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newnumber6So yeah, big BSG finale this weekend. Figured I might as well do a solo post. Spoilers will be behind the cut, non-spoilers before it.
Okay, as usual, generally well acted and directed. Maybe a bit of iffy bits, and a little too dark at times to tell for sure what was happening (at least for me).
However, as a finale, it didn't really satisfy me, and in fact has confirmed my feeling that the show seriously jumped the shark with the final 5 revelation. As I've become fond of saying, "The Cylons had A Plan. It would have been nice if the writers did too." The series is generally well written as far as individual episodes go, but, as a whole, it fails to hang together - plotline that I felt were important get dropped and characters occasionally seem to change suddenly because of it. Because of this, I doubt I'll watch the series, as a whole, again. I may watch individual episodes if I happen to catch them and I'm in the mood and like that one, but because they failed I won't be able to watch, say, daily reruns. Kinda like X-Files.
A few specific points , yeah, I know they did it on the original BSG, and I know they sort of hinted at it as a possibility all along, but... angels, really? Really? Bah. I don't like angels in my SF, unless it's specifically a supernatural show. I was hoping for some kind of rational explanation for Head-Six and Head-Balter, not to mention Starbuck. Angels are rarely a satisfying explanation.
The rescue of Hera and the opera house and final standoff didn't really seem to make sense, at least not all the way. Most of it was okay (but a little jumbled). It seemed like Cavil just appeared on the bridge without any real reason for it. Then, after making a deal, it all goes to hell, and he decides to shoot himself. Well, that was anticlimactic. Especially when he was all obsessed at survival at any cost and transcending humanity's limits, for him to just off himself seemed like they wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
And winding up on Earth, not the 13th colony Earth but rather our Earth, in the past, was always kinda a possibility, and they did the 'gotcha' with the post-apocalyptic Earth in order to make it unexpeceted, but it's still not my ideal way to deal with it. I'd rather they ended up in 1980 with flying bikes and super-jumping children...
no, wait, I take that back. It certainly could have been worse.
Still, when your conclusion depends on 39,000 people all voluntarily saying, "Hey, yeah, I'll give up all the technological advancements that make life better and go live how they did in the distant past with short lifespans, high infant mortality, no medicines, and backbreaking labour just to stay alive!", I think you should have spent more time on it. Hell, 150,000 years is more than enough time for a technological civilization to briefly flourish and then collapse, serving only as legends, so it wasn't even really necessary.
So, yeah, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it on any level, it just let me down. Most of the deaths were predictable, and it didn't give satisfactory answers to the questions I had. Most of the flashbacks didn't really feel necessary to the plot or to be particularly illuminating, but rather like filler and in at least one case kinda cheap (really? Boomer returns Hera to 'pay back the Admiral for not washing her out without another chance'? If you wanted to repay that, 'not shooting him' or 'not joining the cylons who want to wipe humanity out' might have been a better way to pay back that favor)
Worthy of some note, apparently during the 4th season filming Katie Sackhoff (Starbuck) was dealing with thyroid cancer, and the guy who plays Anders was in a serious car accident (part of the reason most of his last episodes were spent in a bed), so at least some credit to them for working through it (and the writers who probably had to deal with Anders in a different way than expected).
Good Terminator episode that night though, I think it's finally got its groove back, and a better showing than there's been so far with Dollhouse.
Okay, as usual, generally well acted and directed. Maybe a bit of iffy bits, and a little too dark at times to tell for sure what was happening (at least for me).
However, as a finale, it didn't really satisfy me, and in fact has confirmed my feeling that the show seriously jumped the shark with the final 5 revelation. As I've become fond of saying, "The Cylons had A Plan. It would have been nice if the writers did too." The series is generally well written as far as individual episodes go, but, as a whole, it fails to hang together - plotline that I felt were important get dropped and characters occasionally seem to change suddenly because of it. Because of this, I doubt I'll watch the series, as a whole, again. I may watch individual episodes if I happen to catch them and I'm in the mood and like that one, but because they failed I won't be able to watch, say, daily reruns. Kinda like X-Files.
A few specific points , yeah, I know they did it on the original BSG, and I know they sort of hinted at it as a possibility all along, but... angels, really? Really? Bah. I don't like angels in my SF, unless it's specifically a supernatural show. I was hoping for some kind of rational explanation for Head-Six and Head-Balter, not to mention Starbuck. Angels are rarely a satisfying explanation.
The rescue of Hera and the opera house and final standoff didn't really seem to make sense, at least not all the way. Most of it was okay (but a little jumbled). It seemed like Cavil just appeared on the bridge without any real reason for it. Then, after making a deal, it all goes to hell, and he decides to shoot himself. Well, that was anticlimactic. Especially when he was all obsessed at survival at any cost and transcending humanity's limits, for him to just off himself seemed like they wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
And winding up on Earth, not the 13th colony Earth but rather our Earth, in the past, was always kinda a possibility, and they did the 'gotcha' with the post-apocalyptic Earth in order to make it unexpeceted, but it's still not my ideal way to deal with it. I'd rather they ended up in 1980 with flying bikes and super-jumping children...
no, wait, I take that back. It certainly could have been worse.
Still, when your conclusion depends on 39,000 people all voluntarily saying, "Hey, yeah, I'll give up all the technological advancements that make life better and go live how they did in the distant past with short lifespans, high infant mortality, no medicines, and backbreaking labour just to stay alive!", I think you should have spent more time on it. Hell, 150,000 years is more than enough time for a technological civilization to briefly flourish and then collapse, serving only as legends, so it wasn't even really necessary.
So, yeah, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it on any level, it just let me down. Most of the deaths were predictable, and it didn't give satisfactory answers to the questions I had. Most of the flashbacks didn't really feel necessary to the plot or to be particularly illuminating, but rather like filler and in at least one case kinda cheap (really? Boomer returns Hera to 'pay back the Admiral for not washing her out without another chance'? If you wanted to repay that, 'not shooting him' or 'not joining the cylons who want to wipe humanity out' might have been a better way to pay back that favor)
Worthy of some note, apparently during the 4th season filming Katie Sackhoff (Starbuck) was dealing with thyroid cancer, and the guy who plays Anders was in a serious car accident (part of the reason most of his last episodes were spent in a bed), so at least some credit to them for working through it (and the writers who probably had to deal with Anders in a different way than expected).
Good Terminator episode that night though, I think it's finally got its groove back, and a better showing than there's been so far with Dollhouse.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 09:49 pm (UTC)"The Cylons had A Plan. It would have been nice if the writers did too."
So true. :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 02:02 pm (UTC)In other weird behind-the-scenes news, apparently Edward James Olmos had been obsessed with getting them to film a scene where one of the characters was on the toilet, and had been suggesting it repeatedly, which is why when he directed an episode they had that 'Starbuck talks to Baltar while on the toilet' scene.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 12:09 am (UTC)Yeah, that sounds like EJO alright.
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Date: 2009-03-22 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 10:22 am (UTC)I also thought the decision to nix civilization was sudden and strange too. I can't imagine too many people want to live harsh lives like that.
I didn't know Trucco had been in an accident.