Comment by idiotsecant
8 days ago
I am honestly baffled by how much people love firefly. I don't get it. It's a slightly campy western-style scifi. It's not bad but it's not 'still talking about it for the next few decades' material IMO. Theres a zillion littl scifi channel series with essentially the same quality as far as I can figure.
Do you have some examples? Because honestly I put Firefly very high on my list of shows I like.
The setting is great, the writing is top-notch, and the acting is wonderful. The characters have great chemistry. It's funny.
The general universe is well done too. It lacks endless implausible human-shaped aliens and is light on space magic, which is nice. Overall it feels lived-in and there is some interesting history.
Honestly it's hard to think of another space-western style series that I'd rate so highly. I guess parts of the Mandalorian fit the bill, but I wouldn't rank it up there with Firefly.
Good drama, good humor, good characters, and a very cozy feel in those quiet moments on the ship between things.
In contrast to the sibling comment, I fell in love with the series before I knew it had been canceled. When I finished season 1, I immediately went in search of season 2. When I couldn’t find it, I went to find out when it was going to be released. Discovering what had happened to it was tremendously disappointing.
It's because it was killed before it's time, and there was a known plan for the overall story arc (which was at least semi-satisfied by Serenity). It had developed a fan base that were hungry for more, and then it was cancelled, leaving a great thirst.
Had it lasted three seasons (or even only two), and still been 'cancelled before it's time' it would have faded from memory more quickly because the itch would have been scratched more satisfyingly.
It was good for it's time, and since it was cancelled it's locked within that time. How it translates against modern television is yet to be seen. However, the popularity of The Mandalorian means there is still a market for the Sci-fi Western.
(I liked parts of The Mandalorian, but it went downhill pretty fast in terms of ... everything. I like the sci-fi western thing - it's not serious, but it can touch serious-ness. The Expanse was serious, and touched some Western/Frontier sci-fi)
Before SyFy self-imploded a decade ago it had multiple “ragtag rogues adventure across a sci-fi setting with frontier elements” - Dark Matter, Killjoys, Defiance. Feels like the subgenre Firefly occupied is well-settled by now.
Not for me. It scratches a very specific itch that hasn’t been replicated since. Which is probably a good indication it won’t work for this show either.
like which ones, let's get concrete here
Like what? Maybe I'm missing some great shows.
Firefly has memorable characters, great acting/actors, and good chemistry and good writing. And it's especially memorable because the show got fucked over so people can imagine a lot more greatness than was delivered.
What are the sci-fi channel series?