Firefly Musings: Shindig

My husband and I finally got to see the second half of "Shindig" one night last week after the girls went to bed. Sunshine has finally decided she is old enough for Looney Tunes but not for Land of the Lost, so Firefly is still in her future. After it was over my husband said, "That was really good, but disappointing."

"How so? You loved the first half. "

"The first half was perfect. They nailed the poverty, the scrabble for business, the polyglot culture where everything was used and re-used, and the lust for material goods. But the duel was too predictable."

I squirmed. "An 'expert' duelist versus a hand-to-hand combat veteran? Hero or no hero, that's no contest. A duelist is used to things happening at sword's length. A combat veteran is trained to close in. If they had only gone to first blood it might have been an even fight, but there was no doubt who'd win a duel to the death. The only question was if they were going to do it Hollywood-style or do it realistic. They did it Hollywood-style. I would have preferred it realistic, but I can't fault the ending."

"Oh, everyone stayed in character; but it was too pat. I hated to see the actors and writers fall into a stereotype."

"What about the bit with River? That was different."

"That was great, especially the part where everyone was too dumbfounded by her diversion to do anything useful during it. But it was only a few minutes of mystery in amongst the generic fight setup. I'd rather see more of that at once than have it doled out a few minutes an episode. The part I really liked was when the old man drove off the queen bee, and the engineer ended up surrounded by all the beaus who were picking her brains about engines. That was believable and broke stereotype. I would have loved to see more with her and the beaus, and less with the duel. All in all, it reminded me of why we stopped watching TV in the first place. It's miles ahead of what was on ten years ago, but it's still so limited."

I'm in love with a man who'd rather watch a good flirtation than a fight. Ain't I lucky?