Battlestar Galactica
A Review by Noah Antwiler
As I sat in my Fortress of Bitterness, organizing all the love letters Morgan Webb has sent me into protective plastic covers, I grew troubled at the state of gamer movies today. Expectations are so low anymore that the announcement of a new comic book adaptation is met with groans rather than excitement. Video game adaptations are virtually ignored, and as Serenity proved, sci-fi doesn't sell. For a moment I felt irrelevant, as if my work was completed. But then I turned on the television and soon realized that there was much work yet to do! There is a scourge on this land, polluting TiVO hard drives across the country and wasting the collective time of millions-- time better spent lobbying for a new George Takei Star Trek spinoff series (I know that issue has been dead for a while, but God I wish I knew how to quit him). It's time someone finally shined the light of truth on this phantom menace, and I'm that light...shiner...guy. In this special Gamer's Rant, it's time you heard the truth about Battlestar Galactica.
I know where you think I'm going with this, because anytime someone bashes the new Galactica series they think it's because of the decision to change the character of Starbuck into a woman. I never even bothered to compare the re-envisioned series to the old one, but I'll play that game for now. Frankly I don't care what they did with Starbuck because it could only have been an improvement. News flash, fanboys: The new series sucks like an Aaron Spelling vampire drama, and the old show sucked too. Don't even send me your putrid, whining hate-mail about how it was a sweeping, epic space opera with complex characters and compelling stories. It was a kitchy, badly-scripted mess of a series that played more like a sitcom than a drama, with such award-worthy plots as the Cowboy Cylon and the planet of Nazi Terrans. Just think about it real hard before you pick a fight on this score, because I can crack out tapes of Galactica 1980 if you really want to rumble. Yeah, Galactica 1980, where the ship finally reaches Earth and the crew is completely flummoxed by common modern annoyances like traffic jams. "They must be excellent pilots to be able to stay in formation at such slow speeds."
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It's my analysis that the new Galactica series is so popular because the first stage of grief is denial. Science fiction fans are so hungry for a good show that they'll latch onto the few that are available and fool themselves into thinking they're worth watching. After a few months the infatuation dies and the show's crippling flaws can no longer be denied (just look at Lost). The story is basic: in a far-flung galactic civilization, humanity created a race of giant robot slaves that (who would have thunk it) attained sentience and rebelled. During truce negotiations, the Cylons launch a Pearl Harbor attack and wipe out the 13 Terran colonies, leaving only a single Battlestar vessel and a large convoy of refugee vessels. The colonies sterilized, the government chain of command is shattered and so the Secretary of Education is depressingly the next in the chain of succession. It inspires about as much confidence as Margaret Spellings, current U.S. Secretary of Education and 16th in the line of succession being sworn into office. It's not a comforting thought to imagine Ms. Spellings commanding our military forces in Iraq, but then, look who's doing it right now.
The show is almost, almost saved by Commander Adama, played by the supremely awesome Edward James Olmos, whose badassery alone elevates every scene he appears in. He's changed quite a bit from his almost unrecognizable appearance as Gaff in Blade Runner, but even then you could see the sheer star power in that man. It helps that Olmos is the core of the ensemble cast, whose sublime acting carries every nuance of a battle-wearied senior officer with the weight of the entire human race's survival hanging around his neck. It's just a shame that the rest of the show fails to keep up so badly, both in acting and technical aspects. Adama holds down the fort, but it's with the pilots that the war against the Cylons is fought, and it's there that the show falls on its face.
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The action focus of the show is Starbuck, the hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, authority-bucking-- dare I use the term?-- bitch who not only is the best pilot in the fleet, but everyone knows it. The problem with Starbuck isn't that the character is a woman, it's that she's so caustic and unlikable that she comes across as a boozing, ticking time-bomb of mental problems and irresponsibility who, while a good pilot, is so insubordinate and dangerously negligent that she's directly responsible for the deaths of more of her wingmates than the Cylons themselves. Her continued career on the Galactica is puzzling, as I don't know a military force in any galaxy that would tolerate an officer who would strike their XO and change flight assignments on vital missions because she's too hung over to fly. She's smug, condescending, antisocial, self-centered, and a borderline sociopath (like me, but I have better hair and look sexier in a sports bra). Her spoiled brat attitude is understandable in the sense that she's the only pilot in any fleet that's worth a damn, including Apollo, and the fact has gone to her head. The other Viper pilots are about as combat effective as Communists in a Chuck Norris movie. As much as it must pain Adama to admit it, the only way anything gets done out in space is with Starbuck flying.
