Goddamn where have I been?
I'm tempted to cancel my date now.
oknotreally
I'm tempted to cancel my date now.
oknotreally
Battlestar Galactica Seasons 4 & 4.5
- Thread starter Muldfeld
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
phanan
Blue Crack Addict
If you DVR or record it, make sure it gets the whole show. Supposedly it goes over an hour by about three minutes.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
That's three more minutes of political relevance.
No spoken words
Blue Crack Supplier
So I watched all 9 webisodes and this much I now know:
A New Underworld film is getting released on 1/23.
A New Underworld film is getting released on 1/23.
U2DMfan
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
For the record, I thought tonight's episode kicked ass.
Looked like melon was right, right?
Looked like melon was right, right?
My review of "Sometimes A Great Notion"
I really enjoyed the slower moments of this episode. It finally feels like the texture that was missing in much of 4.0 is returning to the series. I was surprised that Weddle and Thompson, the show's worst writers, were able to pull of some nice, soft character moments. I really like the plotting of this episode.
That said, Weddle and Thompson show a less complex and sophisticated understanding of how people cope with grief. Roslin's depression was rather boring and provided the actress with weak and cliche acting material. Even the plain suicidality, though an admirable topic for exploration, didn't feel as interestingly explored as it could have been.
I was very happy to see Ellen as the 5th cylon. Her death was the hardest to take in the series, though Cally was pretty tough, too. It had occurred to me when Ellen was not given any special features content on the Season 3 DVD or on any video blog. She was the hardest death to take.
While I have long disliked Dualla for her fascistic tendencies and jock-like manner -- albeit not nearly as much as Racetrack -- and I was already dreading Lee getting pulled back into this disaster of a relationship, I was struck by how much I was saddened by her death. It was beautifully conveyed, and I shall miss her. It was really brought home in Lee's very realistic and to-the-point explanation with tears in his eyes that "She shot herself." I started to well up a bit and really felt for them and not just her. That was far more powerful a scene -- in all its subtlety -- than the melodrama of Adm. Adama trying to get Tigh to shoot himself, although that had some nice moments and I liked the very underhanded way Adama was willing to let Tigh take the fall for his death.
I thought Leoben being confused and especially Starbuck's scenes felt fresh, and I was starting to feel that Starbuck would have been better off having died in Season 3, when I was getting annoyed at her quest in Season 4.0. Glad to see there's new stuff for her character.
In contrast to the awful Season 4.0 opener, for which I detested Weddle and Thompson, and gave a 7.3 out of 10, I give this a solid 8, maybe even a little higher. Well done, guys.
I really enjoyed the slower moments of this episode. It finally feels like the texture that was missing in much of 4.0 is returning to the series. I was surprised that Weddle and Thompson, the show's worst writers, were able to pull of some nice, soft character moments. I really like the plotting of this episode.
That said, Weddle and Thompson show a less complex and sophisticated understanding of how people cope with grief. Roslin's depression was rather boring and provided the actress with weak and cliche acting material. Even the plain suicidality, though an admirable topic for exploration, didn't feel as interestingly explored as it could have been.
I was very happy to see Ellen as the 5th cylon. Her death was the hardest to take in the series, though Cally was pretty tough, too. It had occurred to me when Ellen was not given any special features content on the Season 3 DVD or on any video blog. She was the hardest death to take.
While I have long disliked Dualla for her fascistic tendencies and jock-like manner -- albeit not nearly as much as Racetrack -- and I was already dreading Lee getting pulled back into this disaster of a relationship, I was struck by how much I was saddened by her death. It was beautifully conveyed, and I shall miss her. It was really brought home in Lee's very realistic and to-the-point explanation with tears in his eyes that "She shot herself." I started to well up a bit and really felt for them and not just her. That was far more powerful a scene -- in all its subtlety -- than the melodrama of Adm. Adama trying to get Tigh to shoot himself, although that had some nice moments and I liked the very underhanded way Adama was willing to let Tigh take the fall for his death.
I thought Leoben being confused and especially Starbuck's scenes felt fresh, and I was starting to feel that Starbuck would have been better off having died in Season 3, when I was getting annoyed at her quest in Season 4.0. Glad to see there's new stuff for her character.
In contrast to the awful Season 4.0 opener, for which I detested Weddle and Thompson, and gave a 7.3 out of 10, I give this a solid 8, maybe even a little higher. Well done, guys.
Sicy, Phenan keeps doing this. Season 4 was last year. This is 4.5. He's just trying to be an ignorant, arrogant dick, which is typical of a lot of the people around here. The only nice people are uber beaver, deep, rihannsu (with whom I often disagree but always respectfully) and a few others whose names I don't know. Uber agrees on the show's political importance.
