Battlestar is Back: The Best Show on TV
by Rebecca CuseyIf you haven’t yet jumped on the “Battlestar Galactica” bandwagon, now is the time. This show sets the bar for excellence in both production and content. The final season resumes tonight (Friday the 16th) on the Sci-Fi Channel at 10. But if you haven’t watched before, do yourself a favor and march down to Blockbuster and rent the first 2 hour movie and then all four seasons. Then, clear your calendar, send the kids to grandma’s, and settle in. You’ll thank me later.
The action dawned on 12 happy and prosperous planets filled with humans. They had put behind them the horrors of war they fought with the Cylon, human-like robots they created. But the Cylon had not forgotten. In a single devastating attack, they kill almost all the human population and send the survivors on a desperate escape through space, the Cylon hot on their tail. Their one hope is a legendary planet called Earth. The attack echoes our worst fears about terrorism.
That’s the set up. What happens along the way is gritty, nuanced, and powerful storylines. The soldiers tasked with protecting the population are tired, strung out, grieving, barely holding on. They’re fighting a very real and very bad enemy, against great odds. The government struggles to preserve democracy and at the same time not give help to enemy agents in the populace. As we learn more about the Cylon, the difference between human and Cylon becomes harder and harder to define and we ask ourselves what it really means to be human.
Oh, and lots of things blow up. Hot Cylons wear leather mini-skirts. And attractive people sometimes kiss.
Dat’s good TV right there.
BSG fans: What’s answers are you looking forward to this season?
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53 Comments
I love BSG. It’s a great examination of our last 8 years from the right and left perspectives, and of human nature. In my mind, it has trumped ST:TOS as the best speculative fiction TV show ever. It might simply be the age in which it airs, but BSG doesn’t need to couch its premises in silly gimmicks like half-black, half-white makeup. (As far as its feminization, sorry, Dirk, I don’t see it.)
What I’d like to see? Nothing in particular, but I’m pretty sure I’m not being set up (a la Lost) for some incredibly stupid “epiphany” at the end of the journey.
I’m hoping for more unapologetic action this year. The last two have been depressing and that’s not what I started watching it for. If I want to see people second guessing decisions, I’ll pick up the NYT.
I want to know what’s up with Starbuck. She blows up on a mission, then comes back in a gleaming viper and leads them back to a blown-up earth?
I want to know what’s happened to the earth? Why the “Planet of the Apes” treatment? Since this is the last season, they’ll be wrapping it up with a huge bow, but knowing the Battlestar story line, I’ll bet it won’t be pretty….
Said it before, I will say it again. This show is boring, depressing and completely unimaginative. It is a show where you hate ALL the characters. If this is human nature, you can keep it. There is no optimism, so what’s the point?
They’re fighting a very real and very bad enemy, against great odds.
And when they got a chance to wipe that enemy out, they didn’t. Because Helo had the hots for a Cylon. Superb writing!
That idiotic storyline and all the pseudo-’ripped-from-the-headlines’ Iraq war moral equivalence in the first few episodes of Season 3 was enough for me.
I’ve been watching from the beginning and although it’s gotten a little slow on occasion, overall it really IS the best show on TV, without the slightest hesitation of doubt, so say I, imho. It’s incredible. Anyone who likes serious drama and a sci-fi backdrop will love this show.
It’s filled with talent — the very talented actors/actresses and everyone else in this series — incredible acting, incredible writing, and top-notch directing.
Note that the god-like man (
) who created it used to write for Star Trek (TNG). He wanted to move away from the technobabble (I never minded it, but I understand his reasoning) and focus more on the human drama angle. And he’s done the very best job ever — kudos upon kudos to Mr Ron D Moore (you’ve made us all proud and entertained the hell out of us 
)!
Please refer to Dirk’s article for my reasoning not to hop on this band wagon.
Cheers!
As a long time BSG fan-boy dating from the very beginning, I’ve both loved and hated the new BSG. I love the opening music, I love the complete ‘re-do’ (to make it more realistic) of the entire Colonial Fleet, I love Edward James Olmos as Adama, and loved the female version of Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges in the original). I enjoy the interaction of the viper pilots (they talk like every fighter pilot has ever talked…and ever likely will talk no matter what they wear), and the interaction between males and females in the military. There are other likes but those cover the gamut. Bringing back Richard Hatch as a ‘bad guy’ (sorta) was a nice bit of doing as well. The naval flight terms used are right on and obviously someone did some research “Call the ball”, etc, big kudos on that.
Dislikes? Well, the washed out ‘gray’ colors for one. Makes me want to wipe my TV screen down (paraphrased that line from an Ebert review but it holds true) with windex. Too much gray, even on the various planets they land on. I can’t tell em apart, it’s either Gray world, slightly dingy world, or off color green and gray world. I think someone needs some ‘Cheer’ for brighter colors.
