Watching Battlestar Galactica

Raziaar

Raziaar

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Okay I've just watched the Miniseries and then all of season 1. Currently I'm finishing up episode 2 of season 2.

I have to say I quite enjoy the series so far. It's a lot different than what I expected. I expected it to be kind of the epitome of nerdy sci-fi kind of like another star-trek or something, but so far it's quite refreshing since it isn't anything like that.

Most of the characters are quite enjoyable, but some, even absolutely key ones to the story I can't stand at all. Gaius Baltar is somebody who annoys me a great deal. Every time his scenes come up I just roll my eyes and wait for them to end. Lot of reasons why I feel that way, one of them being his need for self preservation goes to absolutely ridiculous lengths, to the point that it almost seems unbelievable. The madam president was also one who was grating on my nerves too after a while, and still does... but I guess I can respect her character a bit more.

I know I've complained about this in steamchat once, and people told me it was absolutely integral to the plotline of battlestar galactica... but all this religion stuff is ABSOLUTELY DRIVING ME MAD. Personally I still enjoy the series without getting wrapped up in all of that plotline, since to me it's really realy silly, and so is all the dialogue involving it.

And oh man... I bet some of you are really fond of "frack/frak", but that's another thing that's just driving me up the wall. The series is absolutely saturated with it thus far, and it's insane! Fracking, frak, frack, motherfrakker. GAH! The other thing that ties into the religion that I think is way too overused, though I suppose understandably so because of the religious nature of it, is "gods". "Thank the gods", "gods dammit", "gods be with you", and the list goes on.

Sometimes I really do think that a third of the dialogue is "gods" something or "frack" something.


And considering this all this religious stuff, I was told, has nothing "Christian" about it even though all the dialogue between Gaius Baltar and Number 6 absolutely sounds like it... I absolutely busted out laughing at the absurdity of one of the characters yelling out, "Jesus!". I find it funny how that one slipped in there, especially considering the mythology is about... well, mythological gods. Though the Cylons are preaching about "one and only god", so maybe this is where the series is headed... I dunno.

Anyway, that's my rant. I'm still enjoying the series though, don't get me wrong... there's just a LOT to nitpick about.
 
The show has some great moments, especially a few of the arcs in Seasons 2 and 3.

However, the ending is ****ing terrible.

Raziaar said:
The madam president was also one who was grating on my nerves too after a while, and still does...
Click to expand...

Don't let Samon hear you say that.

Raziaar said:
I know I've complained about this in steamchat once, and people told me it was absolutely integral to the plotline of battlestar galactica... but all this religion stuff is ABSOLUTELY DRIVING ME MAD. Personally I still enjoy the series without getting wrapped up in all of that plotline, since to me it's really realy silly, and so is all the dialogue involving it.
Click to expand...

That's by far the show's biggest failing. Aside from the cliche and poor writing that infests it later on, there's so much that happens that is just explained simply as, "Well, God did it obviously" which is such a goddamn cop out for saying "We have never had any ****ing idea where we were going with this show."

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Raziaar said:
And considering this all this religious stuff, I was told, has nothing "Christian" about it even though all the dialogue between Gaius Baltar and Number 6 absolutely sounds like it... I absolutely busted out laughing at the absurdity of one of the characters yelling out, "Jesus!". I find it funny how that one slipped in there, especially considering the mythology is about... well, mythological gods. Though the Cylons are preaching about "one and only god", so maybe this is where the series is headed... I dunno.
Click to expand...

I think the original series was pretty heavily influenced by Judaism, but I haven't seen it so I can't say.
 
I think in this second episode of season 2 the word "gods" was mentioned no less than 872 times.

Or something like that.

Yorick said:
Don't let Samon hear you say that.
Click to expand...

She is a rotten **** sometimes!
 
It's a hit and miss show really.
Some really amazing episodes, some okay, and a lot of terrible ones.

I personally couldn't identify with any characters and they all pretty much became extremely unlikable in the third or fourth season.
 
Yorick said:
However, the ending is ****ing terrible.
Click to expand...

They landed on the new Earth, went their separate ways, and then there was a commercial. Stop watching it right there. The series is over. NOTHING HAPPENS AFTER THAT.
 
Lucid said:
It's a hit and miss show really.
Some really amazing episodes, some okay, and a lot of terrible ones.