My own personal peeve is the inclusion of Hot Blonde Cylon, so-called by myself because she's given no name in the show. She's a particularly transparent ploy to titillate the young male nerd demographic and satisfy their latent urge to mate with an anatomically-correct female android, because real chicks don't understand them. HBC is a nearly omnipresent figure in every scene, hovering as a hallucinatory faux-Rebecca Romijn in every scene featuring Dr. Baltar. Her role is particularly annoying because, as a robot, several copies of her exist. This fact makes her virtually impossible to eradicate, and by virtue of multiplicity, she can be involved in every damn story arc on the show. At least Rebecca Romijn's (the only reason anyone watched X-Men 2, let's be honest) seductive wiles were kept more subtle. Hot Blonde Cylon, on the other hand, spends every waking second of the show prancing around in skimpy clothes and performing phantasmal fellatio on Dr. Baltar. This means that Baltar is almost constantly looking completely bushwhacked and guilty at all times, and is often caught humping his own chair during important presidential meetings. HBC's involvement in the show is so pervasive that I've actually grown tired of staring at her breasts. Do you have any idea how long a guy can stare at boobs without interruption before tiring of it? Two years. (Divorced readers, look back on your old marriage and tell me that timeframe's not right!)
The sleeper-hit of BSG is Boomer (Grace Park) whose 1970s counterpart was also hit with a transgender ray and turned into a hawt pilot. She's undeniably beautiful, but much like Jolene Blalock, not much of a reason to watch an inferior turd of a space show. Can you imagine how many episodes of Enterprise they tried to salvage by padding it out with scenes of T'Pol getting smeared in ointment or meditating nude with that hillbilly bridge officer? Gag. Just Google Image Search her and find what Maxim photos smarter nerds have scanned already and save yourself the time. Why so many guys waste their time suffering through BSG is beyond me. I'm beyond such rude, base objectification of women. Besides, you want to talk hot chicks, I've done such foul things mentally to all the women in Firefly I ought to be arrested. I'll take Jewel Staite over anyone in television right now. Except Morgan Webb. She's mine.
Hey, don't laugh. I mean it. I'll sword fight you right now. Back off!
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The biggest change that I can spot in the new series is the notion that the Cylons have remodeled themselves so that they look human, nearly indistinguishable from homo sapiens in every regard. Luckily, Edward James Olmos is well trained in retiring Replicants, even the tricky Nexus-6 Cylons. Not only could anyone be a Cylon, but some of them are sleeper agents who don't even know that they evolved from toasters. It's just a terribly frustrating idea to me because I know that at any time the writers can just sweep the rug out from under the audience by revealing a major cast member was a Cylon all along, and there's no point trying to predict who it is (but that won't stop Internet geeks). It's the writing equivalent of a kidney punch to sucker an audience like that.
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The scripts are a shambles of half-realized characters and spontaneous romances of plot convenience. Melodrama plagues most of the subplots, such as Boomer's baby (Baby Boomer?), Apollo's dead girlfriend, Starbuck's bore of a dead boyfriend, Tigh's boozing, and Baltar's inability to stop playing with himself in public. The editing is some of the worst I've seen in television. The current trend in BSG is to shoot each episode in very chaotic staggered flashback sequences, where we start the episode at the climax of the action, and progressively flash back to the events leading up to it. It's unnecessary and harder to follow than trying to watch Memento stoned. Not a good experience, I can tell you. What's worse, I've noticed several scenes shown in the opening "previously, on Battlestar Galactica" sequences that were never aired! How can we make sense of the show when the editors can't?
I just can't take the bloody show anymore. Apollo is a complete wuss, Starbuck's very existence annoys me in a way that makes me pray daily for her death. I haven't done that since Boone & Shannon. Remember folks, it's only the best spacer show around because there aren't any others. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to write some Inara/Kaylee lemon and Mal/Book shonen-ai fanfiction for my website.
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
WHY DID THEY CANCEL FIREFLY AFTER JUST ONE SEASON!!!!!!!!
I fecking hate BSG, the old show i only watched because i was 12…. but it still sucks and im ashamed for everyone of my frineds who watch BSG with fierce intention of really liking it. Weird and scary, just weird and scary
thank you
the interesting part of the series, and that that deserves the most critisicm, is the attempt to deal with social, political and philosophical topics of human live. the relation between military and civil government during a severe crisis, the meaning of religion for people, blackmarket and crime in a torn apart society, paranoia, and so on. every piece of art ( i use this term quite loose, you know) is a product of the society, the world, the artist lives in, grown up in. the outcome quite varies. i blame BSG for its half assed attitude towards these matters. the writers simply dont manage to think a problem through to the end.
terminater the sarah connor chronicles, started here in germany last week. this is an awful, just terrible flick. ohh, its so terrible…
i never saw firefly, but serenity. i liked that movie, it was quite symphatic.
