Killjoys is a far future science fiction show that follows a team of bounty hunters, aka killjoys, made up of Tough Girl With A Past, Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen), and the Jaqobis Brothers, Hothead Fighter D’avin (Luke Macfarlane) and Tech-Brilliant Meaningful Johnny (Aaron Ashmore), as they capture criminals and unravel a very large and dangerous galaxy-wide conspiracy that has deadly consequences.

Those character descriptions might make it seem like I don’t like this show, but that would be an incorrect assessment. It’s one of my favorite shows right now and I don’t foresee that ending any time soon. I love this show, basically, as does the hubs. And, as you know if you’ve followed my reviews, that’s rare.

The first season dealt with the fallout from Johnny and Dutch finding and saving Johnny’s older brother D’avin, along with the subsequent fallout of the team discovering just what was done to D’avin when he was in the army. Along the way we got to learn about the Quad – the section of the J Cluster of stars where the series is set – and the people populating its planet and moons.

Second season ups the ante and expands the universe to start including other planets in the J and expands the conspiracy well past what we thought it was in Season 1, when it appeared to be only about Dutch and her mentor-nemesis Khlyen (Rob Stewart). Now, it looks like the entire J is in more danger than just three killjoys have a prayer of stopping.

I could list all the reasons why I adore this show, but the main ones are these – the female characters are all fully three-dimensional, all different, and all awesome in their own respective ways, good or bad; the story builds upon itself, so that what you thought you knew in Season One, Episode One is still accurate, but you’ll find out that you had clues to the greater story from day one and just didn’t realize it; and, sexuality and skin color are not big things at all and pretty much never even remarked upon, though all sexualities and all skin types are represented.

While the visual palette tends towards dark, you absolutely know when you’re on Westerley, Leith, Arkyn, or Qresh, not to mention when you’re in space. The sets and cinematography are great. And I think the scripts and plotting are stellar. This show unfolds so very well, in that things happen that you realize you should have seen coming, but didn’t.

But it’s the characters and the storyline that keep me coming back for more. And I really love the actors involved. It’s a testament to how well done the show is that I want more screen time for almost all of the main supporting characters. I’d like them all to have to be on Dutch’s ship so that we could see them all the time. But that would mean we wouldn’t get the full storyline, and that would be a damn shame, so I’ll live with the other characters being where they need to be, even if it’s not onscreen all the time.

Not to say that there aren’t a few quibbles. My main one is the tendency for the characters to (literally) constantly call the Jaqobis brothers by their full names (“You’re a good man, Johnny Jaqobis.” “D’avin Jaqobis, you’re so funny.” And so on.). This gets grating. Fast. I’m about to start a drinking game wherein every time you hear a character say Johnny Jaqobis or D’avin Jaqobis you take a drink. But we’d all be drunk by the 30-minute mark. I would have also complained about a few threads left open and some characters unseen for a while, but now I’m pretty sure that, while they are open or unseen for now, they’ll be dealt with as the show goes on.

If you’re still missing Firefly or you’d like to see some science fiction that’s both fun and meaningful, give Killjoys a chance. Season 1 is available on DVD/Blu-Ray and it’s worth getting if you didn’t start at the beginning, but the show will catch you up quickly even if you’re just joining now. So, don’t miss out – get your Joy on and watch Killjoys.

Rating: 5 Stars