Oh, and for all you cynical arrogant thwarters and mockers of the politically insightful tagline, eat it:
Art and Culture in the Bush Era | Newsweek Entertainment | Newsweek.com
"If artists depend on angst and unrest to fuel their creative fire, then at least in one sense the 43rd presidency has been a blessing. Eight years is an eternity in the life of a culture, and when we look back on an era, we do it through pinholes: a movie here, a book there. What will stand out, decades from now, as the singular emblems of this moment in history? NEWSWEEK asked its cultural critics to pick the one work in their field that they believe exemplifies what it was like to be alive in the age of George W. Bush.
TELEVISION
'Battlestar Galactica'
By Joshua Alston
An orchestrated terrorist attack. An inexorable march to war. An enemy capable of disappearing among its targets, armed with an indifference to its own mortality. It sounds like a PBS special on Al Qaeda. In fact, it's a synopsis of the Sci Fi Channel series "Battlestar Galactica," which—for anyone who manages to get past the goofy name—captures better than any other TV drama of the past eight years the fear, uncertainty and moral ambiguity of the post-9/11 world. Yes, even better than "24," with its neocon fantasies of terrorists who get chatty if Jack Bauer pokes the right pressure point. Of the two shows, "Battlestar" has been more honest about the psychological toll of the war on terror. It confronts the thorny issues that crop up in a society's battle to preserve its way of life: the efficacy of torture, the curtailing of personal rights, the meaning of patriotism in a nation under siege. It also doesn't flinch from one question that "24" wouldn't dare raise: is our way of life even worth saving?
"Battlestar Galactica" always finds ways to challenge the audience's beliefs—it is no more an ode to pacifism than "24" is to "bring 'em on" warmongering. In the pilot, humanity is nearly eradicated by the Cylons, a race of robots that revolt against their human creators. The only survivors are stationed on a spacecraft called Battlestar Galactica; they're spared because the ship's commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos), had refused to relax any wartime restrictions. Adama is a hard-liner, willing to sacrifice personal freedoms in order to provide safety from an abstract threat. And he was right: the moment the human race let its guard down, the Cylons attacked. As the show unfolds, though, the survivors must constantly reflect on the price of keeping their enemies at bay, and whether it's worth paying. The show's futuristic setting—hushed and grimy, not the metallic cool of stereotypical sci-fi—helps ground the writers' ruminations in a nail-biting drama series. "Battlestar Galactica" achieves the ultimate in sci-fi: it presents a world that looks nothing like our own, and yet evokes it with chilling accuracy."
I would actually go farther in terms of the show's importance and influences. Many of the show's themes find their origins in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, which was written in the '90s and yet evokes the most pressing issues of war, terrorism, identity politics, and issues of security in a way that only came to the fore in the mainstream press after 9/11. So, for all its relevance today, it has greater historic importance as well.
Art and Culture in the Bush Era | Newsweek Entertainment | Newsweek.com
"If artists depend on angst and unrest to fuel their creative fire, then at least in one sense the 43rd presidency has been a blessing. Eight years is an eternity in the life of a culture, and when we look back on an era, we do it through pinholes: a movie here, a book there. What will stand out, decades from now, as the singular emblems of this moment in history? NEWSWEEK asked its cultural critics to pick the one work in their field that they believe exemplifies what it was like to be alive in the age of George W. Bush.
TELEVISION
'Battlestar Galactica'
By Joshua Alston
An orchestrated terrorist attack. An inexorable march to war. An enemy capable of disappearing among its targets, armed with an indifference to its own mortality. It sounds like a PBS special on Al Qaeda. In fact, it's a synopsis of the Sci Fi Channel series "Battlestar Galactica," which—for anyone who manages to get past the goofy name—captures better than any other TV drama of the past eight years the fear, uncertainty and moral ambiguity of the post-9/11 world. Yes, even better than "24," with its neocon fantasies of terrorists who get chatty if Jack Bauer pokes the right pressure point. Of the two shows, "Battlestar" has been more honest about the psychological toll of the war on terror. It confronts the thorny issues that crop up in a society's battle to preserve its way of life: the efficacy of torture, the curtailing of personal rights, the meaning of patriotism in a nation under siege. It also doesn't flinch from one question that "24" wouldn't dare raise: is our way of life even worth saving?
