Day 5.047: Firefly's lit up our world

I move in pretty geeky circles both in real life and online so it is something of a surprise that it was only a few weeks ago that Exile #2 and I watched our first episode of Firefly.

This TV series was broadcast in 2002 and was cancelled after 14 episodes.  Honestly, having watched the first six episodes, I can see both why it has such a faithful following and why it was cancelled.

It's a strange wild-west-meets-space concept, but like all good sci-fi and fantasy it's not actually about that - it's about relationships and human nature and good stories.

Episode 6, which we watched tonight, was one of the finest pieces of TV I've ever seen - funny, sexy, dramatic and suspenseful.  We'll be watching the rest of the series over the next few weeks thanks to Roku and Amazon Prime.  When we're done, we'll probably watch the 2005 movie follow-up Serenity again - we watched in 2006 when it came out on DVD but we'll probably appreciate more now.

Of course, our perceptions as life-long watchers of British TV of what 'a few episodes mean' may be different from our American friends.  Fawlty Towers for example - which ran for two full series - has fewer episodes than the prematurely-cancelled Firefly.  But that won't stop us joining the crowds of fans wondering why this sci-fi gem (or should I say Jewel?) burned so briefly.