Battlestar Galactica

The Twelve Colonies have been destroyed by Cylons- man made machines.  The only humans who survived were the ones in transit between the colonies and not on one of the planets.  Yet Cylons have a trick up their sleeve - they now look human instead of like machined robots.  Now the fifty thousand survivors have to find a way to escape extinction in the middle of deep space.

Apologies to anyone reading this that is planning to watch it - there will be spoilers.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV.  I only saw Battlestar Galactica after each season was available on DVD.  I finally finished watching the last season.  The fourth season definitely wasn't the best.  I think my favorite was the first one.  I had looked forward to seeing the last season for so long, I think that may have increased my disappointment a bit.

I loved all the allusions to the zodiac and Greek myths.  It would have been cool to have more of the Greek stories intertwined with some of the back story or world building.  But what they did have did allow me to geek out a bit.

I didn't like Gaius Baltar.  I didn't like his character at all, but I think that was the intention of the writers. I really didn't believe him as a religious leader.  I only barely believed him as a political leader, but it was less of a stretch.  Gaius' storyline just went off the deep end in seasons three and four. 

My favorite character of the bunch is Kara Thrace.  It's disappointing that Katee Sackhoff hasn't been in much else.  I really like her. I loved the turmoil she struggles through.  She handles some things well and others poorly.  Some days she loves her job, other days she just gets by.  I also love her physique - both beautiful and powerful.  She's kind of my inspiration for the physique I want.

The last few episodes were very odd.  I finally felt the complaints that many people had about Lord of the Rings Return of the King. that there were too  many endings.  I didn't feel that way about LOTR, but all the unnecessary flashbacks were grueling.  And then it kept going.  The way all the lines were settled felt sloppy and rushed.  I feel for the writers since they probably had to tie everything up faster than they were expecting to.  It was like the writing/producing/directing team knew did a poor job of bridging the gap between where they were and where the ending was. 

So the ending was just plain weird.  I got really wrapped up in the first couple of seasons.  I absolutely recommend those,  but I think the show is better without the fourth season.  More complete, even.  I admit it's a really nerdy show, but the way it combined military, mythology, and science fiction was really well done.  

At this point, I have no plans to watch Caprica, the prequel spinoff on the SciFi channel.

V-Day 2010

Happy Valentine's Day to you!   

I celebrated my third Valentine's Day with the BF yesterday.  We do a low-key date at home, so that we don't have to mess with the hassle and expense of going out to eat.  We had another Mollydooker wine, this time Two Left Feet. It was a really nice wine and worth the extra penny we spent on it.  So far I'm a huge fan of their whole line.  We decided to do some recipes out of Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook, which BF got for Christmas.

First was some Blue and Yellow Cornbread Muffins.  My iPhone really doesn't do the color justice.  They looked really good, but ended up tasting kinda dry.  Maybe that's the last time the BF gets put in charge of baking.  We must have done something wrong though, because we couldn't get enough of them when we ate at Mesa Grill Las Vegas.  They're a must if you ever go there.

BF was also in charge of grilling the steaks: Black Pepper Crusted Filet Mignon with Ancho Red Pepper Sauce and Goat Cheese.  We really lucked out at Central Market because the filet mignons were on sale.  And they looked excellent, even raw!  I was in charge of the sauce, which also turned out excellent.  It had a really complex flavor, though perhaps a little too heavy on the tomato.  The goat cheese went on top and then got all gooey and delicious under the broiler.  Overall, it was a really good meal.  Even though mine was a little overdone, the meat was still tender and delicious.  It gave me an excuse to have a bit extra of the sauce, so all was well. 

For dessert, BF insisted on cheesecake, where I insisted on dip-your-own strawberries.  So we both got our way.  I got my strawberries and BF stole some of the dipping chocolate to top his cheesecake.  I must admit, I demolished the whole plate.  The strawberries were really juicy, much better than I would have thought possible for off-season strawberries.

For our date night entertainment, we watched the recorded season finale of Worst Cooks in America, one of my new favorite shows.  Most of the people just want to learn how to cook just so they can better provide for their families.  It is such a humble desire, but so heartening to see how passionate they are about being able to give something back to the people they care about. 

After that, we watched Couple's Retreat.  I have liked Vince Vaughn since I saw him in A Cool Dry Place, though I try to ignore the fact that he was in Old School and Dodgeball   It was awesome to see Jean Reno as the guru-guy considering his previous roles like in Ronin and The Da Vinci Code.  It wasn't the same humor as Old School, thank the movie-making-powers-that-be.  It was very adult humor, with really great writing, and some overall great insights about couples.  The movie was way better than what I was expecting it to be. 

It was a very nice, very low-key Valentines Day for us.  Very similar to our normal days, but just done up a notch.  

Oh, and if anyone still wants to see Valentine's Day, let me know.