Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Breakdown]

Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Ratings: It's fine

Well in my continuing quest to try and understand / appreciate this show and see what people saw in it. I'm still struggling to find why it was held up as such a highly regarded Sci-Fi show other than at the time capturing the cultural zeitgeist of the post 9/11 world and war on terror with the shows conflicts around the Cylons being an allegory things round the war on terror. Oh and also the deployment of the technique the Mystery Box idea as with anyone potentially being a Cylon it can mean big twists and reveals.

It carries on the same sort of war documentary filming style as though you're watching stolen moments captured on a hand held camera with some level of sway and shake and grain to the footage.

I think Season 3 really kind of falls down with it's big reveal of 4 of the final 5 Cylons because throughout the show they've not really dropped hints to the audience it all just comes to a head in a few episodes.

I actually really enjoyed the Trial of Gaius Baltar as the season finale it was pretty interesting to watch play out and Baltar suffering is always cathartic to me because he's both an arsehole and at times a real sociopath when given the chance.

Also it' really funny seeing just how incompetent the Cylons are "Oh we want to live in peace with the Humans in the Colony, that's why we're making a secret police force and want death lists etc and aren't actually using any of our vast technology to help make the peoples lives better"

I'm somewhat disappointed they also seemed to abandon the character development of Boomer that started in season 2 where she wanted to be seen as an individual in the Cylons not just another Sharon model. While I get in part that was done to contrast her to Athena's development with her choosing to side with the humans more it really did feel somewhat like they threw out a pretty good idea there considering Boomers conflict and self doubt in Season 1

Honestly if it were made today I dunno if it would be received half as well especially the whole episode about being nice to Anti-vaxxers (yes that's really an episode theme)

For me the appeal of Battlestar Galactica was how grounded it was in the early episodes. It was all about the survival of humanity, and the choices characters needed to make to ensure that survival. The series lost its way though when it started introducing the mysticism and the final five and magical golden arrows and the Jimmy Hendrix song. The Cylons were also pretty boring characters when you got down to it. And of course there was Starbuck being some kind of space angel.

There's still some good stuff in the last season though.

 

[Hawki]

Yeah, there's quite some dodgy bits in Fury from the Deep, but then you have the one surviving clip of those two scary looking guys using their gas breath, so it looks like it was shot well. Though, most long 2nd Doctor stories were too long.

Can't comment on the live-action version, but the gas breath in the animated version is reasonably well done. It could look kooky as hell, but the way the people using it are portrayed - the sound effect, plus the visual effect simulating gas, along with how their mouths are opened...yeah. Props to the episode for making seaweed and gas pretty unnerving.

As for too long, dunno about that. Can't think of many. If anything, I kind of appreciate how these episodes are able to take their time and slowly ratchet up the tension.

 

[Hawki]

Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Ratings: It's fine

Well in my continuing quest to try and understand / appreciate this show and see what people saw in it. I'm still struggling to find why it was held up as such a highly regarded Sci-Fi show other than at the time capturing the cultural zeitgeist of the post 9/11 world and war on terror with the shows conflicts around the Cylons being an allegory things round the war on terror. Oh and also the deployment of the technique the Mystery Box idea as with anyone potentially being a Cylon it can mean big twists and reveals.

BSG is my #2 sci-fi show of all time, but personal thoughts aside, I'd say there were two key things that allowed it to explode like it did, namely the heavy episode-to-episode continuity, and the attempt at sci-fi realism. At least for me, both were very novel at the time. Compare that to something like Star Trek: Enterprise, which also was clearly a response to 9/11 in its opening episodes, but was still using the Star Trek formula, with stand-alone episodes, very soft sci-fi, and a small, ensemble cast, compared to BSG's wider cast that developed over time.

This isn't a knock against Enterprise per se (I've certainly sung its praises for its later seasons), but compare BSG to what was around it at the time? Yeah.

It carries on the same sort of war documentary filming style as though you're watching stolen moments captured on a hand held camera with some level of sway and shake and grain to the footage.

I actually really enjoyed the Trial of Gaius Baltar as the season finale it was pretty interesting to watch play out and Baltar suffering is always cathartic to me because he's both an arsehole and at times a real sociopath when given the chance.

Personally, Baltar's my favourite character in the show. He's flawed, he's narcicistic, he's a coward, but he's so...human. I mean, if you were responsible for the genocide of humanity, and were afraid of being found out, wouldn't you be terrified, and think of yourself to at least some extent?

Baltar isn't a monster, and he does come through in the end, but I love how flawed he is as a person. I mean, literally every character in the show is flawed to at least some extent, but Baltar's just so endearing in those flaws that I can't help but love him for it.