"Battlestar Galactica" always finds ways to challenge the audience's beliefs—it is no more an ode to pacifism than "24" is to "bring 'em on" warmongering. In the pilot, humanity is nearly eradicated by the Cylons, a race of robots that revolt against their human creators. The only survivors are stationed on a spacecraft called Battlestar Galactica; they're spared because the ship's commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos), had refused to relax any wartime restrictions. Adama is a hard-liner, willing to sacrifice personal freedoms in order to provide safety from an abstract threat. And he was right: the moment the human race let its guard down, the Cylons attacked. As the show unfolds, though, the survivors must constantly reflect on the price of keeping their enemies at bay, and whether it's worth paying. The show's futuristic setting—hushed and grimy, not the metallic cool of stereotypical sci-fi—helps ground the writers' ruminations in a nail-biting drama series. "Battlestar Galactica" achieves the ultimate in sci-fi: it presents a world that looks nothing like our own, and yet evokes it with chilling accuracy."
I would actually go farther in terms of the show's importance and influences. Many of the show's themes find their origins in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, which was written in the '90s and yet evokes the most pressing issues of war, terrorism, identity politics, and issues of security in a way that only came to the fore in the mainstream press after 9/11. So, for all its relevance today, it has greater historic importance as well.
There's also this:
Variety.com - 'Battlestar Galactica' Farewell
with some military, religious, and political people commenting on the relevance of the show. The thread title should be changed back. This is not some escapist junk that only furthers the dulling of the American mind with false notions of the human condition like "Fringe" or "Lost."
Just listen to how the actors talk about the show:
Mary McDonnell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeRA8ts4c
Writer Ron Moore speaking about the opportunities of the original series' premise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4REUvuT0u0&NR=1
Variety.com - 'Battlestar Galactica' Farewell
with some military, religious, and political people commenting on the relevance of the show. The thread title should be changed back. This is not some escapist junk that only furthers the dulling of the American mind with false notions of the human condition like "Fringe" or "Lost."
Just listen to how the actors talk about the show:
Mary McDonnell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeRA8ts4c
Writer Ron Moore speaking about the opportunities of the original series' premise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4REUvuT0u0&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHjKPglROI
I love James Callis' acting in this skit with composer Bear McCreary:
starts at 8:05 in Part 1:
YouTube - Music of Battlestar Galactica Part 1
continues in fabulous improv in Part 2 (I love the way he sings "Gaius Baltar" so gently)
YouTube - Music of Battlestar Galactica Part 2
Greatest actor around! Bloody Emmy committee!
Such a great story-teller, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukT03xBljg
I love James Callis' acting in this skit with composer Bear McCreary:
starts at 8:05 in Part 1:
YouTube - Music of Battlestar Galactica Part 1
continues in fabulous improv in Part 2 (I love the way he sings "Gaius Baltar" so gently)
YouTube - Music of Battlestar Galactica Part 2
Greatest actor around! Bloody Emmy committee!
Such a great story-teller, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukT03xBljg
phanan
Blue Crack Addict
Thanks for the name calling and the condescending attitude. I see nothing has changed. Thanks for proving us right.
If that's how you think people are around here, why even bother sticking around?
And it's phanan. Please learn to spell.
LMP
Blue Crack Supplier
Give the guy a break. He needs to share his burgeoning bromance with Baltar and also spread propaganda to all of the fan forums in the land. What would happen if Baltar liked the state of Israel? There will be blood.
I wonder if At Ease's BSG thread is getting these updates, too?
Dalton
Blue Crack Addict
Personally, I'm curious to see if Mudfield will be able to go through with his jihad when he realizes he's sexually attracted to NSW?
Next time on As the World Turns ...
Next time on As the World Turns ...
UberBeaver
Breakdancing Soul Pilgrim
I do not think phanan is a dick, though. NSW is a dick. Phanan is ok in my book though.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Please change the thread title! PLEASE! How will people know this show is POLITICALLY RELEVANT if we don't tell them??
I was right!!!!!!!
Although it looks like my background reasoning is probably a bit off now. For the record, Ronald D. Moore was correct: he did drop clues as to who the Fifth Cylon was and repeatedly. I just happened to be the one who figured it out.
No spoken words
Blue Crack Supplier
I do not think phanan is a dick, though. NSW is a dick. Phanan is ok in my book though.
Let's leave me out of this, please.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Interview with the writers and director about the new episode, and the decision-making behind some of the storylines:
'Battlestar Galactica's' Ron Moore addresses the shocking developments of 'Sometimes a Great Notion' | The Watcher
Long, worth the read.
Warning: NOT politically relevant.
'Battlestar Galactica's' Ron Moore addresses the shocking developments of 'Sometimes a Great Notion' | The Watcher
Long, worth the read.
Warning: NOT politically relevant.
U2DMfan
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Could you be any more obnoxious? Could you overstate the "importance" of BSG any more than you do? I don't think it's humanly possible.
