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.