100 Things: Battlestar Galactica
This post is part of the 100 Things: A Blogging Challenge; please click here to learn more about the challenge and the full list of topics I've discussed.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2004 - 2009)
To be honest I was a little hesitant to watch this show at first. I'm not a big fan of shows that get in your face while tackling issues that fall under the big gray area or consciously go about tackling these issues. And it does sometimes. But I eventually caved in and checked it out and yeah, it gets a spot on my television portion of the list for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it's gritty. You get a sense that this is a society struggling to survive from total annihilation. They are running and fighting for their lives, struggling to stay together (gotta love how politics still manages to seep in even when you're on the verge of extinction) while dealing with their own respective, personal issues. All the characters are flawed in their own ways, some of which are heightened due to their current predicament and can sometimes interfere with the larger issues and problems at stake. I think that is what attracted me the most to this show, the way that the characters struggle with their respective situations and the way that they interact with one another. Not everyone works well together, not everyone's relationships pan out (creators' comments aside; there were a few stories that left me unsatisfied) and that adds to the gritty reality of this world and this story.
The evolved nature of the Cylons over the course of four series was also interesting and creates a complexity to the survivors' enemies. Created by humans and evolving the way they did, it does raise a lot of philosophical and ethical questions about the notion of existence (interesting although to be honest I paid less attention to it compared to the rest of the story *blushes*). But that aside, it just creates more interesting storytelling although it was clear that the creators never had a clear impression about it (I'm a little on the fence about the series finale; I enjoyed parts of it but the very ending was just---too in your face (going back to my first comment) and a little too spiritual in a way that didn't really mesh with the rest of the story. It's been three years since it ended and I'm still wondering how I ultimately feel about the ending). I thought the mystery behind the original Five Cylons was pretty nifty if only because it added a mystery to who it could be amongst the characters that we know.
So yeah, Battlestar Galactica is on my list because it's a prime example of a re-imagined series that's bold and unique from the original. It was really the character stories that compelled me to keep watching even as certain mystical elements of the story and the larger questions were not as clear-cut.
This entry was originally posted at http://caffeinatedlife.dreamwidth.org/385077.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2004 - 2009)
To be honest I was a little hesitant to watch this show at first. I'm not a big fan of shows that get in your face while tackling issues that fall under the big gray area or consciously go about tackling these issues. And it does sometimes. But I eventually caved in and checked it out and yeah, it gets a spot on my television portion of the list for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it's gritty. You get a sense that this is a society struggling to survive from total annihilation. They are running and fighting for their lives, struggling to stay together (gotta love how politics still manages to seep in even when you're on the verge of extinction) while dealing with their own respective, personal issues. All the characters are flawed in their own ways, some of which are heightened due to their current predicament and can sometimes interfere with the larger issues and problems at stake. I think that is what attracted me the most to this show, the way that the characters struggle with their respective situations and the way that they interact with one another. Not everyone works well together, not everyone's relationships pan out (creators' comments aside; there were a few stories that left me unsatisfied) and that adds to the gritty reality of this world and this story.
The evolved nature of the Cylons over the course of four series was also interesting and creates a complexity to the survivors' enemies. Created by humans and evolving the way they did, it does raise a lot of philosophical and ethical questions about the notion of existence (interesting although to be honest I paid less attention to it compared to the rest of the story *blushes*). But that aside, it just creates more interesting storytelling although it was clear that the creators never had a clear impression about it (I'm a little on the fence about the series finale; I enjoyed parts of it but the very ending was just---too in your face (going back to my first comment) and a little too spiritual in a way that didn't really mesh with the rest of the story. It's been three years since it ended and I'm still wondering how I ultimately feel about the ending). I thought the mystery behind the original Five Cylons was pretty nifty if only because it added a mystery to who it could be amongst the characters that we know.
So yeah, Battlestar Galactica is on my list because it's a prime example of a re-imagined series that's bold and unique from the original. It was really the character stories that compelled me to keep watching even as certain mystical elements of the story and the larger questions were not as clear-cut.
This entry was originally posted at http://caffeinatedlife.dreamwidth.org/385077.html. Please comment there using OpenID.