bsg season two
Jan. 21st, 2009 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhI know my reading of the recaps was controversial (believe me, I've heard about it) but I've found that watching the show goes a lot better when I know what is going to happen, because then I don't have that sense of overwhelming dread that I had when I didn't know.
This is the thing with BSG: I keep feeling like everyone who is telling me to watch the show wants me to care about it in a way I can't figure out. Is it detached fascination? Is it confirmation that life is ultimately futile, or that humanity no longer deserves to exist? I can't seem to work out where the pleasure is in the show; I'm alternately annoyed and infuriated, with about ten minutes of interest every fourth episode or so.
During the entire Tigh-takes-over period, I actually felt kinda bad for the guy because he was clearly doing his best but his instincts are so bizarre at this point that how could he not make a mess of things? And unlike Slumdog Millionaire, where I could see a lot of plot points coming in an entirely pleasurable way, here they show up and I just feel ennui. Establishment of martial law? Sending the marines to get the supplies when ships refuse to cooperate? An incident in which civilians die? Ellen behaving like a summer stock Lady Macbeth? Tigh drinking like a fish?
What kept me going through all this pointless chaos were the Caprica and Kobol storylines. Random sports team training in the mountains becomes fighter force! Starbuck starts fucking super hot guy and then vows to return for him! Starbuck fights her way out of crazy weirdo hospital! (Though, the whole leaving behind the one other person we'd connected with thing, not so much.) And then Kobol was pretty much nothing but awesome too, and Baltar finally did something useful for once. I understand, given the way sci-fi works, why people hated Cally, but again, I just sort of feel badly for her.
I am not fond of action scenes, so for most of the fight with the cylons in Valley of Darkness I was like, whatever—except for all the bits that lead to Lee Adama and Roslin taking off with half the fleet. I really loved that entire storyline; one thing I do enjoy is the continual reassertion of civilian rule over the military. The show is very consistent about that, however much time we spend with the military (and I have to say, I wish that the show did spend a little more time on non-miliary ships, though my sense is that most sci-fi fans would hate that).
That brings us to Home, which was one (well, two) of the episodes that I wanted to watch from reading the recaps. I also am interested in the mythology/religion on the show, so watching them open up the tomb and work out what was going on was really fascinating. I loved Adama showing up with Chief; I loved the Zarek and Maier storyline mostly because Zarek was like, dude, don't do that; I loved Sharon leading them around and being pretty open about what she remembered from Boomer. (Oh, and I forgot to say, I'm sentimental enough to love that Boomer died in Chief's arms; poor Boomer.)
Another thing I enjoyed about the scenes on Caprica was that we finally got some goddamned new music. As I write this I'm watching Resurrection Ship and the whole strings-over-balletic-explosions thing, not so much.
Right, so then there's Final Cut, another place where I'm so familiar with the trope that watching it play out in an uninteresting way was tiresome—initially antagonistic journalist comes to see that the military are just people trying to do their jobs; wasn't this an episode of M*A*S*H? Again, being spoiled, I knew Xena was a cylon, which made the entire thing even more annoying—why is the person who questions what is going on in the fleet necessarily an enemy?
Flight of the Phoenix is the kind of episode that fills me with the happy, but I know that the plot-centric hate them; it was almost like a beach episode of an anime, really. There was positive yes-we-can-build-it, there was lots and lots of the hot Chief, there was Chief and Helo working out their shit, there was Boomer literally jacking herself into the system which was weird and awesome, there was Baltar actually being useful for twice.
Thank you, thank you, for not extending the Admiral Cain storyline; she was an interesting character but too obviously antagonistic. The integration of the Pegasus was in the best classic "let's break up the team" style, where Our Heroes get demoted and have to prove themselves all over again. That said, why is it that on that entire ship there was no one with leadership potential? They go through three commanders before Lee finally has to go over there and run things himself, and that felt like lazy storytelling, though at least the engineer-captain went out with style rather than being revealed as some kind of mobster like the former XO. During this period we managed to add Anders as a major character, so why couldn't we have some junior officer of Cain's earn the Gallactica-gang's grudging respect?