The concept of human Cylons was bad to begin with — but they aren’t even machines. They’re CLONES. Yet it never occurs to anybody to state this obvious fact. Also, like many dramas (coughHOUSEcough), there seem to be opposing writers who have differing views on how a character should be portrayed — which is why you have these whiplash-inducing personality changes all the time.
I personally think of this series as having a huge “Meh” factor. Some things are so half assed and theres the times when the characters go for the soap opera moments of “he’s sleeping with this chick and his girlfriend doesn’t know!” I don’t want to see bullshit like that, I want to see an actual plot and instead of the whiny soap operas shit, I want to see robots getting shot with nuclear missiles.
Written like a Firefly fanboy. Not that I have anything against Firefly — I thought it was great and definitely deserved more than its short run. But you have to understand, entertainment is a business, and it simply wasn’t sustainable, no matter how great its fanboys think it is. The fact that BSG has been able to survive is a testament to its broader mainstream appeal — its most loyal (and irrational) fanboys, just like with all other sci-fis, are in the minority, even though you seem content on using them solely to highlight your criticisms.
Since I’ll be defending BSG, I’ll spare you the formalities, suffice it to say that 1) had BSG modeled itself to be more in the style of Firefly, it probably would’ve also been canceled after the first season, not to mention ending up on the receiving end of “copycat=fail” criticisms; and 2) in the wake of failed sci-fi shows, BSG attempts to reimagine what can be done with the sci-fi genre; the end product may not be “true sci-fi” by your definition — and for that reason you might consider it a failure — but the comparison is unfair in the first place (BSG writers never claimed it was sci-fi), and by dismissing it on that basis, you’ve missed out on some of the better programming of -any- genre. It might not be a great “sci-fi” show (or even a good one), but it’s excellent on its own, absent any fanboy’s preconceived notions of “what the ideal sci-fi should be like”.
Not that BSG doesn’t have flaws — it has plenty of kitchy moments and seemingly unnecessary character and plot arcs. But that’s the point: BSG -isn’t- supposed to be perfect: the characters are supposed to behave irrationally at the apocalypse, with the overarching plot difficult to comprehend; that’s what real life is like, and that’s what makes BSG so compelling. The writers at times don’t have full control of the plot (and it shows in the occasional spotty episode), but it’s one of the few shows where that lends itself to the premise (how many of us can predict our own fate?); unlike say with Lost, where plot twists continually appear for absolutely no reason except to avoid reaching a resolution. BSG writers do manage to skillfully weave those arcs together, but the result is often complex and bitter. If you prefer the simpler taste of geekspeak, gunfights, and end-of-the-day heroics, then BSG is perhaps just too “adult” of a show for you to ever appreciate.
For what it’s worth, pretty much all the BSG fans I know love both BSG and Firefly, each in their own regard. But it’s funny for those of us who have watched BSG through til the current season, because while most your complaints aren’t necessarily wrong, they’re quite shallow (eg: “Starbuck is a loose cannon, and that alone is what makes her terrible”, with no desire to understand what drives her character). Had you stuck with it, you might’ve been able to better understand and appreciate BSG’s complexity instead of dwell on superficialities.
Specifically, it’s too bad you gave into your misgivings at the end of season 2; the plot arcs and characters’ irrational behavior really began to play out in season 3. And season 4 has some of the most edge-of-your-seat developments of any TV show. Sadly, to get there, you’ll have to plow through the slump in the second half of season 3 (obstacles with the budget and network execs) — something which I doubt you’re capable of doing. But that’s just part of the journey that makes it all the more worthwhile; if everything was handed to you on a silver platter, it’d get boring quickly and there would be no need for more than just one season.
So allow me to sum up your review: “Firefly is a good sci-fi, and BSG sucks because it isn’t Firefly”; spoken like a fanboy. I invite you to prove me wrong; watch the rest of BSG without your preconceptions, then come back and write a proper review that isn’t so inundated with one-offs and badmouthing.
“Specifically, it’s too bad you gave into your misgivings at the end of season 2; the plot arcs and characters’ irrational behavior really began to play out in season 3. And season 4 has some of the most edge-of-your-seat developments of any TV show.”
….erm No.
