"Hey Netflix: It’s Time to Bring Back Firefly" Topic

"All right, Netflix and Amazon and Vimeo and every other streaming service out there are hungry for original content: It's time to stop screwing around and give Firefly the second season it deserves.

This past weekend at New York Comic Con, the majority of the cast was on hand for a reunion panel, and 3,000 honorary crewmembers of the good ship Serenity packed in to watch the most beloved TV stars in the ‘verse trade anecdotes (Nathan Fillion is a thief) and express their desire to do a second season of the cult favorite show … if they could just get the chance.

And now, we forcefully shout, is the time for that chance! When Firefly was cancelled in 2003, TV just wasn't ready for Joss Whedon's ultra-charming space western. It was his first time producing an original series and his first venture that didn't have anything to do with a mythology built around Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But despite moving his Whedon-esque sensibilities into completely new territory the guy produced a fantastic, unique show populated by incredibly likable characters who lived in the future but talked like they were in Tombstone. It was fresh and entertaining and had a stellar cast, but not enough people got it, so Fox cancelled the show after just 13 episodes.

But come on, that was 12 years ago and TV is a wildly different environment than it was when Captain Mal and his Browncoats entered our lives. First of all, Firefly was pre-DVR. Yeah, TiVo debuted in 1999 but digitally recording your favorite shows to binge-watch four at a time was not a thing back then, and there was no significant next-day watch tracking in 2002. It was a big enough hurdle just to exist as a savvy science fiction show on Fox's primary network, and getting buried on Friday night meant it was handicapped right from the start. If the show had the benefit of delayed viewing, or had aired on a network like SyFy where it was actually reaching the right audience for its time, Firefly would have had a much different future than the one-and-done run it was given…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Kickstarter?

Firefly…I think you mean Viagra at this late a remove.

Even Nate Filion is becoming paunchy.

I agree, the realistic chance of a second season sailed years ago. The cast is too old now to believably pick up where they left off, and I doubt a re-casted show would attract the fans. And let's not forget hey killed off a pair of characters in the movie.

I know it would never be the same, but I am surprised no one has tried a Firefly-like series set in the same universe directed by Joss (unless he is "done" with it) and set with different stars but the same overall tone.

I loved Firefly and 10 years ago I would have been hyped about the possibility of it coming back. Now on the other hand I wouldn't bother to give a revival a chance – it's time is past.

Never saw what all the fuss was about this show. I've tried to get into it each time they re-run it, but it's cowboys in space and my mind just screams "No it's silly!!".

Defiance was so much better.

I disagree with the naysayers. Yeah, Nathan needs a personal trainer, but it ain't about the look, it's about the character. Look at Shatner and Nimoy; their best moments came in a movie filmed over 20 years after their show's demise (The Wrath of Khan). If you've got the right writer and the right director, the actors have the caliber to pull the show off. Heck, it could be that they made a big score after/instead of the events of The Movie That Didn't Happen, but their private paradises have turned sour, and Mal has to pull his beloved ship out of mothballs and reclaim his crew. Or it's just the same old song, still going on, the crew still working to "just keep flying," and we're catching up with them years later. (Heck, that probably works better).

Yes, it sucks that the two who are dead are dead, but it's not past the abilities/connections of one of them to have faked the final demise part of that demise, and the other… well, though I think that death was cheap and pointless (and overblown in how it happened), that character wasn't really as central to the show as the others, and the death offers the possibility to explore how one major character deals with the grief of that loss.

I think the idea is doable, but you've got to have a writer and director who wants to do it. I suspect that Whedon himself has moved on. That doesn't preclude a talented and passionate writer/director (singularly or a duo) from picking up where he left off and going forward, but it can still change the nature of the show.

On a side note, I've read the Whedon collaboration graphic novels that are pre-Serenity, and I've got the post-Serenity one to follow up with, but I've noticed that Mal is darker and meaner in some ways than the series— he's the Mal of the pilot more than the "jovial" Mal of the series. Frankly, I think most of the fans appreciate the latter approach, and it suits Fillion's acting style more. That was the one decision that the Fox executives got right; my concern is whether, removed from that oversight constraint, a Netflix version would maintain that important distinction.
Also, I would hope they would stick within the reasonable network restraints on certain graphic elements. The show danced on the edge with some of the "adult" material, and I think it would be a grave mistake to go any further in that direction, both with visuals and language. But the temptation to do "whatever we want" is a big one in the visual entertainment industry, sometimes without consideration of whether it really contributes to the story. On somethings, implied is better than depicted. I'd like to see that at least minimal standard maintained.

But I remain of the opinion that a return is viable and doable, provided the will and passion exists among the various creative talents to do it.

I never saw the original TV series but I did watch the movie. Based on the movie I would have no interest in a TV series. Is the movie representative of the TV show? I really like SF but this one did not do it for me.

The show is far superior to the movie, with considerably more humor and heart. In fact, if you haven't seen ths show, much of the movie probably left you thinking "Who are these people? Why should I care about them? What's with the creepy girl who fights people? Why are there fast space zombies?" (Okay, the movie answered that one. Badly.)

Basically, it's the story of a tramp freighter and crew who make a living as best they can (and often illegally), while dodging an oppressive centralized interplanetary government AND interplanetary mobsters and space pirates (and, uh, not-undead space zombies). But it's also about family, and how disparate people with very different personalities and purposes can nevertheless become one.
And, lastly, it's also Whedon's homage to Traveller (there's even an oblique reference to the game in the pilot), particulary a ragtag crew who "ply the space-lanes in a decrepit free trader… dreaming of the deal to end all deals." (From the LBB version of the game).
It's not hard science fiction by any means, but as a space adventure, it's one of the best.
My recs to people are to watch the series, Pilot first, and "Out of Gas" last, and never, ever, ever watch the movie.

Totally agree with you Parzival!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Great series and a great movie.

Watch the series first, then watch the movie.

So many good lines, you can't remember them all.

As for another TV series, I'd love to have it come together, but I think I'll see flying pigs first.

or if you are Brazilian, smoking snakes.

My vision of the RPG Traveller

Duane

Well, Joss Whedon did play traveller in college …

It would still be better than a lot of todays shows, still amazed it didn't catch on in the US, as previously mentioned cowboys in space (remember Star Wars has been described as a western in space)after a civil war… awesome dialogue what was not to like? showing episode 3 first instead of the pilot didn't help.