Written by Joss Whedon, aclaimed writer of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Toy Story, Alien: Resurrection and Titan A.E.., as well as contributing to movies like "X-Men," "Twister," "Speed," and "Waterworld," "Firefly" is yet another amazing, yet less well known, series. Because of it's futuristic "space cowboy" appearance, many may pass this up based on the assumption that it may be similar to "Battle Star Glactica" or "Star Trek," series that don't have the broad appeal and character development that can really appeal to the everyday TV watcher. Firefly is a series that has not only character development, but plot and background, depth, humor, and a sense of connection to it's audience that few series have ever accomplished.
Set in the future on a spaceship called "Serenity," Firefly is the about the adventures of the ship's crew as they struggle to make ends meet by moving cargo (legal and illegal) across the universe while maintaning their own set of morals that viewers can strongly connect to. Captian Malcom Reynolds sums up the series pretty well in the opening lines of a number of episodes "Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies, some, not so much. Central Planets, them as formed The Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it, among them, myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too. Took his genius sister outta some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is." Sci-fi is not a genre that generally appeals to all viewers, but there is a character for everyone in this phenomenal ten person cast.
After being canceled by the Fox Network in 2002, after only 11 episodes (shown out of sequence, with the pilot episode being shown last), fans were so upset they demanded a conclusion be created for many of the loose ends that were intended to be wrapped up in future seasons. Widespread DVD sales of the series created funding for a nationally released movie "Serenity" in 2004. Since it was really a sequeual to the series, watching the movie alone does not give the same full experience of watching Firefly. Firefly had the potential to far surpass it's older siblings like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," a show that lasted seven seasons and had Emmy Award nominations.The only down side to watching the series is that the end comes much too soon and leaves the audience with the disgruntled feeling that something terrible and unfair happened when the show was killed off so prematurely.