Also it' really funny seeing just how incompetent the Cylons are "Oh we want to live in peace with the Humans in the Colony, that's why we're making a secret police force and want death lists etc and aren't actually using any of our vast technology to help make the peoples lives better"

I don't think this is a plothole. I'll try not to get into stuff from season 4, but to me, it makes sense. The cylons aren't unified on the whole 'helping humanity' thing, but even then, they don't "get" humans, so to them, this 'hard love' approach might seem natural. I mean, reference to current events aside, how many powers have tried to 'help' people, only to be rebuffed? If the opening of BSG was born from 9/11, then I think the occupation is, at least in part, a reaction to stuff like Afghanistan and Iraq.

I'm somewhat disappointed they also seemed to abandon the character development of Boomer that started in season 2 where she wanted to be seen as an individual in the Cylons not just another Sharon model. While I get in part that was done to contrast her to Athena's development with her choosing to side with the humans more it really did feel somewhat like they threw out a pretty good idea there considering Boomers conflict and self doubt in Season 1

I'm kind of with you on that. I think Boomer could have used more development. Still, overall, I like it. Athena is the cylon who becomes human, Boomer is the human who becomes cylon. Again, not going into season 4, but I think the payoff is good.

Honestly if it were made today I dunno if it would be received half as well especially the whole episode about being nice to Anti-vaxxers (yes that's really an episode theme)

I don't think that's really the theme of the episode though. I mean, the Sagittarons' beliefs are nonsensical, and we're not meant to side with them, but it doesn't excuse what the doc is doing. I think it's more reinforcing the idea of the fleet sticking to its morals, even if you've got idiots in your ranks. The anti-vax stance expressed by the Sagitarrons isn't something the episode itself is condoning.

 

[Hawki]

For me the appeal of Battlestar Galactica was how grounded it was in the early episodes. It was all about the survival of humanity, and the choices characters needed to make to ensure that survival. The series lost its way though when it started introducing the mysticism and the final five and magical golden arrows and the Jimmy Hendrix song. The Cylons were also pretty boring characters when you got down to it. And of course there was Starbuck being some kind of space angel.

There's still some good stuff in the last season though.

I sort of understand this belief, but to me, the problem with season 4 of BSG isn't the mysticism, it's that it feels like two seasons compressed into one.

BSG is grounded in its technology levels, but the mysticism was always there. There's references to prophecy and repeated history even in season 1. That they become more prominent in seasons 3 and 4 doesn't mean they weren't forshadowed.

 

[Breakdown]

I sort of understand this belief, but to me, the problem with season 4 of BSG isn't the mysticism, it's that it feels like two seasons compressed into one.

BSG is grounded in its technology levels, but the mysticism was always there. There's references to prophecy and repeated history even in season 1. That they become more prominent in seasons 3 and 4 doesn't mean they weren't forshadowed.

For me the problem isn't that the mysticism comes out of nowhere, it is foreshadowed to an extent. It's just that is not very interesting or engaging even at the beginning, and as the series goes on the mysticism starts to overshadow everything else and swallow up some of the most interesting and relatable characters.

 

[Chimpzy]

The Shield

It's a good cop show. Not as good as The Wire, but still a solid second place. I wonder if this show was shocking to some back in 2002, showing cops as self-serving, corrupt and otherwise less than paragons of virtue.

 

[thebobmaster]

The Shield

It's a good cop show. Not as good as The Wire, but still a solid second place. I wonder if this show was shocking to some back in 2002, showing cops as self-serving, corrupt and otherwise less than paragons of virtue.

It wasn't really that shocking. After all, the unit in The Shield was based off of an infamous real-life specialized police unit, the CRASH team of the LAPD. Who, incidentally, also served as the inspiration for the villains of GTA: San Andreas.

 

[Gordon_4]

The Shield

It's a good cop show. Not as good as The Wire, but still a solid second place. I wonder if this show was shocking to some back in 2002, showing cops as self-serving, corrupt and otherwise less than paragons of virtue.

I watched an episode or two of The Shield, to me it just came across as The Sweeney with less class and shitty dress codes.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Stomp: Live: Got Damn Fucking Brilliant / Great

Percussions performed on common, everyday items. If you don't like it, fuck you and everyone you've ever met. I've seen them live, and it is a transcendent experience.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I've been watching Hinterland on Netflix. A detective/murder series starring budget Welsh Russel Crowe.

Being set in North Wales it is of course very bleak. Decaying old seaside towns, windwept valleys and hills populated by lone tumbledown farmhouses that haven't been decorated since the 50's. It's always grey and raining. It's North Wales. If you've been there, you know.

Every week turns out to be an unremitting tragedy of dark family secrets or somesuch thing.

It's not gory or much in the violence stakes, it's fairly traditional, but damn is it just depressing.

