Firefly

The year was 2003. Hearts were crushed, and heads were still spinning at the news that the show had been cancelled. Few knew what in the world had just happened.
But they knew that something had happened.
As the fan base of Firefly grew, the story took on a life of its own and more than a decade later throngs of Browncoats still amass at conventions to meet their heroes.

Click this to get a snippet of what being a fan is like.

But this story isn't about them. It's about me.

I came to the world of Joss Whedon later than most. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was barely a blip in my peripherals. Whedon didn't really catch my attention until The Avengers event of 2012. Friends who I had hitherto trusted to inform all of my opinions about entertainment were raving about this Joss character who had directed this movie, and about how great it was because of him.

I became interested.

Sitting down with IMDB, I discovered a great many more interesting things. Words like Toy Story, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and The Cabin in the Woods started flying out at me. All of these things were so different in my mind that I never imagined them being connected. Then, on the list, I saw Firefly. A barrage of flashbacks hit me; a friend lamenting that it had been cancelled, a professor explaining that the characters spoke Chinese and English because it was set in the future where those were the two economic and cultural powers that survived. Most importantly, I remembered seeing it on a list of recommended shows on Netflix.

I sat down one day soon after and began to watch Firefly. I continued watching every spare moment I had. In no time at all I had finished the 14 episode show, and began to experience all the feelings of loss everyone else who had ever watched the show, come to the end, and realized it was just over. I had joined the Whedonverse.

It really does. The characters are fantastic. Questions are (mostly) answered. There are spaceships, cowboys, explosions, gunfights and people swearing in Chinese. The best part is that all these things fit together seamlessly. Whedon and his crew build a world from what seems like a grab bag of plot points and made it work. Of course, each of these things wasn't random in the least, because the writers were very good at their jobs. But the simulation of real-life type randomness pulls the viewer into the story wonderfully.

And don't despair! Should you watch it and come to the same world-ending realization that countless viewers before you have, that, well, the world has ended, do not fear. Serenity, the follow up movie, is also available on Netflix to soothe your aching soul.