Here is the Firefly part of this Orson Scott Card review column:
It only lasted one year on Fox, but Firefly was, in my opinion, the best space-opera sci-fi series ever on television, and you can get the whole season now on DVD.
I was stunned by the stupidity of the bad reviews this series got. I suppose if you think television should be Desperate Housewives or Felicity or some other thing that passes for "edgy," Firefly won't look good to you.
But the writing is witty, just a little tongue-in-cheek, and keenly aware of what good science fiction is supposed to be.
Though I could make a good case for Firefly being the best western on television since Maverick.
It's fun even as it's tense, and it's smart all the time. So smart that some reviewers have no clue what they're seeing.
The actors are wonderful, though a couple of characters can be annoying, especially at first (couldn't Jewel Staite have occasionally stopped smiling idiotically during the early episodes?).
Adam Baldwin, whose career began in the great high school movie My Bodyguard back in 1980, finally has the role of his career.
Gina Torres, a survivor of the Matrix sequels, is boldly credible as soldier-of-fortune Zoe; Morena Baccarin is luminous as the "companion" (i.e., really expensive prostitute) Inara Serra; and Alan Tudyk, a hit in A Knight's Tale, is equally charming as the pilot, Wash.
Delightful as Ron Glass was on Barney Miller and The New Odd Couple, I think he's got his best role here as the enigmatic preacher. While Sean Maher has recovered from the debacle of the remake of Brian's Song to play a truly complicated (and really cute, my wife tells me) character.
And Nathan Fillion rises out of nowhere -- small forgettable parts where he was little more than a pretty face -- to show that he has the strength to carry a tv series.
They're making a movie called Serenity, to be released next September, and the whole cast will appear in it. Count on it getting bad reviews; go anyway. And prepare for it by buying or renting the Firefly DVDs.