It was bad timing for Joss Whedon who had just signed a 5 year contract for Firefly. Soon after, FOX let go of many programming executives. New execs in power wanted contracts of their own. Old shows already scheduled had to go to make room for the new shows. The Firefly contract couldn't just be ripped up so the new execs sabotaged the show into cancelation.
Its a continual thing for fox, I'm not sure how many shows they have done this to, but they had another show where they did the exact same thing a few years later, and it was turning into a good show.. but out of order and then just dropped all support for it. Almost Human was the show.
One of the things I like about "Safe" is the comparison between the Tams' father and Mal. Their actual father's concern was for status and appearance, and he not only didn't support Simon's efforts to save River - and wouldn't even believe she was in trouble because it was inconvenient - but wouldn't bail Simon out a second time if Simon persisted. In contrast, Mal doesn't even like Simon and River, but because they're on his crew he'll face down an entire enraged town and go in with guns ready to rescue them if they get in trouble. It isn't hard to choose which one you'd rather have your back.
River said "Soon daddy will come and rescue us." I believe she knew full well who she meant. His crew IS family to him, and as Captain, he is the head.
@@greenpeasuitOne of the things that I think is neat is when you first watch the show it seems like River is speaking nonsense, but then in retrospect you see how in greater context it does have meaning.
You'll notice how karma really avenges Kaylee. Anyone that wrongs her in an episode, even from the crew, gets hit hard by the end. Mal talks crap about her dress? Gets stabbed in a swordfight. Alliance guy shoots her in the gut? Mal headshots him. Simon talks crap about the plate she wanted to give him for a gift? Gets kidnapped, lol.
I think I kinda sound like her any time I try to quietly bring something embarrassing up. Gotta encode it in euphemisms and junk. I end up doing too good a job of disguising the message so they don't understand, and more people come flocking over to investigate, and I have to explicitly say in front of everyone they should change their kid's pants or something.
No one resists the theme song for long! Also, with River, most of what she says makes sense in retrospect. This episode establishes that she has some kind of empathic/psychic ability. It also establishes that she has significant connection to Mal, and possibly sees him as a paternal figure. "Dad is coming to get us." I think that everything she does in the village is deliberate. Mal was coming back to get them, they just didn't have time to comb the hills looking for Simon. So they help Book, then come back. It still would have taken forever to find them, but luckily there was a big ass bonfire to guide them in.
@@heatherqualy9143 Don't worry, heather. There are plenty of other people with terrible musical taste and yet some of them are able to lead perfectly normal lives.
"You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?" tells you more about Mal as a character than you could describe in a two page essay. That is his entire essence distilled down to it's simplest form.
Sheriff Bourne: A man can get a job, he might not look too close at what that job is. But a man learns all the details of a situation like ours, well, then he has a choice. Mal: I don’t believe he does. -------------------- You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once. If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.
This episode was definitely one of my favorites. That ending was the cherry on top. Plus Christina Hendrick's character was such a brilliant character to introduce on the show.
I agree. I've always said that since watching the show when originally broadcast. Since they showed episodes out of order, Our Mrs Reynolds was the one where the show and characters really clicked for a lot of people.
The single greatest achievement of this series is its lively swerves of tonality between, and even within, each episode. Firefly is like a box of chocolates. Ya never know what yer gonna get.
Dont apologize for hating Jayne. You're supposed to, but that just means he's a well-written character, and it also sets him up for a fantastic development arc!
Yes Adam Baldwin a great actor and No Ashleigh he's not one of the Baldwin brothers. He has a knack for playing misunderstood characters like Colonel John Casey in Chuck and Jayne Cobb.
Or as someone said about one of his other roles: ' under fire, Animal Mother is one of the finest human beings on the planet...now all he needs is someone to throw hand grenades at him for the rest of his life."
Completely agree. Jayne actually has a heart of gold for the crew (just not Simon and River) at this point. His reaction in Ep1 when Kaylee gets shot is perfect.
To get around the censors, they speak Chinese for profanity. Christina Hendricks is such a wonderful actress with a lot of 'talents'. LOL Love when Mal says, "but, she's our witch"...classic Mal.
@@hatchhermit77 There is something about a confident, well spoken woman being all articulate at a man that just turns our brains to mush, being naked certainly helps with that though.
@@littlekong7685 The nakedness activates the "breed" command of our lizard-brain and the talking distracts the monkey-brain from handing control back to the thinking-brain.
Fun Fact: River Tam's actress Summer Glau was a classically trained ballet dancer before she got into acting, and the show takes full advantage of her skills, as you will see.
If Summer Glau is in a show's cast, you know two things will happen: 1. It will only last one season at most (not her fault), and 2. She will be in tights in at least one scene before the series is over.
