{"id":33,"date":"2010-12-07T14:28:42","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T22:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=33"},"modified":"2010-12-20T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T00:08:14","slug":"mark-watches-firefly-episode-8-out-of-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2010\/12\/mark-watches-firefly-episode-8-out-of-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Firefly’: Episode 8 – Out of Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth episode of Firefly<\/em>, nothing is really that funny at all and I might have to use the “Jurassic Bark” GIF more times than should be legal. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Firefly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This episode is evidence for why Firefly<\/em> should never have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there are reasons littered throughout the whole series and the fact that FOX fucked up the broadcast order is certainly one way you can blame the network for the show’s demise. This episode, however, showed that even in the early stages of the season and the show’s greater mythology, the writers were willing to escape from the traditional narrative format in order to deliver one of the more moving and poetic stories told through the medium of television.<\/p>\n

Tim Minear, who helmed the writing for this episode, eschewed the traditional linear model of narration to tackle something more akin to The Fountain<\/em> or Amores Perros<\/em>. All unfolding in real-time for us, we deal with the past (how Mal bought Serenity<\/em> and assembled his crew), the near past (the events that lead to the oxygen leak) and the present (Mal, alone on his ship). The story lines are just confusing enough that I was engaged to the point of wanting to know what was going on, but not to the point where I was frustrated.<\/p>\n

The point of the cuts and flashes to the other narrative lines are perfectly placed to create a visual poetry to the action on the screen. Every cut is a reference to a place, a thing, of something said in another part of the story, providing an almost ironic symmetry to everything. They operate like memories do: we can’t control what triggers them, and neither can Mal. Despite that this was obviously composed with careful attention to detail, Minear never makes the flashes seem out of place. When Mal stumbles to the floor after the captain of the second ship shoots him, he’s reminded of stepping over that exact place when he first brought Zoe on board Serenity.<\/em> The show never briefly flashes to these moments in the past like most shows might; instead, the memory takes over and we see it in its entirety. It gives a sense of realism to the point of view; we start feeling that we are actually inside Mal’s head.<\/p>\n

I sort of want to avoid doing a plot summary for this review because the multiple narrative lines would make this a bit too convoluted than I’d like, so I’m going to jump right into a long list section because I seriously have a lot of ~really deep thoughts~ I’d like to share.<\/p>\n

THOUGHTS<\/p>\n