Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

EDIT: I wrote this review a while ago back when I was still fuming over how horribly disappointed I was when I watched Firefly. Since then Guardians of the Galaxy came out and was EXACTLY what I expected/wanted Firefly to be--fun, funny, action packed, and full of space ships. Firefly is more of a depressing, dark, sometimes pseudo-funny drama set in the wild west with a few space ships thrown in. Anyway, Guardians gave me the release I desperately needed and I've since destroyed my copy of Firefly and moved on. I'll write a less angry, more TLDR review right here, but I'll leave the longer, angrier one intact below to be fair to those who commented on it earlier.In my humble opinion, Firefly has pretty bad writing, but then again I find most serious TV shows' writing pretentious so take that as you will. I appreciate that they tried to work in a little bit of humor, but for me it fell flat and felt out of place. Also, the space western theme needed to be much more subdued because it often seemed nonsensical.My main disappointment came from the characters Mal and River. I expected Mal to be a funny, quirky guy like Quill from Guardians of the Galaxy, but instead he's moody, angry, and mean all the time. I hate that kind of character. Also, I expected River to be an awesome female warrior that had a quirky personality, but (and the Firefly fans I've talked to agree) she's an annoying crybaby and doesn't do anything most of the time. I didn't really like the rest of the cast, and several of the characters feel superfluous, but then again that's just me.Anyway, that's my new review and I think it's a bit more fair to Firefly, but if you want to read my much longer, much angrier old review it's below. I don't recommend it.**********I hate this show. There, I said it. I know a lot of people are going to hate on me for saying it, but it's the truth. I. DON'T. LIKE. FIREFLY. Now that you've probably already clicked "unhelpful," please allow me to explain/vent.I'm sure you're aware, dear reader, of Firefly's immense popularity. Many of my friends recommended it to me, saying it was like Star Wars, except somehow better. Also, the internet made the show sound totally awesome, so I ordered the complete series on blu-ray. When it finally came I IMMEDIATELY shoved it in my PS3 and slammed the play button, I was so excited to watch it. Then... well... my first impression of the show (other than it wasn't at all like Star Wars) was that I didn't like the style of it at all. I think it was the country music theme song playing over the menu screen that put me off initially. I hate that theme song, it's horrible and it feels really out of place. Plus that guy's got some sort of speech impediment. Anyway, then the pilot episode started and I can't say I found it anything but boring and waaay too long. Still, everyone did say the show was the best thing ever, and dagnabbit I was going to see what the hype was about. I forced myself to watch the rest of the first disk, but it took me a couple weeks because it kept getting harder and harder to make myself push that play button. After finishing that one disk I still can't bring myself to watch any more.Don't get me wrong, though, I love the premise of the show. I mean, space pirates and smugglers? Sign me up! Plus there are plenty of space westerns out there that I do love, like Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star. Firefly is just... really badly done. It's like they made a cowboy show and shoehorned in spaceships and space-age technology, not even trying to make it seem logical or fluid. I mean, Joss Whedon even said the Reavers are supposed to be Apaches. SPACE APACHES. This sort of thing would be okay with a cartoon or something, but it just doesn't work for a serious live action show because all the space stuff seems out of place when they're on the ground, and all the cowboy stuff seems out of place when they're in space.So yeah, I honestly tried as hard as I could to get into the show but wound up hating it. That's okay, right? I'm allowed to dislike some things that other people do like, right? WRONG. If you don't like Firefly, everyone makes you keep watching it until you tell them you like it. "Did you watch them in order?" YES. "Did you get to the one where--" YES. "You should try rewatching them, I'm sure you'll eventually 'get' it." NO. It's like people can't believe that Firefly isn't perfect, just as I can't believe people actually enjoy it. What makes it even worse is the fact that you can't swing a dead internet around without tripping over some Firefly fanblog or T-shirt sale or facebook post touting it as the greatest work of art ever created, or condemning FOX for cancelling it when it wasn't getting enough ratings to warrant a second season (don't give me anything about 'time slots' either, I hear no one even watched the Firefly marathon they played after it got cancelled!)