Serenity

[A Black Falcon]

Don't judge a sci-fi show by its bad episodes... even the best sci-fi has weak episodes. Doesn't make the shows as a whole bad... that is only true if there is consistency in the lack of quality.

For instance, Babylon 5 has the occasional bad episode... like the awful one in season 1 with the fighting tournament... but it's also one of the great space shows.

And every Star Trek show has episodes like the one you describe. :) Enterprise has several ... oh wait, Enterprise was ... not so good? Yeah, that fits in the 'too many bad episodes' category for sure... and the 'too many really stupid storylines' category... but not Firefly, and definitely not Serenity. It's got a good plot with a thoughtful and introspective idealist assassin trying to kill one of the crew members (of the goodguy ship of lovable rogues)... conspiracies, etc... not the most original story ever for sure, but very well done and very entertaining. I, and, from what I've heard around the net, most other sci-fi fans out there loved it.

(Oh yeah, and I never really watched much Buffy, and never watched Angel, so I can't say that I followed it because I'm a Joss Whedon fan...)