Ok, I got the DVD yesterday. And I've just got to say, WOW!!! My love for this show has just gotten huge. It's up there with my love for Buffy and Angel. I cannot express how brilliant this show is. I'd only seen a couple of episodes - downloaded, crappy quality - in the wrong order before this DVD. I didn't know anything about it, but I liked it. I thought it had an interesting quality, and was a good watch, but wasn't anything special. How wrong I was.
The first thing I did when I got this DVD was to watch Serenity, the unaired 2 part pilot, which was pulled because FOX wanted more of an action packed pilot to draw viewers in. This was, in my opinion, the worst mistake FOX could have made. Serenity is art. It's comedy, drama, horror, action, supsense, everything rolled into one. It really is the most powerful pilot I've ever seen created on Television. The chemistry that the whole crew has just makes you feel welcome, and the handheld style of the camera brings you into the ship more and makes you feel part of it. The humour coming out of every character, Wash and Jayne especially, is fantastic and really lightens the mood. But that can change in an instant, and the suspense in the second part when the Reavers are flying close is just incredible, and with the combination of the music, acting, writing and directing, makes for a very intense scene.
Every single one of the cast shines. They all have their moments throughout the pilot, and moreso in future episodes. Every character interacting makes for some very touching scenes. Kaylee in many ways represents Willow or Fred from Joss's other shows. He seems to always create a character who has the heart, the person who, if she's sad, we're sad, if she likes a character, we like the character. So much so that when she's shot by the Fed (Carlos Jacott who's appeared in all three of Joss's shows), the audience feels exceptionally moved and can feel the pain of every one of the cast. It is this moment that you realise that although they may joke and fight, there is a family vibe coming from the entire crew, and all of them, even Jayne, have a deep caring for the others.
The decision of Joss to include an ensemble of 9 characters was a risky one, as often with this many characters it's hard to include them all in an episode, but it pays off, as much of the episodes are spent on Serenity itself, so very little guest stars are used, except when they visit another planet. So a large cast is needed to create some interaction and tension between everyone.
One thing I have to ask everyone who has the DVD to do (and if you don't have the DVD, get it) is to watch the featurette on the 4th disk, called Here's How It Was. It's a particularly moving featurette, and you can see that every single person who had a part in the making of Firefly truly loved it, and they all speak from the heart. It's extremely touching to watch, and just makes the fact that the show was cancelled all the more tragic. Even moreso than, yes, I'll say it, Angel's cancellation. Firefly was never given the chance to shine, and to evolve, and yet, in just 14 episodes, Joss and the rest of the cast and crew manage to make to you feel every emotion you thought possible in the most extreme way. Much of this is in Serenity, the pilot, and throughout the rest of the series you see the potential the show had. I can't believe that I'm even saying the word potential, as Firefly had already proved itself as a fantastic show, which I believe could have surpassed Buffy, and even Angel, given the chance. Some of the episodes in what you have to remember is the first season, are more powerful than almost every other show could manage after five seasons. Had Firefly been given the chance, I believe it could have become a true classic, one of the best shows in existence.
Listening to the commentaries alone, makes you just realise how well these people got along, on and off stage. They were all incredibly close, and clearly were all very upset to see the show end. Thankfully, thanks to the fans, and the hard work of Joss, we'll see Firefly come back as a movie, called Serenity, which should be going into production soon. But whether it succeeds or not is another question. One that I won't worry about for a while yet. Something I'm grateful for is not seeing many of the episodes before I got this set. I'm able to watch them now, not knowing anything, in the order they were meant to be shown, being shown in widescreen as Joss had intended, and even with one scene cut from an episode when it had been included in the broadcast version, as Joss felt there was no need for it. But as I was saying, the commentaries and extra's showing behind the scenes moments just shows how close the whole cast were, and there's even interviews where it shows how they were all on set, even when one of the cast had no scene to film, they would go along to the sets, simply because they didn't want to be in their trailers knowing how much fun was being had filming.
I can't express enough how much I love this show, and seeing it the way Joss wanted it is a blessing. It's incredibly sad to know that the show was cancelled after such terrible treatment, but knowing that the effort the fans, cast and crew have gone to has paid off is just fantastic. I think Ron Glass said it best in one of the featurettes, when he said "I look forward to the day when I can think back to my memories of Firefly, and not cry".
Written by Jag at Dusk 'til Dawn Posting Board |
