And this wasn't the pilot episode because? ...ah. It was supposed to be episode 8. Which explains why we already know Echo's real name, saw how Alpha went homicidal, and how Boyd bonded Echo. This is stuff you usually hold onto until sweeps week or end of the season. Poor Joss has been forced by the FuxHeads to blow the whole kit & kaboodle early in the game. At this point, I'm not sure if Joss has enough story to get through 13 episodes, much less the five years he says he has supposedly planned out.
This week revealed something more than just how Boyd became protective of Echo: Joss and his Mutant Enemy stable of writers (including this eps' scribe Steven Deknight, of Angel and Buffy, and Tim Minear, of Angel, Firefly, and Wonderfalls) can't write cops for crap. The scenes with Ballard sparring with Agent Mark Romo Badger Sheppard were so...awful, like that's how the writers thought cops/feds talk to each other because that's how dull and unimaginative they are on other cop shows? On CBS?
What I wouldn't give for Bunk and McNutty to come in show 'em how cops can be funny, flawed, serious, and good at their jobs all at the same time.
The poor writing for cops is indicative of one of Joss' major flaws: he has a tendency have all these great ideas, but seems to do little to no research to back them up and/or flesh them out. Two bloggers have taken on Firefly in the last week, discussing Whedon's notions of sex work and Orientalism (minus the actual Asians). The articles and the comments (particularly for the Racialicious piece) smart and insightful, articulating some problems I had with the show in a way I never could. And now, it seems I'll only be popping in my Firefly DVDs for the Fillion/Baldwin/Tudyk funny and eye-candy....
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