... But I digress. If you haven't already been turned off by my negativity and want to keep reading I'll tell you exactly what it is I hate about Firefly.I think the main thing that really kills the show for me is the characters--I can't stand any of them except the engineer. Please allow me to enumerate.First you have Wash, the pilot. His quirk is that he plays with plastic dinosaurs. We're obviously supposed to find this hilarious, which I find insulting. The idea sounds funny on paper, but Wash comes off as annoying instead of funny. Robin Williams he is not.Wash is married to the first mate. If you've ever been in the same room as an over-affectionate couple that can't control themselves, then get ready for the same awkwardness because they're always talking about tearing each other's clothes off. When not conjuring up unsavory mental images, the first mate acts all tough and serious, which makes me wonder what she sees in Wash because... well, look at him, he's an idiot. The first mate is actually kind of cool when she's not hitting on her husband, so I think they should've made her captain instead of the other guy.The next crew member is a guy who isn't the first mate but seems to carry the same authority. This guy looks and acts like a friggin' criminal, and none of the other crew members like him. I remember in one episode the captain asks this man if he would ever accept money to assassinate him, to which he answered yes. He also tried to abandon the captain and first mate on some planet while stealing command of the ship for himself at one point. Why would anyone would keep this person in their crew, let alone give him a place in the chain of command? If I was the captain I'd fire him and take his guns away, if not push him out the airlock. Or, y'know, just not hire him to begin with. Two words, captain: "BACKGROUND CHECK."There's also (for some reason) a space hooker, called a 'Companion.' She, being a prostitute, is inexplicably given VIP treatment wherever she goes. She is sometimes used as a plot device, but otherwise contributes nothing to the show and annoys the crap out of me, especially with her 'I Dream of Jeannie' wardrobe. I think she and the captain have some sort of attraction going on or something, but they can't do anything about it because space prostitutes are like royalty in this universe.Then we have a priest named Book. I kind of like the priest, but the captain's always yelling at him and I hate that.OH GOOD GRIEF then there is an annoying doctor and his even more annoying stowaway sister, River. The doctor WILL NOT STOP WHINING, and River is worse!Now, back before I saw any Firefly the internet told me that River was awesome, and I was excited to see her in action because I saw an awesome picture of her with swords in a karate pose somewhere. She was THE reason I wanted to watch the show. Imagine my disappointment when I got halfway through the series and all she's done so far is cry and babble nonsense! I was seriously pissed off, I felt like I was a victim of false advertising. No, I'm STILL pissed off! She probably starts doing cool stuff by the end of the show, but I'll probably never watch to find out. I have yet to hear her say one complete sentence, even though she's supposed to be some sort of prodigy.Next there's the engineer, the only character I do like. She is bubbly and friendly and is the only character that isn't rude to all the other characters. At the end of the pilot episode the captain told the everyone she had died, and I was like, "WHAT?! Did they just kill off the ONLY character I like?!" Yeah ...and then you see her alive and the captain's like, "April Fools, she's alive!" HOW HILARIOUS. The captain had been such a grouchy douche so far and the last thing I expected was a joke out of him, not that tricking people into thinking someone is dead qualifies as a 'joke.' Good grief, that pissed me off so much I started yelling at the TV, and I almost stopped watching the show right there because she's the only thing that made it almost tolerable. Imagine if someone pulled a prank like that in real life? The captain is such a friggin' psycho.Which brings me to the captain himself. The internet told me he was a funny, quirky, lovable rogue with a heart of gold, and he was my number two reason for wanting to see Firefly after River. I gotta say though, I hate him. He's absolutely nothing like how I heard. He's always all dark and moody, and he yells at Book just for being a priest EVERY TIME HE SEES HIM. I mean, isn't Book a paying customer?! What kind of idiot yells at a paying customer?! Aren't they in desperate need of income?! What an awful character!What I REALLY hate about the captain, however, is that he doesn't even play his character consistently. Usually he's grouchy and moody, being a jerk to almost everyone else. Then, after he's made me hate him for half an hour, he'll suddenly make a completely unexpected lighthearted joke and then go back to being a jerk. This happens maybe once every episode, and it really bothers me because the jokes not only seem out of character but whenever he makes them my reaction is, "Did ... did he just make a joke?? He's not allowed to ... you're not allowed to be funny, captain! I hate your character!" (I actually yelled this at