Butterfly Cauldron
Sunday, October 08, 2006
I Heart Battlestar Galactica
I'm about to reveal my sci-fi nerd fangirl self. You've been warned.
The new season of Battlestar started Friday and I am a very happy girl. Hell, I'm all tingly down to my toenails. If you haven't watched this show, you should. Now. Today. Get the discs from NetFlix, download it on iTunes, something. This show is awesome. Watch it even if you don't like Sci-Fi. You don't have to, it's that good.
Judging from Friday night, this season is going to be the most unabashedly political so far. In the season opener they tackled living in an occupied land, suicide bombings, terrorism -- from both sides, "detention" chambers, forced motherhood, insurgency -- hell, they even had the fracking president yelling "No one was tortured!"
I love this show. Seriously.
First, women are equal in this universe. I've never once heard anyone on the show utter "Well, she can't do that. She's a woman." The former president is female, women occupy positions of power in both the Human and Cylon forces, the humans worship the Greek pantheon, complete with all the goddesses. Women are free agents, in charge of their own destinies for good or bad.
Second, it's complex. You're never really sure just who the good guys are or who the bad guys are. Sure, some people seem good -- but would a truely good person try to rig an election and subvert the will of the people? People are flawed, they can be manipulated by their desires. Is Baltar good or evil? Is he a human or a fracking Cylon? Who knows? (I'm hoping the writers do!)
They're not afraid to tackles hard issues. This ain't Star Trek, people. They did an episode last season on abortion that was just....well. When you've only got 50,000 humans left in the entire universe, is increasing the population more important than personal freedom? Is it for the greater good to coerce women into motherhood?
That theme got revisited this season when it was revealed that one of our main characters has a child she didn't know about. A not entirely human child, at that. On a lesser show, I'd be afraid that meant this character (who totally, completely kicks ass) was about to be rewritten as a simpering "oh my baby!' waste of airspace. But I don't worry so much on BG, because that's the last likely place they'll be going.
The show also isn't afraid to tackle themes of redemption -- and have the characters actually have to work for it. Someone who was your enemy, can they ever really become your friend? Can a mother ever really get over the loss of a child? When she finds out the child was stolen from her by the people who now want her help, what's she going to do? (Hell, I know what I'd do, and it wouldn't be pretty.) Actions have consequences here -- even if it takes a few years for them to show up.
So, watch this show. SciFi channel, Friday nights. You'll be glad you did.
8 Comments:
Hm. Recommendations don't work for me, but I am tempted because it's you, and because of the all-woman picture. My first thought in response to the title was "I can see why." I never gave this show a chance, and I don't remember why. It sounds too good to be true. (Are you writing for them?!)
"Oh, my baby": Yeah, on any other show, she'd quit her job to make up for lost time w/ the kid. Or she'd fall for her boss like the ruined Carter on SG: SG-1. The third episode of that was so offensive, when she was kidnapped and had to wear a dress but it was okay because the asshole was going to sell her into slavery so he could buy his beloved, whose dad wouldn't let her marry him.(And my Colonel didn't care!)
I loves this show. Seriously. It's up there with Farscape, my favoritest ever.
Yeah, some of the eps of SG1 annoyed me. Like the entire last season, aside from the stuff with Vala. I mean...hold on...they bring in Cam, but isn't Sam next in line to lead the team? Hello? Arg. And their religious aspects was just too over the top. Grr.
Battlestar: The Asian girl is cute.
The season when DanielJackson came back was the last, in my world. And I think that was the beginning of the decline, but I hated Jonas so much that even a decline was better than him. I didn't watch past S7. I'm an O'Neillover.
I knew they wouldn't let Carter take over!
And I couldn't watch Atlantis, despite the cute guy, because he's suppposed to be a younger O'Neill and I can't stand the scientist because of that episode he spent aggravating Carter.
Gasp! Jamie Bamber is the hot naked guy who played Horatio Hornblower's best friend.
Xena's on this show? I am so out of it since I ended my TV Guide subscription.
So, I watched the season premiere (2-parter?), and I'm not sure what happened. Whose wife is mad at Boomer? How did Callum Keith Rennie get the woman's egg? Are you sure they're not going to make her all schmoopy? She did touch his hand.
I loved Vecchio, and Rennie just couldn't pull off "American." I felt so sorry for him when he had to claim curling was stupid and baseball rules (which it does).
Ok. First, Boomer is a Cylon. They can look like humans now and when they die they just download into a new body. So, she's a Cylon. Except, she didn't know she was at first. In the previous seasons, she tried to kill Adama. (The guy who runs Galactica) So, that's why Cally is pissed at her, because she's a Cylon and tried to kill their leader. Also, she was sleeping with her husband. They weren't married at the time, but Cally was totally in love with him and she got really pissed when she found out Boomer was a Cylon.
Next -- Leoben (Rennie, my darling! He's lovely, isn't he?) is also a Cylon. He got Kara/Starbuck's ovary when she was on a rescue mission and got caught. The Cylons were running a human/Cylon breeding farm and they snatched her ovary while she was unconcious. She got away (obviously) and didn't know what they'd done until now.
And she is soooo playing Leoben it's not funny. It's pretty classic Starbuck. He wants her to love him and this kid; she wants to get away. If she makes him believe he's getting what he wants, he'll trust her and she'll have a chance to escape and go back to the resistance and kill his ass. Again. Thing is, I think she's gonna really love the kid and take her when she runs. Which will be interesting, but Starbuck isn't the gooooy mommy type. She's more likely to teach the kid how to shot and kill than how to knit :)
Sounds like the great mommy type to me! I like your predictions, especially since the baby is SO adorable! It sounds like Starbuck is the reliable type, like you can count on her not to go Stepford, and those are my favorite characters (and possibly people).
You like Callum Keith Rennie? I resisted him as an interloper on my first viewings of his roles on Due South and La Femme Nikita.
Ew! Why did they have to take her whole ovary? They couldn't just Scully her? So she's not a Cylon?
Based on shows like Dark Angel and some canceled stuff whose titles I can't remember (D.B. Sweeney + Samantha Mathis), my theory was that shows set in postapocalyptic places don't do well. That the bombed out look just doesn't fly. This show is an exception.
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