Killjoys

I finally managed to see the first episode of SyFy Channel’s ‘Killjoys’.

Wow.

Bounty hunters in space, check. All major characters seem to have deep backstories, check. Writers not afraid to dole out explanations in context, check. Fight scenes! Gritty realistic future with highly contrasted settings! Great props and costuming! The promise of a big, messy, wonderful story…

It could very well be Firefly 2.0. It reminds me most of the old space RPG ‘Traveller’ (Strephon lives, dammit!)

If you have a weakness for plotty space opera, give ‘Killjoys’ a try.

link: http://www.syfy.com/killjoys

Note added 7/27/2015: A month in, I love this show even more. Backstory with hints of much bigger things to come! Zombies that aren’t! Class warfare! Seething political struggles! Great fight scenes! Female characters with agency! Male characters with intelligence!

That probably means ‘Killjoys’ is doomed to be axed or lobotomized, given the general record of science fiction shows on cable. 

So watch this show while you can (and you should probably record the episodes, too.) Tell your geeky friends to watch it. Tell your science fiction romance reader friends to watch it, because it shares the framework of many celebrated modern SF romance books. They’ll get it.

Then tell the Syfy Channel that you and all your geeky and romance reader friends are watching it.

It’s not wrestling, so that might not get the executives’ attention, but it’s worth a try.