Disclaimer I: today’s article is spoiler free for Firefly. However, it does contain major spoilers of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.

Disclaimer II: do not watch Firefly. You have been warned.

A couple of days ago a friend of mine asked if I had finally watched the film “Serenity”. I gave him the same answer I’ve been giving for years: “I’m doing my best effort to avoid watching it, for as long as I can.”

I became acquianted with Firefly about nine years ago after reading several articles that praised it as arguably “The Best TV Series of All-Time.” It felt strange that I hadn’t heard about this show that was constantly rated 10/10 in almost every review I had read. Keep in mind that this was in 2007 -five years after Firefly had been cancelled-. I was initially skeptical of all the praise the show received. Normally I’m very skeptical when series and films are extremely overhyped, so to think that there was a TV show worth a 10 out of 10 ranking was kind of unthinkable. Then one Wednesday night I finally pulled myself together to watch episode one. Next thing I knew, I was at the end of episode fourteen -the last one of the series-. By that time it was dawn, the Sun had risen and I was late for work after having pulled an all-nighter. It didn’t matter though, because I had just finished watching The Best TV Show of All-Time.

Firefly was produced, filmed and aired during the fall of 2002. Its was created by Joss Whedon, who at the time had already been the successful creator of two great shows: Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Whedon of course as you may know, today rides the glorified surfboard of success carved by with the Marvel Universe, thanks to his involvement in directing the Avengers films.

Firefly’s cast starred a relatively unknown group of actors, but make no mistake: the unknown factor was inversely proportional to their performances on-screen. The plot was perhaps the most original, inventive, creative and unique idea seen on any television show up until that point, and -in my humble opinion, hold up even to this day. Everything else surrounding its production was nothing short of perfect. The attention to detail was particularly exquisite. Simply put, Firefly rightfully so deserves being called The Best Show of All Time, or in the worse case scenario, it deserves to be part of the conversation among other great shows that came after it. So why did such a great show fail back when it was airing in 2002?

For unknown reasons, it seems as if FOX Executives perceived that Firefly was the exact opposite of what everyone who has seen it think of it nowadays. Apparently, they didn’t understand the premise of the show and didn’t buy into the idea of having an extremely detailed and well-paced show with a deep character development that could be explored on for several seasons, similar to what we have today with Lost. They also didn’t understand the mixture of scenarios in a futuristic world that divided society and classes, kind of like we have today with Game of Thrones. They also probably couldn’t grasp the complex language spoken throughout the episodes and the implication (or lack thereof) that each line of dialogue had towards the plot, similar to what happens in Breaking Bad. They probably couldn’t believe that audiences would be able to live with the amount of suspense generated by the many cliffhangers the show had. And they probably couldn’t deal with the fast paced episodes where the characters are racing against the clock in order to survive, kind of like like it happens in 24. You probably noticed that all the shows I used as analogies, came after Firefly. I could go on…

It is not clear why when Firefly first aired, FOX Network Executives came up with a plan to ruin any chance it had to succeed right from the start. Something as simple as the order of the episodes was sabotaged by the network. Instead of airing the show’s first episode in its premiere, they aired the second episode. The following week, they aired episode #3, which was followed by episode #6. In the end, this is how FOX aired Firefly:

September 20, 2002: Episode #2September 27, 2002: Episode #3October 4, 2002: Episode #6October 11, 2002: -October 18, 2002: Episode #7Octobre 25, 2002: Episode #8November 1st, 2002: Episode #4November 8, 2002: Episode #5November 15, 2002: Episode #9November 22, 2002: -December 9, 2002: Episode #10December 13, 2002: Episode #14December 20, 2002: Episode #1

I am definitely no Television Executive, but I do know that when you air a sequenced episode plot driven show they way it was did by FOX -including airing the show’s Pilot/First episode last-, you’re pretty much setting up yourself for a monumental failure. Imagine if in Breaking Bad, Walter White was already killing the main antagonist in its second episode, or if Greg was already dead by the third episode of The Walking Dead. In addition to the episode airing disaster, FOX invested very lightly in the show’s marketing campaign, and most of the ads promoted it as an action/comedy show, instead of Sci-Fi/Adventure/Drama. Imagine if Game of Thrones‘ marketing campaign promoted the upcoming season as “Action/Comedy.”

Needless to say, Firefly’s ratings never took off, and after only airing eleven episodes, it was cancelled. The remaining three episodes were aired almost a year later in July of 2003. After that, Firefly was definitely gone forever, with its legacy now being carried on by 24, Breaking Bad, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, and even The Big Bang Theory.

Joss Whedon had planned Firefly to run for about four or five seasons, which makes sense when you see all episodes in the correct order. It was a show so ahead of its time the only parallel I can come up with is in terms of both production quality, profound complexity, variety of plots and social impact is Game of Thrones. It should be quite clear for anyone who watches its first season, that you there will be seven or eight more seasons. In contrast, Firefly’s fate can be summarized the following way: imagine you watch Game of Thrones’ first season, and all of a sudden with no warning, HBO cancels the show right after the Eddard Stark’s execution. That is exactly how every single person who has watched Firefly feels at the end of the fourteenth episode.

There are several reasons why every single person who watches Firefly, unavoidably rates the series a 10 out of 10. Apart from the plot, the high production values with careful attention to detail, there are many implicit and explicit motives to get hooked by the show. Even despite having less main characters than Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, the depth and complexity of Firefly’s characters is so unique and incredibly appealing, that viewers will easily find one of them to relate to.

Joss Whedon made several attempts with other networks to pick up where FOX had left Firefly off, but unfortunately none came to fruition. Fans also sent tens of thousands of petition letters to FOX and other networks to try to revive the show. Only Family Guy managed to achieve this rare feat. After three years of failed negotiations, Joss Whedon released a film called “Serenity“, which is supposed to be somewhat of a transition between season’s one finale and the possibility of an eventual second season. The movie is rated highly by most fans who have seen it, however it drags a terrible side-effect: if you have the pleasure of watching Firefly in the correct sequential order as it was intended to be seen, the final episode (#14) ends with a very ambiguous scene that makes Inception‘s ending look as clear as crystal water. There are also at least dozens of unanswered questions from both the main and side plots that leave you with no other option but to wonder what direction the would have the show gone. From my understanding, Serenity tries to answer the ambiguous ending of Firefly’s final episode and it also tries to answer at least some of the dozens of unanswered questions; it also tries to give the viewer a glimpse into which direction Firefly would have headed. However from my understanding -and as to be expected- most of what it delivers is not enough and falls short from wrapping the series as viewers were expecting.

The cruelty of watching Firefly (like I said, in the correct order) is that as every episode goes by, you think things are getting clearer and you are actually understanding the show better, only to find out that as each episode goes by, the plot deepens more and you desire of knowing what will happen next grows. By knowing that the show only has fourteen episodes, your subconscious can’t help but to do a mental countdown as move forward, and you beg that things will end up in a satisfying manner plot-wise speaking. Eventually as you approach the finale, your mind and your heart beg for the inevitable: the series not to end. That’s why I haven’t seen Serenity and most likely why I will never watch it.

So remember, whatever you do after reading this review and as stated at the top, do not watch Firefly, unless you want to be left with a huge open and unfinished chapter in your life, in which you will spend a considerable amount of time wondering what was going to happen to Mal, Zoe, Wash, Inara, Jayne, Kaylee, Simon, River and Book, had the series continued through all its seasons as Joss Whedon intended.

There are many things in life I don’t understand and probably never will.

One thing that stands above is, why was the best TV series of All-Time, cancelled and was never revived?

HR