@@awkwardashleighthere was a superhero named the cape for NBC that had comedy corny enough and serious and would have been amazing if it was given a season 2 but it never did because NBC didn't want to be known as the superhero network which is the same as CBS which means that the creator of the show should have picked a better network . This sometimes happens to the best shows that had great idea but the network decided to give it a shot . Some of them shot the pilot episode but the network decided to pull the trigger on the show and some people wanted to see more of this show . Cindy Williams had a great show on ABC called Joe Anna but they shot the pilot episode and never the rest of the show . Heroes was a superhero series but got caned but came back and got caned again and CBS caned supergirl superman 's cousin show only for the cw to pick it up for season 2 and the rest of the show and some times it is understandable why a short lived tv show is done by the network pulling the trigger on the show. if it was not good with some of the people or all of the people . Powers was a dc comics show on NBC with Troy 's girlfriend from high school musical as a employee of Wayne Powers aka batman aka Bruce Wayne 's company and a special appearance for Adam west who played himself in family guy who became the mayor of the town family guy. Yes his name really is Adam west who played batman in 60s batman tv show that ran for 3 seasons from 1966 to 1968 and Robin was playing by burt ward who was 20 at the time but he played and looked like he was 17 to 18 and he used to sell insurance . He even did some of the stunt work himself and some times a stunt man but he would be in the hospital every day and even Adam west was in the hospital with burt ward .burt thought he was a unlucky guy but some how he got though it and he slowly liked it again and he was married 3 times and he now helping dogs live longer and his kids are with him in this and Adam west and burt ward would played batman and Robin again in the cartoon the new batman with Robin show and Adam west voice a character who was a actor Simon and he played on a tv show called the gray ghost that was a love letter to Adam west and a thank you because if it was not for a corny batman from 60s we might not have gotten a mainly serious and little bit of fun batman movie batman 89 and 92 sequel batman returns which you have reaction to .and we might not have batman the animated series that was the best version of batman with have a little bit of comedy but, mainly serious and 3 animated movie by the same people who did batman the animated series and Julie newmore as the 60s sexy catwoman we might not have Michelle Phifer as even more sexy catwoman in batman returns . Burt ward and Julie newmore and Adam west got to play the 60s batman tv show version of the batman and Robin and catwoman in batman 66 return of the caped crusaders and batman 66 vs two face with William Shatner aka Jim kirk of star track. Batman 66 even made a movie just called batman the movie but I called it batman 66 and it was filmed after season 1 and while the show was corny ,like I said we might have never gotten batman 89 and the sequel batman returns and batman the animated series without the beautiful corny 60s batman and Robin .Barbara Gordon commissioner Jim Gordon police 's daughter as Batgirl . Some times network hears the fans like Kim possible get another season with 4th season of the show on disney channel . Daredevil is a marvel character that was popular the show is about Matt Murdock who as a kid was doing fine until he found out his dad a boxer was in with a mob gang and fixed the fight in order to get money to buy a better home with Matt but messed with a fight in a boxing ring is not allowed and Matt did not want this and when walking around he saw a old blind man who was about to die when a truck filed with radioactive stuff in his eyes and he was blind but the radioactive stuff made him able to see shadow or gentle shape of things in sort of a radar sensor and his sense of smell and could fight like a sight person see and he decided to be a hero called Daredevil with his costume looks like a devil costume aka the man with no fear by night and layer by day and his dad is dead .he even put the letters dd on his costume for Daredevil and a successful Netflix series until Netflix decided to pull the plug on this show and his friends iron fist Danny who hand glow with che Marshall arts and jessica Jones who can fly and other stuff and the power man Luke cage a black man who has bullet proof skin all over his body I think tell me in the comments section guys. Charlie cox not related to Courtney cox is a cool guy to play Matt Murdock Daredevil and even appeared in spiderman no way home and the reboot upcoming on disney + Daredevil born again where he goes up against bullseye a villan that always hits the target and the kingpin a big fat mob boss and they are better in the series than the movie that Ben alfac was in with a not good review on the box office .but Ben alfac met his wife Jennifer garder this show was need a second season .
Exactly, River is always thinking about everything around her and can't concentrate on one thing for long. But still makes associations with other recent things she heard. It's like them messing with her mind gave her extreme ADHD and Schizophrenia.
You’re missing how special River is. The first time she met Badger she put on an accent to match his after hearing only a few words. And here, River didn’t remember how to dance. She watched the dance and learned it on the spot. This was the first episode, during the dancing when River looked happy, that I realized she was kind of pretty.
The language is Chinese. One of the background bits is in the exodus from earth the two largest powers (China and the US) sort of combined, so most of the characters appear to be some level of bi-lingual. It also let them get away with saying some wild shit in Chinese apparently.
It's atrocious. People who actually speak Mandarin can't understand what they're saying. Which makes sense, considering the 'expert' they hired admitted she herself barely spoke it.
@@jaykayenn I think this makes a lot of in-universe sense. If they mostly use it for cursing, they aren't really speaking Mandarin, they're just using Mandarin loan words, and loan words tend to get butchered.
I have a figurine of Jayne holding "Vera" that I've kept on my desk at work for the last 15 years. It always brightens my day when people recognize it.
When Mal says refers to people as his crew he means family. Mal is the head of the crew so the head of the family. So in River's mind he is there Dad now.
I always thought of Mal and the crew more as outlaws than pirates. Outlaws live by their own code while pirates are just criminals taking what they want and don't care who they hurt. Summer Glau (River) is actually a professionally trained ballet dancer.
I would direct you to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6, episode 7: Once More, With Feeling. Josh Whedon's first entry on to this list (IMO) approx. 11 months earlier. All songs in this masterpiece episode were written by Whedon as well. I've always stated that I don't feel like I've ever seen a better episode of any show on television.
6:35 "U O S ? What does that mean?" "You owe us" 😂 7:10 River is a genius. She learned the dance just by watching. 13:08 EVERYTHING River says makes sense.. in hindsight. Don't ignore her.
@nslosthismind I'll be happy to debate this in more detail as she says more "nonsensical" things in upcoming episodes. My point is that everything she says is significant, even if it's not immediately understood. At 13:17 She says, "We won't be here long. Daddy will come and take us home." She's trying to comfort her brother. She knows that Mal is the "daddy" of his crew and he's coming for them. At 15:40 River comments that post-holers are for digging holes for posts....while she's tied to a post. 🤔 She shows no fear because she knows they'll be rescued. "Time to go".
Ah yes, Our Mrs. Reynolds....the episode that made Christina Hendricks a household name, and got her the gig on Mad Men, that skyrocketed her to buxom ginger bombshell sex symbol status. Fun note about her previous love life. She was married to "the snozzberries taste like snozzberries" guy from Super Troopers. Who is a very dorky looking guy, but very funny. So the two of them became an IRL version of Jessica and Roger Rabbit.
beautiful sexy woman, but her big fake boobs skyrocketed her to buxom bombshell, not her acting. She was in some not well known shows after her playboy pics, where she didn't have her big boobs. She started in 2000 ish and eventually had them big and ready when Mad Men brought her on. She's a beautiful woman, but that isn't her claim to fame, her implants are.
This is probably the single most quotable pair of episodes in the entie show lol And yes; that is a baby Zac Efron. Although "baby" might be the wrong term since, believe it or not, he's actually 15 here.
