Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Battlestar Gallactica Grinds to a Halt

(do not read this if you haven't seen the last episode of BSG...it will ruin things for you)

Okay, Will, here it is: I confess - I was not all that happy with BSG's ending.

First, let me just say that at the beginning of the last 3-part episode I was like, "okay...that's more like it!" and by the second part I was like, "Sweet! I've missed you, Battlestar Gallactica."
The last episode had some awesome BSG drama and it truly matched the tone of the rest of the series - in most parts. There were a couple of times that I turned to Jordan and we groaned because something horribly cheesy happened (like when Baltar and Caprica were talking in unison because they could both see the angels), but for the most part, we were pretty into it. I loved that they brought back all the prophecy stuff - that was something they just left out in the last season and it was the backbone of the show.

But the last part of the 3-part episode? Meh. I'm sick of the "robots will take over the Earth if we let the crazy scientists do what they want" theme. We did that in I Robot and a billion other movies. And Hera as Mitochondrial Eve? I don't know...seems like a bit of a stretch. I mean, if there was already a tribe of advanced hominids on earth that, according to Baltar, we could breed with, why would Hera be Eve?

Really, I was so turned off by the Baltar/Caprica team of angels. They just seemed so, er, not real - so not in sync with the rest of the show. And the montage at the end of all of the robots? Ugh.

I did like what they did with Kara - how she brought them to Earth by typing in a code that corresponded with the song that her father taught her as a child. That was neat and it was right in line with the series - a bit of prophecy and a bit of mystery. She needed to do something cool, because they basically turned Kara into a washout by the last episode.

Basically, I think that Moore had a great idea and he developed some AWESOME characters and the middle of the series was SO AMAZING. But he didn't know where he was going with anything. You can tell. The show was just floundering at the end. It probably would have worked out better if the show had gotten cancelled before the final season. Not that I would have been happy about that, either, but I would have been left thinking that BSG had one of the most ineresting plots, ever.

A lot of people are saying, "how could they ended it any other way?" and I think there are plenty of ways that BSG could have ended that wouldn't have turned it into a fable. Do we really need to drill it down the audience's throat that technology could overcome the human race? No! The whole show was based on that! We get it! We started drawing parallels between the Caprican-Cylon relationship and the Human-Technology relationship as soon as the show started. For heaven's sake - your viewers are not idiots!

It could have ended at Earth. It could have ended at the scene with Adama sitting by Roslin's grave and that would have been awesome (though nothing could have redeemed the last disgrace that was the last season). In fact, I thought it was ending then and I was pretty happy with it.

But then Baltar/Caprica angels fake conversation that really was a lecture to the audience happened and I lost the warm fuzzy feeling I had.

BSG is over and it didn't go out kicking and screaming - it just sorta ground to a halt.

3 comments:

Andy said...

Yeah, in my opinion they could have cut the last half hour or so of the show. . .other than that, it was pretty decent.

Will Baird said...

YES!

I choked quite a bit.

Burnt Earth (v1.0) was inspired. However, I think they screwed up and that Kobol should have been colonized by Earth and the Colonist mythology was just warped, seriously patched over version to fit their world view. The everything you know is a lie moment would have been delicious. On top of the blasted earth.

Now, the Colonists finding early homo sapiens and interbreeding...just about choked and died right then and there.

The dancing robots had me in stitches. Ooooh yes, tech bad! It's going to EAT US!!!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!

please.

traumador said...

I personally thought the show jumped the cylon with that "one year later" stunt they pulled at the end of season 2.

It defeated the entrity of the series up to that point. "All those character's and their relationships that we've been painstakingly crafting and stringing out... well you can forget them now! It's a brand new dynamic... for no reason other than we need to out do ourselves as writers."

Which became Moores whole thing, outdoing himself on weird twists (rather than a solid plot).

The whole "everyone" is a cylon thing at the end of season 4 was the ultimate example.

They'd already done a main crew member being a cylon with the cliffhanger of the pilot, and 2 seasons of Boomer. Making half the rest of cast undermined that, and for no reason other than a cheap twist... that he had no real pay off for (from what I've gather from my friends who still watched the show).

Just my two cents on the show.