BSG 3.5 (Torn)
Overall, I was really disapointed and even a little bored by the ep-- so much so that I haven't watched it again. I firmly believe it had nothing to do with my state of drunkeness and I'm sticking to that. *g*
The Cylon basestar scenes are killing BSG for me-- not killing it dead, but. . . ok. The thing is, I am not a sci-fi fan. I don't like the genre. And I've never really thought of BSG as a sci-fi show in spite of it being set in space. Clearly it's about so much more, and when I try to convince people who are skeptical of BSG because of fear of the genre, I tell them hey, I don't like sci-fi either and it so isn't sci-fi.
"Torn" was sci-fi. And it was sci-fi of the worst kind because it was trying too hard. Hated the filmy, gauzy look of the basestar sets, hated the affected way of shooting the cylon scenes, hated the fucking fuzzy sound, really hated the out-of-the-blue gibberish speaking hybrid. This episode did not in any way mesh with any previous ep of BSG-- wasn't even consistent with "Downloaded", which gave us a nice look at the Cylons without trying too hard for dreamy. Ugh. I told southernbangel that if this were the first ep of BSG I'd seen, I wouldn't have watched it again.
The idea of the virus-- interesting. It was the execution that sucked. I think most people suspected that the Cylons at some point would start talking about finding Earth as well, but I'm not sure what I think about Baltar having done all of this unseen-before plotting of the location. It read a little sloppy and ret-con to me but we'll see.
Sharon as Athena-- are you kidding me? Who are these people?
One thing I can say that I unabashedly enjoyed-- the amazing hipbones of one demoted Major Lee Adama. OMFGHOTNESS. Please, someone tell me that there is already some hot Lee/Helo workout buddy porn floating around as a result. Please?
Aside from the amazing amount of pretty, I really liked the Lee time we got this ep.His time as Commander has really helped his leadership abilities-- the role is so natural for him now. I like that he grounded Kara the moment they got back and I don't think it had as much (maybe some, sure) to do with their sudden as-yet-unexplained hatred as the fact that he is more comfortable being decisive. He'll be a good CAG, if that's what his role ends up being.
Soooo, then there's Kara. And Tigh. And Adama. And I'm so torn. (yeah, I went there)
Ok, so first, let me say that I think it's counterproductive and divisive to go the one-upmanship route with the did you stay or did you go fleet stuff. BUT. Really, Kat and Helo came out looking like insensitive assholes. Do they really think their experiences were comparable to Kara and Tigh? Do they look at the situation and say, hey, I would have traded places with you because it was so much harder here? Because that's what it played as. What would have worked better was a more direct take on the stay/abandon fleet idea, although again, I think after what happened on New Caprica there's no "winning" and Kat and Helo still would have looked like asses.
I don't think anyone needs to throw a pity party but I've yet to see anyone address the trauma- not once. And it makes the Galactica crew come off as bastards. The only message we've seen the POW's get is - shake it off and get your act together without even a tiny touch or word of kindness. What would have played better to me is if the Galactica crew would have stayed silent in the face of Kara and Tigh's drunken bitterness, maybe even acknowledge once that what they went through was terrible before getting angry. Helo could have, and should have then taken the info to Adama because they are right-- Kara and Tigh can't be allowed to do that on a military ship. But instead the Galactica crew looks like a bunch of entitled whiny babies to me with absolutely no empathy and. . . eh.
And Adama doesn't look much better. What he says to Kara is absolutely cruel and he's not much better with Tigh. Even if Adama believes that the best way for people to heal is to do their duty, even if he is angry that so many of his crew left to go to New Caprica-- I still need to see him demonstrate that he gets the trauma. He's the Admiral- he's the one in charge of these people's lives and welfare and with his leadership position it is absolutely essential that he have some basic grasp on the psychology of warfare. If he doesn't get it, if he doesn't know on some level what the POWs are going through now, then he isn't the quality of leader he's been portrayed to be. I'm not asking for much here-- just one part of one scene that shows me that Adama understands and cares about what his people went through. It doesn't even have to be with any of the survivors, if it's important to go the tough love route. A bit with he and Lee would be perfect.
Not that Kara and Tigh didn't look all assy themselves. Oh they totally did. They are discontents. They really aren't fit for duty and Adama is right that they should go somewhere else if they don't want to be officers anymore. A civilian ship is just as good a place to drink yourself to death. I think Adama was cruel but what he said seemed to kick Kara in the teeth and get her moving in the "right" direction- well, in the minimally functional direction at least.
At the moment it looks like repressing and dealing through duty is literally Kara's only option. Because this Kara is completely alone. The only person she is minimally close to at this point is Tigh and like that's helpful. Granted, she pushed Anders away but he sure didn't struggle very hard. Adama is scornful and cruel. Lee tells her to put herself out an airlock. Helo is acting like a whiny little ass. Dude, even if she wanted to talk to someone about what she's going through, there is literally no one available. Hmmmm, and isn't that interesting, psychologically? Because who is the last person who said he loved her and never gave up, no matter what she did? Kara continues to be oh-so-very screwed. It makes me very sad for her, to see her so alone among a sea of people pressing in around her-- alone among the people who used to be her family.
I'm interested to see what will happen when she sees Leoben again. She's so enraged at what he put her through, about Kacey, but there's still the fact that he's about the only person in her life right now willing to show her any kindness (manipulative and victimizing as it is-- I'm not a Leoben-apologist). He tells her there are all these patterns, and that they keep repeating themselves. I don't know if it will happen but I think one of the most healing things for Kara at this point might be to choose not to repeat their patterns the next time she sees him. For her to say, hey, I want to bash your head in but I'm going to break the pattern-- you're not going to get to torture me the next time because I refuse to torture you this time.
Oh yeah, the one thing I liked about the basestar stuff was how yummy CKR looked in his shiny metrosexual duds. Hotty.
More about Kara: loved that she had Ander's knife strapped to her leg. This is a Kara who isn't going to be unarmed and defenseless any more if she can help it. She will fuck your shit up. I adored the look of panic on everyone's faces when she unstrapped the knife in the head. You could tell they didn't know whether she was going to go postal or just slit her own throat. That she looked at herself with hatred and cut that mop off of her head (shut up southernbangel, it needed to go) instead was fabulous. She looks good back in uniform; she's donning her armour again.
I don't think I have anything to say about the Kacey scenes except the kid is cute and Kara is so sad. I'm glad she went to see her if only because it will help her deal.
Finally, still more confirmation that a2zmom is right about Kara thinking she was a collaborator-- what does she say when she's sneering at Kat? That is was oh-so-hard to get to sleep in a bed and eat three square meals a day. Everything she says is so self-directed.
Woo. Now that I have all my thoughts out I can go see what my flist had to say.
ETA: More on Adama: I absolutely believe that he had to be tough on Tigh and Kara. Particularly after the events of "Collaborators"-- he has to at least suspect if not know that they were involved and it is priority 1 from a military and governmental standpoint to bring the fleet together. The problem is, I think they're missing out on one potential way to do that and that is to acknowledge that some heavy shit went down rather than for the party line to be "we all had it equally rough, shut up and work".
Also, beccatoria has a great (couple) posts about Adama and Kara that really mesh with what I've been thinking and feeling but have been having a hard time articulating.