Nooooooo!!! I missed my shot at a free viewing of Serenity!

Crap.

I guess I’ll just have to wait until Friday like everyone else.

I love this picture:

( þ The Smallest Minority )

I’m running behind on episode reviews for a couple of reasons. First, I’m lazy. Second, I’ve realized that I didn’t get started on them until it was too late, and I’m not going to finish before Serenity comes out.

So, I may or may not continue those. I’m thinking, instead, of just writing something that’s at least tangentially Firefly related each day this week to finish up my “Fifteen Days of Firefly” series.

Maybe I’ll write real posts, or maybe I’ll end up with posts like this one, with just a link to Blue Sun Shirts, which has some neat Firefly merchandise. It’s bootleg stuff, but if there was any official merchandise, I’d be happy to point people to that, too.

Episode Review: “Safe”

While Mal and the rest of the crew are selling the cattle that he’d arranged to carry for Sir Warrick in the last episode, Simon and River find themselves kidnapped and taken to a small village in desperate need of a doctor.

Like “Bushwhacked”, I really have the feeling that I didn’t really watch “Safe” when it first aired. I didn’t like the episode then, but on subsequent viewings, the flaws that I saw in the episode weren’t nearly as bad as I had originally believed. The episode is peppered with flashbacks from Simon and River’s history (shown from Simon’s point of view), and it’s nice to see some of the history of these characters. There’s a real bond between Simon and River, even before she was taken to the academy and ended up completely reliant on her brother.

Episode Review: “Shindig”

Mal and Inara end up at the same society gathering while working, and Mal’s run-in with Inara’s client ends with his being challenged to a duel. There are only two problems: Atherton, Inara’s client, is a renowned swordsman, while Mal’s knowledge of a sword is pretty much limited to knowing which end is supposed to go in the other guy.

“Shindig” is the episode that I tend to use to introduce people to Firefly; because there’s some focus on Kaylee, it is one of my favorite episodes. In addition, it’s one of the more amusing episodes. (I love Mal’s “Mercy is the mark of a great man…” scene).

Episode Review: “Bushwhacked”

The crew comes across a derelict transport ship that had been attacked by Reavers, who left only one survivor. As they’re disconnecting themselves from the ship, Serenity is picked up by an Alliance cruiser. While the cruiser investigates what’s going on, it becomes apparent that the Reavers’ attack wasn’t completely over yet.

My first memory of “Bushwhacked” is that I didn’t like it much, but that was apparently an artifact of having not paid attention on my first viewing. I remembered little more than the booby trap on the derelict ship, honestly. Upon watching the episode in my DVD set, I realized that it was much better than I’d remembered, if for no other reason than the scenes where the crew is being interrogated by the Alliance.