Even BSG fans concede season 3 was the worst, the latest season has just magnified all the faults of the series. The Final Five were a good idea which met with a lame conclusion, no thanks to the GIANT PLOT DEVLOPMENT aka Cylon Clone ship which got blown up, supposedly taking ALL the cylon clones with it. You’re telling me these cylons (really, clones, with no mechanical parts whatsoever) can tramsmit their minds across the universe into other hosts bodies whenever they die, but they just happen to store all the spare bodies on ONE ship?
Roslin can’t decide whether to be a good guy or a villain. And frankly, she makes a better villain, so her arbitrary (and completely nonsensical) 180 degree personality changes are grating to the nerves — especially when they come about as a result of a dream sequence. -_-
@ johnnyfog
“but they just happen to store all the spare bodies on one ship?”
Actually no, there are many ships where they store the bodies, the ship you are referring to is called “The Hub” in which the actual “Cylon signal” is converted to be transmitted into a spare bodies which are located in various ships.
With the Hub gone, the Cylons no longer have the means to “convert” their “signal” into bodies, thus losing their capability to resurrect.
aha. well, touche.
it’s difficult to complain to harshly about shows like Los and BSG, which are weighed down by unresolved plot threads, because one’s suspicion that nothing will ever be fuly explained if overridden by lack of proof. Can’t predict the future, after all. And even if it’s likely that any flimsy explanation for why there’s a Virtual Baltar and Virtual Six will be worse than NOT knowing, people will be waiting to rip into the show with their talons if things aren’t explained properly.
So wait and see, I guess. I still don’t like Lost; never did. Too random.
…I can’t help but laugh at fh’s assertion that Firefly “simply wasn’t sustainable.” Really, we’ll never know, since Fox didn’t bother advertising it, yo-yoed it’s schedule around so much that it could never build a steady audience, repeatedly aired it against established ratings-grabbers, and generally treated it like sewage because they didn’t understand it.
For my money, Firefly is easily the best show in television history, and if it had been handled with even a neutral hand, let alone a skilled advertising aplomb, it would have lasted for years. But instead, they shat on it. They didn’t even treat it with apathy, they scorned it as actively as a network can without breaking contract. If they had done their fucking jobs, those of us who feel estranged by the resolution-free landscape that J.J. Abrams has turned television into might actually have something to watch once in awhile, instead of watching Dollhouse and weeping over what may have been.
Not sustainable, my hairy white ass. We’ll never know because Fox never tried. But I’ll wager that in some alternate universe somewhere, Serenity’s crew is still cruising the black, ducking Reavers and giving the Alliance the finger.
“What’s worse, I’ve noticed several scenes shown in the opening “previously, on Battlestar Galactica” sequences that were never aired! How can we make sense of the show when the editors can’t?”
I know the scenes you’re referring to. These aired in either the miniseries between seasons or the pilot miniseries
Well, all I can say is that the finale to BSG really exposed the show to be a bunch of crap. Instead of getting an actual explanation for all that’s been happening, we just get “God did it”.
That’s the best thing they could think of to explain Starbuck’s resurrection?
That’s just about the lamest explanation of the loose ends that I can imagine.
What’s with all the biblical subtext in drama lately? First Superman Returns, then BG, and now Kings. They endlessly re-hash stories from the old testament, just to move the spirits of the christian viewers out there. BG was never so much a sci-fi series as a metaphysical one.
Um, when you’re saying it’s the best spacer show around because it’s the only one, you were ignoring Stargate Atlantis?
When was this anyway?
SG1 was probably around then too wasn’t it?
After having seen EVERY frack’n episode BSG (and most of the webisodes and each extended version of certain episodes), I can say with complete authority that Spoony’s analysis, post Season 1, was 100% correct.
For me, I began to have a sinking feeling the show lacked a solid overall plot when they leaped forward a year on New Caprica. However, because the mini-series and Season 1 were so fantastic, I kept on hoping. Praying that I was wrong. So I suffered through all the irrelevant plot twists and unnecessary traumatic violence of the rest of the series. By the time the last half of Season 4 came around I could have cared less about who the final cylon was and I felt beat up as loved characters suddenly changed personalities and lots of death and abuse was displayed on the screen. Sadly, I was caught in a ‘previous investment trap’, so I kept watching. I had to see how it ended in hopes that my labors were not wasted. They were wasted.
My advice to anyone who hasn’t seen BSG is to borrow or BUY season one (it has the miniseries in it). I disagree with Spoony – Season 1 was outstanding (which is why four years later I end up looking like such an idiot for sticking with it). And then (here comes the big spoiler for Seasons 2, 2.5, 3, and 4, so don’t read what I’m about to type if you plan on watching those seasons) there were some bumps and turns leading them ultimately to ‘Earth’ (not a big surprise that was the main goal of the show).