This is the beauty of episodic television, over serialised. Not stuck on one plot through, but you have a premise and can go weird episode to episode. This show was so good, for how short lived it was it gave us so much joy.
Sort of spoiler...theory is Shephard WAS an undercover/intelligence Alliance man before and possibly during the War, and out of guilt he BECAME a Shephard. But it's only speculation because we never got to find out BECAUSE FOX CANCELLED THE SHOW BEFORE THE STORY ARCS COULD BE FINISHED!...sorry about the caps...got upset...again.
My favorite fan theory is that Shepherd used to be an operative of the alliance. That’s why he knows show much about crime, also why he can fight so well, knows how to use a gun etc. unfortunately we never will find out, but I feel does makes perfect sense
A comic details his background. He was a mole in Alliance Military Intelligence for the Browncoats. On occasion he had to set up Browncoat troops to be slaughtered by the Alliance in order to cement his cover and move up in rank and position to where he could gain access to truly critical Alliance secrets. When the Browncoats lost it made all his sacrifice of all those unknowing men (from his own side) pointless, and it absolutely tore him apart. So he "retired" from the Alliance military, thus his "Ident" card would link to his 201 file (military personnel record) and inform the Alliance Cruisers officer that he was a retired high ranking Alliance military officer. Letting him die in the airlock would surely be a career limiting move.
Sadly, while we never find out the 'truth' about Shepherd Book in the series, there was later a comic made about his entire backstory. It's quite intriguing!
The “Safe” episode has one of my all time favorite quotes about being big damn hero’s. I even have a t-shirt that has Mal and Zoe with their rifles and it says Big Damn Heroes on it.
This show has great drgged performances😅 Jayne in the train job and Mal and Inara here just make me smile every time. 'Aiming for the head". "Is it Christmas" and "falling and hitting your head" are great lines delivered really well😂😂😂
Jayne is like a fungus he grows on you, I love every character on the show including including that lovely little bully. He is like a dinner roll, crusty on the outside but a softie
Christina Hendricks did a very good job, my first viewing of the series was through my first college Roommate. He chuckled a lot at my reaction and surprise at how the episode played out. Like a Deer in the middle of a poorly lit road. 😮
There's some explanation about the early years Book in the comics. I did some research on him, very Cool stuff, so I won't spoil it 😜, check it out for yourself 😎
“It’s been a while…a looong damn while…since anybody but me took a hold of my plow.” That line is said so fast and effortlessly, that I think a lot of reactors miss it, but it is so darn hilarious 😂🤣
Nathan was so believable as a man whose breath was taken away in that scene. Probably didn’t have to do much acting considering Christina must not have had too much coverage, lol. 😉
I love that you are enjoying Firefly. No one has been able to figure out why they stopped production. Thanks for sharing your unique and beautiful perspective on this show and everything else you watch.
I will never forget Shepherd Book's dialogue about the "Special Hell" LOL! Back in the day a local indie movie theater used clips of that to make their 'do not talk during the movie' reel, it was hilarious!
"See, this is why you don't get drunk and go to parties on another planet". A new slogan to base the rest of my life on. Off the cuff, brilliant, and hilarious. Great job!
Your reactions to Firefly make me so happy! This show, it's cast, writers, sets, crew and directors were sheer perfection, and definitely stand the test of time. One change in any of those elements would have destroyed the magic that is Firefly. I'm glad you are enjoying this ride!
In case no one has mentioned it yet, the language you keep hearing when a character gets REALLY excited, mad, whatever is Mandarin. The backstory of the human race leaving Earth and colonizing other worlds includes mention of the two dominant cultures the survived the diaspora being Chinese and the English speaking world. One of the writers was Chinese American and would ask her little brother what cuss words his friends used and they got written into the show. Also, some of the English language terms are 19th century slang terms reused to create some distance between our current culture and that of the fictional future.
I love how this shows varying degrees of “outlaw” for different characters. Mal doesn’t look for illegal jobs specifically. Like catching the crooks at the start of the second episode. But he’s also happy to smuggle cattle against Alliance law. Or steal from the Alliance. Not really pirate stuff. And when they do steal from regular people shit tends to go sideways. Saffron won’t kill people directly but she sure will set things up so people die. Christina Hendricks is awesome as Saffron.
Yup, the film tends to be called "The Big Damn Movie", and even TV Tropes has taken to calling the moment when the heroes swoop in to save the day all dramatically the "Big Damn Hero Moment" after this scene.
When River said "Daddy will come soon and take us Home", she wasn't referring to her birth father; she was speaking of Mal. He was the 'father' of Serenity's little family. Book as the grandpa...et al. And River knew Mal wouuld come for them.
FOX was big into baseball at the time and I remember they kept preemting Firefly to show games on Friday nights. They might show an episode every two or three weeks sometimes.
The LAUGH that I let out when I heard you singing along... and then you admitted that it was growing on you... I was like "oh my, she's just like me" 🤣
What an awesome Ashleigh community - can we just pause and celebrate that NO ONE is spoiling it for her or any other Firefly newbies. Plus true Firefly lovers would never, ever rob someone of falling in love with the characters (even Jayne a little bit, seriously) unspoiled but really, quite proud of us.
I remember introducing a coworker friend, a young guy, to Firefly with the help of another browncoat coworker. We binged the series and the movie. Neither of us experienced browncoats spoiled anything as we watched the series. I remember, though, watching our young coworker during the landing on Mr. Universe's world. His reaction was everything anyone could expect it to be.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
"I hate that guy, I hate that guy. He's right! But I hate him." That's sort of the essence of Jayne right there. 🙂
She laughed her ass off everytime.
I think we're all waiting for the Jaynestown reaction... :)
@@matthewdalzell2294 Oh boy oh boy oh boy.
@@matthewdalzell2294yep! So excited for that lol😂
Jayne is the definition of a "Love to Hate" character
"Why did Fox do this show dirty?" Ashleigh, that's a question every Firefly fan has been asking for 20+ years...
