Hello again. I posted here a few months ago when I first began watching Battlestar Galactica. It took me about two months to watch the entire series, including Razor and all the webisodes. It was a little confusing trying to figure out the order in which to watch everything. I had to try so hard not to talk to anyone about it, look things up on the internet, and listen to podcasts. It seemed like every time I would turn on my television, someone would start talking about who was a Cylon and I had to quickly change the channel to avoid being spoiled. It was difficult not to talk to anyone about it, especially when something awesome or confusing happened. I wanted to post or call someone up and be like “HOLY FRAK! DID YOU SEE THAT? THAT WAS AWESOME!” or “What the FRAK was that?!” But I had to suffer in silence because I didn’t trust anyone to not spoil me, as I had been spoiled slightly on a few things already.
It didn’t take long for me to love this show. The acting is superb, the writing is rich and dark and it does something that few television shows do… it doesn’t assume that I’m too much of an idiot to understand its complicated plot. I find that too many shows over-explain things because they assume their audience couldn’t possibly understand what’s going on. This show kept me up at night, it made me question my own humanity and beliefs. I love that.
There were points where I would sit down to watch it, trying to make a promise to myself that I would only watch two or three episodes, and then suddenly it’s four AM and I’m seriously becoming an insomniac because I can’t turn it off.
This show is ballsy. Another thing that many other shows fail to do, which is to take risks, to not be afraid of the dreaded “jumping the shark” that people throw out way too quickly. Especially in the world that we live in, it isn’t afraid to question your political or religious beliefs, and it doesn’t decide the answer for you. Nothing is black and white. You can see things from every angle. Is Gaius Baltar completely evil and self-absorbed? Is there a human being somewhere inside of him? I still don’t know, and I like it that way. It makes you think. It challenges you.
Some of my favorite moments, off the top of my head…
Galactica jumping into New Caprica’s atmosphere, falling, and then jumping out. How great was that? That’s one of the most bad-ass moments in television I’ve ever seen.
The end of Season 2, “One Year Later.” I thought that was very risky. I think I had to take a break from it after that episode just to let it sink in for a while.
Kara Thrace’s death. There aren’t many television shows that have made me shed a year, but that was definitely one of the times that this show has. This was very surprising to me because in the beginning, probably the entire first season, I hated Starbuck. But then, in Season 2, when she had some character development, I started to like her. Then I started to love her, and they kill her off. It always happens that way. Of course, I already knew she would return because I had already seen her on the Season 4 DVD set.
Gaius Baltar speaking in his native tongue. Wow. I thought that scene was so intense and well acted by James Callis. I really enjoy his acting, and the character of Gaius Baltar. He may be evil, but he’s sort of an anti-hero and I’m always a big fan of those characters. The character of Gaius Baltar offered me endless enjoyment throughout this show, plus I always gravitate toward the scientific-type characters. Not to mention, I didn’t mind seeing Tricia Helfer half naked.
The “As if this moment, we are at war.” and “Earth” speeches from William Adama. I would follow that man into battle any day. Every time he said “So say we all!” I found myself repeating it back to him.
Tricia Helfer. It seemed as though, in the beginning she was just there to look pretty and be Baltar’s muse, but I think she grew so much as a character or characters and as an actress.
Lee Adama being elected a member of the Quorum, when he goes to the hanger deck and everyone salutes him. That was moving.
I thought the end was fitting. The show was really dark in general, but the last season got extremely dark, and I was kind of anticipating a death and destruction ending. What ultimately happened, I didn’t see coming. I’m still a little confused about some of the things that happened. Granted, I haven’t had that much time to read up on anything. I like the fact that the end didn’t answer everything in a concrete matter-of-fact way, because the show can go on forever, because it keeps making you think.
I’ve only had the chance to watch the series once all the way through, and I’m dying to go back and watch it again to see everything that I missed in the beginning. My favorite show is LOST, and I was always jealous when people told me that they had just gotten into it and watched all the seasons through in a few weeks. I always thought, how great would it be to have things pay off almost instantly, and not have to wait eight months for more questions. But now, I’m glad that I didn’t watch it that way, after having experienced BSG like that. I wish that I had watched BSG from the beginning. Having gone through it so quickly, I didn’t quite have the chance to think about things a whole lot, or let them sink in. There wasn’t much time to formulate theories or discuss each episode, which I feel is something that I really missed out on watching it the way that I did.
I’m so glad that I got into this show. It didn’t take long for it to surpass most of my favorite shows, in fact I would probably put it at #2. I really enjoy shows that have good characters and a deep mythology. This show was absolutely one of the best things I’ve ever seen. What a journey, and I’m only two months in to being a fan. I already find myself muttering “frak” and wanting to tell everyone I’ve ever met about how awesome it is.
Sorry for the long post, I had to get this off my chest with people who get it, as I been holding it in for two months now!
