If they cause any problems, just shoot them. Politely.

Sometimes I look at the shows on TV and compare them to the shows that have been cancelled and I just shake my head. It was with great curiousity and anticipation that I placed the first DVD of the show Firefly into my computer. I had seen the movie Serenity, which was based on the show, and thought that it was a rather good movie, good enough to make me want to see the TV show. The thing about the show is that it was cancelled after 11 episodes, plus there were three shows that had been filmed but not aired. But, I found it on sale (cheaper than most new DVDs, and half the price that it had been selling before) so I took a shot and picked it up.
I am both mad and glad. I'm mad at Fox for cancelling the show, and I'm glad that I bought it because it is one heck of a TV show. The premise of the show is that 500 years in the future, people are still the same, still their own worst enemies. They have left Earth and started terraforming planets to make them suitable for human life. Mostly the story revolves around the so-called outer rim planets, planets on the fringe, much like the old west. And it is a western. There isn't an abundance of laser weapons here. Usually when a gun is being fired it is relatively the same as guns are now, with bullets and the such. There are subtle hints that they aren't exactly the same, mostly the sound of a battery powering up when they cock the guns, but they are still bullet-shooters.
The characters on this show are perfectly casted. There is plenty of humour, but there is also plenty of drama. It rarely turns sappy or melodramatic. The characters aren't perfect - the hero is willing to run and cut his losses. He isn't particularly noble, but he is a good man doing what he can to survive. All of the actors are perfect for their roles, bringing the right emotions to the show, making you believe that they really are brigands out in space.
But what kind of sci-fi show would this be without a conspiracy? A completely different one, that's for sure. The biggest mystery revolves around the doctor, a passenger they pick up who has a secret. That secret is a girl in a box. It turns out that his sister was kidnapped by government forces and experimented on, and he managed to rescue her. And that's all you really know, especially for the first half of the shows. She is barely concious, rarely coherent, and always vaguely creepy. By bringing her and her brother onto the ship, they are harbouring fugitives, so if they get caught it would be a very bad thing.
There are little touches that make this show great. The characters reference things that happened in past shows like you would in real life. In one, the captain kisses a girl and passes out because she has some sort of drug on her lips that causes such a reaction. Many episodes later he kisses a girl and then backs off for a minute, saying that he is waiting to see if he passes out (he doesn't). Or in one episode they spend the entire thing trying to get a job shipping some cargo somewhere. The plot of the show comes out of the situation that arises based on the planet they are on and where they have to go and try to make their contact (a fancy debutante ball). At the end of the show they get the job and go out with a shot of their cargo - a herd of cows. The next show starts with them delivering their cargo - a herd of cows. Most shows would have completely ignored that and done the show without that little touch. It would be possible, but they don't. They constantly refer to past adventures. It's awesome.
The settings are sweet as well. They are in western type settings, with wilderness and small brush and desert-ish terrain. People ride horses. They still use wheeled vehicles. And yet there is high technology everywhere. Computer screens that you can see through and operate by touch. Holoimages. Spaceships. Much better medicine. Basically futuristic stuff without the utopianism. It seems like a very real world. Frankly it is more of what I would expect the future to look like than many different visions given us by sci-fi writers.
I also find it interesting that there are no aliens. It's just people. Not many sci-fi shows would have that.
And then there's the movie. The movie is also very good. It is much more grandiose, but they had a bigger stage to do that with. The best part is that it feels like a continuation of the show. Some time has passed, but not a great deal. If you watch the show and then you watch the movie, you feel that everything seems to make sense for who the characters are. It is a bit less funny than the show, simply because they chose to focus on a more serious story, a harder story than they had managed to get to in the TV series. The crazy girl is more the focus, and she finally reveals what she is, paying off the clues that had been planted throughout the series. You can enjoy the movie immensely without seeing the show, but frankly, watch the TV show. It's completely worth it.
I really wish they hadn't cancelled it. It was a great show deserving of a much better fate. With any luck, there will be more movies.