I've only seen Fringe here and there, it is kind of derivative IMO. Then again, I'm not that interested in hanging around to find out. Maybe it's gotten a lot better, I don't know.
LOST is a show that delves heavily into philosophy (not politics, thank Jeebus) and soon will become more apparent that it's also dipping into quantum theory. It's also a broadcast network show, which means it can't afford to be 'niche' and play to all of the tropes of general Sci Fi. It's also an original concept, not a re-imagination.
Besides the multiple layers of storytelling, disjointed narratives, and unmatched serial broadcast TV mystery, you have examinations of:
The nature of Time itself, spirituality, religion, determinism, ambiguous human natures of good and evil, life and death, irony, psychology, redemption, salvation, fate and destiny, free will, quantum theory, utiltarianism, if you think it's a show about a plane crash and a conspiracy, then yeah I guess it would just be "escapism". About like thinking BSG is nothing more than the Space Opera it is. There is the text and the subtext, what are you reading? If you can read the BSG subtext, I would assume you have enough of an intellect to look a little deeper. I think your only rationale is to beat something down to build something else up. Do I need to link 75 articles written by somebody else (this is a hint) to spell it out for you?
What is the meaning of existence? Is that too "escapist"?
Does that not apply to the "human condition"?
"False notions of the human condition" Motherfucking please.
Politics change, ask Arthur C Clarke. Ask Alan Moore, ask...well anyone who's used political subtexts in their works of fiction, science fiction or otherwise. Borders change, affiliations change, issues change, whether it's the Cold War allusions or Vietnam commentary it all stands to be 'dated' by history. That doesn't mean that it isn't excellent work, if not some of the best of the genre, but it doesn't serve the "human condition" anymore than a Bill O'Reilly book does. You do a disservice to the creation everytime you opine about this show. Do you think Gene Roddenberry thought his Vietnam subtexts were making headway? Do you think he intended it to? Do you think Ronald D Moore intends the same? It's just fucking commentary, that's all it is.
Where Star Trek (and Asimov and tons of other work) sink their teeth in, are with the philosophical insight. The IDIC. The nature of man, the actual "human condition" from our inception to our current day. Not ignorning the biggest questions of the day in lieu of some 'pub' cred for allusion to the war on terrorism and the headlines of the day. No, BSG does not ignore the philosophies of human nature, it does an excellent job all around. I'm just not weighing it down with the burden of changing the universe with it's 'incision' into the American political psyche.
Is this "political insight" only intended for Americans to digest? Quite a narrowing of the scope of influence even further for such a niche show buried on a network that airs original programming such as "Sharks in Venice!!!" Meaning, what is the audience for the insight? Point is, it's not as ambitious as you'd like to think. So, is it actually trying to make a difference or what? Or is it just making a comment, an astute, creative comment for which you assign much more meaning than could ever be attained?
Did you think the X-Files was anything more than "escapism"? What about Ronald D Moore's work on Trek? Sure, any good works of fiction always have something bubbling under the hood but it all comes down to storytelling, myth-building and if you don't see the subtext, it doesn't mean it's not there.
The "human condition" is much more than a news headline.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
My hero.
VERY well said.
Yes. I just read the whole thing, and it is a very good article. I highly recommend it to others.
Last I heard, the second half of a season still falls into the season as a whole, hence the merge. The thread title will stay as it is as well. As for arrogance, the fact that you feel the need to constantly trumpet the show's political insightfulness (as if we lowly people couldn't understand it without your help) seems to me to be just a wee bit arrogant, nevermind calling people ignorant because they don't like your constant, completely unnecessary reminders.
And finally, insulting other members of the forum is not allowed. Consider this a formal warning.
phanan
Blue Crack Addict
I read it as well. Very excellent reading.
And well done on Ellen, melon.
What a great episode.
Lancemc
Blue Crack Addict
I would congratulate you on this post. Unfortunately it isn't nearly insightful enough into the deeper insights of the political persuation.
Therefore you shall be banned.
Dalton
Blue Crack Addict
melon was on Ellen?
Dalton
Blue Crack Addict
Will someone please tell me why melon was on Ellen? I hate not being in "the loop". And someone should probably warn him that Ellen might turn him gay.
No spoken words
Blue Crack Supplier
Have you given any thought to shutting up?
Dalton
Blue Crack Addict
You know, I did once. But then I read a few of your posts and realized its my civic responsibility to raise the level of dialogue on this site. I'm a man of the people.
No spoken words
Blue Crack Supplier
But you're not literate.
Oh, and, I should mention that I thought the episode was great.
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