The Sci-Fi Channel did run it for a while. There just weren't enough produced episodes to keep it running for very long.
Shame about the movie, though. A betrayal of everything the show stood for, and a very un-worthy sendoff.
I couldn't disagree with you more. The characters were consistent, the loose ends tied up, and the story arc brought to a conclusion. And knowing the work of Joss Whedon, it was the conclusion he had in mind before the series even began; he just had to bring it home faster than he wanted to.
Whedon had to make some compromises to make the movie accessible to folks who hadn't seen the series. I saw Serenity first, and I loved it; Then caught up on Firefly, and I could see how what happened to River Tam, how the Reavers came to be, and some of the other revelations would have been much more of a big payoff if I'd seen the series first.
I'd like to know what you think of as a "betrayal." Especially in light of the fact that the creator of the series was the writer and director of the movie.