the TV while watching.) If he was ALWAYS that lighthearted and quirky I would probably like him, but instead it just feels like the writers couldn't decide on what kind of character to write.Speaking of the writing, I remember yelling at the TV quite a lot about the idiocy going on in some of the episodes. For instance, we have the Reavers. I'll grant that the Reavers are a cool concept--they're a bunch of castaways that got Space Madness like in Ren and Stimpy--but if you think about it, these people have space rabies, so wouldn't they just all kill each other instead of giving themselves prison piercings and acting like Animal from the Muppets? What makes these violent crazy people say, "We'll kill, rape, and eat people as long as they're NOT Reavers?" And how can these completely irrational human beings pilot something as sophisticated as a spaceship? Plus I find it hard to believe that simply seeing a Reaver doing Reaver stuff is enough make you to go crazy and become one of them.Also, the people on all the planets they visit are impossibly backward. There are SPACESHIPS in this universe, how are there people that still believe in witchcraft?! Is there no internet or education in the future? It just pushes all suspension of disbelief out the window! (They even dress like they're in Little House on the Prairie, for Pete's sake! MAN, I hate that!) And how does the captain, with ABSOLUTELY NO SWORDFIGTHING EXPERIENCE, kill an expert fencer in a swordfighting duel? He doesn't even cheat to win! Speaking from experience it's just not possible, but come to think of it, why are there still swordfighting duels in the space age?! Haven't they invented more civilized (or at least more hi-tech) means of settling disputes by now? How stupid does the captain have to be in order to get in a fight to the death with an expert swordsman over the honor of a SPACE PROSTITUTE?! It's mind boggling!Then there's the awful dialogue--everyone's always mean to each other, and I hate that. Not only do I not want to watch it, but it just feels like they injected arguments into the show as a feeble attempt at making the characters more believable. (And then after it's established that everyone hates each other, they show everyone playing basketball together in their spare time as though they're best buddies. I was like, "What?!") Anyway, besides the unlikable characters, the dialogue has to be the biggest reason why I can't stand this show.Also, all the storylines are lousy. That train episode kept making me think of FF8, and then there's another episode about ballroom dancing (of all things) that was completely boring and stupid. (Why were they all dressed in Elizabethan clothes in the future?! That's not even fitting with the Western/Sci-fi theme of the show!) And another episode was about a space version of the Crucible that didn't make any sense. Okay, so first River says something about a mute child talking to her, and then for some reason the villagers' immediate assumption was that River is a witch?? Then they were going to burn River and her brother on a stake, even though they kidnapped the brother because he's a doctor they're in desperate need of! And then the captain, who doesn't even know the doctor is in trouble, comes to rescue them even though it's established that he hates the doctor! The reason the captain gives for rescuing the doctor is that he's "part of the crew." No, captain, he's a passenger that everyone on board hates, and his sister is a stowaway that the police are after. Plus, the doctor jumped ship voluntarily because he was stupid, and I don't think that it's ever explained how they knew the villagers were going to burn them. I remember being angry most of the time while I was watching this show, and wondering just how anyone could like it because the writing was so bad.That being said, the special effects are actually pretty friggin' good for a television show. Color me impressed. I don't like the spaceship designs, though. I think the Serenity looks like they took an average looking spaceship, put a big red light on its tail end, and then stepped on it to make it crooked. It bugs me every time I look at it. I've heard people complain that the guns in this show look like old west guns but shoot lasers, but to be honest I didn't even notice.Overall, maybe I'm being too harsh. I don't suppose it's a TERRIBLE show, I just can't stand it personally. There were two parts I did kind of like--the part where the captain kicks some dude into an engine, and the part where the engineer was talking about spaceships with random guys at the ballroom dance. The rest of the show I can do without. I dunno, maybe Firefly just didn't live up to my expectations, or maybe being constantly reminded that it exists has made me jaded. I don't suppose it deserved to be cancelled based on its merits (I think CSI is a hundred times worse), but I also doubt it would have reached the popularity it currently enjoys had it not been for the scandal surrounding its cancellation. Anyway, I could never give a show I hate this much anything more than one star, so bring on the haters.

