So Firefly...

So a few years back I went and saw the movie "Serenity" Not realizing it was based on a TV show. I figured it would be a cool sci fi flick. I saw it with a couple buddies and happened to run into a couple other acquaintances there who were big fans of the show. After the flick I heard about the show, how it was messed up by Fox etc.

Over the last few years I've been hearing on forums, on the internet, from various friends and classmates about this show and how great it was, how Fox messed it all up etc. I was impressed by the movie but not knowing anything about the show since I didn't hear about it until the movie, I never really knew what all the fuss was about.

Recently I saw it advertised over on Hulu and have been waiting for them to cycle through the series back to the first episode. The first episode came available the other day, I watched it, I watched it again.

I totally get it now. This show is really cool, only seen the one episode but well written, original, has a fun spirit to it and I'm very curious to see more.

There's only about 14 episodes. Coulda had a great run if it was done on another network.

It's on Netflix instant and it's a regular on the science channel.Yea, it was good and Fox sucks..

Welcome to your new Browncoat life.

It was too different ("A sci-fi show where they ride horses? Huh?") and on the wrong network. Imagine, for a moment, what Firefly would have been like had Joss been making the show on HBO... Yeah.

Yes, welcome!

I never heard of Firefly until a co-worker/friend told me about it. I got the DVDs before the movie came out and watched 'em. Great show (and my dad really liked 'em too)....movie was good too but....obviously not great (since it killed too many peeps! ).

It's a western in a space setting and it wasn't all that great in my opinion. Saying that it was great based on what was aired is a serious flaw in thought. It was mediocre at best and while I could see numerous stories coming from what was presented no story had started and it is impossible to say in what direction the story would have ultimately taken and thus impossible to say future episodes would have been great... let alone good.

Father Xmas, our long standing tech guru here on the forums, told me I should check it out ages ago. Rented Serenity, watched it, jumped on amazon and ordered the series box set plus Serenity, and on the following Friday night, I watched all of it in one sitting.

Had my 60+ year old parents watch it. Had my siblings watch it. Everyone in my family, even my sci-fi hating wife, loved it.

Just go ahead and order the set on DVD or BluRay already. You will eventually. Might as well get it out of the way now.

Seriously, looking back, they had a very short run but were able to squeeze in stories that were so different conceptually without compromising the high quality that you have to wonder if the series lived on how long they could have kept that up, then you're brought down by the fact that we'll never know.

A scifi show where they speak cowboy and swear in chinese whaaaaaa?



It rocks

Yep, if you love it already, go grab the bundle of all the episodes, because you're just going to love it more.

I had a similar experience in learning about Firefly (as have so many!!).

I also passed it on to my family and many others. I have to say... while I think it is a clear case of stupidity and/or some sort of resentment against Whedon (meanwhile, I never cared for any of his other shows) and/or just your typical lame tv decision... I sometimes think we were better off for it being canceled.

It prevented it from possibly taking poor turns, never gave them a chance to get lazy with the writing or string on lesser ideas/plot-developments and/or become just another soap opera that you'd never be able to get into unless you started from the beginning, and who wants to as it seems so sappy now... type of show (not saying it definitely WOULD have).

More importantly... It being canceled led to them making an exceptionally awesome feature FILM!
Mostly, it forced the show to be a series that had a concise beginning and end. Something that American programming rarely accomplishes, as even the best can suffer by continuing on too long and/or stretching things out.

The best of stories have an overall arc and an ending (new beginnings, sometimes, for certain).

Anyway... I don't say this assuming that all or any of those things would have played out to the worst case scenarios, but the way it turned out was pretty flippin' fantastic, so I have no complaints about what happened (not giving credit to Fox for that though... without the movie being made, it would have been a ridiculously sad mistake to cancel that show... and the movie was made years afterward - so, it was a good thing for me that I didn't become a fan until after the movie was out).

Congratulations!

This show was so clearly a labor of love by all involved that it's a genuine shame they didn't get at least one season out of it. With all of the things they had set up -- the Reavers, the Blue Sun, the Operatives, the black market -- they had plenty of material to work with. Whedon's commentary on Serenity reveals that he just threw in the part about Inara leaving a trunk behind, but both Baccarin and Fillion came up to him independently and confided how their characters interacted with it ("She left it on purpose" and "You know I looked inside"), showing that they were completely involved in their characters' motivations.

It was also one of the more purely science fictional of sci-fi TV shows. Placing all the action within a single gigantic solar system (or perhaps a twin system; it's not really clear) was interesting and unique, as was having a show where there wasn't any sound in space. All of the innovative CGI that Zoic did on Batlestar Galactica they pioneered (no pun intended) on Firefly, their very first job.

Yes! "Labor of love" and the perfect cast (and crew, it seems) for the show.
In my opinion, I haven't seen a show so perfectly cast and performed since Star Trek: TNG (probably more so in Firefly).
It just has that same feel where each and every actor is so thoroughly inside of their character (as are the writers). That back and forth, between writers and actors is where that can really manifest.
These rare cases of perfect ensembles always make me think of great tabletop role-playing groups I had the fortune to be a part of.
The players all leave the table, still heavily invested in and thinking about their characters. And each session is an amazing push forward in sharing, interacting and expending the characters, their mutual relationships and their adventures in the greater world.

Blah blah blah... good show.

I had been hearing for years about this show, and a few months ago, it happened to be on sale at a store here for, like, $15. I decided to give it a shot, and fell in love with it.

Thank you, Champion.