Very little in BSG is ultimately explained to you because even the writers don’t know. The reality is that in the end it was almost 100% irrelevant who was and was not a cylon. More over, it didn’t matter much if it was one of the final 5 (why were they called “the final 5” on the show when they existed BEFORE the other eight) or even ‘the final cylon.’ And in the end, none of the interesting religious or moral issues were resolved with any deep insight.
So don’t view it like Babylon 5, which has an interesting and important story arche (almost everything fit into place very very very very well and was ultimately explained). View it more like ST:DS9, which had some great episodes but an AWFUL over arching plot.
BSG Season 1 and miniseries has some fantastic writing and episodes and deserves a place on your self. But do yourself a favor and don’t watch the rest of it.
“What’s worse, I’ve noticed several scenes shown in the opening “previously, on Battlestar Galactica” sequences that were never aired! How can we make sense of the show when the editors can’t? ”
Reminds me of “Next time on Arrested Development”, except that was done to be funny, this was done without thinking.
Still, it makes me want to break out my Arrested Development DVDs, so that’s a good thing.
@Jonnyfog
“What’s with all the biblical subtext in drama lately? First Superman Returns, then BG, and now Kings.”
I can’t speak for Kings, but as far as BSG having spiritual subtext, it was actually present in the original 70’s show. There was even a group of angels that had their own ship called “The Ship of Light,” they were responsible for bringing Starbuck back from life, in the old show.
And I’m not at all a big fan of Superman but isn’t Superman supposed to be represented as a savior? His story isn’t all that different than Jesus’. Comes from a different place, is raised by human parents, has great powers, and uses them for good, he’s loved and persecuted, and sacrifices himself for the people.
“They endlessly re-hash stories from the old testament,”
To be fair, that is nothing new, those stories have been around for thousands of years. Let’s not forget that there are really only about a dozen truly original stories, and hundreds of thousands of variations of the same stories. Which is why you’re gonna have someone come along and say, they ripped this off from this place, and they ripped it off from them. It’s a never ending chain.
The only reason we keep on watching shows like this after they start getting rubbish (usually after series one) is because we care about the characters and want to see what happens to them. But why bother? They ALWAYS have a mysterious personality change at the beginning of each series, usually for the worst.
@Brad
You are absolutely right, whattaya know. I checked battlestar wiki and the show had plenty of religious images (I think they fought the Devil at one point).
Superman as Christ is one thing, but you can’t expect me to buy that imagery when his opponent is a nutcase who want to blow up earth and then charge rent. >;{
….Actually, I just began netflixing s.1 of BSG, and it’s not as I thought. I could do without Baltar beating off to an invisible whore (???) and acting like a villain for once. Where’s the fun in a aby guy who doesn’t like being bad?
Does BSG really suck?
It has a 9.1 on imdb with about 26,000 votes, and it has a 9.1 on tv.com while getting two emmys and tons of other nominations and awards, while I’ve seen it basically in the first or second place of every single “best science fiction show” list ever
http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Drenai-Tales-Book-1/dp/0345379063
Try Legend, it’s not War and Peace, but it’s an enjoyable read. You can prolly find it at any used book store. The author originally wrote it during his first bout with cancer, so it’s a bit dark.
What’s terrible about this isn’t the bashing of a great show like BSG but the small crack against Lost. When the hell did you write this, Spoony? God dammit, you’d have better written this is in the middle of season two or the beginning of three.
BSG is a pretty good show for a while but somewhere around season 2.5 I stopped caring. I found it refreshing at the time simply because it was a good show that happened to be sci-fi rather than a sci-fi show that happened to be good, but all the drama just seemed like it was becoming forced after a while. Apparently it’s a good thing I got out though as I heard the finale is ass.
I never got into Lost either, which is apparently also a good thing as I’ve heard the show is completely directionless after the first season and gradually spirals out of control until both the writers AND the viewer have no fucking clue what is happening or why it’s happening or why there’s a polar bear.
Firefly was pretty good too but it still had a lot of that Whedon Dialogue that’s well written but sounds like nothing anyone would ever say out loud. Plus, as evidenced by Serenity, it was gonna turn to shit at the end of the first season, so really it’s a good thing it got canceled before it could break my heart.
I’m still waiting for the perfect science fiction television show. In my mind it’s something like a futuristic police procedural, set in some kind of far future Altered Carbon-esque universe. Someday it’ll happen, if I wish real hard!
Nuclear Warheads that don’t give off blastwaves should say it all. As far as the Cylons go (both old and new), once you’ve seen the first Terminator movie, all other cyborgs look like shit.
