Yesterday, Paul and I spent the whole day — from 9 am to 12 pm — watching Firefly, a fantastic television series from 2002 by Joss Wheden cancelled after a mere 14 episodes. Over the past few months, I’d heard rave reviews of the series from a number of people from FROG, our local Objectivist group. So I was quite interested when Rob and Molly proposed a Firefly Marathon of all 14 episodes in a single day to the FROGs.

It was quite an event. Although a few people came and went at various times, there were about 12-14 people comfortably packed into Rob and Molly’s living room throughout the day. Most had already seen and loved the series; Paul and I were in the minority as newcomers. We had a fantastic brunch, too much popcorn, a chaotic but yummy dinner, and lots of great conversation between the episodes.

And wowowow, the series was utterly fantastic — heroic, romantic, action-packed, intriguing, philosophical, and more. It was the best television I’ve ever watched.

We’ve already bought the DVD set from Amazon for a measly $34.99, as well as an additional set for some friends who we know will like it.

From what I hear, FOX completely mismanaged the series. They moved it around to various days and times. They didn’t air the excellent pilot, which explained so much background, except as the final episode. They never aired three episodes at all. Happily, a movie based upon the series, including all the main cast, is scheduled for release in April of 2005. I can’t wait.