| Battlestar Galactica postmortem |
[Mar. 8th, 2011|04:39 pm]
the angry young man
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| |  annoyed | ] |
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| | there's too much confusion i can't get no relief | ] |
I finished watching Battlestar Galactica today (the new series, not the old one) and decided to write down my thoughts. If you have no interest in the show, move along.
General impressions:
From the first episode, I found the series gripping and engaging. It's a dark, gritty, high-stakes universe whose conflict is made readily apparent from the start. Throughout the show there was a little more focus on religion than I really cared for, but that's something that in general I can overlook. I did find, however, that the same dark, gritty, suspenseful mood that drew me in at the beginning became wearing over time. There was very little humor in the show and very little relief; I recognize that this is part of what they were going for, but after a while the drama started to verge into melodrama and it no longer had as much of an impact. I'm a firm believer in levels when constructing narrative; without some "down" time, the "up" time either becomes too relentless or too commonplace and loses its meaning.
The show's themes were interesting, if a little dated. I recognize that they were probably more relevant when the original series was in production. I also appreciated that each episode contained elements of the larger plot, that there were few to no "throwaway" episodes, but at the same time this made the series run together in my mind. Other than portions of the show where, for one reason or another, the action took place in a different and visually distinct setting, the episodes run together.
Overall, I would say I enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, though I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been disappointed by the ending.
The ending:
Highlight the text under the spoiler cut to read my specific thoughts on the ending.
( spoilersCollapse )
So that's my take on the whole thing. Good series for the most part, but what an unfortunate ending. Next I think I'll try Babylon 5, but not until I finish my thesis for good. |
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