Especially since it was replaced by When Animals Attack.
It was bad timing for Joss Whedon who had just signed a 5 year contract for Firefly. Soon after, FOX let go of many programming executives. New execs in power wanted contracts of their own. Old shows already scheduled had to go to make room for the new shows. The Firefly contract couldn't just be ripped up so the new execs sabotaged the show into cancelation.
Its a continual thing for fox, I'm not sure how many shows they have done this to, but they had another show where they did the exact same thing a few years later, and it was turning into a good show.. but out of order and then just dropped all support for it. Almost Human was the show.
@@dunringill1747 Fox has a long history of being a breeding ground for the worst scum in the verse.
That's easy! Programming execs are effing stupid!
"Well my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." Love that line.
Adam Baldwin: "Sex. Muscle. Humor. Thuggery. Jayne."
My favorite single line of dialog from the whole show!
The "Special Hell" dialogue never fails in making me laugh!!!
"Good Bible"
@@cnut5475That is priceless.
That and "well the days of me taking you serious are certainly coming to a middle"
Right there with the people who talk in theaters.
Yup! STOP touching your OWN "plow"(or "field"?) 😛
One of the things I like about "Safe" is the comparison between the Tams' father and Mal. Their actual father's concern was for status and appearance, and he not only didn't support Simon's efforts to save River - and wouldn't even believe she was in trouble because it was inconvenient - but wouldn't bail Simon out a second time if Simon persisted. In contrast, Mal doesn't even like Simon and River, but because they're on his crew he'll face down an entire enraged town and go in with guns ready to rescue them if they get in trouble. It isn't hard to choose which one you'd rather have your back.
I mean, he wanted his witch back. Wouldn't you do the same?
@@BKPriceif the witch in question is Summer Glau then . . . YES!!!
River said "Soon daddy will come and rescue us." I believe she knew full well who she meant. His crew IS family to him, and as Captain, he is the head.
@@greenpeasuitOne of the things that I think is neat is when you first watch the show it seems like River is speaking nonsense, but then in retrospect you see how in greater context it does have meaning.
@@greenpeasuit Happy to call Mal, Daddy.
and here was my favorite line of all firefly... "i swear to my pretty floral bonnet, i will end you..."
“Why did fox…?” Welcome to all of our collective rage 😂🤣
Every time they show Inara selecting clients, I'm forced to consider the possibility that Firefly invented "swiping right"
I had to check... Firefly outdates Tinder by ten years, so you may be on to something
Holy Frijoles! 🤯🤯🤯
Check out Logan's Run, it has "swiping right" a couple decades before Firefly.
But no "Trained" in 2024...
You'll notice how karma really avenges Kaylee. Anyone that wrongs her in an episode, even from the crew, gets hit hard by the end.
Mal talks crap about her dress? Gets stabbed in a swordfight.
Alliance guy shoots her in the gut? Mal headshots him.
Simon talks crap about the plate she wanted to give him for a gift? Gets kidnapped, lol.
Excellent point. Kaylee is too strong a force of good the 'verse wants to protect
Mal blows her off about the xxxxx xxxxx and.......
She's too good for this world so all powers in the 'verse protect her!
River makes sense when you consider what she's saying in context. It's cryptic but it's not gibberish. Great reactions!
Especially on the rewatch, once ya know.
I think I kinda sound like her any time I try to quietly bring something embarrassing up. Gotta encode it in euphemisms and junk. I end up doing too good a job of disguising the message so they don't understand, and more people come flocking over to investigate, and I have to explicitly say in front of everyone they should change their kid's pants or something.
I love that you got sucked in by Saffron!! She is really good at that act.
It's almost as if she was an actress.
@theodman......so was Megan fox. Do you think she could have pulled off that role as well as Christina Hendricks did?
I'd love to get sucked in by Saffron.
she's very... articulate
@@TheOdMan "Hurump, why do people give credit and praise to people when they do their craft well?! No one ever does it for me. :("
No one resists the theme song for long! Also, with River, most of what she says makes sense in retrospect. This episode establishes that she has some kind of empathic/psychic ability. It also establishes that she has significant connection to Mal, and possibly sees him as a paternal figure. "Dad is coming to get us." I think that everything she does in the village is deliberate. Mal was coming back to get them, they just didn't have time to comb the hills looking for Simon. So they help Book, then come back. It still would have taken forever to find them, but luckily there was a big ass bonfire to guide them in.
Pretty much everything that River does is deliberate. Every line or action means something.
and the search for the tamms would have been too long for book....
Dunno about that. 20 years on and I still dislike the theme song. 😜 But love the show! 😊
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 Unless she is upset I think. Like throwing stuff or in a previous episode removing labels from cans.
@@heatherqualy9143 Don't worry, heather. There are plenty of other people with terrible musical taste and yet some of them are able to lead perfectly normal lives.
I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, the series only gets better.
‘This is why you don’t get drunk and go to parties at another planet.’ Brilliant 😄
If I'm marrying Christina Hendricks, sign me up.
...kinda the second episode to teach us this lesson. 😅
@@joeno-say5504 But then she'll steal your car and sell it to some dumpster... and run away forever 🙂
@@Asehpe Worth it.
"You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?" tells you more about Mal as a character than you could describe in a two page essay. That is his entire essence distilled down to it's simplest form.
Sheriff Bourne: A man can get a job, he might not look too close at what that job is. But a man learns all the details of a situation like ours, well, then he has a choice.
Mal: I don’t believe he does.
--------------------
You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once. If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.
Those are all good insights into his moral compass. But protecting his crew is at the core of his being.@@StarlasAiko
@@StarlasAiko a) He didn’t follow through did he? and b) what did Jayne do for Mal to even consider it?
@@StarlasAikoI doubt he considered Jayne at that point as a part of the crew.
But why are we even spoiling things?
@@mizrolist You're right, sorry...deleted.
Our Mrs. Reynolds is when most people get really hooked.
Was gonna say. If someone isn't hooked by thus point they have neither heart nor brain. This series is so pleasing to both.
