Time in possession: Just under a year.Description: 4 disk set featruing all 13 episodes of Joss Whedon's cruelly short lived TV series Firefly. If you look at it just right, you can see the aura of squandered potential. It hurts my brain.
Cost: A birthday gift from my sisters, so free, although Amazon.ca lists it as 55.98- I have a funny feeling that they paid less.
Story: Joss Whedon has a pretty intense following that is somewhat threatening to outsiders. For good reason: He created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two huge TV hits, along with writing a bunch of other hit projects, including Toy Story and the blockbuster comic Astonishing X-Men. Still, I spent a good deal of time on the outside of his unadulterated fan boys, looking in and wondering what the hell they were getting so hot and bothered about. I mean, I had watched and enjoyed the first 3 or so seasons of Buffy, and I thought Angel was cool enough, but I certainly wasn't falling over myself to see everything he made. This would all change.
First of all, around 2005 my buddy Cory started raving about Astonishing X-Men, which had just started to tear things up on the comics scene. Having good childhood memories about them and being in the midst of a renewed interest in comics, I decided to check it out and was really impressed. Whedon really captured some fun group dynamics and I was hooked. Then people started talking about this show Firefly, an unjustly cancelled masterpiece that had just come out on DVD. I still wasn't convinced, but after the 4th or 5th person told me how awesome the show was, I decided to ask for it for my birthday. My sisters were kind enough to concede to my request.
And so, shortly after getting the shiny new box-set, I popped in the first disk and before I knew it I had lost 4 hours and was itching to see the rest of it. In two days it was over and I was still hungry for more. So I watched all the episodes that have commentary. I watched them again with my little sister. And then again at my ridiculously late birthday party. I was hooked, but without any way to get a fix. Thankfully, Serenity, the movie based on the series came out on DVD and managed to give me some smidgen of closure, but Whedon had turned me into a believer. Now I was one of those crazy Whedon fans, and loving it.
I hate that Fox cancelled Firefly and Arrested Development, two of the best TV shows I've ever seen. But at least I can have them on DVD, ready to watch whenever the fancy hits me. I do wonder however what DVDs do to re-runs....
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