I've just finished watching the entire run of BSG for the first time. Back in 2008, I only watched a few loose episodes of the series and decided that I didn't like it. In fact, I made a premature and immature post here in 2008 saying that I didn't like the show. I was very wrong.
In reality, my bitterness was more due to Bear McCreary than anything else. I respect him like you wouldn't believe as a musician and a composer but just like how everybody has different views on music, I just really do not like his music and the combination of him working on BSG and Sarah Connor Chronicles in that time period really made me dislike both of those shows as I feel very strongly about the original BSG and T2 scores and Bear's work was just not to my taste. Music is that important to me and can color my view on anything moreso than storytelling or drama. It can ruin the best of the things for me (like the modern Doctor Who).
Fast forward to 2012 and I figure out how to get American Netflix working. Looking for something to test that's on the American Netflix site and not the Canadian one, I decide, "what the hell, I'll watch BSG. If anything, I'll get a bit of the space combat fix I've been wanting since the Wing Commander games" ("Scar" would probably be the best for that). I started watching and consciously blocking out thoughts about the music and decided to just focus on the story.
Long story short, I've watched all 4 seasons from scratch from the position of someone who has never seen the series in a marathon style. I've just gone back through this thread reading all the comments and everything and it's actually quite entertaining. It's like reading through a GT after a game and checking out people's comments when goals are scored and the psychology is all the same. When BSG hit it's high notes, it was just like people posting all those GIFs when the Flames are doing well. When episodes disappointed, the mood in this thread was "blow up the team".
When I first came into this thread a few weeks ago, people warned me the finale might be disappointing but it really wasn't. I just read many posts from back when the finale actually aired talking about disappointment. I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not disappointed at all. The feeling is more like I've watched a really long movie or finished a long novel in one sitting and I'm relieved that it's over and that I'm happy with it.
I think that when you watch a long series over the years and are left hanging week after week (and in between seasons) for the next episode and guessing about plotlines and plotholes for years that it leaves you jaded because you've invented this whole narrative or solution in your mind that you think is the right one for a certain story. When that doesn't happen to your satisfaction, you get disappointment.
I think in the future I'm going to start watching all series this way. Wait until they are long over and then marathon through them. In many ways it's like watching a movie. It just feels like one coherent experience where you don't have time to stop and think up your own narrative and emotions about how things should be to hijack the actual plot.
Watching through the entire thing in a short time, it does make sense to me and many of the complaints people have don't seem to register with me. I'm fine with certain characters being "angels" or messengers of a higher power because that harkens back to the original BSG (Beings of Light) but also there are hints that it's not religion in the traditional sense or some kind of supernatural god (as that is what some people have an issue with). It's just some form of higher universal intelligence that could have a perfectly scientific explanation. This is a common and familiar theme in science fiction anyway. In Babylon 5, most of the races eventually "evolve" into enlightened beings of energy who leave the galaxy, some remaining behind to shepard and steward the younger races. It's that same sort of thing.
My favorite moment in the finale is probably the shot of the fleet flying toward the sun. That opened with a shot-for-shot homage to the original shot from 1978 of the BSG and the rag-tag fleet and I have to credit Bear McCreary for inserting the Stu Phillips theme in there as it was quite fitting. I still think a variation of the Stu Phillips BSG theme from 1978 would work quite well playing over the credits of the last episode.
Of course, I do have plenty of nitpicks about the entire series. For one, I hated the look of the Centurions and Raiders. They were unrealistic and comic book looking. The design was cheesy and the CG was very low quality in certain places (understandable with a television budget). There were times where episodes made in 2008 didn't seem any better than watching the primitive CG of Sauron clunking around in Captain Power from 1987. I could have used a few "By Your Command" 's thrown in as well. There are a bunch of places where characters will be inconsistent for no reason and where the writing leaves something to be desired but at the worst of times, it was still better than 95% of everything else on TV. Overall however, blasting through 4 seasons worked well and I'm very happy with how everything finished. The other side effect is that I really cannot watch any other TV sci-fi again without thinking about how bad or absurd they are in comparison to something that actually tries like BSG (even if it's not perfect).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
A few days ago, the Battlestar cast were at The Scream Awards in LA for some interviews where Edward James Olmos says this:
"If you want to try something, go do this: Watch the entire run of 'Battlestar' from beginning to end and at the end, in those last moments when Six says to Baltar, 'It's all going to happen again' and Baltar says, 'No I think maybe this time humanity has learned,' after that, as they go walking off into Times Square, put in 'Blade Runner' and watch it. 'Battlestar' finishes in 2008 and 'Blade Runner' starts in 2019. There's a lineage there. Gaff becomes the direct descendant of Adama, and the lineage is so pure they resemble each other."
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This is brilliant. This actually bookends very well. That could actually serve as a film finale to BSG if you really wanted to have it that way. If that's how EJO sees it, I totally agree. Blade Runner is a perfect companion piece to BSG if you watch it right after the finale.
At this point, I'm not sure if I want to watch Caprica at all. Watching series that you know are doomed to failure and were cancelled just tends to suck sometimes which is one reason why I avoid FOX shows and have even avoided Firefly.