The top item on the list of "things Firefly needed more of" that isn't "more seasons" is "more Christina Hendricks".
This episode was definitely one of my favorites. That ending was the cherry on top. Plus Christina Hendrick's character was such a brilliant character to introduce on the show.
I agree. I've always said that since watching the show when originally broadcast. Since they showed episodes out of order, Our Mrs Reynolds was the one where the show and characters really clicked for a lot of people.
How do we get people really hooked on the show?
Christina Hendricks: "I could get naked?"
Yep. That'll do it.
Since you cut one of the best lines, I'll put it in the comments.
"Well Jayne, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."
The single greatest achievement of this series is its lively swerves of tonality between, and even within, each episode. Firefly is like a box of chocolates. Ya never know what yer gonna get.
Which makes this decades-old TV series look/feel/sound like Billy Shakespeare wrote it.;)
the pinnacle of episodic TV, before it all went downhill with over-arcing plots with Rome and Game Of Thrones.
Kaylee is my favourite too, Jewel Staite is such a fun actress in this show. Also helps she's super cute xD
We got more of her in Stargate Atlantis and I loved every moment.❤❤ I felt so spoiled. Lol
She was also in an episode of "Supernatural"@@beetlebob4675
She’s like a chaotic good
Yup, she's all kinds of Nifty. 😍
Dont apologize for hating Jayne. You're supposed to, but that just means he's a well-written character, and it also sets him up for a fantastic development arc!
Yes Adam Baldwin a great actor and No Ashleigh he's not one of the Baldwin brothers. He has a knack for playing misunderstood characters like Colonel John Casey in Chuck and Jayne Cobb.
Has Ashleigh seen Chuck???
Or as someone said about one of his other roles: ' under fire, Animal Mother is one of the finest human beings on the planet...now all he needs is someone to throw hand grenades at him for the rest of his life."
Completely agree. Jayne actually has a heart of gold for the crew (just not Simon and River) at this point. His reaction in Ep1 when Kaylee gets shot is perfect.
"What, is the Shepard some kind of undercover cop?" You have no idea how simultaneously close and far off you are.
why do people always think what we are is what we have always been.
A NYC Detective...In another Time Line...=))
To get around the censors, they speak Chinese for profanity. Christina Hendricks is such a wonderful actress with a lot of 'talents'. LOL Love when Mal says, "but, she's our witch"...classic Mal.
prodigious talents 😍
“But she was naked! And all…articulate!” Most guys have had to use that excuse at least once.
Boobs imbue a woman's words with +50 plausibility.
And usually don't even need the "articulate' part.
@@hatchhermit77 There is something about a confident, well spoken woman being all articulate at a man that just turns our brains to mush, being naked certainly helps with that though.
@@littlekong7685 The nakedness activates the "breed" command of our lizard-brain and the talking distracts the monkey-brain from handing control back to the thinking-brain.
@@littlekong7685I apologize. I didn’t hear what your boobs were speaking to me just there.
Fun Fact: River Tam's actress Summer Glau was a classically trained ballet dancer before she got into acting, and the show takes full advantage of her skills, as you will see.
And one of her first acting jobs was playing a ballerina on another Whedon show, Angel.
She was great in The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
If Summer Glau is in a show's cast, you know two things will happen:
1. It will only last one season at most (not her fault), and
2. She will be in tights in at least one scene before the series is over.
@@RichardX1 Not true for Dollhouse .2 seasons and I'm pretty sure she wasn't ever in tights .
@@commonstragedy Was she in Dollhouse?
You reacting to/reviewing this show has made my whole month just fabulous. Thank you.
thank YOU
@@awkwardashleighthere was a superhero named the cape for NBC that had comedy corny enough and serious and would have been amazing if it was given a season 2 but it never did because NBC didn't want to be known as the superhero network which is the same as CBS which means that the creator of the show should have picked a better network . This sometimes happens to the best shows that had great idea but the network decided to give it a shot . Some of them shot the pilot episode but the network decided to pull the trigger on the show and some people wanted to see more of this show . Cindy Williams had a great show on ABC called Joe Anna but they shot the pilot episode and never the rest of the show . Heroes was a superhero series but got caned but came back and got caned again and CBS caned supergirl superman 's cousin show only for the cw to pick it up for season 2 and the rest of the show and some times it is understandable why a short lived tv show is done by the network pulling the trigger on the show. if it was not good with some of the people or all of the people . Powers was a dc comics show on NBC with Troy 's girlfriend from high school musical as a employee of Wayne Powers aka batman aka Bruce Wayne 's company and a special appearance for Adam west who played himself in family guy who became the mayor of the town family guy. Yes his name really is Adam west who played batman in 60s batman tv show that ran for 3 seasons from 1966 to 1968 and Robin was playing by burt ward who was 20 at the time but he played and looked like he was 17 to 18 and he used to sell insurance . He even did some of the stunt work himself and some times a stunt man but he would be in the hospital every day and even Adam west was in the hospital with burt ward .burt thought he was a unlucky guy but some how he got though it and he slowly liked it again and he was married 3 times and he now helping dogs live longer and his kids are with him in this and Adam west and burt ward would played batman and Robin again in the cartoon the new batman with Robin show and Adam west voice a character who was a actor Simon and he played on a tv show called the gray ghost that was a love letter to Adam west and a thank you because if it was not for a corny batman from 60s we might not have gotten a mainly serious and little bit of fun batman movie batman 89 and 92 sequel batman returns which you have reaction to .and we might not have batman the animated series that was the best version of batman with have a little bit of comedy but, mainly serious and 3 animated movie by the same people who did batman the animated series and Julie newmore as the 60s sexy catwoman we might not have Michelle Phifer as even more sexy catwoman in batman returns . Burt ward and Julie newmore and Adam west got to play the 60s batman tv show version of the batman and Robin and catwoman in batman 66 return of the caped crusaders and batman 66 vs two face with William Shatner aka Jim kirk of star track. Batman 66 even made a movie just called batman the movie but I called it batman 66 and it was filmed after season 1 and while the show was corny ,like I said we might have never gotten batman 89 and the sequel batman returns and batman the animated series without the beautiful corny 60s batman and Robin .Barbara Gordon commissioner Jim Gordon police 's daughter as Batgirl . Some times network hears the fans like Kim possible get another season with 4th season of the show on disney channel . Daredevil is a marvel character that was popular the show is about Matt Murdock who as a kid was doing fine until he found out his dad a boxer was in with a mob gang and fixed the fight in order to get money to buy a better home with Matt but messed with a fight in a boxing ring is not allowed and Matt did not want this and when walking around he saw a old blind man who was about to die when a truck filed with radioactive stuff in his eyes and he was blind but the radioactive stuff made him able to see shadow or gentle shape of things in sort of a radar sensor and his sense of smell and could fight like a sight person see and he decided to be a hero called Daredevil with his costume looks like a devil costume aka the man with no fear by night and layer by day and his dad is dead .he even put the letters dd on his costume for Daredevil and a successful Netflix series until Netflix decided to pull the plug on this show and his friends iron fist Danny who hand glow with che Marshall arts and jessica Jones who can fly and other stuff and the power man Luke cage a black man who has bullet proof skin all over his body I think tell me in the comments section guys. Charlie cox not related to Courtney cox is a cool guy to play Matt Murdock Daredevil and even appeared in spiderman no way home and the reboot upcoming on disney + Daredevil born again where he goes up against bullseye a villan that always hits the target and the kingpin a big fat mob boss and they are better in the series than the movie that Ben alfac was in with a not good review on the box office .but Ben alfac met his wife Jennifer garder this show was need a second season .
