Battlestar Galactica postmortem
I finished watching Battlestar Galactica today (the new series, not the old one) and decided to write down my thoughts. If you have no interest in the show, move along.
General impressions:
From the first episode, I found the series gripping and engaging. It's a dark, gritty, high-stakes universe whose conflict is made readily apparent from the start. Throughout the show there was a little more focus on religion than I really cared for, but that's something that in general I can overlook. I did find, however, that the same dark, gritty, suspenseful mood that drew me in at the beginning became wearing over time. There was very little humor in the show and very little relief; I recognize that this is part of what they were going for, but after a while the drama started to verge into melodrama and it no longer had as much of an impact. I'm a firm believer in levels when constructing narrative; without some "down" time, the "up" time either becomes too relentless or too commonplace and loses its meaning.
The show's themes were interesting, if a little dated. I recognize that they were probably more relevant when the original series was in production. I also appreciated that each episode contained elements of the larger plot, that there were few to no "throwaway" episodes, but at the same time this made the series run together in my mind. Other than portions of the show where, for one reason or another, the action took place in a different and visually distinct setting, the episodes run together.
Overall, I would say I enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, though I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been disappointed by the ending.
The ending:
Highlight the text under the spoiler cut to read my specific thoughts on the ending.
---Spoilers start here---
I really didn't like the ending. I don't feel like it adequately resolved any of the issues of the show, not even the most basic ones, and it left way too much unexplained. Who or what was Kara Thrace? What purpose, if any, did Hera serve? Was there ultimately any justification for all the brouhaha surrounding her? Why, after everything that happened, did Cavil shoot himself rather than regrouping to try again? Why would Admiral Adama fly off and leave Lee, Saul, and all his men forever? Yeah, I get that he wanted to take Roslin off to die in peace, but is he seriously going to abandon everyone else he knows for the rest of his life? It's not like he's about to croak when the series ends, either, and he still has the raptor. He could easily pop by for a visit. What happened to Galen, anyway? Did I just miss him trotting off to a new life on the new Earth, or was his last shot the one after he killed Tory? (I did appreciate that, by the way. She had it coming for a long time, and I'm glad she got hers.)
And above everything else, WTF is up with the song?? Okay, so it represented jump coordinates to the new Earth (our Earth). All right, fine, I get that. But why? Why that song in particular? Why did it switch the cylons on? Why did Kara know it? (Unless we're simply supposed to assume this is part of her "destiny" like everything else.) Who was the mysterious piano player, anyway? It doesn't make any sense, and rather than coming off as mystical or mysterious, it just seemed dumb to me.
The flashback scenes to Caprica City that seemed meant to contextualize the finale were pointless. What did we learn? Adama would have died on Caprica if he'd been willing to take a lie detector test for a desk job? Roslin's family was killed by a drunk driver? Sam Anders was a perfectionist? Caprica 6 cared about Gaius' dad? Lee and Kara almost-but-not-quite slept together before Zak died? Did any of that really add to our understanding of those characters? Did it matter at all? Do we care? I was actually really excited about it when the flashbacks started, but by the end of the three-episode finale I just found them frustrating. None of it really mattered. It just felt like filler and more melodrama.
---Spoilers end here---
So that's my take on the whole thing. Good series for the most part, but what an unfortunate ending. Next I think I'll try Babylon 5, but not until I finish my thesis for good.
General impressions:
From the first episode, I found the series gripping and engaging. It's a dark, gritty, high-stakes universe whose conflict is made readily apparent from the start. Throughout the show there was a little more focus on religion than I really cared for, but that's something that in general I can overlook. I did find, however, that the same dark, gritty, suspenseful mood that drew me in at the beginning became wearing over time. There was very little humor in the show and very little relief; I recognize that this is part of what they were going for, but after a while the drama started to verge into melodrama and it no longer had as much of an impact. I'm a firm believer in levels when constructing narrative; without some "down" time, the "up" time either becomes too relentless or too commonplace and loses its meaning.
The show's themes were interesting, if a little dated. I recognize that they were probably more relevant when the original series was in production. I also appreciated that each episode contained elements of the larger plot, that there were few to no "throwaway" episodes, but at the same time this made the series run together in my mind. Other than portions of the show where, for one reason or another, the action took place in a different and visually distinct setting, the episodes run together.
Overall, I would say I enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, though I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been disappointed by the ending.
The ending:
Highlight the text under the spoiler cut to read my specific thoughts on the ending.
---Spoilers start here---
I really didn't like the ending. I don't feel like it adequately resolved any of the issues of the show, not even the most basic ones, and it left way too much unexplained. Who or what was Kara Thrace? What purpose, if any, did Hera serve? Was there ultimately any justification for all the brouhaha surrounding her? Why, after everything that happened, did Cavil shoot himself rather than regrouping to try again? Why would Admiral Adama fly off and leave Lee, Saul, and all his men forever? Yeah, I get that he wanted to take Roslin off to die in peace, but is he seriously going to abandon everyone else he knows for the rest of his life? It's not like he's about to croak when the series ends, either, and he still has the raptor. He could easily pop by for a visit. What happened to Galen, anyway? Did I just miss him trotting off to a new life on the new Earth, or was his last shot the one after he killed Tory? (I did appreciate that, by the way. She had it coming for a long time, and I'm glad she got hers.)
And above everything else, WTF is up with the song?? Okay, so it represented jump coordinates to the new Earth (our Earth). All right, fine, I get that. But why? Why that song in particular? Why did it switch the cylons on? Why did Kara know it? (Unless we're simply supposed to assume this is part of her "destiny" like everything else.) Who was the mysterious piano player, anyway? It doesn't make any sense, and rather than coming off as mystical or mysterious, it just seemed dumb to me.
The flashback scenes to Caprica City that seemed meant to contextualize the finale were pointless. What did we learn? Adama would have died on Caprica if he'd been willing to take a lie detector test for a desk job? Roslin's family was killed by a drunk driver? Sam Anders was a perfectionist? Caprica 6 cared about Gaius' dad? Lee and Kara almost-but-not-quite slept together before Zak died? Did any of that really add to our understanding of those characters? Did it matter at all? Do we care? I was actually really excited about it when the flashbacks started, but by the end of the three-episode finale I just found them frustrating. None of it really mattered. It just felt like filler and more melodrama.
---Spoilers end here---
So that's my take on the whole thing. Good series for the most part, but what an unfortunate ending. Next I think I'll try Babylon 5, but not until I finish my thesis for good.