Smithology

It’s now been a couple of weeks since the BSG finale which should have given everyone a chance to reflect and get over initial reactions or just catch up. So here is my breakdown of the finale and the show in general.

HERE BE THE SPOILERS, ARRR.

For me this show went to a bad place in the finale of season 3. When Kara Thrace came back from the dead, I just thought it was getting very silly. Also the choice of “All Along the Watchtower” annoyed me but I can’t say why – maybe because Bob Dylan is such a baby boomer icon and any use of his music sends me the message that I’m watching television designed for boomers (no not that Boomer haha).

I knew the show was going to have religious elements embedded in the conclusion but like many many others who have posted their reactions on the net (like here on Tor) I found the “It was all God” explanation really weak and unsatisfying.

I would have been a lot more satisfied with an ending where a lot of the weird stuff was a conspiracy of the hybrids who turn out to have advanced powers of projection and maybe they were behind mysteries such as Kara’s resurrection, the Cathedral visions and Baltar’s and Caprica’s imaginary friends.

A few people have picked up on the idea that BSG was all about 9/11 and the war on terror and that the finale had a ring of hope to it akin to the election of Obama. I think they could have ended on a positive note without having to make such definite ends for all of the characters. I would have been happy for the series to end with the cylon and human fleet in orbit around an unidentified blue and green planet (maybe with a Gondwanaland shaped continent?) listening to Laura and Caprica reading the human/cylon peace treaty.

Bob Rehak at Graphic Engine has blogged about what he thought were the strengths and weaknesses of the series and I agreed strongly with his commentary: especially that the space battles were a real highlight and that the move towards a soap opera style show towards the end of series 3 was unwelcome.

In terms of drama, the show was at it’s best when it was exploring some pretty full-on philosophical issues: Laura and Admiral Adama’s ethical dilemmas of trying to lead and defend and preserve their humanity. The times Adama and Tigh had issues using military force to police the fleet. Questions of morality during war. Cavil’s and the cylons questions on the meaning of life given their immortality. The problem of blurred boundaries between humans and cylons in the form of Hera and the human-cylon pairings. The questions of people’s right to religion. When it became about individuals and their personal angst, the show was not as good but I still liked some of the things that were brought up on a personal level such as the brilliant episode where Kara explores her relationship with her dad through a pianist at the bar. I liked some of the plots that were about trust, manipulation and betrayal. However as Bob says, when the episodes were just drama, the show lost a lot of it’s excitement and drive.

Overall, I think BSG will be remembered fondly and I imagine we’ll be watching re-runs on telly for years to come. I’m glad that they ended the show while it was still popular and I’m looking forward to seeing more science fiction coming from the same group of people.

Speaking of related shows, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is coming to a close as well (and still no word on a third series) which is another show I’ve appreciated even if it has suffered from much the same lack of action as the latter half of BSG. More shows like these please!

Uncategorized bsg, tv

I’ve been watching a lot of BSG lately: over the last couple of months I have crammed four seasons of BSG all because I wanted to catch up with the current wrap-up season before it aired so that some scumbag on the net wouldn’t spoil the big reveals at the end to me. I already had bits of it spoiled and it did reduce my enjoyment of the show somewhat as a lot of the drama of the show centres on some big questions: Which characters are really Cylons? Will they find Earth and what will happen when they get there? What’s with all this God stuff? etc…

Anyway, all the BSG exposure has embedded some very important lessons in my pysche:

1. When someone holds a gun to your head, you should always look them in the eye and shout “Do it you coward!”
2. Always check your raptor for bombs before getting on board
3. Stay away from air-locks
4. Never trust the President, she’ll throw you out an airlock every time
5. Never let a Sharon carry a side-arm
6. Never give your security codes to a tall leggy woman with a strong jawline
7. If in doubt, drink a bottle of whisky. If it’s the first two seasons, skull green mouthwash instead
8. If things are looking up, you should be very worried indeed, things never look up in BSG - except maybe when you’re lying on the floor looking up at a centurion.
9. A punch up is a form of foreplay
10. You may as well give up on trying to keep your model sailing ship in one piece. You know you’re going to smash it up every-time you get angry
11. Every weird dream you have is probably somehow real, it is never because you ate too close to bed time
12. The first thing that will fail in any spacecraft is the FTL drive. Fortunately it can usually be fixed with a spanner and mallet in the right place.
13. If you have saved the lives of your crew countless times, proven your valour in battle and are generally looked up to, you are probably a Cylon.

Uncategorized bsg

Life is compressed into a series of moments. There is nothing in between. I move from one place to another like turning a corner. Ninety degrees, instantaneous, like light hitting a mirror. My mind thinks only of what’s next, what’s next, what’s next. There is no future or past, only time. Work, sleep, eat, drive, parent, read, watch, process, click. I can’t stand silence, I’m impatient standing still, I fill all of the gaps with something, anything. Nobody reaches me because I can’t be found, I am nowhere and no-one. I just am. I watch too much BSG. It makes me go all serious. Sleep seems like a good idea right now. Anything is better than this poetry.

Uncategorized bsg, poetry, sleep