I had never heard of this series. I ordered the DVD set on a lark. I have always like Science Fiction and have looked for film/video adaptations. I have usually been disappointed but I keep trying. Finding a gem like this one makes the effort worth while.The basic premise is of the crew of a tramp freighter who make their way by carrying freights, the occasional smuggling job and a few other less than legal operation. These are invariably conducted against people who deserve to have been on the losing side. The captain and first mate are old war buddies. They were both on the losing side of a civil war. The mate is married to the ships pilot. The ship's engineer is a sweet, somewhat naïve and technically competent young lady. A tough, mercenary type rounds out the regular crew.In the first episode, they take on a series of passengers. One of them is a "shepherd", which is a sort of itinerant Christian priest. He has a mysterious past we never really learn about. A brother and sister also come on board. The brother is a highly skilled surgeon and the sister is a genius who had secret experiments run on her by government agents. They are on the run from the same government agents. The other "permanent" passenger is a courtesan. She leases one of the ship's shuttles as her place of business. While the crew is doing their thing, she does hers.Much of this series seems like a cowboy picture, right down to the horses, saloons and brothels. In a strange way, it works well in the context of the series. It is well done. I am very sorry that the series was cancelled because it is very good.Synopses of the episodes appear below:Serenity - the crew of the Serenity agrees to pick up a less than legal cargo but gets stiffed on their fee when they try to deliver it. Unless they can find somewhere to sell it, they won't have the cash for parts, fuel, salary or anything else. So they try to less it on some border areas. To help pay the way, they take on some passengers also. One of the passengers turns out to be smuggling a fugitive and another is a federal agent sent to bring in everyone. I get the impression that the government types are not very nice. When you throw in a courtesan, some cannibals and a preacher, things get interesting.The Train Job - This one seems more like a western but doesn't suffer from that. The crew is hired to rob a train on a frontier planet. The goods they are hired to purloin belong to the Federation government so no one really minds or things it is "wrong". They also enjoy doing the job right under the noses of Federation troops. The crew doesn't really know what they are stealing. It is only when the train gets to it destination that they learn that they have stolen desperately needed medical supplies. The leads the crew to try to return the goods without getting caught by the feds or the crime boss they were doing job for. This is to be done while the crew is still be pursued by the secret government agency from whom one of the passengers escaped. It's a good and exciting episode.Bushwhacked - While doing nothing in particular, the crew of the Serenity encounter a derelict floating in space. When they go aboard, they find that the crew has been slaughtered by the Reevers (cannibal lunatics) mentioned in the first episode. They left one survivor and a valuable cargo. The crew attempts to help the survivor and salvage the cargo but their efforts are interrupted by a Federation ship. The captain of that ship assumes that it is the crew of the Serenity who committed the atrocities. The crew have to protect themselves, establish their innocence and hide the fugitives who have become passengers.Shindig - The crew returns to the planet Persephone, where the series started. They are looking for business opportunities as usual and a possibility pops up. The captain sees an opportunity for a smuggling run and goes to make contact at a fancy party hosted by the local gentry. To keep this episode interesting, Innarra, the staff courtesan has a date with a local bigwig. He and the captain have a bit of a tiff and wind up in a duel...with swords. There is not a lot of call for swords on spaceships.Safe - In seems that nothing can go right. The crew of the Serenity make planetfall with the consignment of cattle they picked up in the last episode and are about to collect their payment. Then things go wrong as they inevitably must. The local law shows up to arrest the cattle buyers just as the money is changing hands and the crew get involved in the shootout. They help out the law but the parson gets himself shot...very seriously shot. The only two missing from the scene are the two fugitives who have wandered off. The captain thinks they might get in the way of the deal making but now the doctor's services are needed. Unfortunately, he and his sister have gotten themselves kidnapped by some religious types who live in the hills. They are glad to have the doctor but they think the sister is a witch and must burn. Saving the preacher and rescuing the siblings proves to be a sticky situation.Our Mrs. Reynolds - Somehow, we don't really know how, the crew of the Serenity find themselves helping a rural community defend themselves from bandits. After the big celebration, the crew get back on board take of and find that they have an extra passenger. It seems that, according to the local customs, the captain has gotten himself married. That is news