Is it any wonder Firefly never rated any better than Buffy's first season? It's like they didn't WANT it to succeed! UPN proved (with Enterprise) that anything will get poor ratings if you preempt it often enough for sports.

But Buffy's first season was relatively lame compared to what came later. Can you imagine what Firefly coulda been after a couple of years? After everybody's romantic relationships had formed, complicated, and then shifted a bit? After maybe a couple of new crew members got added, and someone got dead? I'm sure that nassty redhead is bound to show up again, maybe she'll actually get into Malcolm's pants someday - if Inara doesn't kill her first.

And what's up with that 'shepherd', anyway? He's the criminal mastermind aboard Serenity, if there is one.

I was hooked when Reynolds kicked the bad guy into the spaceship engine:

CPT. REYNOLDS: OK, Here's all the money Niska paid us up front; just give it back to him and tell him we're not taking his job.

BAD GUY #1: Keep it, and buy yourself a nice funeral. I'll hunt you down myself, and the last thing you'll see will be my face as I kill you.