So some thought about the Pilot:

I haven’t watched it in about five years so I’m really happy to doing this again, especially with other fans so we can chatter about it.

• I’ve always understood that the battle scene at the start was put in due to network pressure, but even if they were made to put it in I really like it. It give a good introduction to Zoe and Mal, especially Zoe. You get a good feel for how she’s the sensible second in command and he’s going to what ever it takes to get shit done.
• Casting Anya Colloff and Whedon & Minear really do deserve so major nods for how well they cast this show From hindsight we all know how good they are but seriously Fillion, Torres and Tudky are all major actor who ether have headed their own shows or been big in major movies. (Tudyk also played a chicken once too). The rest of the cast, mostly have moved on major starring roles in big shows as well. But at the time these were all still on the way up, Fillion had been a supporting player in a sitcom, Torres had been Cleopatra 2525, and Tudyk of course had been in A Knights Tale, but all the rest were fresh new faces.
• I’m amazed at how well the effects stand up too, everything looks really and the set designs works mostly, although I find the Alliance ships interiors a bit weak. The Serenity has a very nice look evoking the western feel with the horse head bridge and I love the way the engine really evokes the Firefly look. The mix of the old and the new really helps build the universe. I love the kitchen / dinning room with the rough hew wood table across from the airplane storage carts holding all the stuff. This isn’t the Expanse but the sets and scenery really help in the world building and feel quite ‘real’ and lived in.
• The writing … Oh the writing … the dialog is sharp and tight. Everyone get introduced and all there relationships are kicked off in nice little ways. I love Zoe and Walsh’s bit about asking Mal for a day off. You get a great sense of their relationship, of how he love his wife and kind of resents the closeness she has with Mal, of how she loves him but also feels like he’s a bit of a manchild who doesn’t understand her responsibilities as an XO. Mal and Kaylee, how he wants to be gruff and tough but then he looks at here puppy dog eyes and kind of fails, and how they both have done a hundred times before and know the dance, but don’t quite know how to get out of it.
• The action scenes are well shot, but I wouldn’t expect less of Whedon, he knows his way around good fight scene, and I love the gunplay that feels like a real western.
• The world building is top notch, I wonder how much of that was Tim Minar vs Whedon? A lot of the stuff Whedon did always seamed a bit more built on the fly after the pitch, where as Minar’s later shows like Wonderfalls, Drive, and Terriers seem more conceptually planed out beyond the elevator pitch.
• Over all I think it’s safe to say I really loved the pilot it really did a great job of opening up the story and the world, but there are a few missteps. Maybe it’s from having learned about the problems Whedon created on sets but there was a certain ickyness about some of the lingering ‘sexy’ shots that bothered me, especially Inara giving herself a sponge bath. Than one seems totally unnecessary and just for the male gaze. Also, making River be completely naked in the box? I guess you could say she’s being reborn but it seems a stretch and feels a bit over the top. And the patented Whedon torturer porn with the whimpering sad girl was a bit much. I seem to have forgotten how long it took for River to become a bad-ass because I kept expecting her to kill the Alliance agent herself. That being a Whedon trope I don’t mind.

Overall I’m really into doing a re-watch and I’m even looking forward to the Train Job next week