Firefly
If you ’re on the net in 2018 , chance are you ’ve at least heard ofFirefly , the cult Graeco-Roman sci - fi boob tube serial on Fox . create by Joss Whedon and administrator produce by him and Tim Minear , the show was a refreshing take on the blank space - western literary genre , broadcast at a time when looker ' choices for high - quality serial were far fewer than today . First air in 2002,Fireflyhad a notoriously difficult exploitation cycle , which require Fox executives seemingly doing everything they could to sabotage the show ’s popularity .
The show may not have made it out of its first season , but fans still grew attached to the fourteen instalment that did air , and eventually start a campaign to get more episode – which eventually succeeded by getting Fox to greenlightSerenity , a film that tie up many of the show ’s loose ends . But that does n’t signify there are n’t still more of those plot trap impart open , and this list will count down those detail and moment that did n’t make sensation .
There are a good deal of means appearance can mess up , and you should n’t hold error like these against the artists that make them . That being say , Fireflyaired over 15 years ago , and there are chemical element that do n’t quite hold up to the intense scrutiny of the modern telecasting watcher . Those parts that now stimulate cognitive dissonance , the plot holes that went unexplained , the narrative thread that were never resolve – these are all fair game for this lean .
Naturally , spoilers ahead – although frankly , if you were gon na watchFirefly , you belike would ’ve by now .
Here are20 Things That Make No Sense About Firefly .
The episodes aired out of order
Firefly , as everyFireflyfan will secernate you , had an below the belt difficult time with its internet , Fox . The show was never able to get off the ground , thanks in large part to meshing executives thinking audiences would n’t connect with the tarradiddle and characters .
To that end , the same executives determine to air the episodes out of order .
There is no rhyme or reason to the order in which the show finally aired . The on-key pilot was one of the last episode to be evidence , the quaternary and fifth episodes bare after the eighth , and that ’s just the pourboire of the crisphead lettuce . It ’s honestly telling that anybody was capable to keep up with a show that designedly made itself harder to parse . And then the web represent surprised when viewer were confuse by the overall plot .
It was cancelled for no good reason
You would think that after harangue the show ’s writers about the atmosphere , limit their budget , and airing their episodes out of order in a bad timeslot , the executives at Fox might have givenFireflya break . Unfortunately , that was n’t the case , as the web canceled the show in the middle of its first time of year .
Firefly ’s ratings were far from adept , but web have been have a go at it to keep display on with less . total to that a shockingly devoted fanbase , one that campaigned for years to get the show back on the air , and it ’s frankly flummox why Fox did n’t give it more of a prospect . However , Firefly ’s early cancellation is part of why it ’s so well known today – it gave a rosy tint to the show ’s abbreviated world .
Book’s backstory
One of the many thread left hang when the show was cancel , Derrial Book was just a whodunit fans never got to see solved . A man claiming to be a Shepherd ( a kind of priest ) whose past times was brought into question when it was show he had some pull with the Alliance itself , his backstory was intelligibly meant to be research in belated episodes .
The show was canceled too shortly to explain Book , leaving fans wondering what his whole great deal was .
Fortunately , while this part of the show does n’t make sense on its own , Book did get his own comic playscript tie - in series which dig into his personal chronicle . Fans eager to find out more about the Serenity ’s Shepherd should expect there .
Reavers
There are scarey elements to this space - westerly , and most of them have to do with the Reavers , the radical of bandit that hunger for particular shape that have been driven brainsick by some mystic effort . For the entire show , fans wonder just what had driven the Reavers so out of their minds – seemingly ineffectual to do anything but scream and attack – but the flick answered that inquiry .
Still , even with that explanation , it ’s not like there were n’t aspects of the Reavers that did n’t apply up .
For instance , how are they able to align entire space fleets if they ca n’t seem to talk ? And if the Alliance is devoted to hushing up the Sojourner Truth about them , why have n’t they wipe the maniacs out already ? Needless to say , the show did n’t provide any answer .
