Sweet Serenity

You guys, I am an idiot. No, really, much with the stupid. Last night I started watching “Firefly” for the first time thanks to its debut on the Science Channel. Sweet merciful Zeus, it’s so good. Don’t worry, I already slapped myself repeatedly for not watching sooner. What can I say about this show? It’s fun. It’s smart. It’s deceptively complex. It’s, in short, perfect Joss Whedon. I know, I know. You’re going to say: “Dude, you love Joss Whedon. You love Buffy. You never watched ‘Firefly?’” No, I never watched “Firefly.” I don’t have a great excuse except I tuned in only once originally and wasn’t much into the space cowboy thing at the time. I’m not huge into Westerns, period. Sure, I see the occasional one. Some are quite good. But, I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t really have a good excuse.

The thing is, I’ve watched pretty much everything else by Joss. Buffy. Angel. Dollhouse. Dr. Horrible. Hell, I even saw “Serenity” in the theater – on the opening weekend. And I liked it, a lot. But I never circled back because my list of “Stuff I Need to Watch…When I Have Time” is even more depressing than my email inbox. (Oh, and about that, I am really, really, really sorry for not writing you back yet. Yes, you.)

Still I have to saw watching it belatedly on TV (instead of an all-day boxset marathon or late-night download smorgasbord) is kind of thrilling. Sure, not as thrilling – or nearly as helpful, ratings wise – as if I had watched in real-time when it was actually on the air. But gosh if it isn’t kind of fun to be able to watch it in weekly installments. Also, as terrible as it is knowing in advance that the show only lasted one season, my back-logged brain feels a tiny bit relieved about adding it to my schedule knowing there are only 14 episodes to watch (well, now 12). That’s what I call a manageable commitment.

So now, now to the good stuff. First, I’m thrilled that it looks like the Science Channel is airing the episodes in order, instead of all over the place like Fox did originally. How the hell could they have aired “The Train Job” instead of “Serenity” as the pilot? Hey, here’s a good idea. Let’s not introduce the characters or frame the conflict or lay out the premise. Let’s just make sure there’s a train heist. Oh, Fox.

While I’ll admit it takes a little bit to adjust to the gunslinger attitude and, yes, the fiddle music, all of the required Whedonverse elements are there. A morally resolute, yet at times deeply conflicted hero (Mal, Captain Tightpants himself). A strong female lead (Zoe, the glorious Gina Torres who has popped up in just about every TV show I have ever watched from “Xena” to “Angel” to “Pushing Daisies” to “The Vampire Diaries”). An adorable geek (Kaylee, who when she was shot in the pilot made me flash to every single time Willow was in mortal danger). And just enough Joss-speak to make it all funny and poignant and really compelling as hell.

Also, and I haven’t done my Google research, but is there a ‘ship between Inara and Kaylee? Come on, how great are they together? I must say I prefer Morena Baccarin with long, wavy hair to her short, alien crop on “V.” Nothing against short crops, in the least, but on Morena with long hair is just so, well, dreamy.

So, after an appropriate period of yelling at me for not have watching when it mattered most, who wants to watch “Firefly” this go around with me? Sundays at 10 p.m. on the Science Channel. It’s a date. Now all I need to find is a good browncoat.