Rock on spoony one!
Post #14 Jadedcorliss: “When you’re saying it’s the best spacer show around because it’s the only one, you were ignoring Stargate Atlantis?”
Um, no, I don’t think he was.
The new BSG is interesting when it sticks to action-drama – the inter-fleet conflict between the humans and various ships, like the mutiny, the Pegasus plotline, and New Caprica. As soon as they tried for melodrama and introduced sympathetic cylon characters, and started having whole scenes taking place aboard the cylon ships, it became excruiatingly boring.
There’s something to be said for the undeserved laurels that come from rebooting or reimagining crappy source material. While I enjoyed the first three seasons of the new BSG immensely, I too felt that it went overboard once the Cylon revelations became ridiculous and the need to atone for early plot points irreparably damaged the completion of the series. To improve upon something that was hokey and melodramatic to begin with is not that impressive. It can make for decent television or even good television, but to call it the best science-fiction show ever is going farther than it deserves, I think.
Well, it was really excellent for a while, despite the annoying omnipresence of Hot Blonde Cylon in EVERY GODDAMN SCENE as Spoony pointed out, despite being pretty much irrelevent to the story.
Part of the tragedy for me is that it started out so GOOD, and by the end, was absolutely horrible. It’s like seeing your upstanding best friend become a drug-addicted junkie who steals your VCR for his next hit, before finally commiting suicide. Very demoralizing.
Also, ANYONE COULD BE A CYLON. EVEN YOU. It’s a really lazy way of inserting plot twists when they’re needed. At the end of writing season 3 the writers probably just went, “Screw it, let’s just make half the main cast cylons.”
Gotta agree, with most of that.
except for Mal/Book. Mal/Simon is way hotter. (I’d suggest Vash, but Zoey would shoot me.)
I know I already commented on this thread, but when I began I hadn’t actually seen the series from the start (oops) so my hated has lessened since I rented them all. But season 4 is still shit.
The weak point of the show is the Cylons. Are they clones? Are they machines? Well, the show would have you think they are machines, but they are really humans grown in vats who have some bizarre, undefined senses in regard to their ships blowing up, and can “project” themselves (and other people, too!) into fantasy worlds…still trying to figure that out. And the imaginary blond Cylon is our window into their society and thinking, but she’s not real (or she’s an angel…not terribly important either way) and thus isn’t credible in the viewer’s eyes, and when they finally do show you how the Cylons operate, they’re busy with their little ‘cafe society’ on the ruins of caprica, drinking lattes and going to the movies. And it’s really dull how there’s only a handful of six Cylons TOTAL. They can’t create more?
Whenever a classic metal Cylon appears, I’m actually grateful because at least you know where they stand. But this show addresses the metal ones as Centurions, and the real Cylons are the human ones. Ok fine. At least the heroes are interesting and well-acted. But no! The producer apparently thought he hadn’t broken enough conventions already, and decided to REALLY throw the dice by changing the personalities of half the cast in season 4. Suddenly it’s like Darth Vader saying “I have altered the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further!!” Anyone who saw Smallville from the early seasons knows it doesn’t remotely resemble the half-assed monstrosity on the air now (it’s even worse than Stargate). Well, you just fell for the trap. It happened again.
I still have no idea what he meant by saying it’s only the best spacer show since it’s the only one.
I really don’t get just his views on this.
He hasn’t even reviewed Firefly, he obsesses over it so much, and why do the women make it good?
Hm. Well, what can I say? From a perspective of someone who’s seen every episode (except the webisodes) from the beginning, I obviously have a different view from a casual viewer, which I would assume is Spoony’s point of view.
I have to agree and disagree. It’s not crap by any means, but it does have issues.
I personally had been waiting for a good Star Wars-level space battle for a long time, and when the new BSG had these, it was very thrilling to watch. But it was more about the drama than the action, which is understandable. I mean, how many times can you watch a Viper pilot take out a Cylon Raider at the last moment before it toasts (no pun intended) one of the unwitting human pilots? Well, I can watch that all day, and I have to say my favorite episode for space battles is still the miniseries when the Cylons initially attack.
This is one of the few shows that was intended to be episodic and still have an overarching story. That is probably what kept it so interesting for casual and hardcore fans alike. Most of the episodic plotlines were delivered exceptionally well, however the broader story suffered over the years.
I was really excited about the first season or so. Interest wavered through the second and third seasons, but the season 3 finale got my blood pumping almost as much as the miniseries did. However, I hate it when they bring back dead characters, so I can’t give it as good an opinion as the mini.
