New Battlestar Galactica series is very good

[Margalis]

IMO, not following the plot of the original is a damn good thing. Let's face it, the original series was terribly stupid.

There are some shows like Star Trek:TOS that hold up pretty well over time. Battlestar Galactica is not one of them.

[Lum]

So just saw the last ep of Season 1.

Uh... woah.

Some SERIOUSLY heavy metaphysical imagery going on here. The writers have definitely done their homework regarding Greek mythology (specifically the oracle of Pythia) and also have the whole Lucifer thing going on (one scene made it ridiculously obvious).

And that's just subtext. Actual plot? Woah. There wasn't a spare moment of exposition in this one at all, it was WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM for 40 minutes. And now they're so divergent from the original series it's ridiculous. I almost think Moore purposefully wrote himself into a corner just to see if he could write himself back out again.

[Ironwood]

Told ya.

[angry.bob]

I just got done watching episode 13 too. WOW, except there should have been some actual azn porn instead of the teasy stuff they did. This is a really, really great show, with great acting, great writing, and great effects. On Sci Fi Channel. So it's doomed. Not quite as doomed as it would be on Fox, but it's still pretty damn doomed.

[Windurst]

There is a rumour that NBC is going to pick up the series for primetime.  Maybe something to replace ER... which is getting pretty stale.

[stray]

Lol, yeah right. ER may or may not be stale, but it still probably has 10x as many viewers even at it's lowest point. They sure as hell aren't going to replace it with "Battlestar Galactica". No matter how good it is.

[Margalis]

"Getting" stale? It's been stale for 8 years. You can only top yourself with another absurd disaster for so long.

Next week: An earthquake rattles the hospital, all the power goes out, sharks with lasers attack and everyone gets the plague!

[Ironwood]

Heh, as long as it was Sharks with lasers fighting Dr Carter, the wife would be there.

[Boogaleeboo]

They had an episode where smallpox broke out, the ER was evacuated, and a doctor lost an arm in a tragic accident. Because just getting smallpox in the hospital isn't enough, you also need a totally random attack against a doctor too. At that point you realise that they really are running out of shit to throw at them. Although yes, as long as John Carter was fighting the sharks people will continue to tune in.

[Ironwood]

I personally believe the influx of British people heralded the death knell of ER.

But, to get back to the topic, I think the new BG is luv.

Thanx.

[Paelos]

Didn't everyone on ER get the plague already? You can only go back to the same well so many times.

[Ironwood]

Didn't everyone on ER get the plague already? You can only go back to the same well so many times.

I think the only medical condition the staff haven't encountered is a spread of disease from Rage infected monkeys.

But that's only because I haven't really ever missed an episode of ER.  I just like medical programmes;  especially dumbed down ones where I can diagnose the patients about half an hour before the staff do...

[Windurst]

Lol, yeah right. ER may or may not be stale, but it still probably has 10x as many viewers even at it's lowest point. They sure as hell aren't going to replace it with "Battlestar Galactica". No matter how good it is.

Um... of course it does.

ER is on Network TV,  Galactica is on Cable.  It's supposed to have 10x more viewers by default.

I don't mean put Galactica in ER's timeslot, when I say replace ER.  I was thinking more along the lines of Galactica in the Friday Night 10:00 time zone, and move Medical Investigation over to ER's Thursday Night time zone to phase ER out.

[stray]

Well, that could happen, sure. Friday slots don't pull the biggest numbers (but still large enough to dwarf it's current Sci-Fi slot), and it's usually reserved for shows with less broad appeal. If it's as good as you guys say it is, then it's probably the perfect place for it.

[Windurst]

I could see it happening.   NBC owns the network rights to the new BSG series.    The BSG miniseries put up some pretty decent ratings when NBC re-aired it, considering they were going up against the NFL playoffs...

NBC is kinda struggling in the drama department...  all they really have now is Law and Order....

[Big Gulp]

I personally believe the influx of British people heralded the death knell of ER.

I liked Corday until she got involved with Dr. Greene and they turned her character into a screeching harpy.

Other than her what other Brits are even prominent on the show?

[Big Gulp]

Didn't everyone on ER get the plague already? You can only go back to the same well so many times.

Monkey pox, infidel.  And actually I thought that that was a pretty decent episode.

Of course, I also think that Carter is just about the only person worth a damn to watch on that show any more, since Clooney left, Greene died, and Romano got killed off in a fucked up Wile E. Coyote helicopter incident.

Noah Wyle's really the only thing keeping that show on life support at this point.