I found Epiphanies to be interesting with the flashbacks and the Demand Peace people. I was interested in the Number Six who'd been on Pegasus, and it's unfortunate to me that she blew herself up later, and with those consequences. But then again, I love me some Roslin.
Question: Is Scar supposed to be the Cylon raider that Starbuck flew after her crash landing? Great Apollo-Starbuck stuff in that episode, too, and I dig post-Anders Starbuck a whole lot.
While I do love me some Anders, my favorite part of Downloaded had to be the Baltar that haunted Caprica-Six. He was so much more fun, and I felt like Baltar was getting a little of his own back, however briefly. The whole Hera thing was pretty yikes (though Adama and Roslin are so adorable, even when they're being hard core) and felt like a tactical mistake.
Which leads us into Lay Down Your Burdens. I can't say that the events didn't logically follow each other. Starbuck and Anders reunited was a lovely amazing thing, and I like that they get married and go to New Caprica. Poor Chief and his dreams and his smacking around Cally—I couldn't remember if Dean Stockwell was a cylon from the recaps, but I knew as soon as he opened his mouth and was generally an asshole for no particularly good reason. I know this is all supposed to be highly ironic in hindsight, and I'm sad for that, that so many of the personal struggles of the characters (which is my favorite part of any canon) are rendered moot by the narrative.
I wanted to care more about the election, because I care so much about the civilian leadership, but how could I care when Roslin was running against Baltar, and when the story gave Baltar such a gimme issue? It felt so contrived to frustrate the viewer in a way I'm not sure was particularly fruitful. After all, they didn't talk about actual issues that might be affecting the fleet, but only the whole New Caprica thing and how people get tired and want to rest for a while, which felt like blaming the people in a way that isn't particularly helpful (see many Democrats' reactions to the election of '05). And it's only moments later (even though it's really a year) that Baltar caves to the Cylons anyway. Poor Gaeta. At least Roslin could just go back to teaching.
And finally, Labor Organizer!Chief is pretty much everything I find hot: smart, knowledgeable, capable, passionate, plus glasses and a beard! Please, Tyrol, don't turn out to be someone I never should have loved, because that would make me sad.
On to season 3 shortly, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
illogicalvulcan. Season 4 is on the TIVO thanks to Sci-Fi, so I reckon I'll be caught up at least by the finale. Thoughts, anyone?
This is the thing with BSG: I keep feeling like everyone who is telling me to watch the show wants me to care about it in a way I can't figure out. Is it detached fascination? Is it confirmation that life is ultimately futile, or that humanity no longer deserves to exist? I can't seem to work out where the pleasure is in the show; I'm alternately annoyed and infuriated, with about ten minutes of interest every fourth episode or so.
During the entire Tigh-takes-over period, I actually felt kinda bad for the guy because he was clearly doing his best but his instincts are so bizarre at this point that how could he not make a mess of things? And unlike Slumdog Millionaire, where I could see a lot of plot points coming in an entirely pleasurable way, here they show up and I just feel ennui. Establishment of martial law? Sending the marines to get the supplies when ships refuse to cooperate? An incident in which civilians die? Ellen behaving like a summer stock Lady Macbeth? Tigh drinking like a fish?
What kept me going through all this pointless chaos were the Caprica and Kobol storylines. Random sports team training in the mountains becomes fighter force! Starbuck starts fucking super hot guy and then vows to return for him! Starbuck fights her way out of crazy weirdo hospital! (Though, the whole leaving behind the one other person we'd connected with thing, not so much.) And then Kobol was pretty much nothing but awesome too, and Baltar finally did something useful for once. I understand, given the way sci-fi works, why people hated Cally, but again, I just sort of feel badly for her.