However, my biggest issue with the series is the last episode. They could have easily drawn it out for a few more weeks just to tie off some loose ends, but instead they decide to kill off half the cast in the last episode and throw out a cheesy mystical purpose. The socio-scientific structure of the remaining humans is thrown out in favor of religion. Do you really expect me to believe that absolutely no one in 50,000 people are going to object to all technology being tossed into the sun?
What it really boils down to though is how they handled the main characters. Some were very good, and others make you wonder why they even bothered.
Kara’s ending was just offensive. You lead us on for an entire season, wondering what brought her back from the dead, only to have her be some kind of corporeal spirit who doesn’t know she’s a spirit (I refuse to use the term “angel” as they use in the show). Her only purpose was to be on the bridge to put in the coordinates for (new) Earth. That could have been done in other ways much better without even having to bring her back to life. And still leave her as the one to guide them to their new home. I’d much rather have seen her as some sort of mysterious image in some of the other characters’ minds, gently pointing them in the right direction, instead of having to sit through her aggressive anti-socialism and brooding melancholy for another season.
Baltar’s ending was one of the most touching. He went from being the unwitting villain of the series to actually showing that he could give a damn about other people. It was a little weak to have him reconcile with his original lover so suddenly near the end of the series, but that can be overlooked when you see him burst into tears at admitting his knowledge of farming (something he had tried to discard when he was younger because it was below his self-centered image, one reason he became a scientist).
Galen, Carl/Athena, the Tighs, and all the “loyalist” Cylons, especially Cavel: weak, but touching. These characters played themselves out by the middle of season 4, in my opinion, so there wasn’t much to end them with. Tory had always felt like a tacked-on character, and this was proven in the finale. She was completely useless as a character and had nothing to contribute to anything. I felt more sympathy for the treacherous Gaeta than I did for her.
Lee’s ending was a bit weak, but acceptable. I was severely disappointed that they had juggled him around so much in the upper echelons of the government; I think he should have remained a prominent figure in the military and sort of taken the place that Kara took in season 4. I believe she could have guided the fleet through Lee in some kind of dream sequence or something, and it would have played out better than….Lee turns around and poof she’s gone…
Adama and Roslin…what can you say? That was a very touching way to let her character die, and even more touching to have the tough, burly Admiral hold the hand of his beloved in her last hours.
Anders and the Galactica…that was one of the most touching endings; He finally achieved what he wanted, to be connected to “perfection.” Based on his flashbacks, we surmise that being connected to the Galactica was the best thing that could ever have happened to him. And the crippled Galactica herself, leading the funeral pyre of the remainder of the empty ships, is an image that will forever be burned into my mind. She did her duty, and it was time to let go. She did not go out in a blaze of glory like the Pegasus, but her fire slowly died out as we recalled the good things she did for us.
Everything else was explained by “oh god made it happen” and pretty much warns us that Jimi Hendrix was a Cylon. And we shouldn’t create artificial intelligence. And our caveman ancestors got boned by spacemen from another galaxy, and that’s why we’re so screwed up today.
Hooray I thought I was the only person seriously into Sci-Fi to hate this show! do you have any idea how irritating it is to have your friends tell you how awesome it is all the while you’re still mourning the loss of Firefly? The plot is recycled from every pseudo-intelligent pulp short story of the 40s, none of the characters are likeable at all and I did feel insulted that every chance they got we had the hot blonde cylon (number 6 by the way) showing off cleavage. Yes she’s attractive, we got that MOVE on.
My big problem with BSG, as it be came known, it that there was no brakes. Just relentless dark story lines and decisions that weren’t just morally wrong but out right criminal. You know they are making a mistake that’s going to come back and bite them in their collective arse they as much as say so and then when it does happen we’re supposed to be shocked. I loved the Original show (and 1980) yes it was kitsch and silly but that’s why I love it today. It didn’t take itself too seriously and when it did it came from the story and you realised how good the actors were. You weren’t supposed to take it seriously. With this new one it was done so seriously you really hoped there was a message.
Now that the show has ended we have all the answers and would you believe it the biggest questions, the ones that we actually cared to find out about, is the biggest Deux ex machina. It turns out GOD was directing the fleet to a new earth. This one…
What, in the unholy left testicle of Lucifer, were they thinking? Wait more than five years to answer a mystery and finish with ‘Oh God did it to see what would happen and look it’s us…’
BSG felt like a massive rip off from beginning to end, unfortunately it was popular and the new wave of shows are following in it’s footsteps. Shows like Firefly, the original Star Trek, Farscape are long gone, as is what ever fun there was in serious Sci-Fi
And he watched it why?
