[Roll Your Own Life] The TV That Shaped Me (Part 8)

Firefly (2002)

On a list of Ten TV Shows that had a massive impact on my life, you knew it was only a matter of time before Firefly came up. Rather like when I was completely and utterly obsessed with The X-Files, I followed everything the writers/producers did - Harsh Realm, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, etc. Then I became completely obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I checked out anything that Joss Whedon did. Dollhouse was awesome, Angel was obvious as it was a spinoff from Buffy, and then they announced this weird space-western and I had to give it a try...

Firefly is a weird one. In the UK at least it was aired in the right order! SyFy Channel in the UK aired it if I remember correctly, and actually started with the proper pilot - Serenity. It was good, felt like it had potential but we weren't completely blown away. It did a great job of introducing the characters, the verse, and the theme of the series - find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

We kept watching, and by the time Episode 4 aired, Shindig, we were kinda hooked. That episode was great - it had really hit its stride, and then... BAM, Episode 6 Our Mrs Reynolds... and we realised the work of genius that Firefly really is. And the series just gets better and better from there - Jaynestown is a work of comedy gold, Out of Gas is brilliant storytelling giving you the backstory of the crew and the ship, and...

Well, you don't need me to list the awesomeness that is Firefly.

We loved the series. Bought the DVD, and did like any good Browncoat did - we spread the word. "What do you mean you haven't watched Firefly?" and we loaned them the DVD.

This went on many, many times, bringing new converts to the series - that was until one of our new converts (thank you Derek!) liked the series so much he went to a convention and got our DVD cover signed by a lot of the cast.

After that, we had to buy the series on bluray and that became the "loaner" as we continued trying to spread the word.

Our DVD cover - signatures continue onto the back.
We have the whole cast on there except
Sean Maher (Simon Tam) - one day!!
Thanks to Maz for getting Adam Baldwin
and Gina Torres to sign it last year!

I remember when I worked at Ottakar's we managed to get a load of promotional material for the movie Serenity, and I plastered the SF section of the bookstore to promote the series and the forthcoming movie. We even had those little rubber wristbands with "You Can't Take The Sky From Me" written on them.

When Serenity came out, hoping to continue the series after its unfortunate and premature cancellation after just fourteen episodes, we were there at the first showing at the cinema. What an emotional ride that was! But, it remains the only time we've gone to the cinema, come out of the screen, and bought tickets to go straight back in again to rewatch it.

Serenity came out in 2005, the same year as Revenge of the Sith, which (for me) is my least favourite Star Wars movie - I'm going to get a lot of flak for saying that, but I struggle to sit through Revenge of the Sith and I love Star Wars. But for me there was no comparison. Serenity was awesome. It was basically season two of Firefly condensed and missing the horrible rapey storyline that was planned. (Jesus, Joss... what were you thinking? Seriously... about a lot of things...)

Firefly is still one of those series that I'll happily rewatch any time it's on TV, and is still fantastic. Part of me hopes for a continuation one day, if they can get the cast they need back together (and Nathan Fillion isn't too busy with the awesome TV series The Rookie - seriously, that's well worth watching), although part of me worries about ruining the memory of something so damn brilliant.

[Roll Your Own Life] The TV That Shaped Me (Part 5)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

While most of the planet has the TV series Friends, the series you can always rewatch over and over again and never get bored of it, for me it's Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The original movie came out just when we were in our peak vampire-fandom (1992), when we were playing the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG, and had just seen the gloriously over-the-top Bram Stoker's Dracula. Then along comes this sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek movie of a cheerleader being told they are the Slayer - one girl in the whole world chosen to stop the vampires. The movie was fun, Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens kinda stole the whole thing, but we enjoyed it loads...

