Just saw the first disc of the series (the first three episodes) and am awaiting the next disc (netflix), and have to say i am SOLD! i loved it. can't wait for the movie to come out. sat through 3 hours straight. its created by joss whedon (the guy who did buffy and angel tv series and is slated to do wonderwoman).

it takes place about 500 years in the future where a soldier is on the losing side of the war that unifies the galaxy (or universe, but unifes the 'area'). he then basically becomes an old west pirate with two of the soldiers under his command when he was fighting. now he's got his first officer and pilot of this 'firefly' class ship called the Serenity. the first episode has some cheesy opening effects with the war. and if you can get past that, the rest of it is top notch. it's great writing, acting, storytelling, and the effects, for a tv show, are pretty impressive. great character development, but then again, when you have a tv show, you dont need huge arcs in each episode, but have the luxury of revealing tiny nuanced character elements. the episode starts off with furnishing you with all the characters who are the ships crew, and a few passengers they pick up who become the rest of the characters on board. follows the exploits of these space-pirates-cowboys and the different jobs they pick up and the moral line they walk back and forth across. One of the cool things they do, which took me a second to realize what the hell it was, is they all curse in chinese. i looked it up and found it was so they could get the curses past the sensors, and also because in the 'history' america and china combined to become the world's superpower in unifying our world to allow expansion to others. hence it has heavy american and chinese influences throughout (cowboys on one side and then chinese dress/ writing/ language/etc. on the other).

if anyone hasnt seen it, i'd highly reccomend it for sci-fi and even western fans. has a ton of western elements, and i'd say is pretty much the equivalent of a western in space. can't wait for the movie now.

the only issue i had with the disc was the sound seemed a little low. wasnt watching it on my main system, so i cant say if the problem was the system or the disc, but i had it cranked up pretty high to hear the dialogue. when the action sequences started, i had to lower it, but even then was still higher than when i normally watch movies. so just comparing it against other discs (e.g. watched the incredibles at 55-60, aliens at 60, regular tv at 50, and watched this at 70 and then lowered to 65for action parts) it definitely seemed low. (also watched on my uncalibrated htib system, not my main nht/marantz system).

peace
k2