Firefly Reviews

[rklenseth]

These are just some reviews on what people are saying about Firefly on Amazon.com.

Product Details

Starring: Nathan Fillion, See more

Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen

Rated: NR
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video

DVD Release Date: December 9, 2003
DVD Features:
14 episodes, including 3 that never aired

Commentary on Serenity Part 1 & 2, The Train Job, Shindig, Out of Gas, War Stories, Objects in Space, and The Message

Deleted scenes from Serenity, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Objects in Space

Featurettes: "Here's How How It Was: The Making of Firefly," "Serenity: The 10th Character," "Joss Tours the Set"

Alan Tudyk's audition

Gag reel

Joss sings the Firefly theme

Easter egg: Adam Baldwin sings "Hero of Canton"

Widescreen anamorphic format

Number of discs: 4

From IMDb: Quotes & Trivia
ASIN: B0000AQS0F

Average Customer Review: 5 Stars Based on 571 reviews. Write a review.

Amazon.com Sales Rank (DVD): 32

Popular in: United Kingdom (#10) , Canada (#18) . See more

Reviews:

The Definitive Space Western that wasn't, October 28, 2003
Reviewer: rothwyn (see more about me) from Nowheresville, OK, USA
Boy, Fox sure has a bad history of cancelling good shows. First Dark Angel got the axe after a second successful season, and now Firefly, the heir apparent to Buffy, never got a chance to stretch its wings.

Oh well, at least Wedon's making a movie, and until then, the DVD will more than tide over rabid fans. This thing is packed, even going so far as to include the 3 episodes that never made it to the air. And this series just feels at home on DVD, as it was aired in widescreen format. It also features the best visual effects that have ever graced a television show, and an ensemble cast that, in a few episodes, accomplish what some casts never do in 100 (Friends anyone?).

The intrigueing story of a ragtag group of outlaws in space makes for a compelling backdrop, and all the episodes play off of the characters, not just their struggles against the Space Mafia and the tyrannical Alliance, though these conflicts are certainly well done.

All in all, if you missed the show, pick this up, as it's a fun ride and will introduce you to the characters before they fly to the big screen next year. If you've seen the show. . . well, I don't need to tell you that this set is well worth the money.


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171 of 191 people found the following review helpful:

You can't take the skies from me, October 17, 2003
Reviewer: A viewer from Washington, DC United States
Firefly was a show that came on the heels of Fox's usual brilliant decision-making--right after it cancelled my beloved Dark Angel. I first thought this show would be awful, but I sat down and watched it--and it was love. Truly. It's rare to find a show that can be taken seriously that also made me laugh out loud in every episode. The writing was extraordinary, and the actors/actresses were absolute gold. It was really like watching a movie each time around. Yet again, Fox shot itself in the foot and iced another good show. Nonetheless, at least the DVD is soon to come. At least they had the decency to do that. Come on, sing it with me: "Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. But I don't care--I'm still free. You can't take the skies from me..."


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Customer Reviews



Remarkable, February 2, 2004
Reviewer: A viewer from Winter Park, Florida USA
I saw the last two episodes of 'Firefly' when they were aired; laughed hysterically, marvelled at the fabulous smart writing-and then realized immediately that Fox would cancel it. 'Smart' is not something that Fox aims for with it's programming-and that's a shame. Fox had something approaching the quality of M*A*S*H on their hands with 'Firefly' and they missed it entirely.
I gave 5 copies of 'Firefly' as gifts this Christmas; and 4 of those people have bought copies just to lend out to others who also missed the show because Fox shuffled it around so much...we're talking an age range here from 25 to 50.
That implies a huge, diverse audience just waiting for more.


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Took a chance on the DVD and if really paid off!, February 2, 2004
Reviewer: A viewer from Winston Salem, NC USA
I missed this series when it aired but took a chance on the DVD because of Joss Whedon's track record and the number of good reviews it garnered on this site. What a great series, mainly because it had a great, ensemble cast. The network really screwed up by not showing the pilot first. The show works as a sci/fi western but is so much better when you get into the characters and their histories. I think that the episodes "Out of Gas" and "Objects in Space" were two on the finest hours of TV I have seen. Sign me up if this series goes direct to DVD.


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the triumph of hope over adversity?, February 2, 2004
Reviewer: redaly22 from Ithaca, NY United States
despite the poor treatment this show recieved from fox (broadcast in the worst possible time-slot for its demographic, episodes aired out of order), it was still a quality production from start to finish. the setting was unusual, and one of the better conceived on tv, ESPECIALLY in that all of the details were not given exposition, they were simply presented and left, as in a real world history would not be explained to people who should, presumably, already know it. the characters were developing nicely, to the extent that, as with whedon's other shows, a line written for one character and given to another was apparent. when watching the episodes in order on the dvd, all of this becomes more apparent, as do the skills of the actors. while firefly was not yet the best show on television, that was simply because it was not allowed the time to mature: when a show begins with this degree of writing, acting, and innovation, where can it not go? of course, sadly for all those viewers who loved firefly, and all the unfortunates who would have loved it had they been able to watch it, we may never know (unless the movie does get made). still, the dvd is one of the best out there, with interesting commentaries, extra scenes, and a gag reel.