Samesies, for sure. AwAsh + Firefly = Paradise for me.
Just "shiny", surely.😅
The man called Jane has some great lines in episode 6.
I love that one and totally made me like Jayne
Jayne, the man they call Jayne!
As I said on someone else's reaction recently, 'A Special Hell' has been an Internet meme for over 20 years.
For digging holes for posts..."What?! Why are you thinking about that?" Because she is literally tied to a post silly 😝🤣
... I'm forty four years of age, I've watched this series many times, I was today years old when I realized that! xD
@@jasonmack760 lmfao 🤣
@@jasonmack760 I’m fifty-one, have also seen the show a bazillion times, and just realized it as well. So, you’re not alone dude.
@@jasonmack760 I absolutely love it when things like that happen. It keeps things I love fresh and shiny 😊
Exactly, River is always thinking about everything around her and can't concentrate on one thing for long. But still makes associations with other recent things she heard. It's like them messing with her mind gave her extreme ADHD and Schizophrenia.
You’re missing how special River is. The first time she met Badger she put on an accent to match his after hearing only a few words. And here, River didn’t remember how to dance. She watched the dance and learned it on the spot. This was the first episode, during the dancing when River looked happy, that I realized she was kind of pretty.
Daddy=Mal, Home=Serenity - everything River says makes sense in hindsight. 😉
Time to go=They came to get us.
I love how your drawl comes out thicker when you watch this show.
The language is Chinese. One of the background bits is in the exodus from earth the two largest powers (China and the US) sort of combined, so most of the characters appear to be some level of bi-lingual. It also let them get away with saying some wild shit in Chinese apparently.
Joss was studying Chinese at the time, so he learned lots of dirty words and phrases to inject them into the show!
It's Mandarin.
It's Mandarin (badly spoken with strong American accents).
It's atrocious. People who actually speak Mandarin can't understand what they're saying. Which makes sense, considering the 'expert' they hired admitted she herself barely spoke it.
@@jaykayenn I think this makes a lot of in-universe sense. If they mostly use it for cursing, they aren't really speaking Mandarin, they're just using Mandarin loan words, and loan words tend to get butchered.
I have a figurine of Jayne holding "Vera" that I've kept on my desk at work for the last 15 years. It always brightens my day when people recognize it.
When Mal says refers to people as his crew he means family. Mal is the head of the crew so the head of the family. So in River's mind he is there Dad now.
Bit of an Easter Egg … Ron Glass (Shepherd) was a cop on Barney Miller … gives a different insight as to how he knows so much. 🤪
Ha ha. Good one.
And why he's so valuable to the alliance.
Ron Glass who plays the Preacher passed in 2016 because of respiratory failure.
I always thought of Mal and the crew more as outlaws than pirates. Outlaws live by their own code while pirates are just criminals taking what they want and don't care who they hurt.
Summer Glau (River) is actually a professionally trained ballet dancer.
Old timey pirates actually had quite a lot of shipboard rules. They didn't care who they attacked but on ship there were rules.
actually they're salvagers(completely legal if you follow the rules) not pirates.
Our Mrs Reynolds is one of that few perfect TV productions, like Frasiers "Ski Lodge" or X Files "Modern Prometheus"
Good examples to compare it to.❤
I would direct you to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6, episode 7: Once More, With Feeling. Josh Whedon's first entry on to this list (IMO) approx. 11 months earlier. All songs in this masterpiece episode were written by Whedon as well. I've always stated that I don't feel like I've ever seen a better episode of any show on television.
Just to rattle your memory Inara (Morena Baccarin) also played in Deadpool.
NNNOOOOOOOO, we've been waiting to see if she would ever realize that on her own.
@@deirdreprice6425 She wouldn't if she hasn't already.
@@deirdreprice6425: She rarely reads the comments.
6:35 "U O S ? What does that mean?"
"You owe us" 😂
7:10 River is a genius. She learned the dance just by watching.
13:08 EVERYTHING River says makes sense.. in hindsight. Don't ignore her.
i don't know about EVERYTHING... but certainly most of it.
@nslosthismind I'll be happy to debate this in more detail as she says more "nonsensical" things in upcoming episodes.
My point is that everything she says is significant, even if it's not immediately understood.
At 13:17 She says, "We won't be here long. Daddy will come and take us home."
She's trying to comfort her brother. She knows that Mal is the "daddy" of his crew and he's coming for them.
