It is generally accepted that Joss WhedonOnce considered a great Hollywood writer/director who also had the "feminist" bona fides, in recent years Whedon's star has faded as reports of his on-set behavior has tainted his entire catalog of hits.’s space epic, Firefly, was cancelled way too soon. The story of a group of former rebel soldiers, banded together on a small ship, working their way through the solar system, across populated worlds, taking criminal jobs to get by while they, in a very small way, stick it to the Alliance (read: evil, governmental empire) struck a chord with certain viewers (who call themselves Browncoats, after the nickname for the rebels in the show), and the series went on to become a cult classic after its cancellation. Produced and aired by Fox, the show went through early production struggles, a lot of executive meddling, and struggled to find viewers when it was aired, all before getting cancelled when only nine of its filmed 14 episodes even made it to broadcast.

I’m gonna say something controversial, especially among Browncoats, but I don’t think Firefly ever really had a chance. Having gone back, with years between watchings and a clear set of eyes specifically aimed at viewing this series as if it were my first time watching it, it’s pretty clear that while the show has a lot of strengths – a great cast, many solid characters, fun writing, and an interesting universe to explore – it also had a number of flaws that kept it from ever being as great as it could have been.

Some things the series couldn’t avoid, like Fox airing the episodes out of order so there was no way for audiences to see it, in its first run, the way it was intended. Many bits of story were lost, held back by Fox until it was too late for viewers to care. The confused airing order also meant that many serialized elements of the show couldn’t play out properly, and it left the show feeling disjointed and malformed. But even when you view the series in its proper order, taking all 14 episodes as they were intended, some things just don’t sit right, and I think that even under the best of circumstances, this show was always going to be a one-season-wonder.

To start, there are just so many elements at play in the show that can’t quite gel together. The core setting for the show is strong. The band of rebels, led by Captain Malcolm Reynolds and First Officer Zoe Alleyne Washburne, is a solid hook. You like watching them, out on the fringes of space, running missions (usually criminal) while keeping an eye out for the Alliance. The crew they have – pilot Hoban “Wash” Washburne, muscle Jayne Cobb, and engineer Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye – add needed color, and the banter and chemistry among these characters is great. It’s lived in, feeling just right for a crew that’s been together for a while.

I think the first mistake the show makes is, right off the bat, trying to throw a bunch more characters into the mix when we’re trying to get used to everyone, “old” and “new”, in the starting episodes of the series. It’s a lot for audiences to take in, learning the crew, learning the new passengers, trying to figure out who is cool, who can be trusted, and what secrets everyone has. I think the series could have benefitted from keeping the focus more tightly on the main crew, the core five, and then slowly introducing more cast members over time after we’d learned all about these guys and what their business with the Alliance actually was.

I could envision a front six that was just about this crew. That’s usually how series open, with a standard six episodes that are, well, episodic. Not a lot of serialization, similar stories told again and again so we learn the characters and the setting and get settled into this world we’re watching. Six episodes up front of just the core crew going on missions, talking about the past war against the Alliance, settling into their digs on their ship, Serenity. That’s a solid opening that, frankly, could have been aired in any order and it would let audiences adapt and learn. Then, at the end of those six episodes, the crew could pick up their first stray, either the doctor, Simon Tam, the shepard, Derrial Book, or the companion, Inara Serra.

Of the three, I think the doctor, of course, provides the most options for the story to continue. We’ve already learned, here, what the crew is like. Now, with the doctor, on the run and trying to find his sister, we can move forward with a purpose. Not just simple adventures, but a real motivator to their missions. Now they aren’t just staying away from the Alliance, they’d be pestering them for a reason, trying to figure out how to get River Tam and save her from the Alliance.

Yes, this is a big change from the series as we know it. The show, as it stands, gives us nine characters of varying backgrounds, and it wants us to learn and care and accept them. And don’t get me wrong, in 14 episodes it does a pretty good job, but it’s not seamless, even if you watch the series in order. Simon doesn’t really come into focus until halfway into the episode order, where his prim and proper attitude gives way to a more relaxed figure who feels like part of the crew. He blends in well with the others and actually feels like he belongs there, but it takes time. While many of the cast, especially that core five, come into focus early, the doctor needs some time to settle in, and it would have been better to not have him pulling away from the core cast while we settled into the show.

But he’s at least essential to the story, especially once he starts providing needed missions for the crew (like the episode where they steal medical supplies from a hospital on Ariel). Other characters really never have that chance, especially not in 14 episodes. I like Derrial Book as a character, but he’s never essential to the story. It’s pretty clear, from what the character knows and the hints the show drops, there was a bigger plotline intended for this character that didn’t come to fruition in this shortened first season. Because of that, though, he doesn’t get any episodes focused on him leaving him feeling like an unexplored background player, inessential to the main story. And he still comes across better than Inara or River.

Inara is even more inessential to the story than Book. She’s the companion, and there’s a few times where, because that’s a highbrow occupation (effectively ceremonial prostitutes) with vaunted status, just having Inara around means the crew has some status as well. But these moments don’t really require Inara to be around, and it always felt like the show had to write itself to a point where Inara was needed instead of the character actually being essential. Hell, her best episode, “Heart of Gold”, isn’t even really about her but one of her former companion sisters. It’s a fantastic episode, but one where Inara doesn’t even do much besides relay a message and get the ball rolling. Anyone could have done that.

River has it worse because the show drops her on us, damaged and broken, and she doesn’t even find herself until the fourteenth episode of the series… right as it’s cancelled. For thirteen episodes she’s crazy, flighty, strange, and nearly psychotic. She becomes a burden, not just to her brother but to the whole show, because she’s unreliable and, at times, pretty annoying. If she were introduced slowly, with the show working up over a season or two to her reveal, so we could know to expect someone broken and hurting, that might have made her character more palatable. But in this context, in this series of only 14 episodes, she just doesn’t work. She’s not essential to the storytelling (not yet, and we’ll get to the movie, where she’s the core story, in a bit), instead dragging things down when she’s around.

And it’s a pity because, again, the core of this show is really great. In the right context I think this could work really well. A western in space, with actual gunfights and horses and all the fun bits of Western lore alongside sci-fi, it actually sings when it’s all done right. Of course, when you consider the failures of films like Cowboys and Aliens, Jonah Hex, and Wild, Wild West (among others), audiences also had shown that they really weren’t interested in Western mash-up productions. Sure, those films are all awful, but if those are the things you see combining Westerns with genre works, and then you see something on tv like Firefly, are you going to want to give the show a chance?

The structure of the show needed to be different if it was going to suck people in. You can tell that Whedon had this whole, big plan for the show and he was eager to get it going. Not just a Western in space but also a bit of Star WarsThe modern blockbuster: it's a concept so commonplace now we don't even think about the fact that before the end of the 1970s, this kind of movie -- huge spectacles, big action, massive budgets -- wasn't really made. That all changed, though, with Star Wars, a series of films that were big on spectacle (and even bigger on profits). A hero's journey set against a sci-fi backdrop, nothing like this series had ever really been done before, and then Hollywood was never the same., along with a heroine who could be the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all tied together right from the outset of the series. It’s too much, too fast, all at once, and it hobbles the show and leaves it stumbling for half its episode run. By the time it recovered and became the show it needed to be, it was already too late. Fox had already cancelled it, and, honestly, I can’t really blame them.

Thankfully, Whedon got a second chance to save his franchise when Universal let him make a film based on the series, Serenity. Sadly, even then audiences really didn’t respond well to the series the way anyone would have hoped…