 

[Agema]

For me the appeal of Battlestar Galactica was how grounded it was in the early episodes. It was all about the survival of humanity, and the choices characters needed to make to ensure that survival. The series lost its way though when it started introducing the mysticism and the final five and magical golden arrows and the Jimmy Hendrix song. The Cylons were also pretty boring characters when you got down to it. And of course there was Starbuck being some kind of space angel.

I believe that was due to the vicissitudes of series renewal. From what I understand it got axed close to the end of season 4 shooting, so the team did a quick wrap-up, and thus the deeply underwhelming, WTF? series 3 end (I think they could have done much better, and incidentally I think it's Bob Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix). When it was then resuscitated for a fourth season after all, they were kind of stuck with the mystical guff they'd thrown at the season 3 end.

Although that said, I think BSG has always had a quasi-religious element: it was originally created by and based on Mormonism.

 

[Agema]

Being set in North Wales it is of course very bleak. Decaying old seaside towns, windwept valleys and hills populated by lone tumbledown farmhouses that haven't been decorated since the 50's. It's always grey and raining. It's North Wales. If you've been there, you know.

I'll have you know I had many happy holidays in North Wales as a child. Although I also do know what you mean: I'm not sure the years have been kind relative to the rest of the country since then.

 

[BrawlMan]

I saw the first two episodes of Peacemaker. This show is hilarious! I'm going to watch more when I get home.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I'll have you know I had many happy holidays in North Wales as a child. Although I also do know what you mean: I'm not sure the years have been kind relative to the rest of the country since then.

So did I. Ever been to Borth? I have. Even then it was one of those places that must be thoroughly miserable to live in as a kid. Nothing to do but Diamond White, shit speed and hash and have kids when you're 15.

 

[BrawlMan]

Linkara really knows his stuff. He really goes in depth with the problems of the comics industry.

​

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

> (.. and incidentally I think it's Bob Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix).

Ah, music nerdery, my time to shine! *cracks nuckles*

All Along the Watchtower is the song. Composed and originally released by Bob Dylan in 1968.
Covered immediately by Jimi Hendrix and quickly became the more famous version (and used in lots of movie trailers and such).
It's since been covered by so many. Dave Matthews Band would do it to start their encore.

The version in BG was, IIRC, a new/original cover I think by the Bear McCreary, the show's composer and he also does games and such.

 

[Kyrian007]

> (.. and incidentally I think it's Bob Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix).

Ah, music nerdery, my time to shine! *cracks nuckles*

All Along the Watchtower is the song. Composed and originally released by Bob Dylan in 1968.
Covered immediately by Jimi Hendrix and quickly became the more famous version (and used in lots of movie trailers and such).
It's since been covered by so many. Dave Matthews Band would do it to start their encore.

The version in BG was, IIRC, a new/original cover I think by the Bear McCreary, the show's composer and he also does games and such.

Yeah, its one of those where either answer is correct. It is a Dylan song, but Bob Dylan says the best version is the Hendrix version so he considers it a Hendrix song. I really like the Bear McCreary version, he gets the most out of a pretty solid arrangement. BSG's story had gone way off the rails by then (my own opinion is that it peaked before it even had gotten halfway through its first season) but that reveal sequence with that number was pretty cool.

 

[Agema]

So did I. Ever been to Borth? I have. Even then it was one of those places that must be thoroughly miserable to live in as a kid. Nothing to do but Diamond White, shit speed and hash and have kids when you're 15.

Flint is probably the most depressing place I remember in N. Wales.

 

[Gordon_4]

I've been watching Hinterland on Netflix. A detective/murder series starring budget Welsh Russel Crowe.

Being set in North Wales it is of course very bleak. Decaying old seaside towns, windwept valleys and hills populated by lone tumbledown farmhouses that haven't been decorated since the 50's. It's always grey and raining. It's North Wales. If you've been there, you know.

Every week turns out to be an unremitting tragedy of dark family secrets or somesuch thing.

It's not gory or much in the violence stakes, it's fairly traditional, but damn is it just depressing.

If that's your bag, you could try Shetland too. About police who look after the Shetland Islands in Scotland. Filmed on location too; there is such a strange, bleak beauty to that place. I kind of wanna go and live there for a year or something.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Flint is probably the most depressing place I remember in N. Wales.

To be fair, Borth is more central, just at the bottom of Snowdonia, so Flint might take the prize for the north.

If that's your bag, you could try Shetland too. About police who look after the Shetland Islands in Scotland. Filmed on location too; there is such a strange, bleak beauty to that place. I kind of wanna go and live there for a year or something.

I might gave that a go. It might take me a bit longer to get through Hinterland, i can only manage the misery from an episode or 2 a month.