I totally agree about Lost – it was a really interesting concept and it could’ve been really good, -if- the people making the thing kept their act together. Writer’s strike or no, they took waaaaaaay too long to develop anything. I think they also dug themselves in deep by trying to make the show more character-driven while having such a large cast of characters to focus on. They stretched themselves too thin, and by the time they got to focusing on who became the real main characters, everyone was more intrigued by the island, which had so many mysteries they’d have to pull a Metal Gear Solid 4 to wrap it all up. Quite frankly I had an easier time following the plot to Xenosaga.
Plus they threw in time travel. 99 out of 100 times that’s a huge warning sign. I myself got to the beginning of season 4, but as much as I liked some of the characters and wanted to see what was going on, I just didn’t want to follow the episodes anymore.
Olivaw: I’ll agree, most of the dialogue in Firefly is stuff you’d never hear in real life, but that’s kind of the beauty of TV drama – it’s not realistic. If it were, it’d basically be someone roleplaying Han Solo in EVE Online, with enough technobabble to make Gene proud.
The dramatic language can work if it’s well-written enough and doesn’t come across as forced. For me, it works.
It’s interesting, he’s saying the fans are in denial over it being bad, yet…
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Awards_and_Honors_%28RDM%29
and…
The series has also received favorable reviews from other writers. Stephen King wrote, “This is a beautifully written show, driven by character rather than effects…but the effects are damn good. And there’s not a better acting troupe at work on television.”[63] Joss Whedon commented: “I think it’s so passionate, textured, complex, subversive and challenging that it dwarfs everything on TV.”[64][65][66]
So it’s seems like SOME PEOPLE like it.
From what I’ve seen, seems pretty good.
His comment of it being the only spacer show is plain incoherent also.
Thank you. I really hate BSG, and I started long before I knew of this reviews existance. I saw the series form start to end of seson 2.5. At the start I was into it. At the end, I wanted them all TO DIE! The first big problem was in one episode (I forget which one) when Baltar creats a Cylon detector that is able to produce results in a few minutes to make a plot point about Boomer. Then, in the next fucking epsiode, it takes eleven hours to do each one!
Holy shit! Am I the only one who caught that? The continuity got hit so hard it made my head spin. And of course, in the end, both of these lead NOWARE, because the writers decided to ditch this concept entirely.
It was all down hill form there, whith people doing the most absolutly stupid things they could do. I kept hearing about how this was “griddy realism” but it wasn’t. It was just people doing the rock stupidest things they could CONSTANTLY, to the point were the show became a chore to whatch.
Then there’s the biggest plot hole of all: The Cylons, have no real motivation. First they want to kill everyone, then they want to mate & create hybrids, then they decide to go back to killing, then they appearently decide to leave us alone, and then they decide to enslave the last remnants of humanity on that godforsaken planet. And that’s just form the half of the series I wachted to completion.
And then there’s the bull crap about how the cylons sould be pittied. They nuked your civilization to death for the lulz, and now they are hunting down every last remnant of humanity like they were vermin. The only ambiguity here is that the humans are so damn moronic, that I want them to die!
God, this show pisses me off.
I liked BSG.
I watched the show just for Boomer, only for Boomer. Oh Boomer. Sorry I drifted off there for a second. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Boomer. Oh Boomer.
Man I loved Boner. Er, I mean Boomer!
I like the site layout now.
Anyway, I agree with spoony, BSG is a huge load of shit.
I wanted to like it so bad. The commercials were cool, it’s ranting fans were all over the internet, and it was the only show on daytime TV I had interest in.
What a poorly written, edited, styled, acted, and directed pile of nonsense boring crap. It was insulting.
I’m not a fan of the original either, I watched it a few times, didn’t get it though.
Well, I think you are being a little bit too radical here. BSG was a fine series, I loved it, and now that’s finally over (despite its ending which I’ll talk about later) I’ll miss it a lot.
It’s true though, that the series is quite a mess at times, and some things change without any real reason, but i don’t think it spoils it AT ALL. I totally agree about Sixes (HBS here) and Boone and that Adama is the best character in it by far, but the rest of characters are quite deep, and you rant very often about bidimensionalism. They have a lot of character development (Maybe what you find strange is that no one is truly a hero).
In my opinion, what nearly ruins everything it’s its ending. Won’t spoil it to anyone, but, although it is an ending, looked more like a season ending than a big THE END. Even more, it is unsatisfying. Too much for that determination of shutting down a succesful series. And the extra movie “The Plan” doesn’t help. Only thing it puts it’s something that looks like they forgot to tell in the series.
Overall, I loved it besides its flaws.