At 15:40 River comments that post-holers are for digging holes for posts....while she's tied to a post. 🤔 She shows no fear because she knows they'll be rescued.
"Time to go".
13:25- she's referring to Mal.You'll find that despite her early ambivalence, she is very fond of the Captain.
Don't worry River's entire story comes out in season 2
Awww… TOO SOON, dude! 😂
Too soon.
And we learn all about Shepard Book's backstory in a flashback episode in season 3
@@sanityisrelativethat episode was the best of season 3. It’s definitely tied with Out of Gas as my favourite episode of the series.
SHUTUP!
The moral of the story is "Never trust a busty redhead"
Blackwidow
When its Christina Hendricks it would hard not too. :/
I never do. Whenever they steal my soul, I always say, 'I knew you were gonna do that. Anyway, here's my soul.'
She turns normal men into Mad Men.
That's why redheads are in the Danger Zone of the Crazy/Hot Matrix
Ah yes, Our Mrs. Reynolds....the episode that made Christina Hendricks a household name, and got her the gig on Mad Men, that skyrocketed her to buxom ginger bombshell sex symbol status. Fun note about her previous love life. She was married to "the snozzberries taste like snozzberries" guy from Super Troopers. Who is a very dorky looking guy, but very funny. So the two of them became an IRL version of Jessica and Roger Rabbit.
beautiful sexy woman, but her big fake boobs skyrocketed her to buxom bombshell, not her acting. She was in some not well known shows after her playboy pics, where she didn't have her big boobs. She started in 2000 ish and eventually had them big and ready when Mad Men brought her on. She's a beautiful woman, but that isn't her claim to fame, her implants are.
Jayne is the best character. He shows the most growth.
And if you happen catch that mountain of info dropped about him at the end of the season, oh my....
Love everyone of your reactions to this show! And I will have the phrase "visual blue balls" in my brain forever! 😂❤😂❤
HAHAHAHA
@@awkwardashleigh Admit it. You'd have willingly gone to the "Special Hell". :)
@@awkwardashleigh Your laughter is so contagious! I love the fun you're having with this show, it mirrors mine pretty accurately.
Ashleigh has become my absolute favorite reactor to this series. She got Mal and the show's humor right from the start. AIN'T WE JUST!
This is probably the single most quotable pair of episodes in the entie show lol
And yes; that is a baby Zac Efron. Although "baby" might be the wrong term since, believe it or not, he's actually 15 here.
Morena Bacarin.... so dang pretty it physically hurts to look at her.
No lies detected!
You need looser trousers.
Wear sweatpants.
I feel zero pain.
But I admit Christina Hendricks does give her a run for the money. So... articulate!
This is the beauty of episodic television, over serialised. Not stuck on one plot through, but you have a premise and can go weird episode to episode. This show was so good, for how short lived it was it gave us so much joy.
Firefly is rather episodic, but it still has a meta arc, especially when seen in correct order.
Sort of spoiler...theory is Shephard WAS an undercover/intelligence Alliance man before and possibly during the War, and out of guilt he BECAME a Shephard. But it's only speculation because we never got to find out BECAUSE FOX CANCELLED THE SHOW BEFORE THE STORY ARCS COULD BE FINISHED!...sorry about the caps...got upset...again.
yeah that was pretty much confirmed in the comics. There's an amazing fanfic called Foward, that acts a hypothetical second season for the series.
My favorite fan theory is that Shepherd used to be an operative of the alliance. That’s why he knows show much about crime, also why he can fight so well, knows how to use a gun etc. unfortunately we never will find out, but I feel does makes perfect sense
I think there's a comic book that explains his backstory (I was looking for gifts for a Firefly fan and that was one option)
Not just fanfic. Read "Firefly: A Shepherd's Tale" by Zack and Joss Whedon.
LOL, I posted the name of it, virtually simultaneously.@@davewhitmore1958
@@oldbearbrian No way! That’s awesome
A comic details his background.
He was a mole in Alliance Military Intelligence for the Browncoats.
On occasion he had to set up Browncoat troops to be slaughtered by the Alliance in order to cement his cover and move up in rank and position to where he could gain access to truly critical Alliance secrets.
When the Browncoats lost it made all his sacrifice of all those unknowing men (from his own side) pointless, and it absolutely tore him apart.
So he "retired" from the Alliance military, thus his "Ident" card would link to his 201 file (military personnel record) and inform the Alliance Cruisers officer that he was a retired high ranking Alliance military officer. Letting him die in the airlock would surely be a career limiting move.
Sadly, while we never find out the 'truth' about Shepherd Book in the series, there was later a comic made about his entire backstory. It's quite intriguing!
I just sent Ashleigh a copy. I think she'll like it.
"That's why I never kiss em' on the mouth." Is one of the funniest lines in my opinion.
So we're does he kiss them?
@@timesthree5757 The kitty?
@@kryptonianguest1903 ooh He makes it purr.
I'll be in ma bunk.
Can't tell you how happy I am that you are watching Firefly.
“Some people juggle geese!” is a quote I use at least monthly.
Fun tidbit, Mal learning about sword fighting comes back into play in the movie.
Ashleigh, I remember your comment about the opening song in the beginning, long story short I knew you would not be able to resist it for too long.
The “Safe” episode has one of my all time favorite quotes about being big damn hero’s. I even have a t-shirt that has Mal and Zoe with their rifles and it says Big Damn Heroes on it.
Don't forget, it's why Serenity is THE Big Damn Movie.
Ain’t we just
The "special Hell" is possibly my favorite line in all of US television.
"One reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater." XD
"The song's growing on me" she says after joyfully singing along.
We all knew you'd come around quick enough.
This show has great drgged performances😅 Jayne in the train job and Mal and Inara here just make me smile every time. 'Aiming for the head". "Is it Christmas" and "falling and hitting your head" are great lines delivered really well😂😂😂
Jayne is like a fungus he grows on you, I love every character on the show including including that lovely little bully. He is like a dinner roll, crusty on the outside but a softie
the double cross in Mrs. Reynolds is brilliant.
