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Battlestar Galactica
The (frankly unlikely) case against
There's been a lot of discussion about current SF TV in the Death Ray offices this week, a lot of it concerning Battlestar Galactica. Guy ploughed through the first series last weekend in an effort to catch up and offered a surprisingly dissenting voice to our (almost) unanimous love of it – he thinks it overreaches itself and is too transparent in offering real-world political analogues.
(He also, and I quote, misses the 'purity' of the original
series, which elicited simultaneous spitting-out-of-tea from me and Matt. He
meant, of course, the Cylon-Human pursuit and not the rest of the show, which
was, it's fair to say, bloody awful). Which is fair enough, and perfectly valid
(although I happen to think he's very wrong). God knows what he'll think when
he watches the utterly batshit mental series three finale, though, or the four
none-more-pertinent New Caprica occupation episodes at the start. (One thing's
for sure, though; Jonathan was precisely correct when he said 'Exodus, Part II'
is the finest single hour of telly ever. I may have actually whooped when I
watched it.)
All of which makes me wonder what Guy'll think when he gets 'round to Heroes, which he's also not seen yet. I have a sneaking suspicion he'll love it - as it is, of course, ineffably wonderful, and the final clutch of (superb so far) episodes showing in the States right now are building up to a hopefully-amazing finale - but there's no accounting for taste. (Which is a bit rich, as you'll see in a minute.)
Lost is a show that's improved a lot recently too. With the recent Juliet-centric episode going to great lengths to explain a thing or two - namely, the Others' experiments on Claire and their interest in children - and some focus on Desmond, who's fast becoming, along with Benjamin Linus, the star of the show, Damon Lindelof and co are getting the show back on track. While it's true that it's mystery that endures - establish enigmas, not explanations, as Robert Smithson would have it - Lost has long needed to offer a bit more reward for our investment. Finally, thankfully, it is, and even if Jack and Kate are getting duller and duller, there's a requisite increase in quality and excitement elsewhere. Let's hope it sticks.
Finally, in an echo of Guy's perverse stance on Battlestar Galactica, I think I'm alone in thinking Life on Mars wasn't tip-top amazing. Granted, I didn't watch the entirety of season two, but what I did see just left me a bit... flat. The performances were great, but some episodes - I'm thinking in particular the one with Reece Dinsdale as the kiddy-fiddling teacher, or the one where Gene Hunt was set up - were bog-standard cop dramas, and predictable. And although enigmas are good, as already stated, perhaps the ending was an enigma too far. But, you know, maybe that's just me...
Jes Bickham May 02, 2007, 03:37:05