to everyone. The young girl is seemingly naïve but she is not what she seems. Someone wants the Serenity for scrap.Jaynestown - Jayne Cobb is perhaps the least likeable member of the Serenity crew. He is selfish, not too bright and always ready to fight. He has a long history of leaving planets behind while being on the run. In this episode, the crew sets down to pick up an illicit cargo and Jayne is worried because he knows he left the place on the run. He adopts a disguise. Much to everyone's surprise, everyone learns that Jayne Cobb has become a folk hero to the people on the planet complete with a statue in the public square. All of this came about because of a misunderstanding. He never intended to help those people; he did it by accident but he is still a hero. Heroes have people who don't like them and on this planet that include the local magistrate.Out of Gas - Most series wait until at least the second season before having a retrospective episode. This one takes place halfway through the first season but it has a difference. Instead of recycling footage from old episodes this one has all new footage. The situation involves a serious mechanical failure while the ship is in transit. Life support is failing and the captain sends his crew off in the two shuttles while he stays aboard to try and fix things. While this is going on, we are treated to flashback showing how the crew came to be assembled.Ariel - When the mysterious female passenger with mental problems starts getting worse, her brother the doctor comes up with a seemingly simple scheme to serve everyone's needs. The crew is to help the doc smuggle sis into a hospital for some tests and the doc agrees to help them steal some high dollar drugs to sell on the fringe planets. These are not recreational pharmaceuticals but vital medicines in short supply. The plan seems to work smoothly until treachery becomes apparent.War Stories - In the second episode, the crew is hired to pull a train heist. They pull it off but, when all is said and done, they find that they don't want to keep the goods. The natives need the stolen medications more than the crew needs the money. This is all good and noble and such but it hacks of the crime boss who put them up to it. The crew returned the money but the boss wants revenge. In this episode, he manages to capture the captain and the pilot. It is up to the rest of the crew to get them out.Trash - A few episodes back, the captain got himself accidentally married. The blushing bride turned out to be a con woman and they only barely got away with their lives and their ship. This time, at a Smuggler rendezvous, the captain runs into an old war buddy who happens to have gotten himself married to the same piece of trash. When the story comes out, the wife gets stranded. Captain Mal is about to strand her as well but she manages to talk him into one of her schemes. Naturally, the "lady" has an angle of her own. Make that lots of angles...and curves...and treachery. The crew has a few ideas of their own but nothing is going to go as planned.The Message - When the crew stops at a station for a mail call, they get a surprise. A corpse has been mailed to the captain and Zoë. The corpse turns out to be an old war buddy. His last request is that the Serenity take him home for burial. Things are not as they seem, however. The corpse is not dead. Instead, he is smuggling body parts and there are other who want the parts, without the rest of the body. As everyone turns on everyone else over conflicting loyalties, the situation gets tense.Heart of Gold - When Inarra, the courtesan, gets a distress call, she talks the crew of Serenity into helping an old friend of hers who is the madam of a bordello on a backwater planet. A local powerbroker with a barren wife want to sire an heir on one of the house girls. He manages to plant his crop and intends to claim it by force. The crew intend to prevent that. And a good time is had by most.Objects in Space - River, the female fugitive, continues to get more and more erratic. This troubles the crew who fear not only for themselves but for her as well. Things are not helped in that there is a very large reward for her capture. This tends to promote suspicion with many of the people with which they deal. In this episode, a bounty hunter manages to sneak aboard and waylay the crew one by one. River, though, is not without her own methods.

Sci-fi has always got a raw deal. 'Star Trek, TOS' - cancelled after 3 seasons. 'Farscape' cancelled after four when it should have been five (but later filled in by a mini-'series'). Both 'Babylon 5' and the rebooted 'Battlestar Galactica' ran into serious problems when trying to get approval for season 5, which led to somewhat unsatisfactory 'conclusions' to season 4 and less than successful fifth seasons.Poor 'Firefly' didn't even get that far, which should be to the abiding shame of those executives who failed to 'greenlight' it. Most season ones of a 'projected' story arc are naff; Star Trek TNG and DS9 are prime examples. However, with Firefly, one is already 'invested' in the characters by 'mid-season' and to not allow Whedon the opportunity to develop his characters beyond the usual stereotypes (and let's be honest, they are stereotypes) was a 'crime against TV watching humanity'.Most 'series' outlive their shelf-life and turn into dross; it's a pity the 'Firefly' never got the chance.

