Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

BSG Season 3 In Brief *SPOILER POTENTIAL*

There are going to be a couple spoilers in here from Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, so if you are worried about it, stop reading now. Seriously. SPOILERS AHEAD, stop reading now if you don’t want things potentially ruined.

This season, while over all enjoyable, left a lot to be desired.  You knew at least one person on the crew would turn out to be a Cylon, and I was pretty sure they’d do the typical TV show formula.. wait until the last moments of the season finale to let you know who.  I think it was because people were waiting for that big moment that more people didn’t tune out during what felt like a dragged out season.  I am a fan of the character development and interpersonal changes between the characters – it’s something that has helped to set the show apart, but this season it was what pulled the show down.  It was like watching a bad Lifetime original movie during moments.  We get the fact that the time on New Caprica divided people, and created a lot of emotional trauma.  There was no need to repeat the exact same episode, just with a different characters emotional damage week after week.  I’ve never seen so many episodes devoted to nothing at all in a sci-fi series and I’ve watched some really bad sci-fi series.  Hell, short of a sitcom I don’t think any hour drama has devoted the entire middle part of the season to a long chain of predictable events because everyone is now divided emotionally, spiritually and loyalty-wise.  The first two seasons were great at moving along the story, but for the most part in the third season the story came to a screeching halt.  There were points I just wanted the Cylons to come along and wipe out the entire whiny lot of them.

My other big complaint has to do with Kara Thrace.  The second she died a part of me got angry and it wasn’t because they killed the character; it was because right then and there I knew they were going to do the painfully unsurprising act of making her a Cylon.  I didn’t want this to happen – not because I don’t like the idea of her being a Cylon, but they basically telegraphed that they we were going to discover she was one all along.  What surprised me more were the other 4 who ended up being Cylons.  I’m holding out moderate hope that they go somewhere interesting with this rather than having a string of ten episodes devoted to the deeper meaning of the revelation of who they truly are – I want to watch a good show, not rehash Psych 101.

My last bit of ranting is that this season didn’t have nearly enough big booms.  After all the heart of this series is a people being hunted down to the brink of extinction and that’s going to lead to conflict.  Not emotional boohoohoo conflict, but “Let’s blow them up!” conflict.  It’s not that this season was without it, I just could have stood for a few more minutes of it here and there to break up the monontity of the ever present whining.

The new season of TV

I have to say so far the Fall season has been underwhelming. Even shows that I enjoy have been sub-par thus far. Sure, there’s several that I have enjoyed, but last season for many shows set the bar pretty high and it seems for the most part they are falling short this time around. I know there are one or two shows (ER for example) where I haven’t seen the new episode(s) yet so maybe they are going to thrill me. In the case of ER though I kind of doubt it. I mean I acknowledge that show lost whatever edge it had long ago; but for me its still a soap opera, as much as it pisses me off what they have done to the show I am still hooked on it. Oh well, I guess we all need that little bit of fluff.

I’ll be sad to see Stargate SG-1 come to an end. I’m curious to see how they’re going to say good-bye to the series. I can only hope it doesn’t happen like what happened with Farscape. They need to give it some form of closure. It doesn’t even need to be some huge cataclysmic fighting to save the fate of the universe kind of ending (though knowing SG-1 that’s what they have in store), but I’d like to see some kind of wrap up that does the show justice.

I am excited for the new season of Battlestar Galactica coming up. It’s just a couple weeks before the new episodes begin and the trailers really have me pumped for it. Hopefully it’s not going to deflate me when it finally airs. I have to say that it’s one of the only sci-fi series that can use modern music in their trailers and not have it come off as being at all cheesy.

The one thing, however, that has remained a gem is the Venture Brothers. It continues to be one of the most twisted shows on television. At times it makes no sense at all, it disorients all rational thought, but it makes me laugh so hard at times that I have to remind myself to breathe. We all need a little twisted break from reality now and again.

The CHA and the Sopranos

I was supposed to head off to Rhode Island today, but due to some issues there it wasn’t a good time for me to go.  Since that trip was put off I decided to just spend the day relaxing.  Well part of that relaxing included putting on the webcast of the Niagara v. Beimidji state hockey game for the CHA championship (and a bid to the NCAA tournament).  I spent a lot of time pacing around my room while listening to this game.  It was a tense one.  Beimidji’s goalie was on fire.  He was stopping all kinds of craziness that was thrown at him which gave them enough momentum to start scoring on a rather icy performance by Niagara’s generally good goaltender.  Niagara tried to come back late in the third, but they didn’t have enough to force an overtime and Beimidji won.  Yes, I was quite dissapointed.  However I hope they do well in the tournament.  If my boys can’t be there then I’d like to at least see someone from the CHA do really well.  It’s a longshot, sure, but I love the underdog.

I’ve been sitting in the dark listening to my growin music collection, just sort of relaxing while waiting for the pick me up that will be tonights 6th season of the Sopranos premiere.  I’ll enjoy a little high definition viewing of it too.  This should certainly help lift my mood back up.  The growler of beer isn’t hurting in that regard either.

And finally, I’m aware the server is still slow.  I’ve eliminated a lot of possible problems and am left with a mystery on my hands.  So I’ll continue checking that out – but not tonight.  My brain is done for the evening.