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TV: Battlestar Galactica is over
Mon, 23 Mar 2009

This is the part of the programme where I bag on a TV show. The following is all spoilers (insomuch as I can spoil what they have already spoiled... zing!)

Now, before I get into it I must admit that I've greatly enjoyed much of the show the last few years; its has generally pretty tight writing, and they managed to even make you think they'd plotted a lot of the action out in advance. I will accept (though loathe) that the studio made them write in a bunch of filler, and I will accept that like a lot of this new style of show the last few years that are mystery, character and high drama driven (Lost, Desparate Housewives, etc and so on) that pacing is a difficult thing. All in all, an excellent and gritty science fiction show that I'd recommend to others. I will miss it, but I'm glad its over so I can have a piece of free time back :)

It is hard to end a dark show since you naturally want to end on a light foot; it is hard to end a show that has primarily been based in 'mystery' and fear of the unknown, since its a big switch to suddenly start revealing things without it just looking like you could stitch the first and last episode together and ignore the rest. You don't play a chess match for 19 hours and then switch it to checkers at the end .. the transition is tough. But mostly I think the writers got very good, got into the flow, of writing dark and gritty and when it finally came to spinning a happy thread at the end.. they just didn't know how to keep the gravity. To keep that tense and tight writing. They opened the door into fairy land and well through it. They admitted by their lack of tight finish to "we didn't plan it so much ahead, we're just going to cap off as much as we can and hope for the best!"

Spoilers!

I can sort of deal with the explanation that the two 'ghost' characters were just that - angels from god or some really advanced speces or whatever. Seems like a biiiig set up with a cop out ending, but okay. Seems like they were a little too personally motivated or felt (perhaps assumed by the watcher?) to be on one side or another, but .. okay, I can deal with that hand.

I'm not really sure I can accept that these little dreams and visions that characters have been having the whole show, that have been built up into something large, that really they just were planted by God or whatever to help the characters do a 20 foot walk at the end. Thats it? Find the girl, walk her through a door, you're done. Great, thanks, glad you set that upf ro 5 years. OKay, sure, maybe all this ghost and vision business was to guide Baltar to stick around and give a speach at the end.. but weak sauce. Course, Cavil decided it was all a trick at the end, so the speach was for nothing, and thus the whole multi-year plotline was basicly for naight. Yay! Seems the writers sure didn't know how big a part these visions were to play in the end, but they did know how it would play out.. so write it big, and then.. fizzle.

After battling for several years for the very survival of the species, they all decide to just give up all technology and rough it with some primitivies. A romantic idea for sure, especially after the hardships endured... but realistic? Ignoring for now the fact that bad guys were left out in space (and the Centurians were trusted to not come back and exterminate everyone), you're a society fighting for survival who just says 'hell, shit, lets destroy our ships and gear, and see if we can survive the first winter and guess which berries are safe to eat.' Seriously? We're supposed to believe that would happen? And that everyone goes along with it? Sounds like they wanted to write another half season about this, but just rushed it into a 5 minute sequence at the end since they didn't plan their timing out many episodes in advance. Maybe the military could handle hunting, but we'd love to see how Baltar's cult fairs alongside the other startups. Take those used to high tech living and let them scrounge for food.. good odds! (Queue up playing Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, however.)

Now, as Lee put it, this could be a way to break the cycle; by starting from scratch and basicly ignoring the entire history of both species so that no one learns anything.. just a random shot in the dark, and thats the future. As opposed to perhaps taking this new situation of Hera, and the two allied species, and trying to make a go of it together, say. Of course, this whole show was a set up for how Hera was the agent for survival for both species ..... and so what, are they saying all the other humans die out from starvation, disease, war with the natives, childbirth, etc, and only Hera's children survive long term? Thats pretty bleak, but it sure didn't seem that was suggested. It really just seemed like hera was..... fizzle. Another fizzle. The other humans have babies, too, yeehaw.

I can accept that Kara was some short term ghost, unlike the long termed head-vision ghosts. But with all that writing that she was going to carry both species to their doom.. and really it was she was going to lead them to their happy place. Fizzle.

But okay, all this is fine because they're safe now? A dead Racetrack accidentally launches nukes into the Colony; maybe the hand of god, or maybe Racetrack wasn't fully dead then.. whatever. Colony dead, or crashed into the black hole as later commentary suggested (they over-snipped the footage.. more proof of rushing it?) What is not explained is what the pile (a few? dozens? hundreds?) of Evil Cylon Basestars are up to for these thousands of years after the humans go all native on us. Do they just wander aimlessly in the big sky trying to find new Earth and die of old age? (Remembering that we don't know if the human-like Cylons age, but certainly the pure-machine ones do not.) Certainly, all those Cylons that took over the twelve colonies and New Caprica, they're still around. This pretty much seems a hard counter to the fealing of "we're safe now, lets burn our only defences."