[Jain Zar]

But didn't NBC heavily edit the miniseries when they showed it?  I was lucky enough to catch it on Scifi when it first aired.  Overall this show is probably the best thing on TV right now.  24 got silly, ER had helicopters fall on people and got rid of everyone I really liked, Six Feet Under got too depressing and only has a season left..  just not much good out there.  BSG 2.0 is smart, character driven, and so full of gooey plot and character development I can hardly stand it.  I get mad when an episode ends.  I have to wait a week for the next one.  Im not sure it would make it on Prime Time though.  Its actually smart TV by and large.

[Abagadro]

24 lost me in Mexico last year, but this season is really, really good.

[Lum]

I would be very surprised if something like the "Flesh and Bone" episode (which is a not-very-well-veiled slam on the US's issues with terror-war prisoners) would be shown on network TV.

[Windurst]

But didn't NBC heavily edit the miniseries when they showed it?  I was lucky enough to catch it on Scifi when it first aired.  Overall this show is probably the best thing on TV right now.  24 got silly, ER had helicopters fall on people and got rid of everyone I really liked, Six Feet Under got too depressing and only has a season left..  just not much good out there.  BSG 2.0 is smart, character driven, and so full of gooey plot and character development I can hardly stand it.  I get mad when an episode ends.  I have to wait a week for the next one.  Im not sure it would make it on Prime Time though.  Its actually smart TV by and large.

Yeah, it was heavily edited because the miniseries was 4 hours long.  They got rid of some of the character development stuff, but the story remained intact.   The only questionable edit in the NBC broadcast was that they cut out the stuff about Roslin getting diagnosed with cancer... which was kind of an important plot point.

The NBC broadcast did flow pretty well though and overall, it was a better cut than the miniseries

[stray]

Overall this show is probably the best thing on TV right now.

Umm....No ?

Seriously though, I think I'll give it a shot. Where are you guys getting episodes from anyways?

[Ironwood]

 
Yeah, it was heavily edited because the miniseries was 4 hours long.  They got rid of some of the character development stuff, but the story remained intact.   The only questionable edit in the NBC broadcast was that they cut out the stuff about Roslin getting diagnosed with cancer... which was kind of an important plot point.

That's, um, strange.  The Cancer proves to be quite important in almost every episode.  It's also a MAJOR part of the build of that character.  It's almost her 'strength' in places.

That's an unusal change - and one they may regret.

[kidder]

24 lost me in Mexico last year, but this season is really, really good.

Big fan of 24 here.  Last season was less-than-spectacular, but this season!!  This weeks episode when the marines invaded the terrorist compound, damn fine action sequence.  They don't do any better in multi-hundred million dollar movies.  How much are they spending on this show anyway?

Good stuff!  However, 24 hours/episodes is plenty of time to mess it up, I'm keeping the faith though.

[Jimbo]

I Fucking hate ER with a passion.  I also hate that my professional orginization (Emergency Nurse Association http://www.ena.org/ ) went off on ER in our journal...look I know it is fucking television and I hate the show too, but quit wasting my time on articles about a tv show.  I mean it would be awesome if NBC would let say the real Doc's, Nurses, Paramedics, and Tech's actually come on say for 5 to 10 mins and tell people were to go to look up and support real Emergency Medicine issuses it would be great.  But chances that the NBC doing something like that would be slim to none.

As to the new BSG 2.0 it's awesome!  I wish I didn't have a screwed up scheduel so I could watch it every Friday night.  The kid's (8 and 6 year old boys who love sci fi) didn't get into it, not enough action for them.  But I like how they really develope the characters in the series so far.  About the only thing I didn't like was that they changed the Cylons to having been created by humans instead of how they were from some reptilian civilization in the first series.

[Biobanger]

So, the episode that has the Commanders son trying to convince the prisoners to work in melting the water (I don't really care or keep up with episode names)... did anyone else feel the ending felt kinda Asmiov (see: Foundation series)?

It kinda went into a buildup of the problem for awhile which was enjoyable, but it all gets settled by a 2 minute speech to convince the villian to stop, which ended up being the way it was always going to be. Long development...... BAM, everything fine, as you were. Almost as if the climax of the episode was missed.

[Boogaleeboo]

Not at all, as it leads to him having a great deal of power which he leverages in a later episode. It's not like everything goes back to the way it was at the beginning of the episode.

[kidder]

So, the series has already aired from the beginning through the finale overseas?  

I was fairly well captivated by this weeks episode, while the wife thought it was "boring".  Whatever.  I'm ready to see what happens this week.

[Lum]

Yeah, there's another Tom Zarrek episode later that builds on the last one.

There's a TON of continuity that streteches through the entire series, to the point where the last ep of the season is literally nothing but resolving the various threads. The whole "marooned on Caprica" thing even made sense finally, although I think they spent WAY too much time on that particular strand.

