Is "Firefly" overated or underated?

[Captaindemotion]

I think it gets about the right amount of praise. I think it deserves the praise it gets from its fans and from the professional critics, who by-and-large were supportive.

It's under-exposed and didn't get deserve as wide an audience as it deserved, but I don't regard that as meaning under-rated.

 

[NickInABox]

You want a show that's overrated? Glee. Fuck that shit.

 

[Anachronus]

It depends on your take on Whedon's style. I personally don't care for it, but that is just my opinion after watching it. To each his own.

 

[RandyS]

The term 'overrated' is meaningless. Those who don't like the show will think it's overrated, those who like the show won't. It's all subjective.

Then where do I fit? I enjoy the show, but do not believe that it's the greatest thing ever.

 

[Captain Mike]

IDK never watched it because i never had the time and there was no online streaming for me back then.
But I did watch Serenity on Syfy the other night and thought it was rather very good. And am wondering if I should attempt to watch it all the way through.

 

[AJ86]

I enjoyed it, but I do think that people look back on it with rose tinted glasses. It was no where near being one of the best sci-fi shows ever, let alone one of the best overall TV shows ever in my view. In fact as far as the genre goes, it was pretty light weight. Anything full of Joss Whedon style likeable characters was always going to be a hit with what sci-f fandom has devolved into these days though...

 

[RAMA]

I think it's slighly overated. It's not as good as "Angel" and by having just one season we didn't get to see the characters evolve like they usually do on a Joss Whedon show.

Jason

Definitely overrated, but I don't hate it like I used to when it came out. That said, I'm in no hurry to watch it anytime soon.

RAMA

 

[stj]

A space whore. Some cockamamie solar system with dozens of planets, all of which somehow are habitable by humans. Crazy stuff about newly terraformed planets that don't have food, making MREs like gold bullion, but practically all of them have trees. Space Indians who torture and eat people because. A few wisecracks does not make all this drivel good writing. Making the Confederate veteran the hero, and the climax of his story the overthrow of the damnyankees is not just silly, but offensive.

Way, way overrated.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

You want a show that's overrated? Glee. Fuck that shit.

Malcolm in the Middle and Big Bang Theory as well.

 

[The Wormhole]

Depends on perspective. As much I love the show and do consider it one of my top 10 best sci-fi shows, it is overrated by the legions of sci-fi fans that apparentally consider it to be the Best Thing Ever.

However, it is also criminally underrated due to how little exposure it got. Firefly was a kick ass show, and Serenity a kick ass movie. But apparentally, more people would rather watch a mind-fuck about people stranded on an island, or see a movie about a man in his forties losing his virginity.

 

[Admiral2]

Overrated. Cowboys in Space speaking Chinese is an idiotic concept no matter how snappy the patter is.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Overrated. It's a good series, sure. But its cancellation was not the abject travesty many people make it out to be.

it died young. Firefly is the James Dean of space opera TV shows.

FTW!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

TV shows and movies are like the stock market - they are always rated exactly right; the notion of being over-or-under valued is kind of impossible because there's no meaningful outside referent.

 

[Nerd unRage]

Interestingly enough, I just went throgh my second run through of the series and movie this year. I can see where it could be considered overrated. I think it being cancelled, rather unfairly, so soon and the fact FOX aired episodes out of order never given it much of a chance to "succeed" lend itself to people thinking it might be overrated. It's all that potential Firefly had that has fans lamenting it's cancellation and probably glorifying it to the point it gets overrated.

I had never watch a Joss Whedon series but if Buffy and Angel have the similar style of snappy dialogue, call me converted.

 

[defiantfan]

I will always consider myself a BrownCoat, but I am first a Trekkie Niner. Firefly's dialogue was great and the characters were creatively developed but the whole concept was a little too flawed for network television. The premise was anti-corporate and anti-government, not really a message that corporations like to send out every week.

Also, on a more philosophical note the Trek characters while they may not have snappy comebacks all the time or constant quotable moments, they do present a more realistic kind of people than the FireFly characters did. Picard and Sisko were badass characters and did it without relying on wit but on heart. IMO

 

[Skywalker]

I don't think Firefly would be as hot a topic today as it is now if it had gone for five seasons rather than just the one, if that makes any sense. A big part of the show's appeal is that "what if" factor, the unrealized potential. That it only got fourteen episodes makes it hurt more than it would have if it had gotten a hundred or so, I think.

 

[DevilEyes]

A space whore. Some cockamamie solar system with dozens of planets, all of which somehow are habitable by humans. Crazy stuff about newly terraformed planets that don't have food, making MREs like gold bullion, but practically all of them have trees. Space Indians who torture and eat people because. A few wisecracks does not make all this drivel good writing. Making the Confederate veteran the hero, and the climax of his story the overthrow of the damnyankees is not just silly, but offensive.

Way, way overrated.

That rant would make some sense if there were any "Indians" or "confederates" in Firefly.

But there aren't, you're the only one being offensive. The fact that you see the Alliance (oppressive central government, includes rich aristocracy that practice slavery [!]) as "Yankees", and Independents (people who just love freedom and who don't practice slavery) as "Confederates"; and especially the fact that you see degenerated human beings gone crazy and violent killers/cannibals (whose existence is explained very well in Serenity, in fact it's the main theme of the whole goddamn movie) as "Indians" ( ) only says a lot about you.

 

[Australis]

A space whore. Some cockamamie solar system with dozens of planets, all of which somehow are habitable by humans. Crazy stuff about newly terraformed planets that don't have food, making MREs like gold bullion, but practically all of them have trees. Space Indians who torture and eat people because. A few wisecracks does not make all this drivel good writing. Making the Confederate veteran the hero, and the climax of his story the overthrow of the damnyankees is not just silly, but offensive. Way, way overrated.

That rant would make some sense if there were any "Indians" or "confederates' in Firefly. But there aren't, you're the only one being offensive. The fact that you see the Alliance (oppressive central government, includes rich aristocracy that practice slavery [!]) as "Yankees", and Independents (people who just love freedom and who don't practice slavery) as "Confederates"; and especially the fact that you see degenerated human beings gone crazy and violent killers/cannibals (whose existence is explained very well in Serenity, in fact it's the main theme of the whole goddamn movie) as "Indians" ( ) only says a lot about you.

Reapers = Indians
Browncoats = Confederates

It's good, but overrated. It stuns me that Whedon doesn't grasp the concept of a 'Goldilocks Zone'. The first three minutes of 'Serenity' ruin the rest of the film for me. What I have come to appreciate is that Nathan Fillion is a better actor than I thought he was in Firefly, he's pretty good in Castle.

 

[Saga]

i wouldn't say Firefly is overrated or underrated. like Batman and Wolverine it simply has too much fan aura.

 

[Kegg]

That rant would make some sense if there were any "Indians" or "confederates" in Firefly.

He's broadly right, though. I remember reading the interviews Joss Whedon gave about the show around the time it was released, that it was about the people history 'stepped on' - like Civil War Confederate veterans, an inspiration for Malcolm Reynolds - was explicitly stated.

What Whedon does here is he takes that idea and then refashions it in a way that's much more sympathetic to the losing side - for modern audiences - than the history it's based on. The war in Firefly's history really was about "state's rights" and a rejection of overly-centralized government.