EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Yaroslav Zaitsev (yarik83) I wanted to write this review because program is fresh on my mind and there is a lot to talk about. Upon first glance it was fairly apparent that theme of the show was a bitter sentiment that still lingers among cast and crew that participated in the show about a decade ago that met its untimely demise due to FOX network's poor judgment. Those of you that are familiar with the show know that FOX pretty much axed the show during pilot episode. Every episode since had a dark cloud looming on top of show and along and behold show barely survived past half season. What was done by FOX was a travesty and fan base reacted very strongly. 10 years after the fact fan base is still strong and advocating for show to be brought back to life. So question is... why was it necessary for Science Channel to orchestrate this "reunion"? Sci-Fi and Science channel have long been running re-runs of the series (well all 13 or so episodes known to exist). It felt like I was watching a bunch of drunks reminiscing about their bitter divorce. My question to producers of the show is why did they have to subject audience to such misery? After advertising the special for weeks they delivered this round table talk session where almost every topic that was discussed had to do with show cancellation. Cast members were content and like high school sweethearts reunited 65 years later, all married and grown up and retired and full of grandchildren they were talking about the bad old times. Science channel did a poor execution if you ask me. It would nice to have seen comi-con highlights that had to do with the fan base. If there is any chance... any.... whatsoever... producers need to see that in the voices and hearts of loyal fans who still buy merchandise, still maintain thousands strong fan base forums, produce comics and even their own web based episodes. Why are producers not listening?I think it would be absolutely fantastic if discovery network picks up Firefly. It would be silly of them not to. Granted I do not know how many more episodes show actually needs because what made Firefly popular in the first place was quality and not quantity. I know typical successful sci fi programs run for 4-5 seasons so this show could have achieved that, had it not been on FOX in the first place. So 10 years later actors are all grown up, many bitter experiences shared among them. Many took part in other shows that kept getting axed by networks. I think it might be somewhat unlikely for original cast to come back full time if show was to be salvaged. How do you pick up where you left off.... a whole 10 years ago? How do you write a script for a story that has already been axed?It is with a heavy heart that I have to tell you guys that this special did not deliver. It was less informative and more bitter than it should have been.

Vlad_the_Reviewer First of all, let me say that I, like you dear reader, am their biggest fan.Browncoats Unite is a 1-hour special aired on the Science Channel in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Firefly. The main theme is that members of the cast and some staff sit around a table and reminisce about the good old days. The special also showed some footage of the comic-con convention later that day in which a part of the Firefly team participated.It needs to be noted that quite a few members of the crew weren't present during the round-table conversation and weren't present at the comic-con gathering as well. For example Jewel Staite wasn't present at the round-table, but she was a member of the comic-con panel later. Also absent were Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres and Ron Glass. To compensate for their absence taped interviews of the absentees were added as a supplement, but Ron Glass was entirely absent. I felt quite disappointed that during the round-table the team wasn't complete. I know they had duties elsewhere but eh, I'm a fan so what can I say? What they had to say is a little of this and that, forcing smiles whilst trying to be funny and whilst trying to set a cozy atmosphere and complaining about how the series was treated badly by the network. That's the gist of it. The most notable thing was that the conversation at the table is heavily orchestrated. More than a few conversations were glued together with cut-scenes, and multiple obvious out-of-place scenes (gestures, laughs, looks) were cut in. That happened if - for example a smile was needed, so they glued that artificially in. You know how it goes with scripted reality right? Well this was no different.I wish I could be more positive about this TV Special, but the simple truth is that this footage aimed at fans with blind love for that series (and the movie) and would accept just anything. I'm not one of those persons. The setup was entirely cheesy and corny and that's the honest truth. I think the typical fan simply loved the lateral approach of the original series and the movie. Yet when an anniversary is setup like this then to me it's a huge disappointment. I'd rather have them half prepared, maybe even stuttering through the questions and stories, but at least they'd be real and it would complement the original take on things entirely.I don't see any reason to judge the release by blind love. I love the crew, I love the series and there's a lot of sentimental value involved which is related to how I was introduced to Firefly and Serenity. So you can understand it's not easy for me to be this critical. But it has to be done if it's the truth.Nevertheless, enjoy!