So I started watching the Firefly tv series on bluray yesterday and I personally have no doubt that what made this show great was the interaction between the different characters and the dialogue. It always impresses me how the entire cast seemed to already be so comfortable in their roles from the very first episode. Usually with new tv shows it takes a few episodes until the cast members and writers find their footing.

My only minor nitpick with the show concerns the horrible uniforms on the Alliance crew members on the large capital ships. The big, loose fitting tunics along with those berets just doesn't look very military or menacing at all.

yeah, agreed. whedon's new show dollhouse, which will likely get cancelled soon, is such a disappointment in comparison. zero charisma on the part of the characters, and zero sense of cohesion or connection between anyone.

the minor quibble i had with firefly were the stupid "pew pew" laser gun sounds they insisted on using for a lot of the pistols, which were clearly bullet firing guns. thank god they didn't pull that cheesiness in serenity. and i woulda liked firefly a bit more if they'd dialled down the western theme just a tad. had it lasted longer, i guess that woulda gotten taken care of with more episodes set on the core, alliance worlds. oh well, thanks a lot fox!

how's the picture and sound quality?

Both are outstanding. I can really tell these episodes were remastered for high def because the first time I watched Firefly was on the standard dvd's on a standard dvd player so the picture quality difference is remarkable.

I still can't understand why Firefly wasn't more of a success. I love that series. The characters and dialogue were top-notch, and I found the whole setting refreshingly different.

It was a combination of the Fox tv network not doing a good job at promoting the show and a tv viewing audience that perhaps was slow to realize how good Firefly was. Honestly, science fiction has always been a tough sell on network tv in the US. It seems these days that most Americans just care about reality shows and legal/hospital dramas.

I did the whole thing back to front.

I wasn't aware of Firefly but saw Serenity when it first came out on the big screen. Liked it a lot and so backtracked by getting the entire Firefly DVD set from Amazon. Watched the whole thing again from Firefly Episode 1 to Serenity.

Kaylee, Inara *pant* *pant*

Didn't that hot looking red-head villian chick who appeared on several episodes subsequently landed herself in a current hit TV series ? I know Inara is in the new 'V' but what's the status of 'V' ?

red head is christina hendricks and she's on mad men

yeah, fox tv butchered firefly when it aired-- aired them in the wrong order (the 90min. pilot aired last!), didn't air a few of them, and often preempted or delayed it due to sports, and, oh yeah, killed it after just 11 episodes aired. basically, it never had a chance.

if i sound irritated, that's because i was. oh well, i guess it's the james dean of sci-fi shows--brilliant and dead before it's time.

I also saw Serenity before I watched the tv series. I admit that I didn't really see what the big deal was with Serenity and thought it was just "ok" when I first watched it but after I watched the tv episodes and got to know the characters, Serenity became like an entirely new movie to me the second time I watched it.

Hehe... same here.

I thought "Serenity" was a decent sci-fi movie, nothing more. So when I watched the series afterwards I was very much positively surprised.

It was a very pleasant and unexpected surprise for me when I first saw Ron Glass on the main cast of Firefly. I dont think I had really seen him in anything major since Barney Miller! He was really great as Shepherd Book.

Firefly was incredible and you're right, it was a combination of excellent dialogue writing and the perfect cast. Every one of them had the right sense of humor and timing and all managed to be believable from the stat. Even Star Trek TNG took a couple of years to hit their stride and get comfortable with their characters, but in Firefly they just plain nailed it.
I thought Serenity was ok but then I was hoping for more "Firefly" which just isn't feasible for a feature film that needs to be open to new fans. They had to rush the character development, which tv shows get the luxury of easing into more than movies. That's why a good sci fi tv show is worth it's weight in gold--movies just can't fit both plot and character development into 2 hours very well.

Ain't that the utter truth! Shows like Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5 and X-Files would not have been nearly as good had they only been a feature film or a mini-series.

all the bigger pity then that mmost scifi tv shows blow

You can pretty much apply that to all other tv show genres. You only get a few gems from time to time from all the different genres.

Ya the characters are interesting, Jayne makes me laugh.

What I found really amazing were the external shots of firefly as it sped around planets and was actually my motivation for this screenie lol

That's a very nice looking screenshot Bish. Yeah, the special effects in Firefly were first rate. The same SFX team that worked on Firefly also worked on Battlestar Galactica.