[Lum]

That's, um, strange.  The Cancer proves to be quite important in almost every episode.  It's also a MAJOR part of the build of that character.  It's almost her 'strength' in places.

That's an unusal change - and one they may regret.

If they pick up the series they can always have it come out in one of the many times she explains it to disbelieving subordinates. That may actually have been why they cut it. It would be impossible to remove it, since as you pointed out it's a critical plot point.

[Johny Cee]

So, the episode that has the Commanders son trying to convince the prisoners to work in melting the water (I don't really care or keep up with episode names)... did anyone else feel the ending felt kinda Asmiov (see: Foundation series)?

It kinda went into a buildup of the problem for awhile which was enjoyable, but it all gets settled by a 2 minute speech to convince the villian to stop, which ended up being the way it was always going to be. Long development...... BAM, everything fine, as you were. Almost as if the climax of the episode was missed.

Boog and Lum point out the later signifigance of the character.  (I haven't seen those epis)

I think you should view the episode from the perspective of Apollo.  How he wraps up the situation establishes him as someone not in the party of either the President or his father.  

The first 2 episodes pointed out the politics between the military/civilians,  and Apollo just pushed himself in as a player by establishing his own objectives with the settlement.

Let's be honest,  the character really came off as a puppet in the mini/first 2 episodes....  right down to repeating exactly what is father said to him to the Pres in the first episode.

[Jain Zar]

Overall this show is probably the best thing on TV right now.

Umm....No ?

Seriously though, I think I'll give it a shot. Where are you guys getting episodes from anyways?

My cable company doesn't have Cartoon Networks so I can't really say anything about Venture Brothers or Sealab.  However a friend let me borrow  
Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  It did very little for me.  I can't even really see why it's so beloved.  Meatwad is cute but otherwise its kinda.. meh.  Sort of like Family Guy.  I wouldn't turn it off in horror or anything, but it doesn't excite me in any way.  Its better than Buffy or Angel, shows some people all but deify for reasons I totally don't see.

But if it makes you feel better BSG2.0 is possibly the best drama show I have seen this year on TV stations I have access to.  :)  I hate taping TV shows because I am TiVo less and work evenings, but BSG 2.0 not only has me taping it, but watching it as soon as I get home even though it messes with my bedtime.  Its THAT good.

I just have to be strong and not go get it through filesharing.  Its almost better that I have to wait a week in between episodes.  Almost..

[Windurst]

Well,  I love dramas,  but the only other dramas I still like are Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU

BSG 2.0 is now my favorite drama...  to me, it's not really a sci-fi show.  It's a drama that just happens to be set in a futuristic setting....  I look at it this way.   If this show were to come out 300 years from now,  people would consider it a drama rather than Science Fiction.... whereas if Star Trek 300 years from now would still be considered Science Fiction, even though technology would have caught up to Star Trek.  (Maybe)

A modern comparason would be 20000 leagues under the sea or Journey to the center of the Earth.   Those novels are still considered science fiction, even though our technology has caught up to those novels.  

Anyways, back to BSG.... when I saw the season finale.... I was left speechless....  that hasnt happened to me in a while.   The last time might have been when I saw The Sixth Sense for the first time and when they told you that Bruce Willis was a ghost.   Didn't see that coming....

[Festus Clamrod]

I just have to be strong and not go get it through filesharing.  Its almost better that I have to wait a week in between episodes.  Almost..

Wish I had the willpower to do that. eMuled and watched them all in one day. Now I have to wait, what, a year for season 2...

Will definately be buying the season 1 boxed set when released though.

[Otis]

But if it makes you feel better BSG2.0 is possibly the best drama show I have seen this year on TV stations I have access to

Well I don't think I could go quite that far myself (I just finished the first season of The Wire on DVD, and I think that scores top for my year of TV), but the new BSG is definitely my favorite science fiction series to date. And, yes, it makes for a good drama.

We're provided with what is an otherwise fantastical story of humans on the run from killer robots, but they don't tell it as a cheesy, satirical or campy tale; they're passionately serious about it all and try in earnest to make us believe in what we're seeing. It's something I've not really felt in science fiction or fantasy very often -- not that I actually believe what is happening, but I do find myself swept into the story and characters like few other sci-fi shows or movies have been able to do to me.

Oh, and another big plus is the lack of quantum phasers and tachyon missiles and the rest of that stupid fantasyland shit. It's all kenetic energy weapons and nukes here. Hits me square in the demographic.

Edit: And thanks for the good words on Carnivale. I'm eager to check it out now.