@charliejane Great essay.

In my film classes it was pretty much a given that the base genre for most sci-fi movies is the western. There are obvious exceptions of course, but a lot of them are essentially western stories bare disguised by sci-fi tropes. I loved Firefly in part because it didn't bother trying to hide that, but embraced it as the look and feel of its universe.

But yeah, we don't need it to come back. And I'm not sure I could even stand to hear Adam Baldwin's voice considering his post-Firefly history.

(Also, I do love the way western tropes (even when in sci-fi, samurai, or swashbuckler films) allow for examining the relationship of the individual and society, but too often the examination is lazy and surface level, ignoring the broader context. But then you get films like The Searchers or McCabe and Mrs. Miller that actively dive into the problems with the myths and I find those really satisfying.)