Indeed, the much-lauded "shakey-cam in space" which made BSG famous for it's gritty, realistic look on externals was pioneered in FireFly. Previously most sci-fi visuals had been too crisp and clean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Cuvtbe7fI&feature=player_embedded

ZOIC are the folks to thank for great visuals in firefly/serenity and bsg

Ok, so who would you say was your favorite Firefly character? For me it would be Simon Tam. I really liked his intellectualism and his sense of maintaining decorum even out in the far reaches of space and the outer worlds. And of course his undying love and sacrifices he made for River were admirable.

Mal. Fillon did a great job. I loved the dual.
"Mercy is the mark of a great man."
Pokes the guy with sword...
"Guess I'm just a good man."
Poke him again...
"Well, I'm alright."


LOL
I love that bit.
The entire cast had great comedic timing though. Jane was cool too.

I actually noticed this when I watched the Firefly pilot on dvd a couple weeks ago,

Revealing mistakes: At the end during the scene involving Wash interacting with other characters on the bridge of Serenity, his seat was moved back away from the console to keep him in the shot (as per the director's commentary). Visible in the wide screen DVD, as a result, is the fact that he's not actually holding the control yoke of the ship - he only has his hands held up in that position, miming the actions.


Has anyone else noticed this? It's hilarious.

I liked Inara's client in the pilot episode - talk about crass

Hands down it had to be Jayne for me. He had so many great lines, all were typical "guy" lines, but the delivery was so great.







And the all time classic

Yes, a great show. About time for a re-watch I think.

If you have bluray capability I highly suggest you watch it in high-def. It looks amazing.

Yes, may just have to spring for the bluray set, reasonable on Amazon.

I'll buy it eventually but right now I'm just renting the BR discs from Netflix.

I thought Jayne was a remarkable character. I was always on edge when he had to make a decision. He would seem to just slip away or even appear to change sides only to completely redeem himself at the last minute - with a look that suggested he knew what he was doing the whole time - and I have to admit, it caught me off-guard every single time!

Firefly and Farscape were the only "space sci-fi" shows that captivated my attention these past few years... nope no Star Trek, no Babylon, no Battlestar...

As far as the western theme, I don't like westerns as a genre. I like some stories/films, but for some odd reason though, it just *fit* for that series and wouldn;t be the same otherwise. I guess it's an odd combo blended together like a good mixed drink. ... or like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or something.

Anyone watch Castle?

Fillion managed to drag his Mal clothing from the closet in the last episode, under the pretence of Halloween fancy dress ("but Dad, didn't you wear that like five years ago?")

Quality.

And you have to love Beckett.


Edit:

To this day I do not support any shows on Fox, I really think they wanted FireFly to fail.
I loved it since I watched the first episode and I was hoping Josh would have made a couple of mini series, but that is not going to happen. I am so bummed that I too went and purchased a blueray and new disks. I already had it on dvd,lol.


Bullet

That scene is great! I've watched it a couple of times already.

And Inara is back on our screens too next week (well, Morena Baccarin is playing Anna in the new series of "V")!

Yes she is and I have no doubt she'll be great. She looks so different though with such short hair. I prefer her with that classic long and beautiful Companion hairstyle.

IIRC, wasn't it ultimately the SciFi channel that killed Firefly? They had moved over from Fox, but didn't fit the "direction" the newly cristened SyFy channel wanted to go in?

No. Firefly was cancelled by Fox and it died there. The Sci-Fi Channel did consider picking up the series for a while but in the end decided that the production costs of the show were too expensive.

...and that there wasn't enough wrestling in the show to merit a move to "syfi"

A mud wrestling match between a naked Inara and Kaylee would have been nice.

I finally got to see this series for the first time and it was awesome. I thought that it wasn't even really that sci-fi-ish, but it was still great.

I saw Serenity a while ago, but will have to watch it again now that I have seen Firefly.

I looked up (read: perved at) Christina Hendricks on IMDB and according to that website, she is engaged to this guy:



Haha.

I also saw "Serenity" before I ever saw "Firefly" and while I still liked the movie I just KNEW that I missed out on a lot of nuances with the characters and the backstory. Once I watched the tv episodes and then watched the movie again, it was like a totally different experience.

Watching the series again, got to Ariel (one of the best eps IMO).
The Ariel Ambulance they restore, never noticed why it looked so familiar. Pretty cool, seems clear it's based it on the Hind.





Apparently it was found in the desert and is being, or has been, restored as it turns out.