Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-19
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 630 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Much praised and much missed after its premature cancellation, Firefly is the first SF TV series to be conceived by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and cocreator of Angel. Set five centuries in the future, it is a show where the mysterious personal pasts of the crew of the tramp spaceship Serenity continually surface. In fact, it's a Western in space where the losers in a Civil War are heading out to a barren frontier. Mal Reynolds is a man embittered by the war, yet whose love of his comrades perpetually dents his cynicism--even in the 14 episodes that exist we see him warm to the bubbly young mechanic Kaylee, the preacher Book, the idealistic doctor Simon, even to the often demented River, Simon's sister, the psychic result of malign experiments.

Firefly is also about adult emotional relationships, for example Kaylee's crush on Simon, the happy marriage of Mal's second officer Zoe and the pilot Wash, the disastrous erotic stalemate between Mal and the courtesan Inara. Individual episodes deal with capers going vaguely wrong, or threats narrowly circumvented; character and plot arcs were starting to emerge when the show was cancelled. Fortunately, the spin-off movie Serenity ties up some of the ends; and in the meantime, what there is of Firefly is a show to marvel at, both for its tight writing and ensemble acting, and the idiocy of the executives who cancelled it.

On the DVD: Firefly on DVD is presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 with Dolby Surround Sound. It includes commentaries on six episodes by various writers, directors, designers and cast members as well as featurettes on the conception of the show and the design of the spaceship Serenity, four deleted scenes, a gag reel, and Joss Whedon singing the show's theme tune, more or less. One of the things that emerges from all of this is how committed to the project everyone involved with it was, and is--unusually, you end up caring as much for the cast and crew as for the characters.

DVD Description
Episodes: Serenity (Part 1) Serenity (Part 2) The Train Job Bushwhacked Our Mrs Reynolds Out of Gas Shindig Safe Ariel War Stories Objects in Space Heart of Gold Trash The Message

Special Features

• Audio commentaries from directors, producers, writers and creator Joss Whedon
  
• Deleted scenes
  
• Serenity: The Tenth Character featurette
  
• The Making Of Firefly featurette
  
• Joss Whedon tours the set
  
• Footage from Alan Tudyk's audition
  
• Joss Whedon sings the Firefly theme!
  
• Gag reel
  
• Easter Egg (hidden feature)
  
• Interactive menu
  
• Chapter selection

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 Anamorphic
  
• Language: English
  
• Region Code: 2

Customer Reviews

Needed More Time...
First things first, Joss Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Therefore his place amongst TV legends is assured. Few programmes have captured a generation's imagination so effortlessly and brilliantly. In my own humble opinion of course.

With those two series on his CV I was understandably excited by Firefly and was shocked to hear that it had been so unceremoniously cancelled. Then I heard a few mixed reports and started to feel a tad wary about it. Hence, only recently taking the plunge and snapping up the box set now it's on offer.

Having now watched each episode and the tie in film Serenity, I can see firstly, why it got cancelled and secondly, why that was a harsh call.

A few comments have been made on here about the awfulness of the theme tune so I won't add too much more to that than to say these comments are spot on. It is a surprising fumble by Mr Whedon - how many great shows have dreadful theme tunes? Not many, if any at all. It seems a minor point but these are all factors in a shows success. Some folks turn off if the music doesn't grab them, sad but true.

A fair number of the more negative reviews have slated the acting as wooden. I disagree for the most part. Nathan Fillion is terrific as the captain, playing him with a hangdog world-weariness and an occasional twinkle in his eye. It's no surprise that he has gone on to have a modest film career.

Of the rest of the cast - Alan Tudyk is endearing and witty as Wash; Adam Baldwin extracts every ounce he can from the fairly one-note Jayne and Ron Glass adds a sheer touch of class as the mysterious Book. Jewel Staite is nicely kooky as Kaylee (though the character is a little too close to Willow to be honest), Gina Torres makes little impression as Zoe but does nothing especially wrong, Summer Glau is stuck with the pretty annoying River but does her best with it. The other two crew members are where the wood factor comes into play: Morena Baccarin pouts and looks pretty as Inara but is painfully bland and Sean Maher (Simon) is just poor.

So the acting is generally of a fair standard. With an ensemble cast there is bound to be one or two that don't set the world alight but that is hardly a massive fault with the show as a whole. The real problem is the number of characters, it's a big ask of an audience to get them to accept NINE regular characters straight away. Inevitably, it can be a bit of an overload to get them all at once. Perhaps a staggered introduction may have helped?

Script wise, Joss Whedon inevitably writes the best of the bunch. The others are a bit hit and miss. Some episodes soar whilst others barely get off the ground. Though it is fair to say that there is no train crash of an episode, some of them are just a bit dull. A few, highly promising areas (The Reavers, Book's past) are under-developed whereas the rather flaccid will-they, won't-they relationships (two of them!!) are endlessly dragged out.

I guess the main problem is with the style though. Blending Sci-Fi and Westerns can be a recipe for success (Star Wars anyone?!?) but getting the balance right is the tricky part. That is where this series, at times, clunks. Some of the ideas simply do not work. There are a number of inconsistencies which can grate at times.

That said, I thought back to the first season of Buffy and remembered that it had a fair amount of ropey episodes, style and tone inconsistencies and floundering performances - and of course, look how that turned out! So I can't help feeling that, despite a number of areas that needed to be improved on, the network could have gambled on a longer Firefly run. Given time and a fair chance I think it could have developed into a really great show.

As it is, it remains a reasonably good one with a few terrific characters, the odd outstanding moment and a handful of oh so promising episodes. I am glad that they managed to get the film made (which is better than the show but I suspect would be a touch confusing for those who hadn't seen Firefly) and conclude the overall story arc. At the very least the show, and the viewers, deserved that.

3.5 stars

The best Sci-fi story put onto the small screen bar none...an absolute classic
What can I say about this that hasn't been said before....it's almost flawless entertainment, by turns gritty, scary, uplifting, always supremely well acted & hugely involving, this is one of the best things I've ever watched, however long, on whatever size of screen, in or out of the Sci-fi genre. Hope there will eventually be some sort of follow up, as has been rumoured....if ever a drama deserved a long run at the top of the ratings in front of a wider audience it's this one.
About the package, ridiculously cheap for what it is...don't hesitate to buy

Don't believe the hype, but don't believe the negativity.
When I first saw this series on Sci-Fi on it's original airing I have to say I switched off part way through the second episiode as it was pure rubbish. One had to wonder just what Whedon was thinking - gunslingers in space perhaps? At least Gene Rodenberry created 'Star Trek' on the premise of 'Wagon Train in space' and it worked for him.
A friend of mine recently loaned me a copy of Firefly and I forced myself to sit through the series, yes the entire series. What did I find? Not a good series and certainly not a bad one. It appears that the series did get better towrds the end, but, as some have pointed out, the science fiction audience had switched off well before this point and the Whedon fans stayed faithful, hence why the series was cancelled. It's a shame, for if the SF audience, and myself, had stayed with the series then perhaps it would have gone from strength to strength.
I never saw Serenity when it came out at the cinema but I have now seen it on DVD and I have to say I love it! It was far better than I expected. Give this series a chance and watch beyond episode 2!