Battlestar Galactica Series4
Discussion
rsv gone! said:
Stick with Dollhouse. I thought it got more meat on its bones by the end of the series.
If anyone is at a loss for something to watch, try Breaking Bad. Very gritty.
Anyone watched the season finale? Was pretty off the wall to be honest.If anyone is at a loss for something to watch, try Breaking Bad. Very gritty.
(And if you download the unaired pilot, my advice would be to watch that after the finale!).
JonRB said:
Scraggles said:
ie a good year after it finished on the net and in the uSa 
And a similar amount of time since it was on Sky 1 too. 
M4FFU]Just finishing watching this on Friday. I thought the beautiful end episode[s said:
more than mad up for any mid-season faultering. I'm about 7 episodes from the entire end of The West Wing, which I thought was the best thing I'd seen on TV, but it's now a close tie with BSG.
Gonna nab the soundtrack, and re-watch from the begining again. Still some questions that I wanna work out myself, probably through missing things out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUE_r0VGqY - when Kara started playing this on the piano, and it turned into the link, got goosebumps. Lovely.
Totally agree with that.Gonna nab the soundtrack, and re-watch from the begining again. Still some questions that I wanna work out myself, probably through missing things out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUE_r0VGqY - when Kara started playing this on the piano, and it turned into the link, got goosebumps. Lovely.
The problem with the last series was the writer's strike. After filming had started on the final series, they makers were basically told that instead of the 20 that they could only shoot 10 - and there was no guarantee when or even *if* they would be able to shoot series 4.5 the final 10.
So they had to build some kind of build up and ending into episode 10 in case that was going to be the last episode ever, which meant some 'filler' in the next few.
My favourite parts were the reveal of the final 5 (well 4 of them) and the link to 'All along the watchtower'. Awesome music, and the way it built and linked with the story was some of the most exciting bits of television I have seen.
The final episode took a lot of understanding to pick out the relationships between the groups of cylons, but the significance of the 'this has happened before and will happen again' being so true was superb in the way it was explained and the final link back to present day, earth robotics was excellent.
As it turned out it was a great link onto the story behind Caprica which I saw a few weeks ago, which is a great tangent to the background of the story.
I have finally got around to watching Series 4.
My own viewing expereince of BSG, from watching series 1 on TV, then the later series ever more belatedly on DVD was not ideal which does colour my opinion somewhat.
Perhaps BSG was the greatest Sci-fi show ever, but it had some serious flaws, which were even more apparent in the last series. Firstly there is the seemingly endless episodes of filler, as characters knock back vats of whiskey and look mornful.
Then there is the depressing tone of it all, I have referred before to BSG being the eastenders of space. The only character I can remember looking happy in 4.5 was Dualla right before she killed herself. Yes there is a reason to look glum, being that they are the last survivors, but if we compare it with say Serenity some of those characters had every reason to be depressed given that they were the defeated side in a civil war, but there was far greater life and joy about the series. I love that BSG was far more realistic, that it showed a darker side and that characters could die, but at times it was all dark and no light.
Finally there are the characters themselves, perhaps this was due to my fragmanted viewing habbits, but I never found most of them very interesting or compelling. Baltar was consistently entertaining but Apollo and Starbuck were often too boring for the central role put upon them. If this was like the original series with an adventure of the week they could go on I'm sure that would not have been the case. But with the new BSG and its broader political, religous etc themes there will they won't they sort of relationship was often dull and detracting from the action.
Despite all the above BSG could be the best ever sci-fi show for its themes and the brilliant episodes that did take place, which include the end of the new caprica episodes and the end of 4.5.
I have heard criticisms of the end of BSG and while the fourth season did contain too much dull filler, it ended very well I thought and daybreak was one of my favourites.
My own viewing expereince of BSG, from watching series 1 on TV, then the later series ever more belatedly on DVD was not ideal which does colour my opinion somewhat.
Perhaps BSG was the greatest Sci-fi show ever, but it had some serious flaws, which were even more apparent in the last series. Firstly there is the seemingly endless episodes of filler, as characters knock back vats of whiskey and look mornful.
Then there is the depressing tone of it all, I have referred before to BSG being the eastenders of space. The only character I can remember looking happy in 4.5 was Dualla right before she killed herself. Yes there is a reason to look glum, being that they are the last survivors, but if we compare it with say Serenity some of those characters had every reason to be depressed given that they were the defeated side in a civil war, but there was far greater life and joy about the series. I love that BSG was far more realistic, that it showed a darker side and that characters could die, but at times it was all dark and no light.
Finally there are the characters themselves, perhaps this was due to my fragmanted viewing habbits, but I never found most of them very interesting or compelling. Baltar was consistently entertaining but Apollo and Starbuck were often too boring for the central role put upon them. If this was like the original series with an adventure of the week they could go on I'm sure that would not have been the case. But with the new BSG and its broader political, religous etc themes there will they won't they sort of relationship was often dull and detracting from the action.
Despite all the above BSG could be the best ever sci-fi show for its themes and the brilliant episodes that did take place, which include the end of the new caprica episodes and the end of 4.5.
I have heard criticisms of the end of BSG and while the fourth season did contain too much dull filler, it ended very well I thought and daybreak was one of my favourites.
