Firefly

I know what you're thinking, the entomologist is going off on one of her bug tangents again.... WRONG! Muah ha haaa!!! I am here to introduce you to one of the best and most ill-fated shows on DVD, Firefly. It is a Sci-Fi, Action, Western that takes place sometime in the future. Humans have used up Earth so they went out and terraformed themselves a bunch of new ones to live on. Some are technologically advanced, and some are agrarian. The show follows the exploits of the crew of the Firefly class ship named Serenity.
Now for a brief history of the show. Joss Wheton, the director, came up with the concept after reading Killer Angels. He wanted to write something that followed the losers in a civil war. He wanted to show the tactile nature of life and make a more gritty, less sterile Sci-Fi show. (Wikipedia) Fox, the network that aired the show, was constantly getting in the way of Joss's creative genius. (no, I'm not biased at all, why would you think that?) For instance, they made him rewrite his pilot episode, which became the second episode on the DVD, and they refused to show it in widescreen format. When Fox actually aired the episodes, it did so in a way almost guaranteeing failure. A rather stupid move on their part. Fox aired the episodes out of the originally intended order, and didn't even air all of them. The show was canceled after half a season. Despite it's bad luck with Fox, Firefly enjoys an immense popularity. In 2005 New Scientist magazine did an online Poll for "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever," Firefly came in first with it's feature film, Serenity, coming in second.
Some of the interesting aspects of the show are revelations to the Sci-Fi field. For instance, there are no sound effects in the space shots, lending a realistic feel to the show. The ship's set is in 2 parts, with the upper and lower decks continuous. You can walk out of one room and into another. The scenes on the ship were shot with a documentary style, using hand held cameras to add to the rustic feel of the show. The scenes in Alliance cities were shot with regular movie cameras to add to the sterile feel of those places.
I know that my narrative does not come close to giving this show justice, but I hope that I have peaked some interest. Some of you may even look it up on the internet. I have never met anyone who disliked this show, so it is a fair bet that if you try it, you'll love it too.