Anyway, a great show with a pretty exciting ending. The show tried to feal realistic and consistent, and suddenly went implausible in the end. An okay ending, but just not where I'd hoped it would go.

Or maybe, as the SyFy (!!) channel likes to jerk with its customers and introduce filler and long delays between seasons, maybe this was deliberately a weighted copout, to leave room for the next two hour movie in the fall ("The Plan" from the Cylon perspective) or to lead into the new TV series ("Caprica", about birthing of the Cylons.)

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TV: Consumption.
Tue, 03 Feb 2009

For a long time I sneered at TV; mostly a bunch of kruft, and I had a lot of good lit to tide me over. (For that matter I'm going back to re-read the World of Tiers and Chronicles of Amber series after wrapping up some recently re-released Parker crime noir novels by the now deceased Richard Stark.) The last few years have been different though, with some quality stuff available. More than I can possible keep up with.

I call it media-stress for those of us stressful personalities -- with a stack of books needing to be read, some PC games to play (Fallout 3!) and older TV or video to catch up on (still haven't seen the latest Indiana Jones film, and damnation to a friend of mine for putting me onto the crack cocaine of media that is The Wire), and even new TV (Doctor Who, Torchwood, BattleStar Galactica re-envisioned, Lost, House M.D., Dexter, Sarah Conner Chronicles.) My daughter insists on watching various Hi-5, Backyardigans, Super Why, Lazy Town .. all pretty good children shows. My wife has been sort of hooked on the new 90210 show, even.. at least, its a cool show to sit down and cuddle up after the baby has gone to bed. (BSG won't cut it there for her, shucks :) Not to mention Sopranos, Heroes, Rome, Deadwood and Supernatural. Man.

Who has the time? :) (And now my little girl seems ot sleep halfway well, so theres not so much reading or video watching at 3am..)

I'd really like to go back and watch a few old old shows; I prefer DVD and video files of late since you can just watch at your own conveniance, but the PVR does help. Still, looking at the original Doctor Who series, with hundreds of 'stories' (multi-episodes) at about $25 a pop, theres no way you can really afford to buy more than a few. A lot of good other shows, too .. I admit I'm a Hercules and Xena man, and Jack of All Trades and anything else with Bruce Campbell.

When did I become a media whore? Oh, right .. when I stopped having time to be one, I became interested in being one.

Besides I already know I'll stick to spending most of my free time coding, since my addiction is producing instead of consuming.

Damnit.

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Television: Battlestar Galactica, Season 3
Mon, 20 Nov 2006

Another quick one written on the phone; my thumbs are oh so sore.

As I mentioned previously, recent shows have been attempting (and not so well) longer story arcs - Lost, etc. For a long time our TV writers have been pulling off the background story arc -- House's flirtation with some of the other doctors while they probe what his problem is, etc etc, but few can pull off any long duration story without both messing up syndication potential or getting the big story paced all to hell. Still, a few shows pull it off, and BSG season 3 is one of them.

Season one began with an intensity, though was really just an episodic character driven story -- given enormous disaster, how will these characters fare while trying to survive? It bogged down a little near the end of the season but really got exciting at the end. Season 2 picked off with more mature characters and got into the day to day nitty gritty of running a society in space with heavy military influence, politics, and survival against a superior foe.. but they'd gotten into a routine so not as many were pure survival stories. Great stuff but again, bogging down near the end of the season.. and frankly, I tire of political stories and emotional-pulls about babies etc. Great stuff, but with busy times in my own life I let it sit for a few months so that I wouldn't get beat up on the end of season cliffhanger. Caught up on Dr. Who instead, for a bit..

I noticed the other day that episode 7 had come out in season 3 so figured it was safe to venture into BSG again, knowing that when the cliffhanger struck I'd have a few episodes to go .. so much less stressful. How wrong I was, about the stress..

This is white-knuckle material, television writing at its finest. Really, these first few episodes of the season have probably been some of the best television I've ever seen.. gripping, human drama, fighting against oppression and all that. The psych-screwing still annoys me (enough with the baby plots and mucking with Starbucks head), but its really all just fantastic.

Thankfully I've got a few episodes to catch up on. But, if you have not been following the series .. listen to me now. Its good. Its gorramned awesome. I'm sure season 3 will slow down near the end like the previous two, but perhaps thats the writers just taking pity on us, giving us some respite after the oh so stressful beginnings of each season. My heart can barely handle this right now :)

Television can be good; long story arcs can be good; rarely do these two meet.

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TV: Where have the episodes gone?
Mon, 13 Nov 2006

I admit, I too wanted long story arcs. Still do. But I imagine on the third day of writer-school, novelists learn something called pacing. Keep it moving, giving away enough of the plot each time to keep the viewer or reader enticed. Plan ahead so that you've always got something consistent and interesting going on.

We liked Desparate Housewives in the first season, but over the summer we lost interest. We liked Lost, then started to tire of it. We liked Heroes, but are already sick of it, only a few episodes in. We're watching Lost on and off again, but only holding barely on.

