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Firefly: The Complete Series
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (14th March 2009). |
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The Film
 Making a name in television is typically associated with different actors who have either become faces on other TV shows or in films, yet from a production side of things there aren’t too many producers, writers or directors who have made their name through television. The more recent crop would point to J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof of “Lost” (2004-2010) fame, though Lindelof’s name is far less common in terms of branding. Yet one man has the ability to command a rabid, hungry fan-base to any project he touches or puts his name near creating an almost guaranteed cult hit. Making his name through “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003) and it’s spin-off “Angel” (1999-2005), Joss Whedon commands an undeniable presence through his unique voice and engaging characters that utilize their ensemble casts incredibly effectively, despite two of his series’ being named after the primary character. His shortest lived outing into television came in 2002, still during production of “Angel” and “Buffy,” with the sci-fi/western drama “Firefly” (2002-2003) that created an original world of cowboys in space that actually worked to perfection. The show takes place over 500 years in the future when people have colonized space, overseen by a grouping of planets known only as 'The Alliance,' whose mission was to unify the disparate colonies under one government. However not everyone took kindly to the expansion and few joined the Independents, colloquially known as Browncoats, to fight against the expansion of these central powers. Though the independents were defeated, former browncoat Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) still tries to live off the grid of the alliance in his ship Serenity; running odd missions and mostly criminal jobs to keeps his crew going outside of Alliance control. After a few years of running odd jobs and missions, Mal and his crew still scrap along from job to job until they pick up Simon Tam (Sean Maher) who has recently freed his sister River (Summer Glau) from Alliance experimentations, bringing some shady characters on their trail as they try to survive on these outer worlds that are, in ways, technologically advanced, though their lifestyles tend to resemble the old west. It’s hard to get at what draws to the show and makes it so successful other than focusing in on the incredibly strong cast of characters on the ship and the actors brought in to play their roles. Nathan Fillion is a huge discovery, pulling him out of random guest spots and appearances in sitcoms and film (notably, ‘Guy’ on an episode of “Spin City” (1996-2002)), to show his incredible acting chops and ability to carry entire episodes on his own. Gina Torres gives a strong performance as second in command Zoe, beautiful and deadly, as do Alan Tudyk as Wash the pilot, Morena Baccarin as companion (aka space courtesan) Inara Serra, Adam Baldwin as hilarious hitman Jayne Cobb, Jewel Saite as mechanic Kaylee Frye, Ron Glass as Derrial Book along with Glau and Maher to form a supercrew of actors that form an incredible crew. But at the core of it all is Whedon’s incredible writing talent to craft a universe where he and other writers can create incredibly compelling drama in episodes like “The Message” mixed with hilarious jokes and comedy in episodes like “Jaynestown.” Though it only ran for 13 episodes, it’s an incredibly solid showing that creates true depth of character and setting that have existed well beyond the show itself. The episodes may have originally aired out of order and cluttered along the schedule, most often fixed to the Friday night ‘death slot’ that helped to kill the show, the DVD and now Blu-Ray presentations have restored the proper story arcs to the show that had such incredible potential that it spawned a feature length film out of a cancelled series. Overall, “Firefly” is a wonderful example of the incredible potential of television to craft compelling characters and storylines, even in the show’s fairly limited run. The verse that Whedon created solidifies his ability as one of he best television creators to ever bring a show to pilot and “Firefly” itself is one of the best, if short lived, shows to be broadcast on network or cable television. The episodes are presented in the chronological order they were intended to appear in, rather than the order in which they were broadcast, which go as follows: “Serenity – Parts 1 & 2” “The Train Job” “Bushwacked” “Shindig” “Safe” “Our Mrs. Reynolds” “Jaynestown” “Out of Gas” “Ariel” “War Stories” “Trash” “The Message” “Heart of Gold” “Objects in Space”
Video
The series is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with AVC MPEG-4 encoding @ 19.35 mbps 1080p 24/fps and the transfer looks great. After watching most episodes of “Firefly” on TV and all of them on DVD, it’s easy to see why blu-ray is such a superior format: the images appear incredibly crisp while keeping the grain and texture that give the show it’s more western grit. Really the biggest beneficiaries of the blu-ray conversion are the production designers as all the details of the ship, all the dirt, wear and tear that have been carefully placed into Serenity to make her feel like a lived in spaceship, the long term home for the crew.
Audio
There's audio in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixed at 48kHz/24-bit track, There’s also alternate audio tracks in German DTS 5.1, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 2.0 surround. Again the DTS-HD track presents a wonderful upgrade to the sound for a show that also has great sound design. Between the twangy guitar to signal the movements of the spaceship to the different chatter on worlds and the little noises of the ship, the transfer really brings out the noises of the show to the great score by Greg Edmundson. There are English, Spanish and Dutch subtitles.
