Firefly - DVD

Firefly - The Complete Series

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2758 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Joss Whedon's Third Home Run 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you're a serious Buffy and Angel fan, you're probably curious about Joss Whedon's third television series, the short-lived Firefly, and if it's worth your time to check out, even after cancellation. I won't keep you in suspense - of COURSE it is. Let me give you some idea of what you're getting into if you buy this 4-DVD set:

Five hundred years in the future, humanity has spread into space, and the Alliance completes the Unification, i.e. forcible pacification of all planetary colonies resisting absorption under their rule, the so-called Independents. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) was an Independent Sergeant who, even in the final battle on his world against the Alliance, never gave up hope, still believed (wrongly) victory was possible, when his government and military pulled the plug on him, admitted defeat. Unwilling to live under Alliance rule, he and fellow soldier Zoe (Gina Torres) head for deep space as their last possible source of freedom. Thus the lines from the show's great intro tune, "Take my love, take my land/Take me where I cannot stand/I don't care, I'm still free/You can't take the sky from me." Now Mal is captain of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity, Zoe his second officer, existing outside the law, smugglers, thieves and scavengers trying to balance their need to make a living with a code of personal integrity that's an expensive trait in the life they lead.

This is not a blindingly original premise, the basic idea is old hat science fiction. But it doesn't really need to be original, anything can be done well or poorly, right? Fortunately, Whedon & Co. go straight for "well," not even stopping at "poorly."

Firefly's greatest strength is its cast of well-drawn characters. In addition to Mal and Zoe, crew and passengers on Serenity include:

"Wash" Warren (Alan Tudyk) is ship's pilot and Zoe's husband. He goes where his love goes, his personality alternating between a wacky sense of humor when at ease and extreme competence under pressure.

Inara Senna (Morena Baccarin) is a registered Companion, i.e. psychologist/counsellor/prostitute. Revered in some quarters as the highly trained, upper class professionals they are, condemned in others as common sluts, she rents one of Serenity's shuttles as her "office."

It's hard to see Adam Baldwin in a t-shirt and fatique pants and not think "Animal Mother," his role in Full Metal Jacket. Jayne Cobb is kind of like Animal Mother with the intensity control turned down from 10 to about 7, from absolute psychosis to extreme self-interest.

Kaylee aka Katwinnit Lee Frye (Jewel Staite) is ship's engineer, a charming gamine with a smudge of oil on her nose and a million mega-watt smile who's obviously, completely unaware she's beautiful and sexy.

Shortly into the first episode, Serenity takes on three passengers (extra cash and a cloak of respectability) who stay on as de facto crew themselves:

Two days out of an abbey, Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), a missionary, gets sucked into the world of Serenity. Problem: everyone else on board is either already religious or completely uninterested in what he's selling. The one exception, though he knows it not, is the most overtly anti-religious person on board, Mal Reynolds. Once extremely devout, Mal was a charismatic, inspired warrior who believed God was on his side in the fight against the Alliance. Since God betrayed him, he now hates God. Like the saying goes, "A cynic is a romantic who's been hurt."

Simon Tam (Sean Maher), a doctor, becomes ship's medic. Born to aristocratic wealth and privilege, he threw away both to rescue his sister from an Alliance "academy," an act that's left them both highly sought fugitives.

Finally there's River Tam (Summer Glau). Owning an IQ that looks like a zip code, Alliance experiments on her brain have (a) driven her insane, (b) unlocked psychic abilities.

Much has been written about the series pilot "Serenity" being the last episode aired due to network interference; how in Firefly Whedon takes conventions of the Western, transplanting them into outer space (the parallel between the Alliance Unification and the United States' Civil War is obvious); and how this DVD set includes every Firefly episode ever completed, even three not actually aired. So I won't discuss all that (I'm coming to end of my allotted 1,000 words); you can read about it elsewhere. I'll just say this is one of the best television shows ever, the DVD set is priced to own with hoards of cool "extras," and if you buy it, you will love it. 'Nuff said.

Editorial Review:

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 02/10/2009

Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Why Did This Die: Fox, You Morons 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Firefly, and its companion, Serenity, are worth your last dollar. Believable characters, great plots, outstanding writing. How do reality shows grind on and on whilst this gem was shoved to the back of the closet? It just proves that FOX can't see a diamond for the sand. Buy it, you'll love it.

This is just..............STUNNING!!!!!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I've watched my old FIREFLY series so many times I'm surprised they still play. I love this show! I wasn't expecting much from the BLU RAY disc, after all, this program was filmed in 2002. Well guess what..... this new disc is awesome!! The color and clarity make you feel like you are watching it for the first time. I'm actually seeing things in some scenes that I barely noticed before. This Blu ray is just an outstanding example of making a great show even better.

Beautiful 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Beatiful set; even the menu option is gorgeous. The new commentary on "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and the reunion brunch with Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Ron Glass should be enough for any Browncoat to make this purchase.

Editorial Review:

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/11/2008 Run time: 658 minutes Rating: Nr

2007 Japanese Tv Series: Hotaru No Hikari (Glow of Fireflies)

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Features:

• Language : Japanese
• Subtitle : Chinese / English

Editorial Review:

Synopsis Hotaru works for a famous interior design company. It's a glamorous job but Hotaru's private life is totally the opposite of glamorous. She lives alone, and when she isn't working she's mostly lazing about her rented house in training wear. She's not interested in men. In fact, she isn't interested in anything. "I'd rather lay around than fool around," is her motto. Her landlord is a bar owner, and one day his son, who has just separated from his wife, comes to inspect the rental property, not knowing that someone is living there. He is shocked at the mess, but not as shocked as Hotaru. He turns out to be her boss, Takano.