I personally couldn't identify with any characters and they all pretty much became extremely unlikable in the third or fourth season.
Click to expand...

I agree - it always seemed to me that the further the show went along, the more poor choices the characters were making. It was like as if whenever someone had a choice in a situation, they always picked the one with the worst outcome IMO. It's great to have flawed characters (flawed characters are real), but there comes a point when the characters start making poor choices just for the sake of making them that it becomes absurd.

Still, I think it's one of the better sci-fi shows compared to what's around right now.
 
Unfortunately it becomes very, very shit.

Raziaar said:
The madam president was also one who was grating on my nerves too after a while, and still does... but I guess I can respect her character a bit more.
Click to expand...

RogerRabbit5.jpg
 
one of my fav characters was "hotdog", but they ****ed him in last season
 
Basically, it's like this:
Season 1 = Pretty much flawless. Yes, there might be a weak episode somewhere in there, but there's almost no filler, there's no sudden weird character change, it's always going somewhere and the first episode is, probably the best. The whole season is really tight and keeps a good pace. Sometimes I think they should have stuck to 12 or however many episodes are in this season.

Season 2 = Contains some really pointless filler episodes, some kind of strange character twists.
Dualla likes Apollo now? Since when? What about Billy? Oh he dies in the next episode, well that's convenient.
And some weird plot elements that go unexplored, and just some plain stupidity.
Ah, Admiral Cain is dead, well that's fair enough, sh- oh, her XO died? Why? Surely they could have strung him along for a while before killing him? Oh, now Apollo is a Major and the XO of Pegasus. Fine, he deserved that promotion, it's not too- oh what the ****, he's a Commander two episodes later? And his daddy gave him a Battlestar? What the hell are these people thinking?!
And that's not mentioning the filler episode that the producer himself regretted ever filming. Overall, it's weaker, but it still has plenty of really good episodes, arch-wise it's not as focused as Season 1, but the archs that are there are good, for the most part.

Season 3 = Wow, what a badass beginning this season has. The first three or four episodes? Pure awesome. Enjoy it. It ain't gonna last. This is the first time the show started dipping into "stupid, bad and annoying"-territory for more than one or two episodes at a time. Particularly annoying were the relationships that developed at this point.
Apollo and Dualla. Why? They had absolutely ****-all chemistry. What an annoying, immature bitch she married.
The end is... meh. Not good, not bad.

Season 4 = Loads of meh, combined with some good, combined with some more meh. At this stage, most characters had become really, really diluted and they had proved to be assholes so many times over it became hard to watch. Could I please have like one character I'm allowed to like?
No, not Helo. Self-righteous bastard.
Series finale was... alright. I'm not a hater, but I'll admit it wasn't exactly fantastic. I did absolutely love how they handled Baltar in the end though. Perfect end to his story.
 
Forgive me if I don't read much of this thread because of all the spoilers going on.

I'll come back to it later once I experience the other seasons, if I can stomach them.
 
Raziaar said:
Forgive me if I don't read much of this thread because of all the spoilers going on.

I'll come back to it later once I experience the other seasons, if I can stomach them.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was like wtf at all this fraking spoiling, don't they know who the OP is?
Well anyways the series gets a frakload more intense and believe me Baltar is someone you want to keep an eye on, you won't figure out him and 6's roles until like the FRAKKING END.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
Yeah I was like wtf at all this fraking spoiling, don't they know who the OP is?
Well anyways the series gets a frakload more intense and believe me Baltar is someone you want to keep an eye on, you won't figure out him and 6's roles until like the FRAKKING END.
Click to expand...

Motherfrakker! Gods frakking dammit!

Why the frack do they do that? Oh gods... I'm talking like a frakking moron!
 
The series went downhill after season 2. Down the steepest hill a tv series has ever gone down.

Whoever made that point about the characters becoming diluted is spot on. I hated the dilution. Everyone was so completely retarded, annoying, strange, different and punchable by the end you just wanted it to end.

But some people like character mind ****s in their TV. It's not something i dig.
 
Heroes was one of my biggest TV disappointments ever.
FANTASTIC first season up until the last 2 episodes and onward... God damn, they really dropped the ball on it.
 
This thread is the perfect opportunity to ask you guys a question. I want to actually get it all on DVD so I can watch it right through. Does anyone know what the best and most complete deal would be for me to go for?

