[bsg 216] "Sacrifice"
Apparently I am joining the ranks of BSG ep reviewers.
Kneejerk reactions...
As a thriller: C
I was annoyed at the major plot holes in the hostage story. I expected Ellen to be stupid and blurt out that she was a strategic hostage, but didn't expect Lee to be equally dumb... of course, then we'd have no drama, if he wasn't also in peril. Yeah, yeah, I know that you have to go to your leads, so as to engage the audience. But at least give me a good reason why the CAG and his second in command are both off-duty and on the same ship at the same time. Or, for that matter, why Adama should go to Cloud Nine and put himself in jeopardy. At least in Home there was a halfway decent argument that he had to be the one to reach out to Roslin.
Plus, why didn't Lee just stay hidden in the utility corridor? Or, why didn't someone (Starbuck) interrogate the maintenance crew, figure out the schematics of Cloud Nine and cut into a wall, or crawl thru the air ducts to surprise the terrorists? Or, she could even have gone in cold without guns, and done *just* recon like she was supposed to. I know... only 43 minutes to cover everything. Sigh.
As commentary on current events: B
I thought TPTB posed some good questions with this ep... do you negotiate with terrorists, and if so, how? But I thought they could've explored the answers further and given us uncomfortable alternatives. Would have been interesting if the terrorists had arranged a live feed on the wireless, and the peaceniks had been listening in.
Also, did anyone think the dialogue between Billy and the gunman about "good men" was a reference to W's favorite endorsement?
As a soap opera: B (because it was fairly anvilicious, but isn't that what soaps are like?)
I didn't catch who wrote this ep, but I missed the subtlety of the character interactions that we saw last week. (Yes, Kat/Kara and Kara/Lee threw off a lot of fireworks, but still they had incisive, insightful lines, not this Harlequin stuff.) Wish they had trusted more in the actors.
Nice symmetry with Kara eavesdropping, though. Katee, as usual, rocked in all her scenes. (I couldn't help wondering what she was doing, all gussied up... she seemed to have been interrupted in the midst of a holodeck dominatrix scenario. :0) I do like Starbuck in black, though!)
Overall: 7/10 (switched from letters to a numeric grade, because there weren't enough gradations between B and C)
So, the A story was 'eh', and the B story was crudely drawn. Come on, BSG writers! It's embarrassing to get all this good press just when the storylines are suffering - not a way to win over new viewers.
Kneejerk reactions...
As a thriller: C
I was annoyed at the major plot holes in the hostage story. I expected Ellen to be stupid and blurt out that she was a strategic hostage, but didn't expect Lee to be equally dumb... of course, then we'd have no drama, if he wasn't also in peril. Yeah, yeah, I know that you have to go to your leads, so as to engage the audience. But at least give me a good reason why the CAG and his second in command are both off-duty and on the same ship at the same time. Or, for that matter, why Adama should go to Cloud Nine and put himself in jeopardy. At least in Home there was a halfway decent argument that he had to be the one to reach out to Roslin.
Plus, why didn't Lee just stay hidden in the utility corridor? Or, why didn't someone (Starbuck) interrogate the maintenance crew, figure out the schematics of Cloud Nine and cut into a wall, or crawl thru the air ducts to surprise the terrorists? Or, she could even have gone in cold without guns, and done *just* recon like she was supposed to. I know... only 43 minutes to cover everything. Sigh.
As commentary on current events: B
I thought TPTB posed some good questions with this ep... do you negotiate with terrorists, and if so, how? But I thought they could've explored the answers further and given us uncomfortable alternatives. Would have been interesting if the terrorists had arranged a live feed on the wireless, and the peaceniks had been listening in.
Also, did anyone think the dialogue between Billy and the gunman about "good men" was a reference to W's favorite endorsement?
As a soap opera: B (because it was fairly anvilicious, but isn't that what soaps are like?)
I didn't catch who wrote this ep, but I missed the subtlety of the character interactions that we saw last week. (Yes, Kat/Kara and Kara/Lee threw off a lot of fireworks, but still they had incisive, insightful lines, not this Harlequin stuff.) Wish they had trusted more in the actors.
Nice symmetry with Kara eavesdropping, though. Katee, as usual, rocked in all her scenes. (I couldn't help wondering what she was doing, all gussied up... she seemed to have been interrupted in the midst of a holodeck dominatrix scenario. :0) I do like Starbuck in black, though!)
Overall: 7/10 (switched from letters to a numeric grade, because there weren't enough gradations between B and C)
So, the A story was 'eh', and the B story was crudely drawn. Come on, BSG writers! It's embarrassing to get all this good press just when the storylines are suffering - not a way to win over new viewers.