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How fond am I of this show? Enough that in my last post I couldn't just say that I liked it but accidentally started writing this entry instead. It's not a perfect show, if such a thing even exists, but it's got a great cast, it's refreshingly willing to let woman be an unmarked category, and honestly I'm having so much fun.

I learned after watching the pilot that it's based on a comic book series by the same name, but I can verify that it's possible to jump right in without knowing anything about the comics without undue confusion.[1] Fundamentally, it's a cheerful if rough around the edges romp featuring a scrappy, snarky, hard-drinking, at times self-sabotaging female PI and the collection of friends, allies, and family (found and otherwise) that keep her going.


Dex Parios, played by Cobie Smulders. Yes, it's Maria Hill.

( vague spoilers and much flailing ensue )

So I feel like I've seen Killjoys described in a couple of different places as Firefly fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, but what I didn't realize until I watched it is how amazing a fix-it it is?

For starters, instead of the weird revisionist fantasy of heroic Confederates in space, we have a system dominated by the evil and monolithic Company and the third-party enforcers -- the eponymous Killjoys -- that it outsources its dirty work to. As allegories go, I will take the crimes of unfettered capitalism over the tragic nobility of the slave-owning side of the U.S. Civil war every time!

For seconds, instead of a renegade white dude hero Who Plays By His Own Rules^TM, we have Dutch.


( low-key spoilers and more headshots behind the cut, along with possibly more grumbling about Firefly than is actually wise )

Which is not to say that Killjoys is an unparalleled feminist dream -- it's not: male characters outnumber female characters by about two to one, and for a show that genuinely seems to love the female characters it has, I sure wish it could throw around sexist slurs a little less.

But when I love it, I really, really do love it.

So I figured I'd let you know while we're still in doubt about whether there'll be a second season.

(Come on, suffering builds fannish character! You know it to be true!)