Firefly Blu-ray Review

• 19th Sep 2011

Joss Whedon was pretty much king of television back in this day. Quite how he managed to bomb out with Firefly is anyone’s guess. Was it bad programming? Was the programme itself bad? Was the audience just not ready or in the mood? Either – something went bad for firefly. It lasted, barely a short season before being given the boot. It’s a wonder how Battlestar Galactica manged to just about stay afloat for 4 seasons after this.

Anyway, Malcolm Reynolds is captain of the boat. Clearly he’s a Han Solo type of anti-hero (and this guy really will keep shooting first. Although perhaps in 10 years time Whedon can go back and tweek the show to make Mal more of a humanist and goody two-shoes type of hero. The Lucas treatment).

The rag tag of assorted characters played with relish by each actor really makes the show work. The consistent crisscrossing of sci-fi and the western do give the show a little more originality to its themes. Although really when you think about it – much of Sci-fi is very similar to the western anyway. This gives you the visual reference as well.

Of all the shows there are of course going to be highlights, but there are also a few bad eggs in the bag that haven’t dated as well. And it’s due to these that I’m glad the show didn’t go on as I can only see a show that is yet another mixture of highs and lows which is hardly groundbreaking television.

What i am glad about is that Whedon and co managed the miracle of making the sequel in film format, because it truly is a fantastic film.

The Blu-ray treatment has been given to the show, and whilst it pretty, much carries over every extra from the DVD release, you do get the odd little extra here. If you want the show to look even better than it has before, and enjoyed the extras first time round then this is worth the upgrade.

Steven Hurst