STUDIO: Fox
RELEASE DATE: November 11, 2008
STARRING: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, and Jewel Staite
CREATED BY: Joss Whedon
FEATURES: All-New Firely Cast Roundtable: Lunch with Joss, Nathan, Alan and Ron Featurette (HD)
Audio Commentary on Selected Episodes (Including a New BD Exclusive Track)
"Here's How It Was: The Making of 'Firefly'"
"Serenity: The 10th Character"
"Joss Sings the “Firefly” Theme"
"Joss Tours the Set"
Deleted Scenes
Gag Reel
Alan Tudyk’s Audition

One of the most common inclusions on "brilliant-but-canceled" lists is Joss Whedon's insanely good Firefly, but it's almost a back-handed compliment. Shows like Profit and Grosse Pointe end up on these lists under the set-up of "well, they would have been great, if the network had given them time." The thing is that Firefly may have only produced 14 episodes (some of which never even aired) but it's different than a lot of the "brilliant-but-" shows in that it's "brilliant-period". A lot of the shows on these lists make it because they were cancelled too soon and we didn't get to see their potential. We saw the potential of Firefly in the 665 minutes that were produced. It's a show that looks even more amazing a few years down the road and in a flawless new Blu-Ray set. Some recent shows are great partly because you can already feel their influence - The Sopranos, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24. But even more unique are the shows that are great because they did something that no one else has been able to replicate since. There is NOTHING in the world of comedy as smart and clever as Arrested Development and, sorry BSG fans, there's nothing the world of science fiction that compares to Firefly. Don't believe me? Watch the complete series, now on Blu-Ray, and you'll see I'm right. Firefly stands alone.

What made Firefly different? To start, it was a futuristic series with people like you and me. Whedon and his team (which included great TV writers like Jane Espenson and Tim Minear, who would go on to BSG and Wonderfalls, respectively, among many others) created a vision of the future that included many of the same problems as those of today. Firefly is about a group of struggling against a cruel universe instead of just a cruel world. The problems of humanity won't be that distinctly different than they are now - they'll just be spread out over planets instead of continents. And this vision of a new frontier fits perfectly into the Western genre, which was always about men and women moving into new areas of the world with the same problems. The title of the show refers to a class of spaceship. This time it's the Serenity and its cargo is a group of men and women just struggling to take any job to make space ends meet. Things get complicated when the Serenity is faced with a moral decision to save the life of a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. They're on the run, working for every penny, and fighting pure evil in the form of both the flesh-eating Reavers and the Alliance. Well-written, perfectly cast, and totally original - Firefly is a classic, cancelled or not.

The Blu-Ray release of Firefly could have easily just been a port of the standard edition and fans would have picked it up just to have their favorite characters from the show in 1080p HD and to hear Whedon's amazing ear for dialogue in DTS HD 5.1 Master Audio but they actually include a copuple of new special features. It's not overwhelming. It's not like there's a lost episode in Whedon's closet or a new adventure. But fans will find a new cast roundtable featuring Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Ron Glass along with a brand new commentary track. All of the old special features including the featurettes, deleted scenes, and gag reel are included as well. Commentaries include Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion on "Serenity (Part 1 & 2)", Whedon and Tim Minear on "The Train Job", Jane Espenson, Morena Baccarin, and costume designer Shawna Trpcic on "Shindig", Minear and director David Solomon on "Out of Gas", Fillion and Alan Tudyk on "War Stories", Tudyk and Jewel Staite on "The Message", Whedon on "Objects in Space", and the all-new BD exclusive track with Whedon, Fillion, Tudyk, and Ron Glass on "Our Mrs. Reynolds".