Serenity. You've heard it talked about before. In the past few days, it's been mentioned more and more often around here. So what is Serenity, anyway?

Serenity is a movie that never would have been made.

Firefly was an unsuccessful television show that was cancelled after eleven episodes. Was it unjustly cancelled? Probably, but I'll let you decide for yourself. It wasn't pulling in too many viewers, but then again, the network seemed to be conspiring against the show from the start, making several bad decisions that undoubtedly affected its popularity.

Yet the fans, known as browncoats, refused to let the show die. The more proactive ones wrote letters, ran ads, and lobbied to find another network for the show. Everyone bought the Firefly DVD set, and spread the word of this excellent, yet unknown television series to their friends, families, co-workers, or even complete strangers. Through the efforts of these fans, and thanks to the resulting DVD sales, a movie was made: Serenity.

Sometimes, movie follow-ups are where television shows go to die. With Serenity, this is clearly not the case. In some ways, Serenity is sad to watch, because it represents what Firefly could have been, had the show continued. This plot would have been spread over an entire season, or several seasons. It would have been able to develop at a slower pace. Yet this comes mostly as an afterthought; when one is actually watching Serenity, you can't help but get caught up and completely swept away by the story. It's humorous, action-filled, compelling, and heart wrenching. Serenity provides an exciting and satisfying conclusion to the events of Firefly.

As Joss Whedon remarked, Serenity was probably the first time that an unsuccessful television show had been made into a movie. By all logic of the entertainment world, Serenity should never have been made.

The fans got their big damn movie, simply because they refused to let Firefly die.

And now it is time to be proactive again. To my disappointment, I missed being able to contribute to Serenity's box office sales, which weren't all that wonderful. I had never heard of Serenity at the time. But today, Serenity Day, you can make a difference by buying the movie Serenity. Show the folks at Universal how many fans are behind this movie. If you've seen Serenity in the past, buy another copy. Give it as a present to someone else in an act of good will and to spread the word, keep it as the "loaning copy," do whatever you want with it. It is the act of buying the movie, and of course, where the money goes, that will send the message.

If you haven't seen the movie, I implore you to take a leap of faith and buy it today. You only watch Star Wars? Doesn't matter. And besides, if you liked The Empire Strikes Back, you'll like Firefly and Serenity.

So trust me. Go buy Serenity. Because it is just too pretty to die.


This is a Serenity blog. However, it is not THE Serenity blog. For that, I started to write an analysis of Mal's character, but I found that I couldn't do it without including spoilers for both the entire Firefly series and Serenity. So this is my "watch Serenity" blog, and a longer, more detailed one will hopefully come later.