Firefly: The Series Disc 4

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Features:

• SCI-FI
• TV show
• Cult
• Western
• Adventure

Editorial Review:

This disc includes the following episodes: "Heart of Gold," "Object in Space" (with commentary) and "The Message" (with commentary). Additional bonus features include featurettes, deleted scenes, Alan Tudyk's audition, Joss singing the Firefly theme, set tours and more. Additional Actors: Melinda Clarke, Fredric Lehne, Kimberly McCullough, Richard Brooks, Jonathan M. Woodward

Firefly: The Series Disc 1

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Features:

• SCI-FI
• TV show
• Cult
• Western
• Adventure

Editorial Review:

This disc includes the following episodes: "The Train Job" (with commentary), "Bushwhacked" and "Serenity" (with commentary). Additional Actors: Gregg Henry, Tom Towles, Andrew Bryniarski, Michael Fairman, Mark Sheppard, Doug Savant, Carlos Jacott, Eddie Adams, Bonnie Bartlett

Firefly: The Series Disc 2

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Features:

• SCI-FI
• Adventure
• TV show
• Western

Editorial Review:

This disc includes the following episodes: "Shindig" (with commentary), "Safe," "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Jaynestown." Additional Actors: Mark Sheppard, Edward Atterton, Larry Drake, Isabella Hofmann, Scott Terra, John Thaddeus, Gary Werntz, Benito Martinez, Christina Hendricks, Gregory Itzin, Daniel Bess, Kevin Gage

Firefly: The Series Disc 3

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Features:

• SCI-FI
• TV show
• Adventure
• Cult
• Western

Editorial Review:

This disc includes the following episodes: "War Stories" (with commentary), "Ariel," "Out of Gas" (with commentary) and "Trash." Additional Actors: Michael Fairman, Katherine Kendall, Lyle Kanouse, Christina Hendricks, Dwier Brown

Firefly: The Series [Region 2]

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Another television show with great potential gets shot down 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I got both "Firefly: The Series" and the movie "Serenity" for Christmas. The former is the late lamented television show that was the brainchild of Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" (which explains why the title "Joss Whedon's 'Firefly'" appears a lot). The four-DVD set "Firefly: The Complete Series," includes all 15 episodes of the series, which is set 500 years in the future and reminds those of a sense of television history that "Star Trek" was originally sold as "Wagon Train" to the stars, because the western elements of this series are as strong as the science fiction elements.

Since this is a Joss Whedon creation the obvious question is what sort of twists did he put into this one? The most obvious is that this is a science fiction series without aliens. Apparently there was nobody out there after all (or else they are hiding really well). The other major twist is that in the future there were just two superpowers, the United States and China, which explains why the characters tend to curse in Chinese now and then. I think if more people had known that there was a television show that was more explicit that "South Park" that would have meant high enough ratings for "Firefly" to survive. Finally, you have to appreciate that if this is Western set in outer space it is one that existed after the Civil War. Clearly Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) has the die-hard spirit of a bitter Confederate veteran.

From my perspective the only real problem with "Firefly" is that it lacks a strong story arc for this abbreviated first season. I might be making too much of this, but one of the strengths of Whedon's other shows was that he always makes excellent use of story arcs, using by wedding a first half story arc to another one in the second half of season. The closest things we have to driving story arcs are (1) the mysterious Alliance forces trying to capture River (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher) and (2) Mal and Irana (Morena Baccarin) wasting time insulting each other instead of getting on to business (so to speak). Both of those are clearly there, but things were progressing too slowly for my taste. I know Whedon had some big payoff for the first one, but he was keeping it awfully close to the vest and if this revelation is not a major part of the planned movie, I will be totally surprised.

The strength of the series is in the characters of the crew, all of who are realized with some degree of depth. My favorite was Kaylee (Jewel Staite), who was smart as she was cute, a killer combination in my book. Captain Mal Reynolds was the most fully realized of the crew, mainly because he had a pivotal role in most of the episodes, but with the rest of the crew of "Serenity" you know there was more to come. We got a little of the back story on what Mal and Zoë (Gina Torres) did during the big war, and there was a flashback that told how Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) and the rest of the crew were hired on by Mal. But it is the secret behind River Tam's strange condition that is is going to be the key in everything that happens next, which you will now when you watch "Serenity." It was also great to see Ron Glass as another familiar face in the regular cast.

Of the 15 episodes collected here eight of them have commentary by various cast members (Fillion, Baccarin, Tudyk, and Staite) and writers (Whedon, Tim Minear, and Jane Espenson) and others. The additoinal special features include three behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, Alan Tudyk's audition, Joss Whedon singing the "Firefly" Theme, and a gag reel (the last three are actually three separate things). Each DVD comes with its own thin plastic CD box with shots of Mal Reynold, Shepard Book, Jayne Cobb, and Zoe Washburne posing in front of assorted nebulas on the respective covers (Notice that the alien landscape continues inside the slipcase).

The more I watch "Firefly" the more it grows on me (Kaylee is currently my favorite character with her combination of cuteness and competence, although after watching "Serenity" it is hard not to be totally captivated by Summer Glau's River). I just wish "Firefly" had not come at the expense of "Dark Angel" in terms of FOX's willingness to spend money on a show with a big special effects budget. The irony that both shows were gone before the 2002-03 season was half over is not lost on me either. In a much better world than this one both shows would have survived, but having neither is really the short end of the stick for fans of science fiction on television.