what you gonna do when the flames go up?
After reading the AV club recaps of the BSG mini and "33," I got nostalgic, and started rewatching, and then I couldn't stop, because it's always so compelling, even knowing how it ends (and my complicated feelings about the end). So I just finished through Resurrection Ship part 2, and honestly, if they'd ended the show there, it'd be a pretty perfect show without even a bad episode to its name. After that, it goes in good and bad streaks, imo, but the low points are awfully low.
And of course, I keep thinking of how I would have preferred the ending to go. Speaking as someone who never had much of a problem with the "God did it" part (after all, Head Six tells Baltar that from the very beginning, so despite complaints, it's not actually a deus ex machina because it doesn't come out of nowhere), so much as the "the Colonials arrived on our Earth 250,000 years ago and are our ancestors" part, I feel like the fact that they really wanted Hera to be mitochondrial Eve was the big error. Making them our distant past instead of our distant future just doesn't work for me when I think about it for any amount of time, especially since it appears like they are supposedly breaking the cycle of "all this has happened before, all this will happen again." So the montage at the end doesn't work, either. Plus, I can accept that thousands of years in the future, some version of "All Along the Watchtower" still exists, but I can't accept that it got written independently twice. (Among other things.)
(I also could have done without Bill Adama's manpain swallowing him whole, but I guess it wasn't necessarily out of character.)
I also feel like not making Daniel, the missing number 7, Kara's father was an error. Especially since it seemed to fit really well with what the show gave us - sometimes when a lot of people figure out what's going to happen it means it was properly set up. IJS. Kara being the original human-Cylon hybrid works way better than...whatever the hell they did with her. Because it makes her special as a harbinger, but not the final destination, because then what you do is you make her infertile - see "The Farm" - and therefore unable to do what Hera apparently will, which is continue the hybrid line.
I know from having trouble with endings, but I feel like not having any plan at all for how to wrap up the show's mysteries was also a big problem (also, speaking of plans, item #1 I'd change would be deleting the "and they have a plan" in the opening graphics after the mini. So much trouble saved that way, since then you could say the plan was carried out in the miniseries, instead of having to admit later that there was no real plan.). Like, sure, make it up as you go, but also at some point make a list of all the major loose ends that need wrapping up and do something interesting with them. *hands*
Anyway, the things I love about it, I still love, and this time I really noticed the cinematography - I love the blown out, overexposed yellows of Cylon-occupied Caprica. I love the ovesaturated greens and blues of Kobol, while Sharon's in her red jumpsuit (like Head Six in her signature red dress, like the red of the centurions' eye). I love the gray/brown/white palette of New Caprica (and the sunlight in the flashbacks). The gunmetal gray and shaky cam+fluorescent lighting of the Galactica, and how real and lived she felt the very first time we saw her.
And knowing how it ends, I can just skip to the parts I enjoy.
***
My friend L. lost her job so I took her out to dinner tonight, and also made these individual orange and chocolate cheesecakes (pic) for her. Originally there were supposed to be two trays - I doubled the recipe - so I could keep one tray for myself, but while I was working, I elbowed the bowl with the batter and it spilled, and this was all that was left. *hands* At least I have the ramekin? Honestly, given that I have almost no counter space, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
Anyway, I sprinkled a few bits of candied orange peel on them before I gave them away, and she texted to say they taste good, so I'll consider it a success. And they're ridiculously easy to make, and I still have ricotta left (as well as the Nabisco famous chocolate wafer cookies, which I finally found in the grocery store!), so I'll probably make them again.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/687905.html.
people have commented there.
And of course, I keep thinking of how I would have preferred the ending to go. Speaking as someone who never had much of a problem with the "God did it" part (after all, Head Six tells Baltar that from the very beginning, so despite complaints, it's not actually a deus ex machina because it doesn't come out of nowhere), so much as the "the Colonials arrived on our Earth 250,000 years ago and are our ancestors" part, I feel like the fact that they really wanted Hera to be mitochondrial Eve was the big error. Making them our distant past instead of our distant future just doesn't work for me when I think about it for any amount of time, especially since it appears like they are supposedly breaking the cycle of "all this has happened before, all this will happen again." So the montage at the end doesn't work, either. Plus, I can accept that thousands of years in the future, some version of "All Along the Watchtower" still exists, but I can't accept that it got written independently twice. (Among other things.)
(I also could have done without Bill Adama's manpain swallowing him whole, but I guess it wasn't necessarily out of character.)
I also feel like not making Daniel, the missing number 7, Kara's father was an error. Especially since it seemed to fit really well with what the show gave us - sometimes when a lot of people figure out what's going to happen it means it was properly set up. IJS. Kara being the original human-Cylon hybrid works way better than...whatever the hell they did with her. Because it makes her special as a harbinger, but not the final destination, because then what you do is you make her infertile - see "The Farm" - and therefore unable to do what Hera apparently will, which is continue the hybrid line.
I know from having trouble with endings, but I feel like not having any plan at all for how to wrap up the show's mysteries was also a big problem (also, speaking of plans, item #1 I'd change would be deleting the "and they have a plan" in the opening graphics after the mini. So much trouble saved that way, since then you could say the plan was carried out in the miniseries, instead of having to admit later that there was no real plan.). Like, sure, make it up as you go, but also at some point make a list of all the major loose ends that need wrapping up and do something interesting with them. *hands*
Anyway, the things I love about it, I still love, and this time I really noticed the cinematography - I love the blown out, overexposed yellows of Cylon-occupied Caprica. I love the ovesaturated greens and blues of Kobol, while Sharon's in her red jumpsuit (like Head Six in her signature red dress, like the red of the centurions' eye). I love the gray/brown/white palette of New Caprica (and the sunlight in the flashbacks). The gunmetal gray and shaky cam+fluorescent lighting of the Galactica, and how real and lived she felt the very first time we saw her.
And knowing how it ends, I can just skip to the parts I enjoy.
***
My friend L. lost her job so I took her out to dinner tonight, and also made these individual orange and chocolate cheesecakes (pic) for her. Originally there were supposed to be two trays - I doubled the recipe - so I could keep one tray for myself, but while I was working, I elbowed the bowl with the batter and it spilled, and this was all that was left. *hands* At least I have the ramekin? Honestly, given that I have almost no counter space, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
Anyway, I sprinkled a few bits of candied orange peel on them before I gave them away, and she texted to say they taste good, so I'll consider it a success. And they're ridiculously easy to make, and I still have ricotta left (as well as the Nabisco famous chocolate wafer cookies, which I finally found in the grocery store!), so I'll probably make them again.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/687905.html.
people have commented there.