I finally watched Firefly! (SPOILERS)

[TheSeeker]

I know the spoiler warning might not be necessary but just in case anyone else out there still means to watch it I thought I would include it.

With a four day weekend ahead of us and no new TV to watch my wife and I finally decided to watch Firefly. I have to say we both really liked it. It's such a shame it got canceled, but that seems to happen to a lot of shows we like.

One thing I wish I had known going into this show was not to watch it going by the original air dates. For some stupid reason the network didn't want to use the original pilot. It must have aired on Fox. Still, it didn't take away from my understanding or enjoyment of the show.

We watched the last five episodes on Saturday night so that we could watch Serenity on Sunday. The movie did not disappoint either, although it would have been nice if Shepard Book had had a little more to do in the movie.

A couple other things about the movie:

Spoiler: Things that bummed me out

Not only did Book not have much to do in the movie, he dies and we never get to find out what his life was like before he met the crew. There was more to him than met the eye. I was also pretty bummed out by Wash's death.

I know it's very unlikely that we'll see anymore stories about the crew of Serenity but I would be very stoked if it ever happened.

 

[Hermiod]

^There is the comic book which Joss writes. I have not read it myself.

The sad truth is that the show was cut short. There are a lot of stories they never had the chance to tell.

 

[Deckerd]

Yes I think Whedon had lots of back stories he wanted to tease out but it's all academic now. He did the best he could within one movie's limitations.

 

[TheSeeker]

It was indeed a great flick. My biggest disappointment is that we won't get any of those back stories.

 

[Trekker4747]

Why did you watch it in air-date order rather than in the order laid out on the DVDs?

 

[TheSeeker]

^ I didn't watch it from the DVDs. It's kind of hard to get stuff like that in Romania so I had to resort to other means.

 

[Ptrope]

^^

Ahh! Yeah, I'd have suggested you find the correct order online and watch them that way - it really does make a positive difference. FOX, in their 'wisdom,' showed the pilot as the last episode!

The comics take place between the series and Serenity, so you get plenty of Book and Wash action .

 

[cultcross]

A couple other things about the movie:

Spoiler: Things that bummed me out

Not only did Book not have much to do in the movie, he dies and we never get to find out what his life was like before he met the crew. There was more to him than met the eye. I was also pretty bummed out by Wash's death.

One of the major disappointments for me about the show's cancellation is that we never got to find out what Book's backstory was. He was played as this mysterious character whose ID gets you full usage of an Alliance cruiser, and had the series continued, I don't think Joss would have killed him any time soon. But it was, as you've demonstrated, a hard-hitting death for the movie script.

 

[Lindley]

The working theory is that Book was a former Operative.

 

[Pilot Ace]

^ I didn't watch it from the DVDs. It's kind of hard to get stuff like that in Romania so I had to resort to other means.

That's a strange set of means if they followed the broadcast order... I'm now a little curious. Did you get to watch the episodes that hadn't aired on television too?

 

[TheSeeker]

^I think so. The last one I watched was the one where Mal and Zoe's friend has himself delivered to them in a coffin, apparently dead.

 

[Mistral]

What about the bounty hunter? Isn't that s'posed to be the last episode?

 

[DarkProphet]

Why don't you just order the DVDs from amazon.com?

 

[RoJoHen]

What about the bounty hunter? Isn't that s'posed to be the last episode?

"Objects in Space," and yes, it's the final episode.

 

[Harvey]

What about the bounty hunter? Isn't that s'posed to be the last episode?

Joss Whedon prefers it that way, but The Message was the last episode filmed. Notice Whedon's cameo at the funeral.

 

[Ethros]

^There is the comic book which Joss writes. I have not read it myself.

They're not ongoing comics though. So far there has only been the 3 issue Those Left Behind released in 2005, which takes place before the movie. And the recent early 2008 3 issue Better Days, taking place between the end of the TV show and Those Left Behind
Both are written by Whedon and Brett Matthews, who wrote the ep "Heart of Gold"

TLB is pretty good, while BD is fairly "meh"

There are plans for a new miniseries called A Shepherd's Tale, about Book's backstory, for release sometime in 2009

 

[butch101]

too bad they canceled this show. I checked this out for the first time during the holidays, and God I was sad it ended. I fell in love with every characters in less than 20 episodes. Enterprise never got me so quickly. I watched Serenity right after and loved it even more.

by the way, is there any plans to ressurect the series, or even do some sequels... I ask because I'm new in the franchise...

thanks

Butch

 

[trekkerguy]

This show I think should be considered one of the best scifi series made
though canceled.

The movie aswell. Not sure if it's been said one way or the other anywhere
by Joss himself, but it would seem like once the show was canceled he wrote
the movie to play out the rest of the series storyline in condensed form.

Amazing franchise I do hope we get more of one day.

 

[cultcross]

by the way, is there any plans to ressurect the series, or even do some sequels... I ask because I'm new in the franchise...

The series, it is believed, was sacrificed under the terms by which Joss got to make the movie - its return is thus very unlikely.
The movie, although it did fairly well for what it was, was hardly a blockbuster, and unlikely to stimulate studios to fall over themselves to make another. Besides, the movie very succinctly ties up the Firefly package. If we were gonna get more Firefly, it needed to come before the movie.

 

[Lindley]

Well, first off, you must download this.

(There's a fully-produced version on the album Thirteen, which may I say is very good in its own right.)