Firefly - the short-lived Josh Whedon 2002 Sci-Fi show

[mountain_jim]

Saw this review from The Critical Drinker today, agree with it, could not decide where to post it.

This was a one-season series, and later movie, from which many of the actors went on to much more well-known roles

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DJIIaN7Z2L0

Firefly - We Didn't Know How Good We Had It

The Critical Drinker
2.24M subscribers


Mar 14, 2025

It was overlooked in its own time, never finding the audience it deserved, but Firefly has gone on to become a cult classic with the most dedicated on fanbases. And now that I've finally arrived to the party 20 years late, I wanted to share my thoughts on Joss Whedon's Firefly.

[Matthew]

The protagonists were a rag-tag bunch of losers. Not sure why this is a winning formula, except it makes for better trials on the Hero's Journey perhaps, and it gives the story's wins and successes better surprise and elation.

Blake's 7, an older cult classic, was also a bunch of rag-tag losers, but when they made a carbon copy of it with Andromeda they made the protagonists less loser like, as if the idea of a bunch of losers was difficult to keep in the mind for the script writers or producers or funders or both, and got lost like an embarrassing friend at the fairground as the series progressed. Sure, Andromeda is remembered, but it's not a cult classic like what shows with loser protagonists are.

I had to watch Firefly before I started a new job, because the hiring manager and team loved it and referenced it all the time. I had to watch it to understand what they were talking about. But what a great few days that was; watching Firefly back-to-back. When I ran out of them I felt the disappointment of no second series. It's an ultra abrupt thing to benchmark all other abrupt things by.

Highly recommended!

[rgray222]

Yes, I agree it was a wonderful show that had a big scope of adventure. They clearly were not clever enough to understand they had a fire-eating dragon by the tail. If they had the courage to hang on and ride the dragon into maturity, it would have surpassed the Star Trek franchise, and that is saying something. Sadly, there was no will to make this show work,

[Dilettante]

I really tried to like Firefly, had always heard it was the best thing since sliced bread. The production value holds up, but it didn’t do it for me! Maybe I didn’t “get it.”

[edina]

The Critical Drinker nails it in this review.

When the series first came out, I couldn't get into it that much.
It's a curious mix of genres, western in space, (dubbed a space western) it seemed a bit campy. And then there's zombie horror mixed in, via the Reavers. Just not my thing...

I remember my brother loved it. This was before he had a stroke.
He liked American Werewolf in London, too. Tricked me into seeing it with him... ugh...

Later the movie, Serenity came out, I think because of the fan culture.

Serenity has become one of my favorite movies. (Up there with Dune, Avatar, Babette's Feast and A Walk in the Clouds).
And the fight scenes with River, have become some of my favorite movie fight scenes.
I remember watching background clips on the training Summer Glau, the actress who plays River Tam, did for those fight scenes.

Summer has a ballet background, and the scenes were choreographed with that in mind.

After watching Serenity, I revisited Firefly. Because I knew the ending, I appreciated the journey better.

[BMJ]

Love Firefly & Serenity I have a copy of both the movie and series. It had great unrealized potential, I know the actors and some hard core fans at the time were pushing for a second season but it didn't transpire.

Another one to look out for is Star Wars: Andor, season one is out the final season two (starting 22/4/25) is covering 4 years ( one year per three episodes ) leading up to Star Wars: Rogue One (which is another underrated movie).

Side Note: If you like dark humour you'll love " Cocaine Bear " I watched it last night and it is as funny as hell. Especially the bear chasing down the ambulance.

If your interested the said scene.

Cocaine Bear (2023) - The Cabin and Ambulance Massacre Scene

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q27nB6YIstg

Movieclips
Apr 24, 2023

[samsdice]

Firefly was a great series. Two of the actors, Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk, went on to appear in another underrated series V. Nathan Fillion, of course, went onto to do Castle.

[madrotter]

Totally missed that one, it sounds a lot like The Expanse which I also haven't seen (but I've read the books by James S. A. Corey, much fun to read), a rag-tag crew flying all over the place.... Funny that Blake 7 was mentioned, I loved that series, would rush home after work to watch it and I was upset for weeks when it ended, specially the way it ended. They basically all walked in somewhere and got shot and that was it, like, in the middle of the story.... All great British actors, mostly coming out of the Shakespearean theater world and really made on a shoestring, you would see the nylon threads on which the space ships were hanging, but the writing and acting was excellent and Jacqueline Pearce playing the ultimate baddie was amazing.... As was Red Dwarf, what a run those guys had, they really don't make 'em like that anymore.....

You can watch the whole Blake 7 series on youtube by the way Which reminds me.... you can watch the whole fantastic I, Claudius series there too

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0INpj__GCbI

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by samsdice (here)
Firefly was a great series.

It really was. A more enlightened network would have made sure it continued for series after series. The cast insist to this day hat it was the most memorable and fun thing they ever did.

I've seen very little of anything that was ever on TV, but although there were only 14 episodes, I'd personally rank it alongside 24 and The West Wing for sheer creative entertainment with terrific scripts and ideas.

[edina]

Posted by madrotter (here)
Totally missed that one, it sounds a lot like The Expanse which I also haven't seen (but I've read the books by James S. A. Corey, much fun to read), a rag-tag crew flying all over the place....

I was late to the experience of The Expanse, I think I didn't start watching it until it was already in Season 5. That's another series that has an audience relationship that is almost magical.
It was, and probably still is, an expression of the zeitgeist of it's time. Thanks for mentioning it and reminding me of it.

[mountain_jim]

I watched all of The Expanse, and recommend it as well. Quite a complex set of world-building, I would think starting at the beginning would allow it to be much more easily followed.

Last I checked it's still available (all seasons) on Amazon Prime, along with Fringe, and BattleStar Galactica, all of which were quality in my view.

I had forgotten about Tudyk being in V, he also stars as the very funny Resident Alien in that comedy series.


Morena Baccarin was in all the Deadpool movies and many others as well.