But spring is finally here and so is some glorious new programming. Lost is on break but watching the new episodes from a few weeks back was like sweet crack cocaine in my veins. Torchwood gets better and better and I'm glad I've given the show time to mature. My Name is Earl was back on this week since January providing us with some classic white trash moments. I'm even enjoying the tired plots of Smallville. But it is the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica that I was most anticipating (next to Doctor Who coming out later this April).
Having had an infinitely long wait since the season 3 finale I've had plenty of time to digest the big reveal... the final 5 Cylons. Or is it? Perhaps it's the big reveal of only 4 of the final 5 Cylons. Can't we all agree that Starbuck is NOT a Cylon? It's too obvious. And aren't they missing out on some shock value to lump that big reveal in with the other 4 Cylons? To be honest I have a problem with Colonel Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders being Cylons, but I'll live. Really the only big Cylon reveal that I did like was the President's aid. This reveal is chock full of wonderful wrinkles that call into question the survival of the human race. Other than forcing the audience to say "Oh my gosh... not Colonel Tigh..." this choice only bogs down the continuity of the show and doesn't make me fear for the human race any more than the impact of the President's second in command being a Cylon. I guess I just like my heroes to stay heroes. I now fear some serious "moral of the story" moment on the horizon.
If the pervasive revelation that some of our best heroes turn out to be Cylons is some trite way of commenting on the nature of good and evil or an attempt to blur the lines of right and wrong... then I shall be well and truly pissed. Can't we just keep our social and political commentary to ourselves?
Perhaps this is the major flaw with Battlestar Galactica as a franchise. The entire mythology lives in this tight vacuum with one set of heroes and one set of villains and nowhere else to expand. They've done the best they could with what they had. They've brought into the story an impressive array of secondary characters and attempted to make them meaningful to the series. But perhaps the series is beginning to collapse in upon itself from the weight of its own expanding mythology. In an attempt to be innovative they are creating logic and continuity problems that begin to require the same kind of brain calisthenics that occurred when Lucas put out the turd-fest of Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars. The more mythology you overlay on a small group of characters the more problems you have with the rules of storytelling.
For me... Starbuck cannot be a Cylon. If she is it will ruin the series. I will stop watching. So happy Sci-Fi everyone!
10 comments:
BSG lost me about halfway through the 3rd season. They reached the point in the story where all the momentum from the first two seasons started demanding some payoff, and then gave floofy floo floo episodes like that stupid boxing one and that After School Special one where Helo learns the important lesson that genocide is wrong.
There were only two good moments in the back half of the third season, and both of them came in the last episode - Apollo's "we are nothing more than a gang of thugs" speech and Tigh's "it doesn't matter if I'm a Cylon or not, I am here to kick ass" speech. For me it was too little too late.
The thing I like best about BSG is that we know who the protagonists are, but we don't know who the heroes are.
We're seeing everything from the human perspective, but partially convinced the Cylons are actually the good guys.
See, I think that the Cylons are really nanotechnology residing in what were once humans. The nanobots picked twelve models of people that could best sustain their itty bitty robot parts and then replicated the heck out of them.
Which also means that Cylons can spread like an STD. See, now THAT is a fun show. Sentinent STDs that turn you into robots - this is what science fiction was meant to be.
What the hell are you talking about?
Um... the power of the unchecked imagination...?
i'm fairly certain i'm wrong but are you saying that this show (with the robotic std stuff) is like the geek version of beverly hills 90210 or whatever the hell
t(w)eens are watching these days? you know the show type. the one where the moral most often played in the background is wear a damn condom!
if so , cool! geek society is finally raising in the ranks. there may be hope for this country yet. :-)
So for reals, did you watch Biggest Loser last night? Wow, some of those folks don't need to lose any more weight. I don't know what they are going to do between now and the finale.
No offense, but didn't BSG become a teen drama during the back half of the 3rd season. Apollo loves Starbuck but THEY'RE MARRIED TO OTHER PEOPLE! He'll get a divorce for her, but SHE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN DIVORCE! She'll cheat with him but HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN CHEATING!
Oh, what to do what to do?
Roberto, I hated that entire story thread. Annoyed the piss out of me. You are right... very teen drama-esque.
But it ain't no Smallville!
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