Thoughts on the last ever episode of BSG..
Should probably sleep on it, but oh well.
The stupid thing is that I liked a good few things in the episode, but in the end I wanted resolution for my two favourite characters, Lee and Kara, and I got nothing. Zilch. Nada. :(
Things I liked (yes, really)
I'm a cauldron of emotions at the moment, but the overriding one is anger. It's been building up throughout season 4, but for the first half of this episode I almost thought it would be quelled. I think they did a pretty decent job (by season 4 standards) of handling a big cast and a big mission. I like that they used flashbacks from before the fall of Caprica, creating a nice bittersweet tension. I grinned at the old-school Centurions. My sense of nostalgia went through the roof at the weaving in of the original BSG theme. I thought that, while over-long, the resolution of the Opera House visions was handled well.
Hang on a second..
But my bullshit-o-meter went up when I saw how long the episode had to run once the mission was over and they'd found Earth version 2.0. After all, where was the massacre and the pointless deaths that I'd feared? Okay, there was Racetrack and Skulls, but I kept waiting for more..
All of this has happened before
Many years of watching Joss Whedon's shows told me this couldn't be good. That we couldn't finish the show without some angst. I actually like angst, as you can tell from my OTP's, but what I don't like is cheap storytelling that ignores the characters and their journeys. I was burned by that hack Chris Carter way back in my first fandom.
Happily ever after
So, the idea is that everybody gets a clean slate and can start over. All that optimism felt strange on BSG haha. And wasn't it nice that everyone got their own little resolution?
Except LEE AND KARA!
I don't care what anybody says - their relationship was central to the story that RDM's been telling for the past few years, and certainly central to the way the show's been promoted. I never expected for them to end up together, or even both survive the ending (again, I've been burnt before!), but I did expect some sort of resolution. Some sort of last moment that showed how much they've meant to each other. But no, we get that weird, disinterested to the point of OOC scene in the field where Kara just disappears. No hugs, no goodbyes, nothing. When you consider what RDM gave Kara and Sam, that's really nothing less than a deliberate kick in the teeth. I'm sure he thought he was being clever and terribly edgy. *rolls eyes* Bittersweet may have been what he was aiming for (if I give him the benefit of the doubt), but it would surely have been more bittersweet to have had them looking forward to a future together and then have her leave? At least that way there would've been a resolution to their relationship external to the will of God or whatever. To me, that was the journey they were on. To come to a place where they could be together - or at least decide that was what they wanted. If that wasn't going to be the case, why have Kara leave Sam on Galactica and come down to the planet?
And my poor Lee. The writers may try to fool us with that silly excitement about climbing mountains, but he's lost his father and the love of his life within a few minutes. Instead, he looks very au fait with it all. SO I GUESS WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TOO. No chance, Ron.
If there's one thing that's been made clear to me it's that my (and Lee's) Kara DID die in Maelstrom and her absence has had a huge impact in how little I've come to think of this show. I'm sorry to say it, but I'd rather she'd stayed dead. Or that Lee had died at some point in the mission to save Hera. Anything but this sense of emptiness and the feeling that there has been no point in following this show these past years. I watched my post-Maelstrom K/L vid "Set the Fire" for the first time in a year last night, and it reminded me how much I used to be convinced of their journey and their connection and how death could not part them. But "See you on the other side" is now Sam's phrase apparently. If nothing else, it's really bad writing.
I mean, Romo as President?! Pandering. Ugh. And I'm SO glad that those engineers of genocide, Baltar and Caprica Six, got to live happily ever after. The whole thing is bonkers. Way to ruin it all, TPTB. :(
I need a drink, stat.
The stupid thing is that I liked a good few things in the episode, but in the end I wanted resolution for my two favourite characters, Lee and Kara, and I got nothing. Zilch. Nada. :(
Things I liked (yes, really)
I'm a cauldron of emotions at the moment, but the overriding one is anger. It's been building up throughout season 4, but for the first half of this episode I almost thought it would be quelled. I think they did a pretty decent job (by season 4 standards) of handling a big cast and a big mission. I like that they used flashbacks from before the fall of Caprica, creating a nice bittersweet tension. I grinned at the old-school Centurions. My sense of nostalgia went through the roof at the weaving in of the original BSG theme. I thought that, while over-long, the resolution of the Opera House visions was handled well.
Hang on a second..
But my bullshit-o-meter went up when I saw how long the episode had to run once the mission was over and they'd found Earth version 2.0. After all, where was the massacre and the pointless deaths that I'd feared? Okay, there was Racetrack and Skulls, but I kept waiting for more..
All of this has happened before
Many years of watching Joss Whedon's shows told me this couldn't be good. That we couldn't finish the show without some angst. I actually like angst, as you can tell from my OTP's, but what I don't like is cheap storytelling that ignores the characters and their journeys. I was burned by that hack Chris Carter way back in my first fandom.
Happily ever after
So, the idea is that everybody gets a clean slate and can start over. All that optimism felt strange on BSG haha. And wasn't it nice that everyone got their own little resolution?
Except LEE AND KARA!
I don't care what anybody says - their relationship was central to the story that RDM's been telling for the past few years, and certainly central to the way the show's been promoted. I never expected for them to end up together, or even both survive the ending (again, I've been burnt before!), but I did expect some sort of resolution. Some sort of last moment that showed how much they've meant to each other. But no, we get that weird, disinterested to the point of OOC scene in the field where Kara just disappears. No hugs, no goodbyes, nothing. When you consider what RDM gave Kara and Sam, that's really nothing less than a deliberate kick in the teeth. I'm sure he thought he was being clever and terribly edgy. *rolls eyes* Bittersweet may have been what he was aiming for (if I give him the benefit of the doubt), but it would surely have been more bittersweet to have had them looking forward to a future together and then have her leave? At least that way there would've been a resolution to their relationship external to the will of God or whatever. To me, that was the journey they were on. To come to a place where they could be together - or at least decide that was what they wanted. If that wasn't going to be the case, why have Kara leave Sam on Galactica and come down to the planet?
And my poor Lee. The writers may try to fool us with that silly excitement about climbing mountains, but he's lost his father and the love of his life within a few minutes. Instead, he looks very au fait with it all. SO I GUESS WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TOO. No chance, Ron.
If there's one thing that's been made clear to me it's that my (and Lee's) Kara DID die in Maelstrom and her absence has had a huge impact in how little I've come to think of this show. I'm sorry to say it, but I'd rather she'd stayed dead. Or that Lee had died at some point in the mission to save Hera. Anything but this sense of emptiness and the feeling that there has been no point in following this show these past years. I watched my post-Maelstrom K/L vid "Set the Fire" for the first time in a year last night, and it reminded me how much I used to be convinced of their journey and their connection and how death could not part them. But "See you on the other side" is now Sam's phrase apparently. If nothing else, it's really bad writing.
I mean, Romo as President?! Pandering. Ugh. And I'm SO glad that those engineers of genocide, Baltar and Caprica Six, got to live happily ever after. The whole thing is bonkers. Way to ruin it all, TPTB. :(
I need a drink, stat.