People are on Joss Whedon's jock too much. Admittedly, I never saw Firefly, but I saw most of Serenity and not only found it to be dumb and cheesy, but thought it would have been a better fit as a movie on USA or something. It completely had a made-for-TV feel to it.
I just don't see what the big deal is.
Edit: Wow. This totally comes off as a troll post. I honestly didn't mean it that way.