Battlestar Galactica

[seayakin]

Have you seen Battlestar Galactica (latest version)? I'll have to say I missed the initial release and I am watching it on DVD with Netflix. However, I have found this to be a smart well designed series (much better than the original). Good character development and plot twists.

Has anyone else seen it?

[Bikewer]

Since day one. The current iteration of Battlestar is several heads and shoulders above the original rather silly series with Lorne Greene. I just could never take those huge, clumsy, chrome-plated Cylons seriously.

The writers have done a number of interesting things, for one they have people who obviously understand the Military Mind. By giving the Cylons complex personalities and even a religion, they have added considarable depth.

I think there's a rather long thread on Battlestar in the entertainment thread.

[Skibum]

I've been watching it, the upcoming season is going to be the last.

[Corsair 115]

I've watched it. Thumbnail review, without giving any plot details away:

First season: very good. Season ends with a huge surprise cliffhanger. There's not many times when a TV show ends an season in a way that really knocks me out of my seat, but the first season finale did for me.

Second season: first half good, but it starts to lose its way into the second half though. Season ends with a finale that I found just completely out of left field and mostly incomprehensible in terms of what it did to the story and character structure that had been established up to that point.

Third season: wraps up the dangling plot line left at the end of the second season surprisingly quickly. Show never really gains any momentum though and continues to slowly decline in my estimation. Season ends with a finale that makes little sense and one that'll be hard for the writers to adequately explain. The show also committed the cardinal sin of using one of the cheapest, most manipulative storytelling tricks possible late in the season - it gets major demerits for that in my book.

Fourth season: still to come. I've no reason to really continue watching since I think the show has badly lost its way, but will probably watch it anyway since even a bad Battlestar Galactica episode is better than most other programs.

[Morrigan]

"smart well designed series"? Have we been watching the same thing? I found it to be insipid, predictable, and poorly written, with flat one-dimensional characters.

It IS better than the original series but that's not saying much.

[Bikewer]

Not to start a flame war, but "flat, one-dimensional characters" ?

Wondering about the "watching the same show" line....

If I sound like a fanboy, so be it. I'm 61 years old, a science-fiction fan since the mid-50s, and jaded all to the nines.
Battlestar has made me well up on several occasions, and I find the characters (at least, the main characters) to have as much depth as anything I've seen on TV in a long time.

Different strokes.....

[noblecaboose]

I have to join on the "I love this show" side. If for no other reason than because I have a GIGANTIC girl-crush on Katee Sackhoff. She plays Starbuck as an incredibly sexy, believable tomboy. It's really hard to get that right and she nails it. Nails the frak out of it!

[Morrigan]

Starbucks is the only one with personality, and she's still very caricatural. As a tomboy myself, I find myself thinking, "she tries way too hard".
Okay, there are some others who have personalities.... but they're unbearably annoying. I'm thinking of that Dr. Gaius here. Most annoying character since Jar-Jar. I stopped watching after season 1, but from the spoilers I read on Wikipedia, he only gets worse. *shudders*

For truly memorable AND interesting characters, I go to Firefly, or to HBO series like Deadwood. <3

[noblecaboose]

Starbucks is the only one with personality, and she's still very caricatural. As a tomboy myself, I find myself thinking, "she tries way too hard".
Okay, there are some others who have personalities.... but they're unbearably annoying. I'm thinking of that Dr. Gaius here. Most annoying character since Jar-Jar. I stopped watching after season 1, but from the spoilers I read on Wikipedia, he only gets worse. *shudders*

For truly memorable AND interesting characters, I go to Firefly, or to HBO series like Deadwood. <3

Nuh-uh. :mad:

Yeah, well, too bad Firefly is was cancelled in its first season and as far as Deadwood is concerned, there's only so many times per minute you can hear the word C.U.N(ext)T(uesday) before bile starts to rise in the throat.
:p

[Miss Anthrope]

I am just about done with Season 2.5 on DVD.

I fell in love with the show during the pilot. I enjoyed the first season for the most part. In the second season I saw, much to my dismay, that it was going soap opera. I've read some spoilers for season three that pretty much confirm this for me. I'd actually like to see less character drama, less "who is in love with and/or sleeping with who", and more advancement of the main storyline. There is some good writing behind the show, but the filler episodes and the romance definitely trip the gag meter for me.

