Star Wars, and Firefly gives Star Wars a run for it money. Sorry Jar Jar Binks,
And as usual Mr stank flip flops around he says he really likes and will probably watch it again, then you all hoist it. I am confused. And as usual Moe sheds a tear because the cute guy dies. And to answer your question Drewbert Moe liked Battlestar Galactica better than firefly because it had cuter guys in it and it that little robot dog or puffy bear, just darling.
I love your podcast, but you’re wrong on this one. Firefly is awesome. Zoey and Mal are awesome. I like Kaylee, and just because she is a girl doesn’t mean she can’t be a great engineer. I personally would like to hear less about boners and pussys and more about what did you get from the pilot.
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Thank you for the thoughtful comment. And I’m glad you enjoyed the pilot, I wanted to as well.
Great point about why Mo likes BG, it all makes sense now.
Mal was my high point, and I like how he doen;t take any crap, but Drew’s example about how episode two does it better, I would agree with. The Baldwin played his role decent, and the opening scene was strong. The rest of the episode was a mess, and I feel we explained why and how during the episode. The reason we could say more about we got from the pilot is because we didn’t get much.
The series Firefly is great, but the pilot is terrible.
One last thing, I think you missed the point of our response to 0, the numbers, comments. Zero asked about what a person of color is, and we answered. As for if it is racist to call a person a person of color, probably not. Person of color is the politically correct term at this point, and politically correctness is what people use when they do not want to express discrimination or prejudice.
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Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute in the Gospels of Jesus, she later became a prostitute when by western Christians turned her into one.
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Funny how something can become a cult classic and you hoist it?
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Baldwin was in Full Metal Jacket, I thought you would have seen that enough times to pick that up.
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I never noticed that! Dang that’s a bit embarrassing. I actually thought FMJ was older, like early 80s.
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Beth,
Just because we hoist a pilot episode, especially one that wasn’t aired as the pilot, doesn’t say much about the series.
Buffy is a cult classic too, does that mean it’s pilot should be a not hoist?
Thanks for the comment. Keep hoistling
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In your shop talk Mo specifically calls out colonizers. If she is Polynesian decent then she is also a colonizer.
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Also there have been mass migrations throughout history mostly from Asia heading west. Arab conquest of the Mediterranean in the early middle ages followed by the Turkish expansion into the same area in the late middle to early modern age. Basically what I’m saying is I diagree with the term colonizers being reserved for people of European decent.
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Fair point, but I think it is also fair to imply we were referring to the Euroean colonial period. It is commonly referred to as colonialism
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Don’t argue with your sponsor bud, the sponsor is always right.
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