Firefly
Star Trek has the reputation for being a short-lived sci-fi series, but it’s got nothing on Firefly. Fox bought the show, ran the episodes out of order, and killed it after only 14 were filmed. Nonetheless, Joss Whedon’s dystopian space western launched a cult following that, while not quite of Star Trekian proportions, was large enough to result in the film Serenity, which closed out many of the show’s story lines. (Fans of Firefly are called Browncoats, BTW, which you will understand shortly into the series.)
If this is your cup of tea at all, you might as well run out and get the DVDs (actually, if you knew about it and didn’t hate it, you probably already own the DVDs), but in case you’re not sure, the complete series is available on Netflix and Hulu Plus (and Serenity is available on Netflix, as well).
A stand-out character in the series is Adam Baldwin’s Jayne. If you like Baldwin in NBC’s Chuck (which had its fourth-season premiere last night), you’ll definitely dig him in Firefly and Serenity. Plus it features Nathan Fillion displaying all the charm he shows in Castle and Dr. Horrible (and that he didn’t not in the short-lived Drive).
I’m purposefully leaving out the details of the show, because I think it’s better to go in open to discovering what it has to offer. But in a television landscape that is increasingly full of remakes or retellings of the same old stories—or worse, reality show tripe—shows like Firefly are rare. If it had only been successful, maybe we could have a slew of space western clones instead of spinoffs of The Girls Next Door.
Firefly: The Complete Series on Netflix
Lie to Me
Apparently due to its licensing deals with the studios, most current shows are only available on Hulu in a very limited way. Usually just the last five episodes are available and they show up on the site anywhere from one day to two weeks after a new episode airs. I’m sure this makes sense to someone, somewhere, but it’s just frustrating for users.
But, one of the benefits of Hulu Plus seems to be that some shows’ current seasons are actually available in full. (Hurray!) One current show that you can check out on Hulu Plus is Lie to Me, a self-serious drama about human lie detectors loosely based on the concept of microexpressions.
The show centers around Dr. Cal Lightman, a microexpressions expert played by Tim Roth (Mr. Orange from Reservoir Dogs and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction, for you Tarantino fans). Lightman is basically Dr. House, but instead of recklessly solving life-threatening illnesses (spoiler: it’s usually Wilson’s Disease), he recklessly assists the FBI with their cases. And they’re both on Fox. I wonder if there’ll be a crossover episode.
If procedurals are your thing and you haven’t checked out Lie to Me yet, give it a shot. This is the third season, though there’s really no need to go back and watch earlier episodes because there isn’t much in the way of a cross-season arc. If you want, season one is available on Netflix Instant as well (no season two yet, alas).