Lost is supposed to be a mystery .. whose actually lost? the survivors of the plane crash? the others on the island? the viewers?

I say, what is lost is: the audience.

You see, these guys can't do pacing.. any of these shows. So many people I've talked to agree -- the shows are great on DVD when you can camp out and watch it all in fast forward, or in one big sitting. But no one can stand hanging on for several years to find out the writers really are just winging it.

So go back to episodic content; its obviously easier, or better understood. We like House -- it has a light overall arc sure, but each episode is an item unto itself. Lost/Heroes/Housewives .. go watch Star Trek Next Gen for gods sake.. a show that had wit, charm, and was still whacked out content and people liked it. You can't an empire build on Eva Longoria.

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TV: Good news everyone!
Sun, 19 Mar 2006

I'll be short and sweet for this is important and heady stuff - a short note on Billy West's (the voice of 'Fry') message board notes that Futurama will be back! Hooray! One of my favourite shows every to be on the tube. Now, if only Firefly could be brought back I could die a happy nerd.

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TV: /me Likes the Humans
Sun, 11 Dec 2005

Tonight is another finale for Survivor and its not the first time I've observed that the participants look far better when out in the jungle and starving than they do all fattened up and with make-up. Colby from way back looked the Cowboy with a gruff beard but once back in society he cleaned up into some metrosexual thing. The women in this current Survivor (Survivor: Alabama or whatever it is) just come off all Tammy-Fay - they looked good on the island but now just don't look so .. attractive, if I can say that. Now, perhaps its just these folks not being photogenic, the effect of television on their image, general nervousness from being on TV (though I doubt this as they've been parading in front of cameras for months now), lack of TV make-up skills, my lack of sleep as usual, or just the shock of the transition from seeing them in previous episodes to this. Or any number of factors. Or more likely, perhaps its just people look better in a more natural state - no make-up, a little starved and doing some exercise for a change.

Yes, I realize admitting that I half-watch Survivor has cost me something ;)

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TV: Reviewing _Sliders_ (1995-2000). Oh, and charities are annoying.
Mon, 17 Oct 2005

I surprised my wife the other day with a DVD pack of Sliders seasons 1 and 2. While most of you no doubt don't recall the show, it was one of her favourites (and I've fond memories of it as well!) Of course, my memory has never been that reliable in the long term (I thought Clash of the Titans was great when I was a kid.. but _damn_ thats some nasty to see now ;) - so I wasn't really sure if it'd survived the ravages of time. I ordered a copy of Buck Rogers in the 25th century with Gil Gerard (and Erin Gray, oh baby) at the same time and took in some Buck Rogers, MacGyver and Sliders all in a row...

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TV: Vagrant Philosophy, Or, If a Plot Doesn't Make a Turn, Does Anybody Care?
Thu, 13 Oct 2005

And when I say vagrant philosopher I refer to the esteemed streetside ranters -- those colourful homeless figures standing on a box outside your nearest shopping mall, barking out when the end of the world will occur. They're usually just running on at the mouth until they've driven everyone away.. like bloggers one might say ;) Well, on the off chance I've not driven everyone away with my incessant prattlings-on about retro-gaming I offer something else today :)

We follow a few TV shows these days -- not too many since theres not a lot of really good television on at all -- but a couple shows. For instance, Lost is a little interesting, but we've started to lose our fancy... perhaps we were intrigued until the summer break and now we've lost it? Desparate Housewiveswas also interesting.. until last season ended.

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Television: Getting a fix of retro..
Wed, 10 Aug 2005

For a long time my retro-pervision was limited to classic arcade machines and the requisite 80's music (though retro-night never plays what I listened to as a kid - in the 80s it would've been wank metal and later the early industrial stuff - really, does retro-night at the bar really play what anyones childhood was about? Or has it grown into its own thing especially with new-retro-style music like that of The Killers?) - though eventually I started to get intro retro-game-consoles (the SNES being first to try, even though I didn't have one as a kid) and more recently the retro-comics phase (all these graphic novels and Red Sonja's lieing around :) So this new found fetish was both a way to re-live (and hide in ;) childhood memories, as well as experience things I didn't have access to or couldn't afford back in the day.

Theres at least one other category of the retro fetish I've not mentioned - retro television. For a long time now I've been a fan of keeping my old VHS tapes around (didn't we all record stuff from TV to VHS?) - old Doctor Who episodes, some Robotech and Transformers cartoons, the never re-aired 4 hour Dune movie, etc. Cool stuff.. but two years back my man Aphyd pointed me to Gold Monkey where the guy was accepting tapes of the most unwatched show in the 80s (that I loved) - Tales of the Gold Monkey, and then selling cheap DVDs of the episodes. By gum, if this treasure of childhood has been 20 years forgotten by the studio who made it (and never republished), I might as well nab a copy right?

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