One of the fun things I've seen on other people's blogs is when their wives or girlfriends get them geek/guy/just-because-they'd-love-it presents. Well, "me too!"
Inspired by the remember-why-you-loved-it-when-you-were-little attitude of Seth Worley's recently resuscitated (undead?) blog, Awakeland, my beautiful and wonderful wife rented the first DVD of Firefly and left it sitting there with a note when I got home. (Oddly enough, I had a presentiment that she had left a card or letter or picture for me as I walked up to the door of our house, and was strangely disappointed until I found the movie with a note on it!)
I watched the first episode yesterday evening. After an hour or two of non-stop action, my stomach was twisted in knots, hoping the goodies would get away from the baddies, and the ones I liked would turn out to be goodies, and that it would not end anytime soon, except that I had to cook dinner for Bevin, and I wasn't sure whether I could endure the tension! I found myself desperately hoping the captain would relent and accept the... but nevermind, you should watch it yourself!
Imagine if you'd taken the best elements of the old Star Wars movies, the ones you wished they'd kept in the later movies: cocky swashbuckling, shooting first (from the hip), smart-mouth lines. Then imagine you'd made the characters flawed and complicated. Mix, shake well, and apply heat and pressure.
...I suppose we'll have to watch all the Firefly episodes before Serenity comes out.
[Update, after finishing the first disc, and watching the first show on the second: So far, it stays excellent (and hilarious). I can see why people like Tivo - watching a single episode without commercials in the evening is so much better than regular TV. Also, episodes with Reavers can be quite scary and disturbing.