Extras
The 3-disc series set carries over many of the special features from the DVD set, though adds in a new audio commentary and featurette, making for 8 audio commentaries, 6 featurettes, 4 deleted scenes, gag reel and bonus trailers. DISC ONE: First up is the audio commentary on the pilot “Serenity – Parts 1 & 2” with executive producer Joss Whedon and actor Nathan Fillion which is a wonderful example of what a great commentary should be. Fillion and Whedon do a great job of just bantering back and forth about all the little behind the scenes stories while bringing humor and talking through the entire episode rather than letting the conversation drop out or become disinteresting. They spend a fair amount of time making fun of eachother and some of the actors, bringing up Fillion’s pants fairly frequently. The next audio commentary comes on “The Train Job” with executive producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear, where the two talk about how the network asked them to create this episode after the pilot was deemed too confusing. Minear and Whedon again do a great job of bantering and bringing up jokes throughout the entirety of the episode along with some great behind the scenes sort of information talking about the actors and all the guest spots and extras that showed up in the episode. Finally is the audio commentary on “Shindig” with writer Jane Espenson, actress Morena Baccarin and costume designer Shawna Trpcic. The commentary trio on this episode provides a great variety of perspectives on the show with Trpcic bringing in some really interesting points about designing the different costumes and how they created this cross-cultural amalgamation of clothing from different areas and timepeirods to help create the fancy dress ball, along with some great points from Espenson about writing the episode, how involved Joss was with the day to day writing of episodes and Baccarin’s perspective on her lines and character. “Here’s How it Was: The Making of Firefly” runs for 28 minutes and 39 seconds. This fairly expansive making-of featurette covers the production of the series with a great amount of a bearded Joss on set filming the show and directing different episodes, contrasted against interviews with Whedon, Fillion, Torres and the other cast and crew members in putting together the show. A great featurette about the production of the show and putting together Joss’s vision onto screen along with the different aspects of the world, along with the network’s involvement in the show and it’s demise. There are also some bonus trailers for Whedon’s other work available on the disc: - “Dollhouse” runs for 2 minutes and 29 seconds. - “Buffy and Angel Promo” runs for 18 seconds. DISC TWO: First on this disc is the new audio commentary on “Our Mrs. Reynolds” with executive producer Joss Whedon, actors Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass. The banter between the four really builds the commentary and draws some great laughs. They do a good job of talking about what happened on set between jokes, even bringing up some of the flubs and mistakes that made it in to the final cut of the show. The audio is a bit lower quality than the other commentaries, though it’s probably due more to the fact that it sounds like it wasn’t recorded in an actual studio. The audio commentary on “Out of Gas” is with executive producer Tim Minear and director David Solomon. Minear, who wrote the episode, and Solomon, who directed it, provide commentary on one of the best episodes of the series, talking about the idea behind the story and how Minear and Whedon built the episode around the idea of a submarine story, utilizing flashbacks. There’s some great information about the production on set as well, talking bout the filming of the flashback sequences. The only featurette is the “Firefly Reunion: Lunch with Joss, Nathan, Alan and Ron” which runs for 24 minutes and 3 seconds, organized like a “Firefly” centric episode of “Dinner for Five” (2001), with the four talking about the DVD features, what they remember of the show and just give a great, entertaining featurette, spliced in with footage of the show itself. They bring up the entire series talking about the different episodes and just bantering, while still bringing up and joking about the pain of having the show killed. DISC THREE: The audio commentary on “War Stories” features actors Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk where the two have a great chemistry in talking about the course of the episode itself. They spend a good deal of time joking and talking seriously about the characters, the story and the motivations of the different characters. It’s a fun look at the show from the perspective of the two actors, especially in the episode that features the two together so heavily. Next is the audio commentary on “The Message” with actors Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite, a good addition to one of my personal favorite episodes, with some funny comments and laughter from the two. Tudyk does a good job of keeping the commentary going to talk about the different aspects of the episode, though has more pauses than the other commentaries as the two tend to get caught up in the episode. The final audio commentary of the set comes on “Objects in Space” with executive producer Joss Whedon, who also wrote and directed the episode. This commentary sits at the other end of the spectrum from most of the other commentaries, but still exists in the realm of great commentary as Joss spends more time meditating on the show itself and his inspirations for the episode rather than make joke about Fillion ripping his pants or teasing Gina Torres for her beauty. It’s a great insight into how Whedon puts together a script or story, especially in terms of what it means to him and all the little details that go in to the show. Next are the deleted scenes, 4 in all, labeled according to the episode they were removed from: - “Serenity – Scene 1” runs for 1 minute and 37 seconds, an early scene just after the battle. - “Serentiy – Scene 74 & 75” runs for 4 minutes and 36 seconds, Book comes to visit Kaylee and talks with the Doctor about the ship, then Zoe and Simon talk about the battle. - “Our Mrs. Reynolds – Scene 18” runs for 3 minutes and 41 seconds, Book makes a bed for Saffron, then River un-makes it and River wants to marry Simon. - “Objects in space – Scene 6” runs for 2 minutes and 11 seconds. This acts as an extended version of the scene in the episode where River sees Mal and Inara talking then finds her ‘stick.’ “Serentiy: The 10th Character” runs for 9 minutes and 45 seconds. This featurette looks at the ship itself as the actors reminisce about the ship itself while the crew talk about the role of the ship as a character in the show. It’s a great look at the way the ship is used in the show, both in terms of production design of how the ship was put together and how the ship is put together even in terms of how the different rooms of the ship were blocked out. A great featurette that looks at the meaning of the different rooms in the ship and the ship itself. “Alan Tudyk’s Audition” featurette runs for 1 minute and 4 seconds, this brief clip shows Tudyk doing the infamous “Mine is an Evil Laugh” speech in audition form. “Joss Sings the Firefly Theme” featurette runs for 1 minute and 16 seconds where Joss sings the theme to serenity while playing guitar as the title credits roll. “Joss Tours the Set” featurette runs for 1 minute and 23 seconds. A bearded Whedon takes the viewer on a brief tour through different parts of the ship showing off some of the different sections very quickly. The gag reel runs for 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Starting with the bittersweet joke at the beginning about the reel being created for the Christmas party that turned out to be the wrap party, but still has some funny gag reel material. Hidden here is an easter egg of Adam Baldwin putting on the Jayne hat and singing the Jayne theme song from “Jaynestown” which is accessible if you press right from the menu when you have the “Joss Sings the Firefly Theme” featurette selected.
Overall
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