À la Rufio

Admitting this will undoubtedly damage my nerd-cred, but I was late to the Joss Whedon party.  I never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel despite enjoying the movie many have forgotten.  By the time I would have been open to the idea the breadth of canon in the Buffy-verse created a whole new obstacle.  I am constrained by a 24-hour day, which is not enough to consume all the media I wish I could.  Maybe one day I'll see what the big deal was.

As the life span of Whedon's space western was only marginally longer than that of a bolt of lightning, I missed out on Firefly's original run as well.  I suppose that makes me partially responsible for its cancellation, so my apologies to science fiction enthusiasts.  Not having been a Buffy fan, I was wary of Malcolm Reynolds and his crew.  But praise of their exploits on the big screen as the next Star Wars sold me.  I maintain that naming the series after the class of Reynolds's ship -- or vice versa -- is a little bit weird.  That aside, I really got into both the series and the movie.

When Dollhouse arrived, I suppose there was no reason for me to be cautious.  I fully endorsed the portion of the Whedon anthology I had experienced, but the previews just didn't hook me.  When I did invest the necessary time in the new series' first three episodes, I was disappointed when the aspect of Firefly that most spoke to me was absent.  I didn't care about a single one of the characters.  Three episodes deep I could see the general direction in which Mr. Whedon and Ms. Dushku were likely heading, but the cost was too high.  I was not willing to invest an hour a week for the promise that one day I might care about the tiny people in the box in my living room.  I cared about Jack Shephard within 10 minutes.  He was saving lives out of the gate!

Last night I was introduced to Richard Castle, and with him a second theory to explain my affinity for Captain Reynolds.  Perhaps Joss Whedon's role was less than I had assumed.  After all, my personal experience in his work was limited.  I now believe that Nathan Fillion, in all of his snark, gave the character and his series the lively spark to which I attached.

There is a new show that I will watch on a weekly basis.  He has Whedon's sword.  He's the Pan now.  My loyalty has shifted... Fil - li - oooooooon!