As far as a TV show, it isn't bad. I tried watching some Babylon 5 for comparison the other night, and it most definitely doesn't hold up in comparison to BSG. (I was remembering it quite too fondly) Even though I'm incredibly picky and only watch select TV shows on DVD, I will say I'm going to see the series through. I'm glad to hear they will actually wrap it all up at the end of season 4, nothing like having a series go "poof" and not ending properly!

[suncrafter]

Have you seen Battlestar Galactica (latest version)? I'll have to say I missed the initial release and I am watching it on DVD with Netflix. However, I have found this to be a smart well designed series (much better than the original). Good character development and plot twists.

Has anyone else seen it?

Like you, I've seen them via Netflix. I burned thew them far too quickly and now I need to wait for new ones. The new show is MUCH different and MUCH better then the original.

BTW - Was anyone else disturbed by the episode with the Cylon who was raped? That episode bothered me a lot and I found it hard to sleep that night. Was anyone else freaked out by that?

[3point14]

....nothing like having a series go "poof" and not ending properly!


c.f. Farscape.

[alfaniner]

I believe it was Babylon 5 that set the precedent for long-arc sci-fi series.

There's some great stuff coming up. I envy you.

[noblecaboose]

Like you, I've seen them via Netflix. I burned thew them far too quickly and now I need to wait for new ones. The new show is MUCH different and MUCH better then the original.

BTW - Was anyone else disturbed by the episode with the Cylon who was raped? That episode bothered me a lot and I found it hard to sleep that night. Was anyone else freaked out by that?

In a word, yes.

In more words, I found it very, very disturbing. I was impressed by the actress's ability to portray a woman broken by repeated rape and abuse. After playing the seductress in so many episodes, it was all the more disturbing to see her so pitiful.

[Morrigan]

Yeah, well, too bad Firefly is was cancelled in its first season

So? It's still light years ahead of BSG in terms of characterization, writing, pacing, dialogue, well, pretty much everything. It was cancelled because FOX didn't market it properly, not because it wasn't good.


and as far as Deadwood is concerned, there's only so many times per minute you can hear the word C.U.N(ext)T(uesday) before bile starts to rise in the throat.
:p
Don't you mean the word (rooster)(blower)? :P
Excessive swearing doesn't bother me when put in context and if the dialogue is well-written, which it is.


I fell in love with the show during the pilot. I enjoyed the first season for the most part. In the second season I saw, much to my dismay, that it was going soap opera. I've read some spoilers for season three that pretty much confirm this for me. I'd actually like to see less character drama, less "who is in love with and/or sleeping with who", and more advancement of the main storyline. There is some good writing behind the show, but the filler episodes and the romance definitely trip the gag meter for me.

99% agreed. I read those spoilers too and it was enough to make me gag. Where I differ in opinion is that it made me glad I stopped watching. I can't stand all that insipid soap opera.

In a word, yes.

In more words, I found it very, very disturbing. I was impressed by the actress's ability to portray a woman broken by repeated rape and abuse. After playing the seductress in so many episodes, it was all the more disturbing to see her so pitiful.
That annoying blonde wench gets raped and tortured? Oh, I just might change my mind about not watching.

...I kid, I kid. Still, she was unbearable, and I probably would be unable to care what happens to her, since I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, least of all her.

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Like you, I've seen them via Netflix. I burned thew them far too quickly and now I need to wait for new ones. The new show is MUCH different and MUCH better then the original.

BTW - Was anyone else disturbed by the episode with the Cylon who was raped? That episode bothered me a lot and I found it hard to sleep that night. Was anyone else freaked out by that?

That episode was really creepy :boxedin: .

[Tsukasa Buddha]

I am just about done with Season 2.5 on DVD.

I fell in love with the show during the pilot. I enjoyed the first season for the most part. In the second season I saw, much to my dismay, that it was going soap opera. I've read some spoilers for season three that pretty much confirm this for me. I'd actually like to see less character drama, less "who is in love with and/or sleeping with who", and more advancement of the main storyline. There is some good writing behind the show, but the filler episodes and the romance definitely trip the gag meter for me.

As far as a TV show, it isn't bad. I tried watching some Babylon 5 for comparison the other night, and it most definitely doesn't hold up in comparison to BSG. (I was remembering it quite too fondly) Even though I'm incredibly picky and only watch select TV shows on DVD, I will say I'm going to see the series through. I'm glad to hear they will actually wrap it all up at the end of season 4, nothing like having a series go "poof" and not ending properly!

Te he, my mother complains that Sci-Fi is just soap operas for men :) .