Battlestar
I’m finally getting around to watching the Battlestar Gallactica series, which many of my friends think is the bomb.
I really wish I could see what they see, because while it’s got some good moments, it’s far more miss than hit. The style is engaging on the surface, but the writing … dear, god, the writing! … is so hamhanded in certain episodes, I feel like they wrote the damn script in crayon.
Some of the characters are engaging, and the acting by Edward Olmos, Mary McDonnel, and sometimes Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff (she’s no Amanda Tapping, though), James “Gaius” Callis, and Aaron “the Chief” Douglas is quite good. Tricia Helfer gets the best lines and she delivers them pretty well. Except for the overwrought faith v. reason bits. Really, enough with that god shit, please. I get that the Cylons are the religious fanatic terrorist allegory already. Also, I’m watching the first episode where she has to do more than be Gaias’ conscience and… she’s not doing so hot.
The rest of the acting is pretty abysmal, though. Grace Park? Astoundingly bad. I’ve seen high school acting better than her painful blocking and non-emoting (she’s great in minor lesbian french kissing scenes, though). Seriously, who cast her? She’s hot of course, but how she made it through auditions, I’ll never know. Maybe she works for scale.
As bad as the acting is, it pales in comparison to some of the dogshit episdoes. For example, “Litmus”, while I agree with the message they are attempting to convey, was as amateurish an effort as I’ve seen since that piece of shit Eragon. Other episodes are just as shoddy and as Litmus and their quality is getting worse. The dialogue is crap, the plot is filled with situations that are created for the writers’ convenience rather than emerging organically (not to mention the deus ex machina), and the illogical ridiculousness of the twists overwhelm what should be hip and cool.
Also, the Cylon CGI is cheap and cheesy. Why are they bipedal, anyway? And why the weird mix of actual physics with cliche’d WW2 dogfight moves? And enough with the shaky handcam already, please. Ye gods.
Whatever. What I’ve learned is that a moderately well executed series with some average-at-best looking guys and superhot women in positions of power will sell loads and loads of advertising.
Its a shame really, this series is not shit, unlike All, every single one, of the star trek pieces of shit.
The reason appears to be the british Sky One influence/contribution.
The original series of BG was embarassingly shit, almost as bad as the flying saucers ‘v’ series (shudders).
This re-imagining is actually kinda cool, the Cylons are really strange and interesting. I like the clever bits of writing where they Cylons’ inner minds get exposed and their behaviour is teenage and petulant – _almost_ human emotions as my partner puts it. That’s cute, that’s actual Science Fiction, whereas the series as a whole is just Space Opera (but hey I love a well executed Space Opera – Firefly is probably the best one ever made, back before Jos Whedon started really hitting the cocaine).
But. Yes some of the acting is bad, but its american so what do you expect. No I don’t give a flying fuck about any of the characters’ lives, I just want to see wierd SF interactions with Cylons and lots of battles. This series would be UNWATCHABLE on TV, so I’ve been hiring the DVD’s (YES HIRING NOT TORRENTING DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT!!??) and fast-forwarding through the crap. ‘Litmus’ ended up being about 40 sec long and my god I’m glad I didn’t hit it on TV.
So, I’m intrigued, just wondering where they are going to go with it. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, I’m still only in Season 1 of the 3, but I’m getting there quick.
But the ‘god’ crap. Yes, what the FUCK is that all about?? My own theory: The Cylons are controlled by a huge AI that has gone completely insane, and now believes it is god. That fits.
Btw love a page that complains, there need to be more of then. And I’m so fucking sick of PC blogs, they can all go fuck themselves. Keep up the good work!
Um, I left a reply but its not showing up?
Yeah, sorry about that – comment moderation.
I still haven’t seen the second or third seasons (the season 2 and 2.5 are, like, somewhere near the 70′s on my Netflix queue) though, so NO SPOILERS or I will have to do to you what I did to the televisionwithoutpity fuckers who spoiled the Sopranos season 6 for me … which is nothing, but I will glare menacingly at the monitor.
I’ve actually been going through the Stargate SG-1 series more rapidly than BG, and who appears somewhere in season 4 or 5? Why, none other than Linda “Boomer” Park! Still smoking hot… still can’t act worth a damn.