Christina Hendricks did a very good job, my first viewing of the series was through my first college Roommate. He chuckled a lot at my reaction and surprise at how the episode played out. Like a Deer in the middle of a poorly lit road. 😮
Her: I want to know more about shepherd!
The rest of us: ,,,,,well,,,,
There's some explanation about the early years Book in the comics. I did some research on him, very Cool stuff, so I won't spoil it 😜, check it out for yourself 😎
Love how the song grows on everyone. Safe just might be my favorate episode. Yes, Jayne's right, and I love him.
“It’s been a while…a looong damn while…since anybody but me took a hold of my plow.” That line is said so fast and effortlessly, that I think a lot of reactors miss it, but it is so darn hilarious 😂🤣
Nathan was so believable as a man whose breath was taken away in that scene. Probably didn’t have to do much acting considering Christina must not have had too much coverage, lol. 😉
Right up there with “My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle”
I love that you are enjoying Firefly. No one has been able to figure out why they stopped production. Thanks for sharing your unique and beautiful perspective on this show and everything else you watch.
I still can't wait for you to see Kaylee's background scene. It should absolutely cement her as your favorite character.
Tony Ganios, actor, died February 18th. He was a main character in a MUST SEE movie, Porky's (1981).
Mal, Jayne and Wash are in a Halo game, where Wash is a pilot. Mal plays Sgt. Reynolds and Jayne is a soldier with a gun named Vera
I will never forget Shepherd Book's dialogue about the "Special Hell" LOL! Back in the day a local indie movie theater used clips of that to make their 'do not talk during the movie' reel, it was hilarious!
I have seen this series I don't even know how many times, and Kaylee is still and always will be, my favourite. I love that for *us*.
We have a pair of cats named Zoe and Jayne. Jayne is a big orange cat with a very big, poofy tail, which we named Vera.
"Our Mrs. Reynolds" is the absolute best episode ever.
"get this man to the infirmary at once".
Shepard had a background. Unfortunately we didn't get a second season to get his breadcrumbs.
"Visual blue balls"! LMAO!!! I almost spit my drink across the room when you said that! 😂
Ashley " I wish when she spoke Thad she would make sense"
Me : She makes sense to me. I either speak River 😂 or I'm just as odd
I think she makes more sense the second time you watch because you have seen what happens next and it relates to what she said.
Not only are these episodes drastically different from each other…they are both great
This begins a string of truly great episodes that basically finishes out the series.
"See, this is why you don't get drunk and go to parties on another planet". A new slogan to base the rest of my life on.
Off the cuff, brilliant, and hilarious. Great job!
Someone may have mentioned it in previous episode, but you also saw Adam Baldwin (Jayne) in Full Metal Jacket. He played Animal Mother.
Your reactions to Firefly make me so happy! This show, it's cast, writers, sets, crew and directors were sheer perfection, and definitely stand the test of time. One change in any of those elements would have destroyed the magic that is Firefly. I'm glad you are enjoying this ride!
I cannot wait for you to see "Out of Gas." Watching you watch Firefly brings me back to watching it for the first time. 😁
Ashleigh made me crack up every second of episode 6. 😂
In case no one has mentioned it yet, the language you keep hearing when a character gets REALLY excited, mad, whatever is Mandarin. The backstory of the human race leaving Earth and colonizing other worlds includes mention of the two dominant cultures the survived the diaspora being Chinese and the English speaking world. One of the writers was Chinese American and would ask her little brother what cuss words his friends used and they got written into the show. Also, some of the English language terms are 19th century slang terms reused to create some distance between our current culture and that of the fictional future.
ABSOLUTELY BEST series EVER!! 👍 👍 Glad you are watching it!
This is so great! I'm loving this journey, it is such a treat. And now we're coming up to Out of Gas, Ariel, War Stories...my favorite episodes. Whee!
I love how this shows varying degrees of “outlaw” for different characters. Mal doesn’t look for illegal jobs specifically. Like catching the crooks at the start of the second episode. But he’s also happy to smuggle cattle against Alliance law. Or steal from the Alliance. Not really pirate stuff. And when they do steal from regular people shit tends to go sideways. Saffron won’t kill people directly but she sure will set things up so people die. Christina Hendricks is awesome as Saffron.
I love that you love Firefly. The movie is so good but it's going to make you cry.
Ashleigh's reactions to one of my most fave shows of all time, are giving me life this month!
The “Big Damn Heroes” line led to the cast of this movie as a whole being referred to as that by the fan base.
Yup, the film tends to be called "The Big Damn Movie", and even TV Tropes has taken to calling the moment when the heroes swoop in to save the day all dramatically the "Big Damn Hero Moment" after this scene.
When River said "Daddy will come soon and take us Home", she wasn't referring to her birth father; she was speaking of Mal. He was the 'father' of Serenity's little family. Book as the grandpa...et al.
And River knew Mal wouuld come for them.
I honestly thought there'd be a much bigger reaction to "I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will END you" 🤣
FOX was big into baseball at the time and I remember they kept preemting Firefly to show games on Friday nights. They might show an episode every two or three weeks sometimes.
This show is a blast. It keeps getting better but ends abruptly.
The LAUGH that I let out when I heard you singing along... and then you admitted that it was growing on you... I was like "oh my, she's just like me" 🤣
What an awesome Ashleigh community - can we just pause and celebrate that NO ONE is spoiling it for her or any other Firefly newbies. Plus true Firefly lovers would never, ever rob someone of falling in love with the characters (even Jayne a little bit, seriously) unspoiled but really, quite proud of us.
Of course Jayne, too! I mean, just look at his hats. A man with those hats ain't afraid of anything in the 'verse.
I remember introducing a coworker friend, a young guy, to Firefly with the help of another browncoat coworker. We binged the series and the movie. Neither of us experienced browncoats spoiled anything as we watched the series. I remember, though, watching our young coworker during the landing on Mr. Universe's world. His reaction was everything anyone could expect it to be.
I have so much fun watching you watch this series.
This was such a super great program.