Why does Inara stay with the crew?
companion are theFireflyuniverse ’s variation of high - class escorts , and they get with them a ton of social standing . That makes it a no - brainer for the crew of the Serenity to desire to bring Inara Serra along , as she instantly levy their power to deal with mellow societal strata . However , it does n’t explicate why Inara wishes to travel with them .
The show never got around to delving into Inara ’s backstory , and if it had , it might have explained exactly why a idolize Companion is slum it with a non - Alliance ship . Inara could have her pick of the litter when it comes to her exile , and fan have to wonder what made her choose the Serenity when it does n’t seem to offer her anything she could n’t find elsewhere .
Why doesn’t Mal cut Jayne loose?
Jayne Cobb is a funny , if not entirely appealing , plus to the Serenity , but just because a quality provides comic backup man does n’t mean it make sense for them to be there . Jayne repeatedly comes into conflict with his captain , Mal Reynolds , ordinarily over a disagreement with Mal ’s choices . And that ’s just the crown of the iceberg .
More than once over the form of the serial publication , Jayne showed himself to be willing to cheat on Mal and the crew for extra money or power . Mal even recruited him by getting him to betray his previous employer , and Jayne in reality coordinated with an Alliance officer to betray Simon and River . Mal endanger to leave Jayne to asphyxiate in space over this , but does n’t , because … reasons ?
River’s psychic abilities
One of the principal drive plots of the show is River Tam and her pursuer . River is a gifted but discredited individual , chased by a dim accumulation of governance agentive role and megacorporations , because their tortuous experiments on her gave her precognition – psychical might .
While this made for a compelling plot line , it also never stopped to make common sense . Fireflyis prepare in a largely hard sci - fi domain with mostly realistic skill , and River basically just being magic does n’t really work with that . There ’s no tangible scientific explanation for her power , they just kind of happen and now River can sometimes see the future . As it is , River function as a grab udder of whatever the show ask her to be , useless unacquainted , unstoppable force , or creepy psychic .
Jaynestown
Even though it only carry for 14 episode , Fireflystill managed to make a few that were genuinely strange . " Jaynestown " is one of those , as it follows the crew land on a satellite where their house physician thuggish oaf Jayne is somehow worship as a Hero of Alexandria .
That alone would qualify it for this leaning , but it only gets weirder from there .
It turns out Jayne betrayed his partner on a botched looting there several year back , and the townsfolk misinterpreted it as a sign of heroism . A villager even sacrifices himself for Jayne despite know it was a mistake , but the magistrate eventually blocks the Serenity from leaving . in conclusion , out of unexpended field , the magistrate ’s son frees them because he is infatuated with Inara . This entire episode is just one " huh ? " instant after another .
Private Tracey’s plan
Poor Tracey Smith . Private Tracey is a character that appears in the instalment " The content , " initially as a body in a coffin mail to Mal and Zoe . This turns out to be a artifice , as Mal and Zoe ’s army brother has not expire , he ’s merely sedated to seem so . Tracey then fill them in on his design to scam some black marketplace organ dealers , and you ’ll be shocked to read that it does n’t go well .
Tracey ’s design ends in tragedy , and it ’s an termination everyone check come .
Tracey is indicate to be slow as a chemise of hammer , but this plan takes that to the extreme . It ’s not a spoilt installment or anything , but you ’d really have to be a dunce to think anything like this could work – in the end , it was just so stupefied it felt contrived .
The aspect ratio
Ah yes , the most interesting of all plastic film discourse : which scene ratio is the best ? It took television a long , prospicient clock time to come around to the widescreen way of thinking , and they did n’t do it shortly enough forFirefly . The writers and directors of the show want it to be in widescreen , but Fox take a firm stand on shield it in 4:3 .
This narrow proportion have some awkwardness , both in the original broadcast and in the DVD release ( which was return to widescreen ) . The show ’s framing was off in the early episodes , so fans watching the videodisk will notice some stuff at the side of the underframe is odd : Wash will on occasion get a nonexistent steerage roulette wheel , and other mistake of that kind . And all of this could have been stave off if the administrator had just take heed to the originative team .
