John Gruber comments on the general state of unrest amongst average Windows users.

Come to the dark side. Join us.

So, I finished watching the review discs for Firefly the other night. It’s the short-lived sci-fi series from Joss Whedon of Buffy and Angel fame. It’s also unarguably the best thing he’s created so far. Excellent characters, good stories, a complete lack of technobabble… in fact, a near-complete lack of science whatsoever. Next to the smegma that Paramount pretends is Star Trek, it’s a revelation.

The story concerns a ragtag bunch of folk running questionably legal missions in a transport ship between planets in the far reaches of space. As far as I can see though, the ‘They’re in SPACE!!’ angle was something Whedon used to hide the fact that he was really writing a Western. Obviously he knew how unpopular that would be with the Fox executives, but damn if it’s not satisfying as hell to watch.

It’s easily the best sci-fi drama I’ve seen in the last 10 years, even slightly ahead of the Farscape when it was really firing on all cylinders during the second season. Firefly had the quality from episode one.

Naturally Fox cancelled it.

I really don’t understand TV executive logic. Are they that obsessed with profit/loss statements that they can’t see the bigger picture? Do they really think we’ll sit and watch When Police Animals Attack Bad Millionaire Drivers forever? And when we’re no longer watching their shitty television, what are they going to sell us on DVD? Big Brother and Survivor? Good luck.

A slight silver lining: Universal bought the Firefly rights and a feature film is in post-production now. The box set of DVDs did huge business in the US, surprising the hell out of Fox. With luck another network will negotiate another series with Universal, bringing this wonderful show back to our screens.

My review should be on DVD Net soonish, and I’ll probably recycle some of this post…