12 years ago Firefly left a Serenity shaped hole in all of our hearts when it was unceremoniously dumped by Fox. In that time there have been many attempts at the space western genre, but none have held the appeal of the Whedon cult classic. However, it is a category of storytelling that offers so much room for exploration if people can just get it right so it’s completely fair that studios keep trying to recapture the lightening that everyone let get away over a decade ago.
Last night SyFy debuted their new foray into this very genre, Killjoys. The story takes place in a dystopian future with corporate greed making everyone miserable and revolves around a trio of bounty hunters out to kick butt and make snappy one liners.
It’s easy to get fatigued by the last decade’s obsession with grimdark. Everything from generic action movies to Daredevil, to damned Superman, the epitome of optimism, have fallen on this crutch of trying to be gritty and edgy for fear of isolating an already jaded audience. No one has any fun anymore. This very void in TV is where Killjoys succeeds. It’s rag tag group of opportunists get themselves sucked into misadventures and insanity that recalls another early aughts classic, Farscape. It's a show that'll just make you smile.
The show is the brainchild of Michelle Lovretta, who also gave us the wonderfully tacky Lost Girl and if that show was any indication her departure from fantasy into sci-fi will be handled with hilarity, ridiculousness and probably some questionable bed partners at some point.
Killjoys airs Friday nights on SyFy.
