Firefly suffers from and is benefited by it's short run.
Right now we're posting... "Who was Book? Would Mal have ever confessed his desire for Inara? Could River have really struck a deathblow to totalinarianism? Was Zoe pregnant?"
But if the show ran for six seasons, we'd be posting... "What was Joss thinking when he had Mal take Inara to the fountain of youth in Season Four... That was just stupid! He broke the show! The heart of the show was based on the fallibility, the morality, and the mortality of the crew. And what was up with River dumping Jayne for the new doctor after Simon went missing on Miranda VII? Also, the time travel arc was cool, but does that really mean that Kaylee is Mal's grand daughter or was that all in River's imagination?"
Serenity gave some closure to the characters. And yet, I think Serenity greatly benefited from Firefly. I don't know how many people saw Serenity first, but the rest of us already understood Mal's problem with the Alliance, River's condition, Kaylee's frustration with Simon, Mal's relationship with Zoe, Wash and Zoe's marriage, Jayne's position among the crew, Mal's relationship with Book, Inara's life, and Mal and Inara's lingering attraction. Maybe new viewers felt it, but I did not think Joss spent time really exploring their personalities. In fact, I don't think the characters were developed that much more than in Star Wars. The development really happened during Firefly... not only in the writing and plot, but by the actors themselves. They already knew precisely, and I do mean precisely, who their characters were, where they've been, and where they were going.
A week after my eleventh birthday, my mom took me and my two younger siblings to see Star Wars. I'd not seen any advertising nor merchandising. School was out and I did not live within walking distance of any of my friends houses. We went to a very conservative church and I'd not heard anything from those kids. The only thing I knew about Star Wars was what my mom mentioned while reading Time magazine. "There's a review of a movie here that you might like. It's science-fiction. It's called Sta..."
Science. That was all I heard. Science. I was on summer vacation. Science. There was no way my mom was going to trick me into learning science during my summer vacation!
Now, I'd read Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, and had just started J.R.R. Tolkien... but somehow I'd never learned the word fiction. And I sure did not know what science-fiction was.
Within fifteen minutes we were in the Ford Ltd. station wagon driving through muggy midday Nashville. My mom attempted to tell me about space exploration and adventure, but I remember pouting the whole way to the theatre. I was still sulking when the lights dimmed. Then the music started and instead of credits... the title and story scrolled by. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I was stunned. As my mom whispered the words to my brother and sister, I became engrossed by the scale of the story. Civil War. Rebels. An evil Galactic Empire.
The only movies I'd seen in the theatre involved Disney animation or Benji. Wow! A Death Star? That sounded real bad. Sinister agents. A Princess! Freedom must be restored.... The bicentennial occurred just a year before so I knew all about freedom from oppression.... and I thought the movie might be very cool...
Space.... and a spaceship! And a second spaceship... a neverending, monstrous, huge, gigantic, enormous, evil spaceship! A short battle and the rebels were beaten. Then there was menacing music and black jack boots... and an ominous breathing. My heart stopped beating. Darth Vader.
I made my mom take me five more times in the summer of '77. We took my dad to the last show before the movie left town. He was thirty-eight. And he fell asleep. As a loving and dutiful son, I immediately woke him so that he could share in the glory of the greatest movie ever. Walking out of the theatre I proudly told my dad what he might have missed. I was an old hand at sci-fi by then. What happened next stands as one of the clearest memories of my life. We were walking across the parking lot on a warm Nashville night and my dad said, "They'll make a sequel."
"What's a sequel?"
"A sequel is a continuation of the story, son. In the final battle, the giant ship..."
"It's called the Death Star!"
"...the Death Star was destroyed right? But what about the villain?"
"Darth Vader got away."
"Right. That means they've left open the possibility to keep the story going. He'll want revenge. He'll strike back."
My spirit surged with hope. Star Wars was not a one time thing. They'll make another one! Dow!
Dow meant cool. It was something the sixth graders said at Glendale Elementary School. I've never heard it since.
I was the right age when Star Wars came along. No... I was the perfect age. My father was not. The heroes in Star Wars were young. They were finding their places in life. Luke was still in school. Even though Harrison Ford is just a few years younger than my dad, Han Solo was not at the same place in life as my father. Sure, Ben was older, but he was too old. He was retired without a family.
Over the years I revisited Star Trek. I watched Battlestar Galactica religiously... and Buck Rogers, too. I was thirteen when Flash Gordon was released, but that's another story. I saw some of TNG and DS9. Alien. Aliens. The Terminator. E.T. The Wrath of Khan. The Empire Strikes Back. The Return of the Jedi. The Last Starfighter. etc. etc. yadda yadda...
But I think that because I saw Star Wars when I was eleven, because I'd never seen an action flick before, and because I did not even know about sci-fi, that I will always think of it as the greatest action and sci-fi movie I've ever seen. The fx were mind boggling. I don't think there's been another leap forward like that. Video toasters. Now full cg. Avatar comes closest in the pure wow factor, visually speaking. But Avatar has not defined American popular culture like Star Wars.
Now don't get me wrong. Empire is a better movie. Flash was awesomely garish, funny, adventurous, and bad. Big Trouble in Little China, while not strictly sci-fi, is phenomenally phenomenal!!!!!!!!! And... Firefly is the best TV show I've ever seen... even better than CBS's March Madness, ABC's Monday Night Football, the first season of LOST, Chopped, or anything from the History Channel before they started airing epically epic shows like The Most Dangerous Icy Duck Trucking Lobster Dynasty Loggers. Wikked Awsum!!!!
Now that I'm older and have experienced puberty, college, employment, marriage, and the passing of my mom, I'm looking for something beyond an heroic epic for eleven year olds.
Firefly. Serenity.
The heroes range from a teenage girl to a man in his late fifties... brutish to elegant... common to cultured... innocent to hardened... gentle to violent... novice to expert... beautiful to... well, they're all good looking people. The broad range of age, race, religion, profession, and motivation help us to identify with with at least one and maybe many of the characters. I did not see Firefly and Serenity until two or three years ago. At age forty-eight, with whom do I identify? Book. He's been around and he's found himself in need of redemption. He won't say, but he's probably been a villain or at least was misguided into evil. Mal. He's grown up and wants the verse to be a better place... and he's willing to try and carve out a piece to be a haven. Jayne. He's big and athletic. People look to him for physical assistance. Zoe. She's the most competent person on Serenity, but she's content not to lead. She does her part, but does not want the overall stress. Simon. He's sacrificed wealth, culture, and comfort to save his sister. Now his own life is at stake, but he'd do it all over again if he had to.
If I were eleven again. I'd probably be bored by Serenity... I'd love Avatar! The most wickedest epic awesome movie of all time!!!!
And so was Serenity enough closure for you? Too little? Maybe you'd have preferred Firefly IV: Revenge of the Blue Handed Clones, Firefly VIII: Snakes in Space, or Firefly XII: Christmas at the Reavers? I think I'll just let it go and forget the sequels... and just remember them all on the screen.
"No reward is worth this."
"Not a bad bit of rescuing, huh? You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
"That doesn't sound too hard."
"Do you know that girl?"
"I really don't."
"Well, don't say it!"
"It only works on her, Jayne."
"Well... now I know that."
"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal."
"Also, I can kill you with my brain."
"Can I start gettin' sexed already?"
"He's my husband."
"Well, who in the damn galaxy ain't?"
"The next time you stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.