I'm going to get political again for a moment.

I saw a "my body, my choice" icon floating around, and I feel the need to explain why I don't care whose body it is.

A recent Boondocks series reveals that several relatives of the Freeman clan lives (well, used to live) in New Orleans. Said relatives have all moved into the Freeman house and are basically mooching off them until their houses dry out. This is a bit frustrating for Grandpa Freeman (have they ever given him another name? I can't remember), who didn't invite them, but can't bring himself to throw homeless relatives out into the cold. Nonetheless, it's a total inconvenience and a drain on his finances to support them.

Okay, there's the situation. Now picture him finally getting fed up, breaking out a shotgun, and blowing them all away. Do you think the police will care for one second that it was "his house, his choice"?

Convince me that a fetus is not a human life and doesn't have the same right to live as any other human. But don't convince me that said fetus is a complete drain on your own personal body, because I already know that; I just don't consider it justification for murder. It's not Grandpa's choice to kill guests in his house, whether they were invited or not. And if a fetus is human, it's not anyone's choice to kill him or her either, no matter how inconvenient, no matter how inadvertantly dangerous.

"This is the captain. We may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode."

As mentioned, saw Serenity last night. (Because I earned it!)

Great job with the opening sequences; they caught everyone up who hadn't seen the episodes. Introduce the story world (with details even faithful show followers had never had confirmed). Introduce River and her situation. Have a rapid series of interactions with Mal and his crew, establishing the family feel of the team while letting Simon show there's a bit of tension too, and establish everyone's place in the grand scheme of things.

( Spoilers ahead! Flee, ye uninitiated! )

Whedon, as fans of his work know, likes to plot out his story arcs well in advance, which is why Firefly getting killed in its crib hit him so hard... he had so much planned for it. But scuttlebutt has it that Serenity moves everything up to about where he wanted the show to be at the end of Season Two. If that's the case, and Fox (or some other network) wakes up and smells the moolah, then he can restart the series at the beginning of "Season Three" and continue uninterrupted. Some fans are keeping their fingers crossed for the movie to become a trilogy, but I'd rather have the series back, thank you very much.

I think anyone unfamiliar with the series can still enjoy the movie; Whedon did an excellent job overall in making it accessible. However, some moments just won't be as poignant or powerful if you don't really know the characters in advance. If you have the chance to watch the series over the next few weeks (only a 2-hour premiere and 11 episodes, available wherever fine DVDs are sold), do so first, but if not, see the film anyway. You can catch up later.