I have tried to avoid spoilers.As far as I can tell, it has all the features except the easter egg I just could not find.3 Discs, no memory, you have to remember where you were when you press stop.Typically irritating menu system - Fox have used it forever and I wish they'd stop.1st time round - DVD - I did not get beyond, indeed did not finish the second episode.Now I know why - it was written in 2 days as a studio preferred pilot instead of the feature length opener.THIS time I got the discs on special and wanted to watch it to see for myself.Not sorry I did, but just as I did not "get" Buffy or Angel, I do not understand the hype about this either.I agree with many other reviewers that it did not know what it wanted to be and, while well cast, the cast was not well served in this so were wasted.The movie answers key questions but is the most awful Hollywood garbage.Indeed knowing "the truth" from the movie convinces me this COULD have been a hit like Babylon 5 - a saga exploring a dystopia from a different perspective.I got the Star Trek vibe early on - the movie adds Star WARS - it is to the big screen what this is to the small.Strong overtones of Blakes 7, The Prisoner, Stanley Kubrick and many more - too many ideas and homages.Unforturtunately, Joss Whedon seems to attract the more obsessive types and thus creates the fandom phenomenon now a byword for people who follow a show just to see how it turns out.This show is better known for send ups and references to it than the show itself.Most of the themes explored are universal and just as relevant today as then - possibly more so.If you can spare £30 for this & the movie, or less used - try it, it's marmite.Personally I found it mostly watchable, maybe i'll rewatch it maybe not.

Beautifully written, acted, directed and scored with everyone involved loving every second <3. Firefly should'be been allowed to go the distance as creative genius Joss Whedon clearly loves science fiction and mixing genres while giving his audience welcome surprises. The studio had little patience for Firefly's assured narrative speed that steadily revealed character details and back story, the studio wanted a run of the mill sci-fi series that had a noncommittal vapidness to it - Marvel's AOS (shudder!) is what the studio really wanted. But what we the audience blissfully received were nine different characters with real depth, charisma, acting ability and logical storyline conclusions. Mal is a man who has lost much, without hope, he just continues on, feeling like a ghost. Zoe and Wash are a wonderful dynamic couple and strike comely sparks off of each other. Kaylee is just adorable, sweet and kind. Jayne is a gruff but lovable mercenary with a softness buried deep down. Brook is Serenity's spiritual heart, always ready to impart helpful wisdom. Simon and River are the passengers running away from the Alliance's "big bad". I love Firefly <3.

Since I have virtually worn out my DVD version of Firefly I thought an upgrade to Blue-ray was in order. Love the commentaries but wished they had done them for all episodes. Plus the roundtable talk was just with the guys of the show..couldnt they have done the same with the women? I'm sure I've seen something on Youtube. Putting that to one side this is a great series and it is "Lightning in a Bottle" for Joss and would have loved to see where it would have gone given more seasons, but Fox has a nasty habit of looking at the ratings instead of the possibilities where new shows are concerned. Prediction - This is up there with Star Trek TOS and so loyal fans will have to wait for at least 10 years before someone comes up with the brilliant idea of a reboot and or feature film and new tv series...but it won't be the same. They could always do an animated series with the original crew and get the actors back to do the voices...It's a dream I have.

Although the special effects are good, the story lines are only average & I dislike the background music which would be more suitable for a traditional Western. The crew lack laser guns & use old fashioned guns with bullets instead. Occasionally there are gun fights in the space craft which is rather silly as bullets could pierce the hull compromising the ships space worthiness. The actor who plays the ships captain looks like Ewan McGregor & acts like Harrison Ford both from Star Wars. If you think of an outer space Western, you won't be far wrong. Although having bought the boxed set I will watch all episodes, the set is unlikely to remain in my collection & will probably end up in a charity shop. Sorry but this is just not a great series despite the many other rave reviews given by other purchasers.