But, it wasn't what what Joss Whedon, the writer, had in mind. Given the opportunity to continue the story for television, Buffy The Vampire Slayer lived again. Properly turning expectations of a horror movie on their heads, it was about empowerment, and the horror that is high-school amplified to be actual horror. You struggle at school, and want to be part of a group - what if that group are actually possessed by hyena spirits and eat people? You feel completely ignored and feel like you're invisible - what if you actually became invisible? And by season two, the real horror of sleeping with your boyfriend only for him to act like a completely different person the morning after - what if your boyfriend lost their soul?

I could go on, but you know the story and what it's about. When the series first started in the UK (Jan 1998 I think, on Sky) we remembered the movie and thought we'd give it a go. I remember I really enjoyed it, but wasn't completely blown away, but there was something about the dialogue that hooked you in.  As the weeks progressed, and the characters developed, you grew to love all of them.

The first season was a midseason replacement so only twelve episodes, and Buffy really got into its stride with season two and some of the big two-parters. Halloween (S2e6) was the point where my wife was completely sold on the series, and we became hardcore fans. We bought the VHS sets, the DVDs, the action figures, the books, the t-shirts, and engrossed ourselves in Slayer-lore.

We faithfully followed Angel as he span off at the end of season three to his own series (season three is still probably my favourite, with the introduction of the evil mayor, and the slayer-gone-bad, Faith). We worshipped at the church of Joss Whedon, and loved every minute. (Hmmm. Yes, I know, don't worry... I'm aware...)

By the time season five was airing, I remember seeing an advert for the season finale on Sky which showed [spoilers] Buffy's grave and I was outraged that they could spoil things like this. I hurriedly turned the channels over every time the advert appeared on TV to protect Debs from the spoiler, and she remained spoiler-free right until the moment Buffy dove off the construction tower at the end of The Gift.

I have a distinct memory of walking home one evening discussing with Debs how a Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG would work - we came up with how the Merits/Qualities and Flaws/Drawbacks would work, and how you could create the "scooby gang"... then a couple of months later I got this email from Eden Studios saying they were starting work on the very same thing. I jumped on board, playtesting, working as assistant editor, and writing sections for the supplements. I was in my element. I remember the last thing I was doing for the line was watching episodes over and over again to work out floor plans for significant locations in Sunnydale - The Bronze, Buffy's house, Angel's mansion, etc - for the Welcome to Sunnydale supplement that never saw light of day. *sigh*

Buffy continued to be a bit of an obsession for us - we bought signed photos of most of the cast on Ebay, and our previous house had them all framed and hung on the walls (Buffy series ones in the living room, Angel series ones in the dining room).

Buffy had a knack of pulling off some standout special episodes. Hush in season four (almost completely silent as The Gentlemen steal everyone's voices) and The Body in season five (the traumatising and horribly realistic sense of loss when Buffy's mother dies - an episode completely devoid of music).

We heard there was a musical episode coming up in season six and - not being a fan of musicals - I was a little worried. But we had nothing to fret about - Once More With Feeling is still the best gimmick musical episode of a TV series ever. Amazing TV.


And then, at the end of season seven, it was all over. Sarah Michelle Gellar had decided it was time to call it a day, and the series came to a natural, perfect end. The forces of evil were at their strongest, with Caleb (played by Nathan Fillion) as a twisted priest communicating with the First Evil, unleashing powerful uber-vampires on Sunnydale. Potential Slayers were summoned, and evil was defeated in a brilliant and moving conclusion. Possibly one of the most satisfying endings to a series I'd become obsessed with.

Angel continued for another year, bringing fan-favourite Spike over from his Buffy tenure, but that was cancelled at the end of season five, and the world was without the Buffyverse once more.

Sure, it continued in comics, and again in comics, and has been sort of rebooted again in comics, and there is talk of a new Buffy series - a new slayer, new stories, but acknowledging the original - and thankfully not a reboot.

And after Joss Whedon's fall, I still love Buffy. As I said at the start, it is a series that I'll just watch over and over again, and if an episode is on TV I'll leave it on in the background while I work. It's perfect company.