Several posters have leaped to the defense of the
Firefly series, claiming I've "missed the point" of the show. Unfortunately these people seem to have missed
my point: yes, I didn't "get" the show, but guess what?
Neither did a lot of others. THAT is why the series was cancelled after half a season and that's why the movie tanked. There's no need to invoke conspiracy theories to explain the demise of an unpopular show.
As for the "realism" issue, yes,
Firefly is probably no more "unrealistic" than
Star Wars,
Star Trek,
Battlestar Galactica (don't get me started), or
Armageddon, the movie that set out to prove Hollywood could make a film even worse than
Deep Impact, and succeeeded.
But a story that stretches the audience's credulity has to have something else for people to "get", and unfortunately
Firefly doesn't seem to have that, at least for most people.