Battlestar Galactica - The Surprising End

I've long since written about how much I've enjoyed Battlestar Galactica. I've also written in other places about my fears concerning its ending, particularly the episodes leading up to the ending. Those episodes meandered a bit, the series suddenly felt as if it ran a marathon and suddenly decided that a stroll would be nice as it neared the finish line. It was worrying me, to say the least.

So, I wasn't exactly thrilled when the episode started. I was sure that it would go horribly wrong, that those meandering episodes took too much time away from the plot. Images of flying motorcycles were forming at the back of my mind. (Watch the failed 1980's movie if this is a "huh" moment.) Looking at the episodes now, I think that they took a stroll because they could. The ending was set, long ago (really long ago), and they could take time out to show some things about the characters we've never really seen.

In the end, I was floored. It was an ending I both expected and was surprised by, capped by wonderful closures for everyone. The rescue mission was everything I would have wanted, exciting, visually beautiful, tense. I forget how good the visuals are until they're shown in that way, and suddenly I'm a child again, seeing the grand battlestar for the first time on TV. Except it never looked that good then.

The climax was also typically Galactica in that it heads in one direction and then, using a moment I all but forgot, twists things again. Yes, I get played each and every time, but in this case, I just don't care.

But it was the final part, the sunny, green, wonderfully sad final part, that really got me. It was the light that Galactica, as a series, sought. It was a wonderful break, finally getting over the whole rollercoaster of the past four seasons to get to, well, what looked like paradise. The series needed the sunlight, and the grief. I was surprised at how happy I was looking at it, ignoring all the obvious signs of what was to come (the map gave it away for me). It brought me to a point where I too smiled into the green vistas and thought it was time to move on. As dark as the series got, it was, in the end, true to itself in that the series was also all about hope. It's nice to see that win in the end.

Spirituality was always part of the series and it was nice to see it in full play at the end. Yes, some of it smacked of cop-out, but heck, I honestly don't care. It was a good ending. I can't really ask for more than that.

And I loved the irony (and Ron Moore's cameo) at the very end, as two celestial beings debate mankind once again (and I agree with what some of you wrote - yes, the red dress makes sense now.) even as that song plays and images of robots fill the screen. Will it happen again? That's really up to us cylons, isn't it?

Battlestar Galactica

Wow. That's all I can say after watching the new episode of the final season of Battlestar Galactica or BSG. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the revelation of the long hyped 5th Cylon that made my day. It was all the other stuff they decided to bring in. Are they all Cylon? It's a possibility. What happens now? In all, the six month wait was well worth it.

I was a fan of the original series, too. While it obviously took a lot of cues from Star Wars, which was a major influence, it was intriguing enough in that the main plot was fascinating. Despite the fact that it was campy as hell, I watched almost every episode of the original series, even watching the god-awful movies that were made from it. I thought the Viper designs were the coolest thing, though the disco light helmets of the viper pilots were bad, even in the days of disco. It was the premise of Galactica that made it so fascinating, though it seemed to be spiraling out of control by the time the series finally was cancelled.

Later on, the computer game Homeworld would pick up the same concept to create a game that was just as compelling as the series. More on this in another post.

I was rather skeptical of the new series when it first came out, I was expecting the same camp, outrageous outfits, the chrome-plated Cylons, the misplaced cheeriness that marked the original series. Instead, I was thrown into an intense, gritty, almost unrecognizable "re-imagining" of the series. It was written with a much more realistic point of view in mind, which made its human drama just that much more exciting. Also, with the introduction of completely humanoid Cylons, even the bad guys were given a human dimension. It was also much, much sexier. They could not have done a better job, in my opinion.


I was hooked. I still am. The new episode re-affirmed all my opinions of the series. Intense, extremely unpredictable, and dark, BSG will be a permanent part of my media collection once the run is finished.

DVD...DVD...DVD...DVD...

Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts

I came across this video the other day while mindlessly surfing the web. My first thought was, what the heck is this about? I actually did not realize it was an SNL digital short until I watched it again and read the text at the beginning. What makes this even more intriguing for me was that it had people like Molly Sims (of Las Vegas), Jamie Lynn Siegler (of the Sopranos, I think), and Justin Timberlake as cameos. That's pretty heavy star power for a spoof video.

But then, it's SNL. You don't get much bigger than that in US TV.

Here's the video:





Funny, right? They're not always funny, but when they get it right, it's hilarious.