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I have never loved a television show the way I loved "Firefly". And I fear I never shall again. For those of you who don't know (probably most of you), "Firefly" was a tv series made by Joss Whedon, who is most known for the whole Buffy thing. But "Firefly" was no Buffy. It was a sci-fi drama about space cowboys. Space rebels living wild on the edge of the explored universe. The concept sounds lame. I'll grant that. But you have to see it to understand how brilliant it was. The brilliance of "Firefly" was not in the concept as much as in the execution. The characters were the most rounded and likable I've ever seen. After only a few episodes, I wanted to know them. I wanted to see their past, present and future. I wanted to meet their families and friends. Fictional or not, I loved them all. On top of wonderful characters, it was beautifully filmed. The lighting and camera work was innovative and impressive by any standards. It was beautiful to watch. So, what happened to this gem of a show? Where is the best sci-fi series of the last 20 years now? FOX killed it. They aired the episodes out of order so that everyone had trouble figuring out the characters and so that some of the big surprises and mysteries of the series were utterly ruined. They gave it no advertising, and seemed to want to drive it into the ground. Then after raping it, they killed it without even airing all the episodes that had been shot. The way they treated "Firefly" makes me glad that I can't pick up FOX on my tv. So why bother lamenting a dead show? It's not quite dead yet. The entire series is available on DVD. (Use the link below if you like me and want to support my site.) And they released the feature film Serenity in September of 2005. If you didn't see it, you need to buy the DVD of that too. |