Firefly

Why did no one tell me it was a Western? As I said in my last post, I bought the entire series of Firefly thinking it was a really good sci-fi. And it is.

Except that it's a Western set in space. When I told people they said, "oh but so was star wars".

No, Star Ways is a swashbuckling adventure set in space. Light Sabres, Laser Crossbows, Space Barges. The whole thing is a pirate-type genre.

Firely, on the other hand, is a Western. As depicted by the horses and wagons seen in the pilot, by the fact that even though it is set hundreds of years in the future, people still use revolvers and talk in an American accent (although they do sometimes lapse into Chinese when swearing).

I can still remember ElshaUK whooping with delight at my face when the title music started and it slowly dawned on me that it was basically cowboys in space - not my favourite genre especially :P

On the other hand...

It's a damn good series. No, really. Really, really good. I can see why people say the Movie version, Serenity, is better than Star Wars. That's because it is. It doesn't concentrate so much on the story but on the characters. And let's face it, that's why the last 3 Star Wars movies have sucked so much - because they don't have characters or a storyline, just lots of wonderfully colourful special effects.

We've watched about 6 episodes now and are hooked. The episodes tend to revolve around the whole western genre as do the characters, so you have Mal, the ex-soldier captain of the Firely-class vessel Serenity. You have Zoe, his comrade in arms, and Wash, Zoe's husband and wise-cracking pilot. And that's another thing. A sci-fi series that openly talks about sex. As in Zoe telling Wash "Hey husband, let's go have some sex."

The other characters make up the usual sort of people you'd find in a Western town - a chaplain (Book), a prostitute (Inara), a doctor (Simon Rivers) and a mechanic/blacksmith (Kaylee).

And it all works wonderfully well. Go and buy it and for heavens sake, give it a chance to get going (by episode 3 I guarantee you will want to carry on watching).

Now we're looking forward to watching the feature-length movie at the cinema. If I convince ElshaUK to go with me...

Other news - I'm ill again. :( A re-occurrence of the original infection from 2 months ago. Why oh why does this happen to me.

I hate 'phoning in sick. Your employers always ask you the same questions:

"Have you seen a doctor?"
Err. Yes. I've seen a doctor and he believed me when I told him I was ill. Why can't you believe me?

"Will you be in today/tomorrow?"
Err. Shouldn't I get better first?

"It's really a bother, we're so busy here."
Great. I love being a slave as well.

Companies should just wake up to the fact that their employees are actually human beings and stop treating them with carrot/stick motivation. It would probably make everyone happier. The Star Trek era should just arrive and make monetary concerns redundant.

...And finally, I can't finish without mentioning that I'm now level 58 and soon to be 59 in World of Warcraft. Hopefully in the next week or so I should be - finally - 60.

And then I can begin all over again. :)