JagLover said:
Then there is the depressing tone of it all, I have referred before to BSG being the eastenders of space. The only character I can remember looking happy in 4.5 was Dualla right before she killed herself. Yes there is a reason to look glum, being that they are the last survivors, but...
Look at it this way: You live on a spaceship.
This is because outside of that ship everyone you ever met IS DEAD, and every place you've ever been IS GONE.
The robots who did that are chasing you. If you stop the ship and just try to live on a planet they'll find you and kill you.
Food is rationed.
Water is rationed.
The air is stale.
The number of people left gets smaller every day.
You have no realistic hope of survival - you'll probably die one day soon when the robots catch up to you in big enough numbers, which they will eventually because robots don't get tired or bored.
Did I mention that everyone, including YOUR whole family was murdered by the robots?
Oh, and there are no goddamned cars.
So that's what is left of your life. I'd love to know where the silver lining is
Doniger said:
Look at it this way:
You live on a spaceship.
This is because outside of that ship everyone you ever met IS DEAD, and every place you've ever been IS GONE.
The robots who did that are chasing you. If you stop the ship and just try to live on a planet they'll find you and kill you.
Food is rationed.
Water is rationed.
The air is stale.
The number of people left gets smaller every day.
You have no realistic hope of survival - you'll probably die one day soon when the robots catch up to you in big enough numbers, which they will eventually because robots don't get tired or bored.
Did I mention that everyone, including YOUR whole family was murdered by the robots?
Oh, and there are no goddamned cars.
So that's what is left of your life. I'd love to know where the silver lining is
You try and find joy amid the misery, it is the human spirit. A film I watched recently (Defiance) was set among Jews hiding from the Germans in the forests of Belorussia. Families killed, short of food, ever present threat of death and yet there were lighter moments including a wedding.You live on a spaceship.
This is because outside of that ship everyone you ever met IS DEAD, and every place you've ever been IS GONE.
The robots who did that are chasing you. If you stop the ship and just try to live on a planet they'll find you and kill you.
Food is rationed.
Water is rationed.
The air is stale.
The number of people left gets smaller every day.
You have no realistic hope of survival - you'll probably die one day soon when the robots catch up to you in big enough numbers, which they will eventually because robots don't get tired or bored.
Did I mention that everyone, including YOUR whole family was murdered by the robots?
Oh, and there are no goddamned cars.
So that's what is left of your life. I'd love to know where the silver lining is
Sadness, despair etc is realistic, but there is no other side shown in virtually the entire show.
Defiance was good, but there's a big difference which I think people miss, for example during any war I would imagine the victims dream of peace, being able to rebuild their homes. They can fight to have their lives back. But in BSG I think the reason for the constant misery is that there's nothing left to fight for other than not-death.
That's my take on it anyway. At least the characters in BSG had an excuse for every episode being a bit depressing...the EastEnders have no excuse.
That's my take on it anyway. At least the characters in BSG had an excuse for every episode being a bit depressing...the EastEnders have no excuse.
Doniger said:
Defiance was good, but there's a big difference which I think people miss, for example during any war I would imagine the victims dream of peace, being able to rebuild their homes. They can fight to have their lives back. But in BSG I think the reason for the constant misery is that there's nothing left to fight for other than not-death.
That's my take on it anyway. At least the characters in BSG had an excuse for every episode being a bit depressing...the EastEnders have no excuse.
Exactly. The lives of the characters were existing within a big metal box, eating slime pretty much for years, regressing back to a feudal society where you get born into jobs. That's why so many loved New Caprice, even a barren rock with little vegetation was preferable to recycled air and mos for dinner, with the fairy story of earth being used to keep everyone from killing themselves.That's my take on it anyway. At least the characters in BSG had an excuse for every episode being a bit depressing...the EastEnders have no excuse.
Halb said:
Exactly. The lives of the characters were existing within a big metal box, eating slime pretty much for years, regressing back to a feudal society where you get born into jobs. That's why so many loved New Caprice, even a barren rock with little vegetation was preferable to recycled air and mos for dinner, with the fairy story of earth being used to keep everyone from killing themselves.
As I have said above I do not dispute that the characters have good reason to be depressed allot of the time. But it seems to me that there is a view point that films/TV shows that show the characters like this all the time are automatically hailed as being better than their more sunny rivals. Personally I find such behaviour by the characters to be just as implausible as the cheery perfect characters of the Star Trek spinoffs. There is a balance to be struck by the writers to create fully rounded, real characters. Morose swigging of whiskey alternating with killing rages is not such a balance. JagLover said:
Halb said:
Exactly. The lives of the characters were existing within a big metal box, eating slime pretty much for years, regressing back to a feudal society where you get born into jobs. That's why so many loved New Caprice, even a barren rock with little vegetation was preferable to recycled air and mos for dinner, with the fairy story of earth being used to keep everyone from killing themselves.
As I have said above I do not dispute that the characters have good reason to be depressed allot of the time. But it seems to me that there is a view point that films/TV shows that show the characters like this all the time are automatically hailed as being better than their more sunny rivals. Personally I find such behaviour by the characters to be just as implausible as the cheery perfect characters of the Star Trek spinoffs. There is a balance to be struck by the writers to create fully rounded, real characters. Morose swigging of whiskey alternating with killing rages is not such a balance. edit to add that I don't like Star Trek, I find it too unrealistic and didactic/moralistic.
Edited by Halb on Tuesday 1st February 20:53
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