Serenity, Genre, and Cinematization

Abstract

Both fi lm and broadcast television, as John Ellis has argued, typically rely upon “distinctive aesthetic forms to suit the circumstances within which” each operates (111), and that set of distinctive practices, as many of the chapters in this volume suggest, helps to explain some of the diffi culties of successfully adapting across the two forms’ seemingly similar screens. Yet that same notion of distinct forms might also keep us from appreciating how the very dynamic character of a form such as science fi ction can also provide a potential bridge for the adaptive process. For as Ellis allows, genre identity, particularly its formulaic elements, readily “locates” a work for viewers by pointing to similarities between a particular text and others that they have previously experienced (34), thereby raising expectations of a narrative trajectory and, ultimately, of certain narrative pleasures. Drawing upon those location markers, playing upon our mindfulness of generic convention in a way that effectively transcends media, thus might help to mark off a smoother path across the screens. As an example, we might consider a pair of texts whose diffi culties in fi nding a television audience and success as fi lm seem almost equally connected to the workings of genre. The fi lm Serenity (2005), adapted from the Firefl y series (2002-03), garnered highly positive reviews, won several sf-related awards, and confi rmed through its modest box-offi ce and DVD success the cult following that the short-lived television show had developed.1 And it did so, I would suggest, by elaborating on some of the very generic markers that critics contend its televisual version had downplayed.