All the touchy feely talky nonsense that has to intrude from time to time, that’s fine, but can we intersperse some ACTION? There have been episodes where I thought I was watching “Jerry Springer does the 12 Colony tour” thinking “By the Lords of Kobol, don’t these people have anything better to do than emote???? SHOOT someone for fracks sake!”
Baltar….as originally played by John Colicos (get that damned light out of my eyes, it’s driving me crazy!, as famously paroded by Mad), the evil, weasely dirtbag who sold out the Colonies for big bucks..or power, or something…..now played as the evil, slimy sex hound who sold out the Colonies to a lingerie model for some hot lovin. (Granted…she’s hot..but still…). The new Baltar is always thinkin with his crotch and emoting with his navel. How in the heck is this guy able to do much of ANYthing???? For frack’s sake, he’s bedded more women than Capt Kirk ever dreamed of, and still finds the time sell everyone down the river (again..the experiment on the ground proves liberalism doesn’t work…kudos on that) but comes out living on a babe infested basestar. Sheeesh. They should have put him to the sword or jettisoned him long ago.
How in the heck does this guy get elected in during a war???? All smoke and mirrors and ‘hope’ and ‘change’ and….
Oh, wait…never mind. I guess I DO see how that could happen…
Regardless, I’d love to see him just flat out shot right in the head by one of the fed up Marines as he’s whining about something or another, once and for all. Frack, Laura Rosslyn couldn’t even let him bleed out last season, and we all know she’s certainly got it in her.
I guess, though, all things considered, a Battlestar with ‘nits’ is better than no Battlestar at all. I like the series for the most part, and await the promised ‘resolutions’.
Medbob: I see no apes, nor any human mutants who worship the Bomb and the Holy Fallout. This is a Novel for Television, much like Babylon 5 ten years ago. One must watch from the very beginning all the way through, and in this show we see the consequences of the actions taken by the characters.
So Say We All!
I absolutely loathe this show for the very reasons that Dirk Benedict points out in his own blog above. Sure, the original was campy, but what it had (and the new one doesn’t) was memorable characters and a real sense of right and wrong. I’m tired of this blurred morality that is getting shoved down our throats. No thanks, BG.
I could not care less about the show (well, perhaps if they elected Howard Dean as the new President). I find it mind-boggling that people are so blown away by this slow, depressing, poorly-conceived show. Yes the girls are hot, but the writing is abysmal. The characters are constantly changing their value systems in order to fit the plot of the new season (or sometimes episode). The technological aspects are laughable and insulting. The plot holes (like cylons who don’t know they’re cylons) are just ridiculous.
Utter waste of time.
The show just got to heavy on the politics. At first I was excited about a new BSG but it wore off. The business of cylons disquised as humans so good that they didn’t know they were cylons. If they couldn’t know then what is it that makes them cylon that can’t be detected? They track down Earth and they find that we destroyed ourselves 2,000 years ago, well that just blows the entire purpose of the show. Well enough nit-picking, oh yea what’s the thing about cutting the corners on all their books & papers?
heh, do we have our first Big Hollywood flamewar here??
Best show on TV, full stop. And this season’s first episode was a corker. There may be too many shades of gray for some. But it’s worth the time and effort to see it from the very beginning.
And crikes, I’m stunned that no one has compared Adama to Bush yet. C’mon, people!
Come on Harley, can’t we at least agree that House is a much better show?
I’m telling you, I don’t understand how people get past the ridiculous plot holes. It drives me nuts (not to mention it’s the single most depressing show this side of celebrity rehab).
i dont go outta my way 2 watch the current flavor of bg..i did make sure i watched the original tho..the current bg is no better/worse than any other crap on tv 2day..any1 that doesnt realize how bankrupt hollywood is 4 new creative ideas is just mind-dead..media mogels are struggling 2 maintain the relevancy of a product that is becoming more & more irrelevant with each day of the 21st century..my advice 2 hollywood..eat more peanut butter!
Best show on TV… Eh. Maybe if you don’t watch a lot of TV. Because this PC cheesefest doesn’t come close to ‘Lost’, ‘The Office,’ or ‘The Unit,’ to name a very few off the top of my head.
But don’t mind me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder where these things are concerned, right?
I cant believe that so many people are talking about how right and wrong are confused in this show. Many Americans feel dropping the A-Bombs in Japan was Right and just as many feel it was Wrong. Stop assuming we all have the same definition of WRONG AND RIGHT ANYWAY. And since this is the case–morality becomes blurry.
