Firefly Complete - Series 15th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray] [2017]

As the other reviews make clear, "Firefly" is excellent, its cancellation a tragedy and its ownership on DVD mandatory for any fan of quality adventure-drama.Oddly, I pretty much missed it on its TV outing. A huge fan of "Buffy" and (especially) "Angel", why didn't I pick up on "Firefly"? I remember watching the first half of the pilot and after that... it just passed me by.Viewing it again on DVD, the strengths and weaknesses of the show become apparent. The pilot is poor and Fox were right to demand a re-take ("The Train Job") - but the decision to re-insert the pilot episode two thirds of the way through the series run, now that was bizarre. Fortunately, this set restores everything to the correct sequence.What do I mean by criticising the pilot? Well, it's very talk-y, the characters take a long time to establish themselves, the atmosphere is glum and the outcomes are all downbeat. Don't get me wrong: in the context of a show that's already made a claim on your affections, talkiness, downbeat resolutions and the slow revealing of characters are all laudable assets. But not in a pilot. I suspect some hubris at work here: Joss Whedon believing everything he touched would transmute to gold and trusting too much in the loyalty of a fickle TV fan base. These misjudgements were corrected later on in the series - by the episode "Shindig" you're laughing and crying along with the cast like a reunion of old friends and by the end of this too-too-short series, the closedown feels like a minor bereavement.So, the weakness was a poor launch and a fumbled high-concept pitch (space drama without aliens, blasters or comedy droids; themes drawn from the American Civil War; characters with immensely complex back stories). Let's talk about the strengths...It's a space drama without aliens, blasters or comedy droids. All the standard SF motifs are eschewed in favour of some gritty characterisation and very mature consideration (within the constraints of the genre) of sex, religion, politics and ethics. Don't get me wrong, it's often laugh-out-loud funny. But it's the best sort of funny: the sort that comes from finding humour in a situation otherwise treated with full seriousness. For the SF geek, the Firefly 'Verse is intriguing: a single solar system of terraformed planets and moons, no FTL starships, evil megacorporations and shadow governments pitched against pioneers, poker players and prostitutes. It's all familiar, but combined in novel ways - like the hybrid Anglo-Chinese argot the characters curse and swear in or the Guild of Companions who train Jedi-like concubines. The 'Verse manages to become one of the three SF settings you would actually like to go and live in (then other two being the Star Wars Republic and the Star Trek Federation, of course).Next, the themes are drawn from the American Civil War. The "bad guys" are the Yankee Unionists, the "good guys" are the rag tag Confederates. But of course, there are no absolute good and bad guys. The nod towards historical allegory gives some of the episodes a dignity and resonance not commonly found in SF, certainly not in made-for-TV SF.Finally, the immensely complex characterisations. Captain Mal Reynolds (portrayed by the redoubtable Nathan Fillion with oodles of self-deprecating charm) is the worthy successor to Han Solo - notably the Han Solo of original edition Star Wars, before Lucas re-cut it to have Greedo shoot first. The banter between Reynolds and his crew sparkles with the understood yet barely-referenced past they share. Heck, it's all so dense that some characters don't even get their stories told - we never find out about Shepherd Book's past and only the "Serenity" movie filled in the mysteries about River and Simon. This is a quality ensemble cast, acting their socks off and loving every minute of it. As well they might, given that the script comes from the team that cut their teeth on "Buffy" - which means that, as comedy-drama-action ensemble dialogue, this is just about as funny/dramatic/exciting as it gets.Yes, we can dream of a world where Fox didn't axe the show and it went on to tell its charming, idiosyncratic and inventive story in its own time, over an arc of years. But here in the real world we have the DVD set with which to visit old friends, familiar places and endearing scenes. Take me out into the Black 'n' tell 'em I ain't comin' back...

Firefly is the much loved cult space western t.v adventure series created by Joss Wheadon. He's also known for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Angel & more recently co-writer & director of Marvel Avengers Assemble as well as many other well known credits, the man is gifted.Box content:()= episode No.Disc 1: (1)Serenity (2)The train job (3)Bushwhacked.Disc 2: (4)Shindig (5)Safe (6)Our Mrs Reynonlds (7)Jaynetown.Disc 3: (8)Out of gas (9)Ariel (10)War stories (11)Trash.Disc 4: (12) The message (13)Heart of gold (14)Objects in space.Disc 4: Special features: -The making of Firefly / Serenity: The 10th character / Deleted scenes / Alan Tudyk's auditon tape / Gag reel / Joss(Wheadon) tours the set / Joss sings the Firefly theme.The features are nice, the making of, serenity 10th character & the deleted scenes make for the bulk of it, around 60 minutes worth, while the rest are only about 1-2 minutes or so long. It was nice to get an insight into the series from the actors, crew & Mr Wheadon. And that they had the exact same feelings about the show as we did watching it. The depth of detail that went into every aspect of the program, from the ship, characters & to the music etc... was very poignant after watching all 14 episodes.Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion-Castle) an ex-solider who fought against the Alliance(the government of the time), is the Captain of Serenity, a smuggler , firefly class ship. Along with his motley crew of, pilot, Hoban "Wash" Washburne(Alan Tudyk-I Robot) his wife Zoe(Gina Torres-Suits), engineer Kaylee Frye(Jewel Staite) , all round tough guy Jayne Cobb(Adam Baldwin-Full Metal Jacket) & Lady of the night Inara Serra(Morena Baccarin-Homeland) tags along, as an acquaintance of Mal's.Along the way they pick up some more members, in the shape of, questioning his faith, preacher Shepherd Book(Ron Glass) & more notably Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher) & his gifted intelligent sister River(Summer Glau). The latter are on the run from the Alliance military, but Mal & his crew have no love for the Alliance, who'd love to get hold of them too, so they allow them to stay, with Tam as medic, until they find another place to go. They search the outskirts of the less populated planets for jobs that are legal & illegal, but within reason, just to get money to keep food on the table & the ship repaired & fueled.I found Firefly to be a great sci-fi space western series, with a good story & strong likable cast of characters. The dialogue has a mixture of futuristic terminology, including the use of Chinese/Mandarin used at times in short bursts for emotional moments, mixed with distinct 19th century western tones & humor. Likewise the appearance is a mixture of old wild west & Chinese influences, along with futuristic spaceships, but the characters wear a mix of old/modern western cloths & wield sci-fi style 6 shooters, as well as the desert like planets using horses etc.. the music also has a very Western/Chinese feel, with the use of guitar, fiddle & lute as the main instruments & the country style lyrics. The theme song which is also written by Mr Wheadon, has the perfect words that really sums up the heart & soul of the show.I've been watching the series after seeing the film version, Serenity, made after the series was cancelled, where Mr Wheadon managed to get the backing for a film spin off, that basically condenses the series into a 2 hour movie feature, set as a continuation from the series. It is such a shame that Firefly never matured past it's 14 episodes after being cancelled mid-season, and dont be put off by that, as they are quality episodes. But the selfish person in me realizes that the other great series i enjoy, Castle, wouldn't possibly be as good, if it had perhaps continued. Lead Nathan Fillion is brilliant(as he is in Castle) with his tongue in cheek/serious acting style, and has a great rapport with all the characters, who in turn are great too. The setting, special effects, banter between the crew & the brilliant musical score is a winner, no wonder the series is so well thought of, it had everything going for it to succeed. I'm a late newcomer, but If you like westerns & sci-fi, you'll enjoy this a lot. Highly Recommended.