Much has been made of this show, more than a decade old and canceled before it even finished its first season.
With good reason.
Even suffering from executive meddling, where the episodes were aired out of order and the time slot randomly changed without notice, Firefly built a die-hard group of fans. They even leveraged their passion into a movie to wrap up the loose ends. Why are the Browncoats so fanatical?
To start with, the show is written by Joss Whedon—fresh off his Buffy the Vampire Slayer run—and features every bit of the sharp wit and clever mixture of humor and horror that he's known for. The setting is often described as a western in space, which can be off-putting to some, but as it's about a group of people on the fringes of civilization it's not inaccurate. Many people love the world that was built: a future where Earth is long-lost and humanity is scattered across various terraformed moons and planets, controlled at its core by a totalitarian government but largely lawless around the edges. The biggest source of appeal for most, however, is the people.
After fighting on the losing side of a civil war, Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) has a small Firefly-class cargo ship named Serenity that he uses to eek out a living. His second in command, Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) fought in the war with him. Her husband, Wash (Alan Tudyk) is the pilot, and pretty universally adored for being a charming geek. Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite) is the ever-chipper mechanic, and Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) serves as the muscle. Inarra Serra (Morena Baccarin) adds a touch of legitimacy by docking her shuttle on the ship, Shepard Book (Ron Glass) adds a little civility when he books passage, and Simon Tam (Sean Maher) adds a whole lot of trouble when he comes on as the ship's doctor. Simon, you see, is smuggling his sister, River (Summer Glau), in an attempt to get her away from the government agency that's been experimenting on her—and driving her more than a little mad in the process.
Every episode of the show reveals new facets of personality, new bits of the world, new dialogue of sheer brilliance and humor, and new ways to love fictional people—and isn't that what fiction is all about?