Firefly – The Complete
Series (20th Century Fox DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: A+
Film: A
NOTE: This series has also been issued on Blu-ray,
which you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7926/Firefly+–+The+Complete+Series+(20
Now, the
original DVD-Video release coverage:
New and innovative science fiction television
doesn’t come along that often, but when it does, history has shown that folks
don’t always notice the first time around.
In 2002, Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon brought
a series to Fox that masterfully blended elements of the classic Western with
hard Science Fiction and a remarkable ensemble cast. That series was Firefly, and it
accomplished more in fourteen hour-long episodes than most science fiction
television shows have done during their entire multi-year runs. Of course this begs the obvious question, why
did the show fail? Quite simply, not
enough people watched.
Who can understand the vagaries of the television
ratings system? The bottom line was that
despite being as smart, slick, and spirited as anything produced for the genre
over the last ten years, Firefly failed. Now, amidst talk of a possible feature film
revival, Fox has released a 4-disc DVD collection of the show totaling 14
episodes (3 of them unaired) and loaded with enough extras to make even the
most cynical consumer stop and take notice.
So much so, in fact, that the series joined Fox’s incredible animated
series Family Guy as a surprise hit
on DVD, so now everyone is seeing what they were missing and the title is
experiencing brisk sales.
Of course, there are elements of Fantasy and
Adventure genre throughout, but they are not carelessly mixed in. The creators of the series really thought the
show out. In it, we join the human race
half a millennium from today in the future, where the crew of the good space
ship Serenity travel all over to survive, finding food, water and whatever they
can. Like a Professional Western, they
are in it for the money (and survival), which means there is a new “legitimate”
force who wants them out of business and competitors, including a group of
cannibals. Each episode gets much
mileage out of this set-up, which never feels like it is repeating anything
we’ve seen before, no matter how familiar.
The DVD performance is one of the reasons for the
rewatchability, on top of the storytelling and action, of course. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Pro Logic-type Surround
sound on this set is remarkable, but newcomers to the show shouldn’t be alarmed
when the gorgeously digitized space explosions produce no noise—Whedon and crew
stuck to their guns on the show’s “hard” sci-fi tone, and everybody knows that
there is no sound in a vacuum. The
images on this collection are as sharp as the sound, but look better than the
broadcast of the show could hope to offer, at an anamorphically-enhanced 1.78 X
1 aspect ratio.
The collection is loaded with extras, including
numerous commentaries on individual episodes, deleted scenes, gag reels, and a
number of other great features. In all, Firefly
totals 675 minutes of damn-good sci-fi entertainment. Watching episodes and extras in this boxed set
certainly leaves one wanting more, and hoping that rumors of a Firefly
feature-film are more than just idle talk.
Those breakthrough sales can only help that happen.
- Scott R.
Pyle
