the listing continues!

[pocochina]

BSG is another show that has been pretty formative for me, though unlike AtS, I have kind of been able to process and mostly have good feelings toward it.

One influence that BSG has had on how I watch shows is that I apply the Laura Roslin Test to fictional 'verses now to see how much credibility I give the major conflict. The Laura Roslin test is

Comments

[anonymous]

I think that the big problem with the episodes after the mutiny is structural. The Cylon 'mystery' stuff should have been dealt with much earlier as it is not either dramatically Interesting or thematically coherent enough to have the place it did near the end of the final act. I don't think it's just that Laura's pragmatic ethics don't fit; much of the core of the show becomes tangential for at least three episodes coming straight after a run of episodes that have dealt with lots of central stuff.

On blending and the ethical response, what I like about Laura's approach is that she is able to take it as practical fact, even though that is very painful for her. I would like to have seen that explored more, but I think there is (just) enough there to see a parallel between the way she broadens her conception of reality to accept knowledge from the gods in season one and the way she does with Cylons in 4.5. Reality for human survival requires human- rebel Cylon co-operation and Laura doesn't fight reality; she takes it into herself. I also think Laura's approach to ethics is vindicated in Daybreak by Lee taking the very position he has eschewed against her in Escape Velocity over Baltar. Again I wanted more, but I don't think Laura's stance is being diluted.

What interests me ethically about the end - and here I do wish Laura had been given a chance to reflect on it - is the way in which one of the dichotomies that had been established - the lie of war versus the lie of earth - is subverted. The lie of earth turns out to run through the lie of war and the choice of deliberate violent confrontation with Cavil's Cylons. I love that the visual moment that Adama tells Kara to blind jump the ship is almost identical to the moment that Cain told Kendra to do the same. There's a lot of compassion for Cain and recognition of ethical paradox in that.