Firefly and Serenity: Deep Thoughts About Storytelling, Strawberries, and Sci Fi Cowboys

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

When Tracie first encountered the fan-favorite Western-in-space television show Firefly 20 years ago, she was delighted by Joss Whedon's subversion of tropes, his mastery of the written word, and his commitment to excellent storytelling. At the time, Whedon was heralded as a modern feminist and Firefly (and its follow up film Serenity) were presented as proof of his feminism bona fides. This franchise gave us kick-ass women like Zoe, Inara, Kaylee, and River and a future society where sex work is revered.

But in hindsight, Whedon's storytelling shows a few cracks--from the weird absence of any Asian characters (despite everyone speaking Mandarin) to the sometimes toxic romance tropes. There are still plenty of delights in store for the modern viewer, including cultural commentary on how humans will continue to be awful to each other in space, as well as the beloved crew of misfits and outlaws who navigate the horrors with aplomb and cunning hats.

Everything's shiny, Captain! Just throw on those headphones and take a listen.

CW: Mentions of sexual violence

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

فصل ها

1. Introducing Stupid Shit Worth Overthinking (00:00:00)

2. Initial Thoughts on Firefly and Serenity (00:01:10)

3. Setting the Stage: Characters and Universe (00:04:41)

4. Gender, Feminism, and Sex Work (00:14:39)

5. Whedon's Writing Style and Dialogue (00:24:30)

6. No Aliens: Humanity's Future Self (00:34:14)

7. Final Thoughts and Reflection (00:49:14)