I’ve just finished watching all of the episodes of Firefly (IMDB) and can safely say it’s some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. The events and characters are immediately accessible thanks to a believable script and actors who appear extremely comfortable in their roles. You can tell that everyone involved with the show really loved working on it.
Yes, it’s Sci-Fi. No, there aren’t any aliens. Yes, space ships are involved, but in Firefly, futuristic technology takes a back seat while character development mans the helm. The show has this perfect blend of action, humor, and emotion that leaves you satisfied at the end of each episode and yet craving for more.
Sadly, they only made 14 episodes of Firefly before the show was cancelled in 2002. Personally, I can’t understand why it was cancelled, but Wikipedia’s entry for Firefly has this to say:
Fans attributed the low ratings in part to actions of the FOX Network. Firefly was promoted as an action-comedy rather than the more serious character study it was intended to be. Episodes were occasionally preempted for sporting events, and episodes were not aired in storyline-chronological order as the creators had intended.
Nevertheless, there was enough interest in Firefly to fund a full-length feature, Serenity. In fact, the whole reason why I started watching Firefly was that I heard all this hype about how Serenity was such a great movie. I wanted to watch Firefly first so I’d be more familiar with the characters before seeing the story continue in Serenity. Well, this Friday, I’ll be counting the hours until I can leave work and run to the movie theater to see Serenity.
Seriously, if you haven’t seen Firefly yet, what are you waiting for? You can buy the Firefly 4-Disc DVD set at Amazon or rent it at Netflix. Trust me, you’ll love it.
