Polite Conversationalist: So, you said your favourite show is Firefly, right? Whats it about?Me: Well, its sort of like a Western, except its in space and set in the future. So its a Sci-Fi Western. Oh, and sometimes its scary too... but it can be pretty funny at times. And theres crime. Um. This has happened to me more than once. Its a shame that modern television is so formulaic that its actually quite hard to sell anything which doesnt sound like a successful show already in existence. Ive mentioned Buffy already, and when it came out it was pretty original. Nowadays, you cant swing a dead cat without a studio executive ducking under it and writing a script for a show about a pretty, misunderstood girl in high school/university/a quiet town who falls in love with a vampire/demon/republican. Now, genres exist for a reason, and there are plenty of great shows which are quite easily categorised. But there has to be something that makes your show stand out from the herd, and in Fireflys case there was a whole host of somethings. This mixture of genres could easily have been disconcerting, and perhaps it was for some people. Personally, I enjoyed the experience of downloading an episode and having no idea what kind of story I was in for this week. The show had an individual essence which was present throughout all of the episodes, derived from hundreds of tiny details, but it also managed to toe the line between horror, humour, action and sci-fi extremely well on a weekly basis. Bushwhacked is undeniably creepy, Jaynestown is both hilarious and heart-breaking and Heart of Gold was a good-natured Western romp. Not only does this give the show a feel which is completely unique, but also allowed it a huge scope when planning storylines.
Laurence Gardner was born in Canterbury, England. After moving around various cities during his childhood, and spending some time travelling in Europe and America, he studied English Literature at Oxford University. Since then, he’s been living abroad, teaching English, learning a range of languages, and writing in his free time. He can currently be found in Heidelberg, working as an English Tutor and Translator and studying at the University. If you liked this article, follow him on Twitter to get automatic updates on his work.
Polite Conversationalist: So, you said your favourite show is Firefly, right? Whats it about?Me: Well, its sort of like a Western, except its in space and set in the future. So its a Sci-Fi Western. Oh, and sometimes its scary too... but it can be pretty funny at times. And theres crime. Um. This has happened to me more than once. Its a shame that modern television is so formulaic that its actually quite hard to sell anything which doesnt sound like a successful show already in existence. Ive mentioned Buffy already, and when it came out it was pretty original. Nowadays, you cant swing a dead cat without a studio executive ducking under it and writing a script for a show about a pretty, misunderstood girl in high school/university/a quiet town who falls in love with a vampire/demon/republican. Now, genres exist for a reason, and there are plenty of great shows which are quite easily categorised. But there has to be something that makes your show stand out from the herd, and in Fireflys case there was a whole host of somethings. This mixture of genres could easily have been disconcerting, and perhaps it was for some people. Personally, I enjoyed the experience of downloading an episode and having no idea what kind of story I was in for this week. The show had an individual essence which was present throughout all of the episodes, derived from hundreds of tiny details, but it also managed to toe the line between horror, humour, action and sci-fi extremely well on a weekly basis. Bushwhacked is undeniably creepy, Jaynestown is both hilarious and heart-breaking and Heart of Gold was a good-natured Western romp. Not only does this give the show a feel which is completely unique, but also allowed it a huge scope when planning storylines. 