TV Meme, Day 04 – Your favorite show ever

Forgive me, guys, but I’m going to have to be lame and predictable here. Firefly. But just because something is lame and predictable doesn’t mean it isn’t valid.

A few weeks ago, my friend Kait had a Fangirl Tea Party at her house, in which we giggled merrily about fannish things, ate a lot of baked goods, and watched a lot of random TV episodes. One of these episodes was “Safe,” which I consider lower on the spectrum as far as Firefly episodes go. It’s not “Objects in Space” or “Out of Gas” or “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” after all. But I hadn’t watched any Firefly in about two years, and I’d forgotten how good it was. I was dumbstruck. How could I have forgotten how much I love this freaking show?

I discovered Firefly in that awkward, torrent-tastic time between cancelation and the release of the DVDs. I watched the episodes in the order in which they finished downloading, “Serenity” being among the last and “Ariel” being among the first, putting me only slightly higher on the confusion scale as those who watched it on Fox. But confused or not, I still recognized greatness when I saw it.

This show has everything: action, romance, witty banter, plastic dinosaur fights, psychology, innovative cursing, gratuitous shirtlessness, chosen family, mystery, a deliciously genre-bending aesthetic, brilliant low-budget special effects that put higher budget productions to shame, folk songs about men with girls’ names, and the prettiest cast you’ve ever seen, including my BFF Nathan. And it did it all in 14 episodes and a movie.

Damn you, Fox.