FIREFLY - THE COMPLETE SERIES
Firefly - The Complete Series
Starring:
Nathan Fillion,
et al
Encoding:
Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Format:
Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
Rated:
NR
Studio:
Twentieth Century Fox Home Video
Number of discs:
4
DVD
Features:
14 episodes, including 3 that never aired,
Commentary on
Serenity Part 1 & 2, The Train Job, Shindig, Out of Gas, War Stories,
Objects in Space, and The Message,
Deleted scenes from
Serenity, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Objects in Space,
Featurettes:
"Here's How How It Was: The Making of Firefly," "Serenity: The 10th
Character," "Joss Tours the Set",
Alan Tudyk's
audition,
Gag reel,
Joss sings the
Firefly theme,
Easter egg: Adam
Baldwin sings "Hero of Canton"
Movie:
 
Disc: 
 It
ain't Babylon 5,
but
then again, what is?
Firefly is still pretty
darn good SF television though. Better than what passed as
Star Trek for the past decade or so come to
think of it - and don't give me that Voyager improved with Seven
of Nine line either. Take your hormonal issues elsewhere, buddy. If I
want to look at oversized mammaries, I buy a copy of Penthouse - I
don't
suffer through a seemingly endless recycling of ancient Trek clichés filled with characters that veer from the dull to the plain
annoying. Besides, who needs a starship captain that reminds one of a
schoolmarm?
Anyway, enough Voyager
bashing for one day. Whether you agree or not, the point remains that Firefly, Joss Weldon's Western in
space, is great television and beats a lot of big screen sci-fi offerings
too. Clever and funny with interesting and likeable characters, Firefly
boasts some decent special effects and production designs.
(Whedon is of course the creator of the now defunct Buffy TV series
- no, I haven't seen any episodes from it to be honest: I just don't have
the time to watch any television besides The
Simpsons to be honest.)
In fact, thanks to CGI the effects are quite well-done and a far cry from
Babylon 5's days. Sci-Fi TV no longer has to feel like a stepchild
compared to its big screen sibling when comes to this department. When I
say Western in space I don't mean that Firefly merely recycles Western
plot points (as anything from
Star Wars and Outland
to Ghosts of Mars has done). No, it also uses
some Western visual motifs and designs in the same way
Treasure Planet appropriated pirate ships,
etc. However, unlike that movie, it doesn't feel jarring or out of place.
To a degree Firefly reminded me of the animated
Cowboy Bebop series. Like that series this
one is also highly recommended. Cynics out there may ask that if Firefly was so darn good then why
was the show cancelled after
barely
one season on Fox? (Yup, that is
unfortunately the case.) Well, bad management comes to mind for one. Why
did the excellent Futurama only run
three-and-half seasons? Why is Survivor still going strong? Why did
Gorbachev have a map of Poland on his forehead? Why anything?
All I know that it is a darn shame that only one season was made. Sure, a
big screen movie (titled Serenity) is being planned for a 2005
release, however, after viewing the last episode in this DVD collection, I
wanted another entire season damn it!
THE DISCS: Four discs containing all 14 episodes made -
including
three that never even aired. Skimpy on extras. View the episodes as
indicated on the box. However, don't make up your mind just after the
episode pilot. This is a series that improves with each episode and while
some are better (don't miss the brilliantly funny "Our Mrs. Reynolds")
than others (the creaky "The Message")
you'll have a good time overall -
and will be just as disappointed that another season was never made.
WORTH IT? Yup.
RECOMMENDATION: Buy it.
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