I just got the first DVD from Netflix and I don’t know anything about this series. Is it appropriate for a 7 year old or 10 year old.
I generally let them watch Doctor Who, Pushing Daisies and Simpsons but not South Park or Family Guy or Boston Legal. My wife lets them watch CSI. I probably would not.
Where does Firefly fall in that range?
Jim
If they watch Pushing Daisies and the Simpsons, they will probably be fine. If you’d let them watch “Pirates of the Caribbean”, then it’s no sweat.
One of the main characters is a Courtesan, but other than that it’s cowboy pirates in space.
Perfect, thanks for the quick response. They love the Pirate Movies. Especially the little guy.
Jim
I haven’t let my 11-yr-old watch it yet, mostly because of the Reavers. They’re the bad guys who, if they catch you, will and I quote: “Rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing and if we’re very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.”
There are some pretty violent moments, for instance a bad torture scene in one episode. It’s lightened up by black humor, but I’m squeamish about letting him watch that kind of stuff.
I think in a year or so he’ll be ready. I do let him watch Daisies and Doctor Who, but not CSI.
Whether you let the kids watch it or not, *you * be sure to watch it. It’s terrific.
There’s not really any gore or nudity in Firefly. . . but there is a whole lot of moral ambiguity. The main characters don’t always do the “right” thing. Sometimes (perhaps often) they do the wrong thing and profit from it. I don’t have kids so I don’t know how old they have to be to process shades of gray between right and wrong-- but stealing and killing are, well, celebrated sometimes. Some parents may be bothered by that. (And in one ep. there’s non-graphic torture)
The movie was PG-13. The series isn’t too different.
(I should add that I ADORE Firefly, and adore it all the more for the said moral ambiguity)
Yea I forgot the Reavers, they are pretty scary.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had anything betwixt my legs that didn’t run on batteries.”
Have fun explaining THAT line to your 7 year old.
Wasn’t Nathan Fillion’s butt shown in one scene in Trash? I know it was in the bloopers, but I can’t recall if it made it onto the final cut.
Tricky. If they are over 13, they might be too smart for the show, but if they are under 13 the sexual references might be inappropriate.
He has a scene with full rear nudity.
The bad gal dumps him off in the desert sans clothing, but they have tricked her and All Ends Well.
It has some fairly explicit sex scenes for TV - nothing worse than PG-13, but I’d feel weird letting my 8 year old watch. It also has a lot of frank discussion of sex (hell, one of the main characters is a prostitute), including masturbation references and lesbian sex.
It’s not quite as bad as Sex and the City, but worse than most prime-time dramas as far as sexual content goes.
7-year-old? The naughty bits might be over his head and therefore okay, not that I recommend that. 10-year-old? I’d be a bit nervous about that.
The show has some fairly frank dialogue re sex, and some fairly graphic scenes re violence, and a whole lot of moral ambiguity.
Watch it yourself and make your own judgment.
If you let them watch the new Dr. Who, then there’s very little in the series that they haven’t already seen from the good Doctor. The Reavers are scary, but not neaerly as much as the little kid in the gas mask from the first season of DW, or the gargoyles in “Blink,” from the third season. The amount of violence, and the graphic nature of such, is about equal, maybe weighted a bit more towards DW because it sometimes occurs a planetary scale. Inara the Space Hooker isn’t much more ribald than Captain Jack. Firefly does have explicit cursing, but only in Mandarin, so your kids should be okay on that score. I’d say, go for it.
That could have been phrased better.
I guess we’re not counting Nathan’s “Van Gogh” moment.
Well, my kids have watched it for a couple years, which would have made the youngest 7 (he liked Wash and the dinosaurs) and he saw Serenity at the theater. But he also watches Southpark and Family Guy, so I may not be the right person to ask.
That was in the movie, not the series. But yeah, I’d say the series discusses sex in a frank way, and there is implied nudity in several episodes. PG-13 is a good rating of both the movie and the series.
As long as you’re willing to be available to discuss the topics that the show alludes to (frank sexuality, and human monsters) I see no reason why either child should be kept from it.
But, I have to admit that by the time I was your eldest’s age I had read every book my local library had by Edward Rowe Snow. As such, I’d read frank accounts of cannibalism, murder, piracy, and revenge. ISTR that sexuality was toned down in those accounts, but that may just have been that I filtered it out as a pre-teen. So… my opinion and experience might be a bit outside the normal boundaries.
I’m not sure it would be suitable for either age, frankly. Reasons as follows:
the Reavers: the ongoing menace in the series. Whilst in programmes like Dr Who, the Doctor isn’t afraid to square up to the enemy, everyone in Firefly is terrified of the Reavers and with good reason. The third episode shows what happens when someone is exposed to Reaver behaviour. It ain’t pretty.
Inara: she’s a prostitute and the series’ main character has an issue with that. The other characters don’t, however. I think kids would have difficulty processing whose side they should be on.
Crime: the characters who you are supposed to like are criminals. They commit a lot of crime. Some of it had bad consequences, other times good.
Guns: there are a lot of guns and a lot of shooting from both the ‘goodies’ and the ‘baddies’
Torture: a recurring ‘baddie’ enjoys torturing those who try to double cross him. Guess what our main characters do. A very brutal and long torture scene ensues.
Wow, I never expected this many replies. I think I will watch the first few on my own. It sounds like the show will be borderline.
The first year of my name is Earl, I let the kids watch, but the show had continued to get racier, racier than an 8pm show should be IMHO. So, I no longer let the kids watch. On the other side, the kids do watch Dead Like Me (the cleaned up Sci-Fi channel version)
This shows sounds like it might be over the line.
I guess if I have any questions about the show, once I start watching, it won’t be hard to get answers here.
BTW: I love old Trek, dislike Next Generation & New Battlestar, and gave up watching Buffy around the 3rd season. I had almost no use for Angel. Am I a likely candidate to like or dislike this show?
Jim
Maybe. I’ve not seen much BSG but it’s not anything at all like any of the Treks and since it’s by the same guy as Buffy and Angel, the Joss dialogue is obviously in full effect. I wouldn’t say it’s much like either of those shows, though River does go slayer in the movie, though.