I've watched to about the mid point of Season 3 and I have to disagree with AJ Rimmer's lengthy assessment on two fronts: firstly that Season 2 really impressed me, most of all because of those inctredible final episodes where the situation of the entire series seems to change instantly, as if the writers were willing to just wreck their format so far...
I mean, not only do we get to catch up with Galactica-Boomer and experience first joy that she's alive and still her, not some reprogrammed or activated personality, then excitement because she is not in heaven, she's not out of the way, she's not out of the fire, but in a dangerous and new situation. But we also see a political revolution in both societies and the settlement of the planet. And then it casually drops a 'ONE YEAR LATER' caption and the Cylons invade. I mean, shit! Plus I love the whole thing with Caprica-Boomer and Helo.
Considering all that, Series 3 was disappointing. Don't get me wrong, those first episodes are great. But
it's too soon that the Galactica reappears in a parallel storyline; too soon that everyone just manages to get off the planet, and too soon that everything goes (to some extent) back to normal. It would have been far more effective if for at least the first ten episodes you, the viewer, didn't even see Galactica and didn't even know where it was, while the intriguing occupation was expanded and explored in more depth. As it was it seemed like after doing such a brave about-face the writers suddenly felt they had to get their series back onto the usual track. I mean, what is this, Heroes?
Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it, even if, at the mid-point which I reached before I stopped watching (for no particular reason), it had become a bit bitty and disconnected and monster-of-the-week.
 
Sulkdodds said:
it's too soon that the Galactica reappears in a parallel storyline; too soon that everyone just manages to get off the planet, and too soon that everything goes (to some extent) back to normal. It would have been far more effective if for at least the first ten episodes you, the viewer, didn't even see Galactica and didn't even know where it was, while the intriguing occupation was expanded and explored in more depth. As it was it seemed like after doing such a brave about-face the writers suddenly felt they had to get their series back onto the usual track. I mean, what is this, Heroes?
Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it, even if, at the mid-point which I reached before I stopped watching (for no particular reason), it had become a bit bitty and disconnected and monster-of-the-week.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right.

"The Sci Fi Channel was unhappy with Battlestar Galactica's plot-heavy story arc-based episodes, since it required a lot of background and internal knowledge to understand and made it difficult to pick up new viewers. When the first two seasons didn't pull in the ratings Sci-Fi desired, the executives pressured Moore into creating more standalone episodes that weren't as plot-heavy. This plan backfired and the third season took heavy criticism from both fans and critics, particularly the infamous episode "The Woman King." Fortunately, the executives decided to let Moore call the shots in the 4th season."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ExecutiveMeddling

:(
 
Hmm... I've wanted to watch this show for a while and I've recently discovered lovefilm.com (UK equivalent of netflix basically) so I've got a chance to watch this but I'm slightly worried now regarding the talk of an ending that sounds worse than evangelion's ending o_O Should I be?
 
I absolutely loved the first two seasons, and the beginning of season 3 like everyone said. After that I watched through to the first half of season 4 but never bothered to watch the final ten episodes. I pretty much agree with the general consensus here.
 
Sulkdodds said:
This thread is the perfect opportunity to ask you guys a question. I want to actually get it all on DVD so I can watch it right through. Does anyone know what the best and most complete deal would be for me to go for?
Click to expand...

Yes. Don't.
 
This thread is the perfect opportunity to ask you guys a question. I want to actually get it all on DVD so I can watch it right through. Does anyone know what the best and most complete deal would be for me to go for?
Click to expand...

Okay I haven't watched this yet as I said but it appears to me that the cheapest is both of these:
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5446707/Battlestar-Galactica-Seasons-1-4-Boxset/Product.html
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/8804953/Battlestar-Galactica-The-Final-Season-Part-2/Product.html
 
That's the thing though, I'd seen there were two boxes and I was wondering if anyone knew that a full set was going to come out within six months or something like that.

Considering Yorick's advice, maybe I'll just buy that first box and then download the last ten episodes.
 
I gotta agree, much more paced if you watch them one after another, suits the show down to a boat.
 
No it's considerably better to not spend money on a show that is mediocre at best.
 
Just buy The West Wing instead if you don't have it yet.
Borrow Galactica from someone (or if you're EVIL pirate it) if you really want to watch it, I wouldn't pay for it either to be honest.
 
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