I am not fond of action scenes, so for most of the fight with the cylons in Valley of Darkness I was like, whatever—except for all the bits that lead to Lee Adama and Roslin taking off with half the fleet. I really loved that entire storyline; one thing I do enjoy is the continual reassertion of civilian rule over the military. The show is very consistent about that, however much time we spend with the military (and I have to say, I wish that the show did spend a little more time on non-miliary ships, though my sense is that most sci-fi fans would hate that).
That brings us to Home, which was one (well, two) of the episodes that I wanted to watch from reading the recaps. I also am interested in the mythology/religion on the show, so watching them open up the tomb and work out what was going on was really fascinating. I loved Adama showing up with Chief; I loved the Zarek and Maier storyline mostly because Zarek was like, dude, don't do that; I loved Sharon leading them around and being pretty open about what she remembered from Boomer. (Oh, and I forgot to say, I'm sentimental enough to love that Boomer died in Chief's arms; poor Boomer.)
Another thing I enjoyed about the scenes on Caprica was that we finally got some goddamned new music. As I write this I'm watching Resurrection Ship and the whole strings-over-balletic-explosions thing, not so much.
Right, so then there's Final Cut, another place where I'm so familiar with the trope that watching it play out in an uninteresting way was tiresome—initially antagonistic journalist comes to see that the military are just people trying to do their jobs; wasn't this an episode of M*A*S*H? Again, being spoiled, I knew Xena was a cylon, which made the entire thing even more annoying—why is the person who questions what is going on in the fleet necessarily an enemy?
Flight of the Phoenix is the kind of episode that fills me with the happy, but I know that the plot-centric hate them; it was almost like a beach episode of an anime, really. There was positive yes-we-can-build-it, there was lots and lots of the hot Chief, there was Chief and Helo working out their shit, there was Boomer literally jacking herself into the system which was weird and awesome, there was Baltar actually being useful for twice.
Thank you, thank you, for not extending the Admiral Cain storyline; she was an interesting character but too obviously antagonistic. The integration of the Pegasus was in the best classic "let's break up the team" style, where Our Heroes get demoted and have to prove themselves all over again. That said, why is it that on that entire ship there was no one with leadership potential? They go through three commanders before Lee finally has to go over there and run things himself, and that felt like lazy storytelling, though at least the engineer-captain went out with style rather than being revealed as some kind of mobster like the former XO. During this period we managed to add Anders as a major character, so why couldn't we have some junior officer of Cain's earn the Gallactica-gang's grudging respect?
I found Epiphanies to be interesting with the flashbacks and the Demand Peace people. I was interested in the Number Six who'd been on Pegasus, and it's unfortunate to me that she blew herself up later, and with those consequences. But then again, I love me some Roslin.
Question: Is Scar supposed to be the Cylon raider that Starbuck flew after her crash landing? Great Apollo-Starbuck stuff in that episode, too, and I dig post-Anders Starbuck a whole lot.
While I do love me some Anders, my favorite part of Downloaded had to be the Baltar that haunted Caprica-Six. He was so much more fun, and I felt like Baltar was getting a little of his own back, however briefly. The whole Hera thing was pretty yikes (though Adama and Roslin are so adorable, even when they're being hard core) and felt like a tactical mistake.
Which leads us into Lay Down Your Burdens. I can't say that the events didn't logically follow each other. Starbuck and Anders reunited was a lovely amazing thing, and I like that they get married and go to New Caprica. Poor Chief and his dreams and his smacking around Cally—I couldn't remember if Dean Stockwell was a cylon from the recaps, but I knew as soon as he opened his mouth and was generally an asshole for no particularly good reason. I know this is all supposed to be highly ironic in hindsight, and I'm sad for that, that so many of the personal struggles of the characters (which is my favorite part of any canon) are rendered moot by the narrative.
I wanted to care more about the election, because I care so much about the civilian leadership, but how could I care when Roslin was running against Baltar, and when the story gave Baltar such a gimme issue? It felt so contrived to frustrate the viewer in a way I'm not sure was particularly fruitful. After all, they didn't talk about actual issues that might be affecting the fleet, but only the whole New Caprica thing and how people get tired and want to rest for a while, which felt like blaming the people in a way that isn't particularly helpful (see many Democrats' reactions to the election of '05). And it's only moments later (even though it's really a year) that Baltar caves to the Cylons anyway. Poor Gaeta. At least Roslin could just go back to teaching.
