The final episode of Battlestar Galactica aired this past Friday so I thought I would begin this blog with the end of that show. It's hard to find a place to start with a show that has garnered much critical praise, revolutionized how people watch TV and all the while had a very small audience. On a network and probably on other cable networks BSG would have been quickly canned. Off the top of my head I think viewership topped out around 6 million but this typically didn't reflect the actual viewership due to the popularity of streaming the episodes off scifi.com and their appearance on ITunes. It's a total shame that the show didn't garner a wider audience because people missed one of the best shows of the decade and EASILY (yes I am a fan of hyperbole and generalization) the greatest science fiction show of all time. Great science fiction is really about us, its allegory. In this case BSG used post-9/11 anxiety to tell the story about the remnants of polytheistic humanity which is chased by their monotheistic creations, the Cyclons. They went through a bunch of different ideas. In season 2 there was a whole story arc about occupation that ran right through the occupation of Iraq and this ending certainly seemed to coincide with the rise of, or hope for, optimism (is that optismic optimsim?) with the recent election and hope for economic recovery.
I am incredibly surprised with the negative reaction the finale has garnered online. I thought it was many different things but all of those things were good. The first half involves the crew rescuing Hera from uber-nihilistic Caville and showes some of the best action scenes and CGI on TV in a long time. The second half, to me, felt a lot like Return of the King in that it was a long beautiful goodbye. I won't say anymore for those who haven't seen it. But if you haven't seen the show at all I would HIGHLY recommend picking up the DVD's or renting them, it is a superbly written, acted, and executed drama. There are few things now airing that can compare with it.
People are certainly entitled to their opinions and are most definitely allowed to to hate something that I liked but I have to say that there is a certain sense of entitlement to some of the complaints people have about the finale. I don't get why people think that they are entitled to know EXACTLY what the deal with Starbuck was, EXACTLY why Hera was the future of the human race, WHY we didn't find out everything about the seventh Cylon. A show like this is like a painting. Why judge it on what it doesn't contain? Judge it on what it is. You wouldn't listen to a Beethoven Symphony and say "hmmm, ya know, I just didn't like it because it didn't have a laser show and guitar solos", or be looking at the Last Supper and despise it because Brent Spiner's head isn't floating about Jesus. Just use your own judgement and imagination to decide that which is undecided. Don't just be satisfied with being spoon fed, use your brain, put the pieces together for yourself and think about it. What to do you believe? Feel free to post on it.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Did it leave a few unanswered questions? Yes, but it still went well beyond my expectations. They've set the bar pretty damn high. The writers and producers of LOST better take good notes.
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