I must be the only geek in the English-speaking world who’s never seen even a single second of the Firefly TV series. (My excuse: I was in Japan when it first aired.)
I finally fixed that problem by renting the series on DVD from Greencine. I just watched the first episode this evening, and I was quite impressed. Some notes:
- Exciting story, interesting characters, fine acting, great special effects (especially for a TV show), solid pacing.
- All-around top-notch production quality. Bonus: It appears to have been shot in HDTV. Very progressive for a 2002 show!
- Firefly is one of the few (only?) sci-fi shows that is set in outer space but has no aliens. (Not in the first episode, anyway.) I’m not sure if I like that or not.
- Whenever the camera cuts to a wide angle from space to observe a ship blasting off, there are absolutely no sound effects. This should make those who complain about realism in certain other sci-fi shows very happy.
- Why is it that whenever a spaceship visits some far-away planet, it happens to possess an Earth-like atmosphere and bear a striking resemblance to southern California?
THE FIREFLY CREW VISITS THE PLANET OF SAN BERNARDINO
All in all, this is a series no self-respecting sci-fi fan should miss. I wish I had gotten around to seeing it sooner.