And finally, Labor Organizer!Chief is pretty much everything I find hot: smart, knowledgeable, capable, passionate, plus glasses and a beard! Please, Tyrol, don't turn out to be someone I never should have loved, because that would make me sad.
On to season 3 shortly, thanks to
illogicalvulcan. Season 4 is on the TIVO thanks to Sci-Fi, so I reckon I'll be caught up at least by the finale. Thoughts, anyone?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 07:05 pm (UTC)That is all.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 07:23 pm (UTC)I mainlined most of season two in a sitting or two and fast forwarded through slow bits. I would also love to see more of the ships outside of the military, but like secondary characters not given enough screen time, at least some universe expansion can be done through fic.
I never really got the Cally hate either. In fact, I think I kinda ignored it all together. Composer Bear McCreary did some good work but like John Williams, it does get to be a bit much (and repeatative too).
As for Xena as a Cylon, I was unspoiled for that bit so I enjoyed it a bit more, and I loved that she slipped the tape into her bra. However, there's a bit of timing there in that ep that does not work whatsoever and it still irks me. I should really let it go, but that fly by in the middle is when the raiders are supposed to pick up her story - but it's not finished because she's clearly in the CIC shooting coverage. Sigh. Ok, I had to get that out. Sorry.
I've got LDYB 1&2 on deck for the weekend, as home sick brain is not the brain I need for watching, and I've been pretty spoiled for s3 but I shall head into that soon as well. I can point you to some resources for things if you feel you need them. And with that, I think it's possibly time for me to take a rest break.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 11:51 pm (UTC)I love the religious stuff, too. "Xena" figures into a lot of that later on. I would love to read your thoughts on that when you catch up.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 02:52 am (UTC)- Yes, Scar is supposed to have been the raider Starbuck killed in S1.
- Head!Baltar is so fantastic. I like him as a character, when used well, a lot more than I think most people do.
- I don't think I truly appreciated Tyrol until he showed up with the glasses and the beard and the impassioned speeches. I liked him well enough before, but the real love didn't come till later.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 09:14 am (UTC)I love the entire mythology thing - and all the planet hopping - and when Adama gently kisses Roslin and she gives him the admiral pins I feel like I could explode into a billion pieces. Like, I feel like the whole series is worth it just for that moment.
I love how your brain permanently operates in analysis overdrive - so much. I don't feel like the narrative renders renders the personal struggles moot, in fact its always been a strong point of the show for me, that they can make me care about these personal struggles amidst this crazy backdrop of spaceships and explosions and lurking DOOOM. It's kindof the paradox of the whole thing that I love - this hopeless group of people tumbling through dangerous space and I care about... like... who Dee is dating, and why Starbuck feels like she always has to be in emotional agony. Love love love.
Answer: No, scar is just a badass raider - and solidifies for us to the nifty reality that the raiders are aliiiive.
Chip Baltar. So much more awesome than real Baltar. And also, what is that all about?!
Okay, and as for Hera, and ALL the decisions that the leaders make - they ARE tactical mistakes. Another thing i LOVE about the show. The make huuuuge sweeping, gigantic mistakes. As leaders do. And you rarely get to see that. Roslin, in particular, is a very flawed character when you really look at her. Which only makes me love her more. That and any time she says, "Put it out the airlock."
Flight of the Phoenixis amaaaazing.
You are amaaaazing.
That is all.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-23 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 09:20 am (UTC)Fics this weekend fo sho.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-23 03:24 am (UTC)But thank you, and owning your own business = not having an asshole moron boss checking in on you all the goddamn time.
And I definitely suck for the Idol, but I hope you also tell Jacob that he sucks.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-23 02:30 pm (UTC)I am my own asshole boss. What does that mean?!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 08:54 am (UTC)