The Greatest TV Couple of All Time? EW thinks so...
If you haven't seen it yet, there is a lovely essay HERE at Entertainment Weekly's website talking about our pilots. Sarah Caldwell makes the case (with an awesomely impassioned shoutout by Darren Franich) for why Starbuck and Apollo are the best couple of all time.
It's hard not to copy and paste the whole damn glorious thing, but here are some choice excerpts:
Picking my favorite TV couple was a decision I took very seriously!... In the end, I had to go with my heart. So I picked the couple who constantly made me feel like someone was grabbing my heart tightly between their fingers and squeezing: Starbuck and Apollo (or Lee and Kara, played by Katee Sackhoff and Jamie Bamber)...
On Battlestar Galactica, both Starbuck and Apollo are heroes. Both get amazing storylines. Both save the day multiple times. So maybe the fact that they don’t end up happily ever after is okay because what is intriguing, and devastating about them as a couple is that these two titans never really get to have a typical relationship. They’re too busy saving humanity. Battlestar Galactica forced its viewers to think about how people would need to adapt to the end of the world - politically, ideologically, spiritually - and maybe in this version of society, couples don’t get the luxury of living happily ever after. All they get is stolen moments on the beach and the profound knowledge that both have trusted each other with their lives. Maybe that’s enough. ...
Watching this scene [ED: the almost-sex scene in Scar] again, I remember how rough these two were with each other. As kind as some of their moments are, there are even more moments where they’re screaming in each other’s faces. Each holds the other to the highest standard. Still, there’s a level of vulnerability that each can have around the other that they can’t around anyone else. ...
In the end, the show didn’t know what to do with these two. I still wanted them to have a happy ending and I think most viewers would agree. Even though the show sets it up that they never really could end up together, hopeless romantics will not be detoured in their desires. Sackhoff has said that Starbuck and Apollo were soul mates, but they weren’t meant to be together. Regardless if you buy that or think that love should conquer all, it’s hard to deny that their relationship was one of the most powerful and daring looks at human interaction ever seen on TV.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
It's hard not to copy and paste the whole damn glorious thing, but here are some choice excerpts:
Picking my favorite TV couple was a decision I took very seriously!... In the end, I had to go with my heart. So I picked the couple who constantly made me feel like someone was grabbing my heart tightly between their fingers and squeezing: Starbuck and Apollo (or Lee and Kara, played by Katee Sackhoff and Jamie Bamber)...
On Battlestar Galactica, both Starbuck and Apollo are heroes. Both get amazing storylines. Both save the day multiple times. So maybe the fact that they don’t end up happily ever after is okay because what is intriguing, and devastating about them as a couple is that these two titans never really get to have a typical relationship. They’re too busy saving humanity. Battlestar Galactica forced its viewers to think about how people would need to adapt to the end of the world - politically, ideologically, spiritually - and maybe in this version of society, couples don’t get the luxury of living happily ever after. All they get is stolen moments on the beach and the profound knowledge that both have trusted each other with their lives. Maybe that’s enough. ...
Watching this scene [ED: the almost-sex scene in Scar] again, I remember how rough these two were with each other. As kind as some of their moments are, there are even more moments where they’re screaming in each other’s faces. Each holds the other to the highest standard. Still, there’s a level of vulnerability that each can have around the other that they can’t around anyone else. ...
In the end, the show didn’t know what to do with these two. I still wanted them to have a happy ending and I think most viewers would agree. Even though the show sets it up that they never really could end up together, hopeless romantics will not be detoured in their desires. Sackhoff has said that Starbuck and Apollo were soul mates, but they weren’t meant to be together. Regardless if you buy that or think that love should conquer all, it’s hard to deny that their relationship was one of the most powerful and daring looks at human interaction ever seen on TV.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3