But on to less obnoxious topics…the entire series of BSG might be ruined with this ridiculousness of Ellen Tigh being the Final Cylon.
I haven’t watched this since the original mini-series. What should I netflix in order to catch up? There is something called “The Story So Far”, will that be enough? Or should I watch the seasons in order. And what the heck is with season 2.5? That is very confusing. Help.
If you watched the BSG premiere Friday and haven’t yet slashed your wrists from the rampant cynicism, gone blind with the flashy editing or wonder how long these writers were flogged in Turkish prisons as infants, turn into the Burn Notice premiere Thursday on USA. You’ll be glad you did.
BSG is too much heavy drama. Weak pathetic humans. Too much with the skin jobs, not enough with the toasters. I like the metal Cylons. The skin jobs just means easier to make a television show without the use of CGI. Not enough confrontations with the Cylons. They spent more time fighting among themselves. LA Law in space.
Yeah, its a pretty good show… but not the best on TV, not even the best in Sci-Fi.
Both Firefly/Serenity and Babylon 5 beat this one out, but I’d put it a close third…
I was thrilled when I heard BSG was coming back to tv. Until I saw it. A female Starbuck sucking on a cigar seems…..provocative? A subliminal message maybe? Anyway, I watched a few times and found it sadly lacking in everything that makes a series worth watching. Too blasted dark, dreary and angst ridden with no redeming qualities whatever. When even the bad guys can’t tell they’re the bad guys what does that say? Stupid! Firefly/Serenity and Babylon 5 were excellent and how long did they last? The idiots in charge can’t stand to be proven wrong.
While the series has occassionally been heavy handed, such as the occupation and imprisonment of the human colonists by the Cylons during the “Iraqtica” season, the fact is as often as not, the characters have spouted some conservative tenets on many occassions as well. I can’t say I think there is much political message one way or another injected into BSG. As for the original BSG, sorry Dirk, that show was pure Happy Days cheese and jumped the shark by the end of the 1st season. It ended up looking like any and every 70s-80s sitcom, with plots neatly resolving themselves within the proscribed time limits with blow dried beach babes and cutesy pie tow headed youngsters and comical robots.
Something I havent read commented upon as yet, doesnt the revelation that the Cylons actually came from earth 2000 or more years ago actually mean that they cannot be “toasters” or the ultimate evolution of the mechanical servants the humans created? This IMO further confuses things because now we have to imagine a history of how this alliance between a race of Earth became identified with robots and consequently became aligned against their own descendants to the point they actually attempted to wipe them out.
I am sorry, but I stopped watching after that made it heroic to blow themselves up in protest to the Cylon occupation (Season 3????). The liberals all buzzed about the parallel to the Iraq war. It makes us (the USA) sound like the Cylons.
It appears (and I have not watched) that my decision to turn it off was a good one, because even in the latest trailers, they want people to think that “The Cylons are just like us!” What a load of liberal *#&$^#&!!!
I loved the first two seasons, and bought the DVD’s. Maybe I am being too sensitive, but the show offends me! and I choose not to watch, or buy their DVD’s. I am glad to see by the responses that I am apparently not completely alone.
Skimming the posts I fall into the category of “Loved it Once, Now Hate it”. What makes SciFi so unique is that you can real characters and put them in any and all kinds of extreme situation and see how real people would deal with it. That was BSG for much of the first two seasons but by season three the writers of this show through off all pretext of authenticity. When I began to want to see the “good guys” killed off I knew my days as a fan were numbered. If our species is ever on the brink, I don’t want anyone with the last name Adama anywhere near the controls and Helo, don’t get me started!!!
This is Capt Janeway all over again. Putting the lives of her crew at enormous peril to save the species from fluid space. Her ability for cold (i.e. real) calculation is why Seven saved that series from an early death.
It is obvious that there is a small cliche of SciFi talent that reappears in new vehicles. I applaud this concept (I.e. all our friends from Firefly.) but someone needs to flush the writers and producers for some true believers.
I am always intrigued by Battlestar Galactica, always enough to blunt some of the problems that some improbable technology or plot development can raise.
I am captivated by the general development of the themes, I am a fan of the entire cast without exception, I applaud the unquestioned way that equality of the sexes has been presented, and I am always re-energized by the way that this series can come back time and time again to piercing moments of clarity that touch the viewer’s emotional investment in the series.
By comparison, “House,” or any brand of “C-S-I” you’d care to name, are consistently-crafted pieces of filler that dip into the same stereotypical well over and over imo. Sorry but there it is.
The main problem with Battlestar Galactica is that its enduring excellence points out how awful every other thing on the Sci Fi channel is right now. who’s programming that place?
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