by Mike Shea on 7 March 2007
Battlestar Galactica is starting to suck. Ever since leaving New Caprica, the show has begun to meander and blunder its way around the story focusing almost entirely on deep religions and philosophical mumbo jumbo. It reminds me clearly of the obviously poor writing in Matrix Reloaded where the writers spent 20 minutes of the audiences time listening to the Merovingian who had nothing to say and lots of words to say it.
There hasn't even been a Cylon battle in the last three episodes. When we do see the Cylons, it's five of the same actors we've seen for three years standing around an old set with a lot of red lights dancing their way around a script with no real meaning, direction, or substance. It's all nonsense and it's getting worse.
This last episode was spoiled on the homepage of Digg an hour before I saw it but I won't spoil it here. However, they spent an hour on a single storyline that could have been summed up in two words. If they choose to go back on the conclusion of the episode, I want my $2 back for my iTunes purchase. You don't spend an hour digging into a loose story that uses a lot of big words and deep philosophical statements to push towards a powerful conclusion and then reverse it later. That sucks. Make a decision and stick to it.
My sadness at watching Battlestar Galactica drifting into a deep empty meaningless expanse of space is countered by my excitement for the show Heroes.
Heroes is a good show with a few interesting characters, some interesting bits of science fiction, a few powerful moments, and the best conclusions I've seen in any show. Twice out of four episodes I found myself searching back on the track to see the ending scene again. There are about eight or so main characters in the show and I like about five of them. A couple of them, like the cheer leader and the whisper-thin gal that's hanging out with the Indian scientist trying to hunt down the heroes (she is so going to turn out to be a bad guy), are just plain annoying. Others, like Hiro, the telepathic cop, and the two brothers - one who can fly and the other who mimics any other hero's ability - have great potential.
I can't wait to get into this show more and from what I read on the internets, I'm not alone. Is it worth $2 an episode? That's hard to say, but I seem to be paying it so I guess so.
One show I'd pay even more to see is Rome. I saw about three episodes of season 2 and I loved it. However, a nasty-gram from Cox shut off my Rome tube so now I have to wait for the DVDs like all the other suckers. Why can't HBO just sell it on iTunes like everyone else?