Respect Authority

In the years I’ve followed Battlestar Galactica, I’ve had one review – it’s amazing and you should watch it. Now that it’s over, I’m updating my review – it’s amazing and you should definitely watch it… from the beginning. I have the DVDs, you can borrow them. In fact, come over and I’ll watch them with you.

That being said, the finale was a little… disrespectful. Not to the fans, but to the show itself. Obviously fan boys will have a problem with the loose ends (Starbuck and the millions of coffee shops named in her honor, God and his time traveling mind minions) but the real outrage should be directed at Ron Moore - who’s ego nearly swallowed the show whole.

Battlestar, from the mini-series, was always a show that paralleled reality but it did so without penetrating it. It was about humanity when its chickens came home to roost… then surprise-attacked us and turned our social/political world upside down. It was brilliant because it was about 9/11 without being about 9/11. And because the protagonists were both the heroes and yet also the instigators, it was about us without actually being about us, because ultimately Battlestar Galatica is a television drama, set in space, with space planes and killer robots.

When, thankfully, the show was picked up and transformed into a full fledged series, it was given the latitude to use dramatic representations of familiar social struggles – like abortion, religious expression, and civic freedom - to advance more entertaining plots that revolved around gratuitous, post-apocalyptic sex scenes and, of course, space battles.
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This has been a long time coming and I find myself - despite months of opportunity on both our parts - feeling a little guilty for taking the honor away from Lou, but it has to be said, and it has to be said now: Battlestar Galactica is the most underrated show on television. 

You see, it’s Friday, and Friday means a lot of things to me: jeans and a T-shirt, donuts at work, happy hour  at the stroke of 5, and various theoretical social engagements after. Yet on this particular Friday — one on which the social engagements have advanced from the mere theoretical to the planned and actual — I find myself legitimately bummed that my evening won’t include the 10 p.m. Battlestar viewing I’ve managed to finagle for the past two weeks. 

Oh I can see you scoffing: “Friday night is for, like, drinking” or “Science fiction shows are lame.” Well, ye of little faith, for one, I totally watch BSG WHILE drinking. Secondly, science fiction shows are (generally) pretty lame, which is why Battlestar’s ability to cross genre boundaries and entertain everyone from Lou — who has a TiVo season pass to at least three shows about space — to myself, a stalwart proponent of any show that features scantily-clad former strippers vying for the affection of a washed-up musician, highlights just how universally (no pun intended) awesome it is. Read More ›