Firefly - this was cancelled? Insane.
February 19th, 2008 by Frank
Yes, yes, yes, I know I’m late to the party, but Eoin recently loaned me the Firefly box set - I had watched Serenity, the film based on the series, and thought it was excellent, so was curious to see what the series was like.
The series was created by Joss Whedon, of Buffy Fame. But don’t let that put you off, I was never a huge Buffy fan myself.
Firefly was cancelled by Fox on television after only eleven episodes. But don’t let that put you off either - it’s an excellent show. Why on earth would a show like this get cancelled?
Firefly mixes the science fiction and western genres, wraps them up in great scripts which are humourous and engaging and best of all Firefly often delivers the unexpected. Just when you think they are getting too comfortable in their approach to each episode they throw something unexpected at you to keep the show tipping along nicely.
Although Firefly is overall a fairly light hearted show, it can be a lot more violent than you’d expect, but then that’s Firefly all over - mixing up everything it can.
Why a smart, funny show like this got cancelled is beyond me. They made 14 episodes and yet only 11 got shown on TV - it got canned before they aired the last three episodes. Bizarre. And it seems if anyone knows the truth behind why it got canned, they’re not saying.
Anyway, the good news is that after the series got canned, they had enough of a following and enough awards and award nominations and the like to get traction on making a film version: Serenity.
If you’re a fan of Westerns, or Science Fiction, or just a fan of entertainingly smart tv without having to engage your brain TOO much… get the box set of Firefly, and then watch Serenity too. BTW - Serenity is available in some shops for as little as €5!
Technorati Tags: review, rating=4, firefly, serenity, joss whedon
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February 19th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I started watching the box set while Jacinta was in the CUMH - laptops are handy for that in a hospital! Unfortunately I didn’t see all the shows yet, and haven’t looked at it since.. Time, time time!
February 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I’m not as big a fan of the TV series as Frank but I’d recomend it as interesting viewing if not always excellent. The film on the other hand is as good as it gets (and is available from Virgin or whatever they’re calling it now for €5).
From what I can figure out the American TV industry works by splitting it’s series into two. Firefly would have started sometime around September (or Fall as they put it) and taken a break after 11 episodes to return after Christmas. The 3 un-aired episodes would have been filmed before the decision was taken not to continue with the series but there was no point in coming back for just 3 episodes after a break of a month or more.
Can any of our American readers confirm this?
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:47 am
I think it was couple of christmas’s ago, and I too became a total firefly neophyte, was never a big buffy fan, as an old school horror fan it was a bit too tea time guff, every monster looked like a ‘Buffy Vampire’ or a ‘Buffy Werewolf’ but firefly is amazing, like the prisoner I’m almost glad it got cancelled if it went for 5-7 seasons it would eventually get shit but, as much as I love the new Battlestar Galactica, so much of what reviewers say is good about it, firefly had done before with less people knowing about it…i’ll be in my bunk.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 am
Battlestar Gallactica - end of season two, start of season three. Wow. Incredible. But then they revert to soap opera crap and undo so much of what they achieve… also, sometimes I feel used for liking something so overtly commercial…
Firefly is so much more it’s own man, not ever pandering to the masses… guess that’s why it’s gone…
May 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
[...] recently wrote a bit about Firefly, the highly entertaining Joss Whedon series that was foolishly canceled after one series. Well now [...]
May 20th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Basically Fox have a reputation for cancelling really good shows(firefly, Arrested Development, the Tick, Family Guy -when it was good).
With Firefly, they ended up messing the show around. They showed the episodes out of order (That’s why the episode ‘Train Job’ repeats so many of the plot points of the pilot ‘Serenity’ (the episode not the film). Whedon was told by Fox that they wouldn’t open with the pilot so they had to write the train job script over one weekend inorder to get it shot in time to air) The pilot (Serenity) ended up being the final episode aired by Fox.
Fox also kept altering the time slot that Firefly was shown in. This coupled with the fact that the characters often made reference to events which occurred in unaired episodes, made it very difficult for the show to build up an audience. Basically it was left with just hardcore Whedon fans watching.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:22 am
That explains quite a bit. Thanks Mark.
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:15 am
Yea, Fox did that with a lot of good shows. Firefly, futurama, etc. I really wish they had kept making firefly or that another channel had picked it up, like the sci-fi channel.