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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Once you've been to Serenity, you never leave., February 2, 2004
Reviewer: davidtreese2 from Louisville, KY United States
The hero of sci-fi, the man they call Joss, wrote a great story but got screwed by Fox.
My girlfriend bought me this DVD set for my birthday. I had forgotten just how much I liked the series until I sat down and watched the first six episodes without stopping. I lost way too much sleep last week, and I still haven't seen the special features. I'm just glad the girl knows me better than I know myself.
You can hate science fiction, and you can hate westerns (both of which I love), but it's impossible to hate the characters Whedon has created for Firefly. Each and every character has such a well-developed back-story that you can't help but find them all incredibly interesting. Combined with the wicked sense of humor possessed by the writing team, this made for some great television.
This has been discussed by other reviewers already, but I would like to address what happened with the programming of the show. As with other popular shows that have been ruined by programming execs (think Titus), it's hard to get a following when viewers don't know from one week to the next when the show will air. On top of that, showing the pilot halfway through (or what wound up being the end of) the season tells me that the execs were never really committed to the show. Whedon is an established writer who is great at long-term plot development, and they should have gone with his sequencing. Instead, the network Foxed up everything from the get-go. That's okay, though. Ain't no power in the Verse can stop us from likin' Mal Reynolds and his crew.


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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

~Buy this series!!~, February 2, 2004
Reviewer: A viewer from Grand Rapids, MI United States
This is a gem of a series. It's a fresh idea, built upon the idea of a western conversly set against future space travel. It's such a great idea, and a shame that Firefly and the Anime title Cowboy Bebop don't get more viewer attention than they do.

I highly recommend this series and hope that once you view it, you will too.

Buy Firefly!
Support Firefly!
Save Firefly!


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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Shiny, February 1, 2004
Reviewer: A viewer from FPO, AP United States
That's one of things you'll learn the meaning of from this enjoyable Joss Whedon ( Buffy, Angel) production. Throw out your concept of a Science Fiction series, because it isn't about the alien of the week or big space battles, heck it only has one episode with a laser gun. It's a well written, character driven, thought provoking tv show about people who are just trying to make ends meet, not rule the galaxy, nor explore strange new worlds...even though there's nothing wrong with that. Bottom line is you'll love this series and wonder what momentary lapse of judgement occured at Fox to let this gem of a series go down the tubes.


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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

so good you will weep - because it died young, February 1, 2004
Reviewer: cynsa (see more about me) from San Francisco, CA USA
This series could have been Joss' best--there are so many
possibilities in the characters and what we can see of the
beginnings of their arcs. The writing, the ensemble cast, the
production style, the effects, the ship itself, all are
fantastic. The DVD is in widescreen, too, so you can see it as
the producers and directors intended it. It is beautiful, and
clunky, and riveting, just like a tin can in space. And it is
truthful about human emotion and experience in a way that few tv
shows try to be.

While I watched the DVDs, and especially the episodes that had
remained unaired, I was overwhelmed with sadness that this
series was killed by the ebil fox empire. Why producers continue
to work with Fox is beyond me. They seem to buy up great
material just so they can submarine it.

My only complaint about the DVDs themselves is the music
they chose for the menus. It really isn't moody and evocative
enough.

If you haven't seen this DVD/series, buy it immediately. You
will want to watch it again and again. And who knows, again,
when the movie comes out. We can only hope.


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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Fantastic Series, February 1, 2004
Reviewer: A viewer from Daytona Beach FL United States
In an era of "dumbed down" television and reality shows Firefly offers an excellent example of what television could be. This series contains everything a person could want in a quality television program, from action and adventure, to comedy and romance. Unfortunately this series was given an unfair chance by the Fox network. The first episode of the series gave much background and provided an excellent opening, however due to the intervention of Fox executives this was the last episode ever aired. Also contributing to the poor ratings is the tendency of Fox to have inconsistent scheduling from week to week.

One of the most appealing aspects of this show was the ability of the story lines to remain in the realm of possibility. The common description of this series as a "Space Western" may be partially correct; however the western feel may be more a side effect of what the harsh life at the far reaches of space would likely involve, than it is an intentional goal of Firefly's writers. Another excellent feature of the show is that it respected the laws of physics. This was demonstrated by the difficulties the crew encountered while traveling through space, and the fact that the show had no sound effects for scenes in outer space. While accuracies like these may seem to be small points, they really help the viewer to not feel like they are simply watching another show dumbed down for the masses.

This series had a fascinating style for presenting scenes to the viewer. While hard to imagine, the intentionally imperfect camera work turned the series into a work of art. The unconventional use of different camera angles, misfocusing, zooming, and intentionally misframed shots gave the viewer the sense of actually being in the action. This is far different from the perfect, sterilized, removed shots that could be expected from a show like "Star Trek". Also amazingly the creators continued using intentional imperfections in computer generated scenes, which blended perfectly with the rest of the show and furthered the feeling of being in the action.
Obviously a show cannot succeed on its technical aspects alone.

Every episode of Firefly delivers an amazing story, often complicated and full of plot twists. With nine characters all contributing an important role, the series possesses an endless ability to keep the viewer mesmerized.


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[rklenseth]

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