2021

Well, you have named a lot of shows that aren’t on anymore. I was mainly referring to current series.

2022

Heh. I have a low opinion of TV as well, but I did enjoy BSG. It was definitely worth the time, IMO (even the final 2 seasons).

2023

Technically, BSG isnt on anymore either, so the comparison is good.

2024

Neither is BSG, as was mentioned. Still, we live in an era where television never truly dies. If I met somebody who had never seen any of the shows I mentioned, I’d recommend all of them over BSG and I could probably name about twenty more.

BSG starts off strong, and the early episodes hint at a real attempt to do a hard sci-fi show with some intelligence, but none of the thematic or plot threads end in a satisfying conclusion.

2025

Well, from my viewpoint as a diehard BSG fanboy who actually wasn’t that bothered by the more metaphysical plot development that stole valuable time from starfighter battles:

Season 3 is pretty uneven. You just finished with the biggest bang of the season (pretty literally, too!) The next episode which has some fallout from the occupation is pretty good. Then it gets pretty bad for too long - in fact, the rest of the season, with a soap-opera-esque triangle meandering between Kara, Lee and Dualla, Baltar hanging out on a Cylon base star, and not much else happening. This is when it became really obvious the writers “didn’t have A PLAN” and when a lot of the posters here got really fed up with the series. Really - you can skip ahead to the end of the season. You’re not going to miss anything at all. (If you do this, restart watching with “Maelstrom”.)

However - it does get better. The final two-parter of Season 3 gets a bit better, though the cliffhanger resolution made everyone go “Whaaaa… HUH?” and has a trademarked Ron Moore Goofy Bit (“the song”) that really tests your suspension of disbelief. Season 4, though, I’ll argue, starts strong, then gets better (with lots of space battles, too, if that’s your thing.) Then, in the mid-season break, the crew (and you the viewer) literally get slammed with a punch to the solar plexus. There’s a couple of episodes that, if you care about the characters, are literally heart breaking. It’s as dark as I’ve seen broadcast TV get. And from there to the end of the series, it just keeps punching away.

Everyone has some quibbles with the ending, but it does end, and it has a resolution. It (and the series as a whole) is worth watching.

2026

Yeah, I know. My point was that if you want to compare a certain TV series to your favorites of all time, then 99% of them will be shit.

“Should I watch The Dark Knight on DVD? I’ve never seen it.”

“No. Go watch Casablanca instead.”

(Or insert your own comparison here).

Not trying to be snarky, but is it the greatest series of all time? No. Is it still worth your time? I say, “definitely.”

In my opinion, it still holds up as an outstanding series. Is it as good as it could have been? No, of course not. But it’s a solid sci-fi series that had real characters with real drama that took itself seriously. That is pretty rare in genre TV. So if you’re a fan of the genre, I say take the good with the bad and enjoy the ride.

Your mileage may vary, past performance is no indicator of future returns, all rights reserved, etc…

2027

Isn’t there a better indicator, just compare BSG to BSG. If like me you thought the second half of the second season was a nose dive in quality where characters changed for the episode and all semblance of a meaningful arc went out the window then you’re probably not going to like the rest of it, but if…

2028

Dude, if it was a choice between those two, I would totally tell somebody to watch Casablanca first. It’s not like the other choice disappears if you don’t watch it.

2029

Yeah, I literally had to visit the literal emergency room afterward.

2030

Not for me it didn’t. That’s when I went from dissapointed to actively disliking the show.

2031

ARISE FROM THE DEAD, GLORIOUS THREAD OF OLD!!!

Just wanted to mention that Amazon has BSG at 50% off right now for DVD ($140.49 for the complete set) or Blu-Ray ($185.49 complete). This is likely to empty stock for the re-release that will include The Plan (which is available on its own for an extra $15 or so).

Important Notes: besides the “complete” boxes not including The Plan, the Caprica movie/Pilot, nor Face of the Enemy, there are also many complaints regarding the packaging (discs are in paper sleeves) and there’s no episode list. However, it does come with the original miniseries & Razor in addition to the standard episodes. You also gt a nifty centurion figurine.

As an aside, the single-season discs (or half-seasons, depending - 1, 2.0, 2.5, 3, Razor, 4.0, 4.5) are also on sale. You might want to look at what those cost together just for the better packaging. On DVD at least, you can get all of them $122.93 if you want/don’t mind the individual packaging. Of course, you’d lose out on the figurine unless you bought that as well (currently $18.35 for a 7" posable centurion … of somewhat dubious value).

2032

Thanks for the info, Dan. I’m probably gonna wait until the whole kit and caboodle, with Razor, The Plan, etc, is less than $100 before I bite, honestly.

And I hope they don’t include Caprica. What a bore. ;)

2033

I waited for the individual seasons to drop on Blu-ray before biting primarily because I heard the full show packaging was so horrible.

2034

Well, I just finished watching this series, the latter part of it out of a sense of duty/desire for completeness, but I see my opinion of it is basically echoed here. The first series is awesome and seems to indicate great things to come. There’s a nosedive in the quality of the writing somewhere in the 2nd season, continuity and logic fly out the airlock, and while there are brief moments of interest in the remainder, mostly one is left with a sense of regret over the wasted potential of that amazing first series.

Actually, the thing that strikes me about the whole thing is the way that a show like this… which depends on so many different elements, and has so many excellent elements that never let up (great acting, fantastic set design, great camerawork (although a bit less shaky-camera antics could have been a little more effective)) at the end of the day, still needs to be written well in order to be good. All the money, hard work, great ideas, technical expertise and acting talent in the world can’t make up for bad writing. I guess either… it really is just very expensive and difficult to get a team of people to work on scripts until they’re actually good… or the people in charge of this stuff don’t understand or care enough to make it happen.

2035

I just finished all the seasons of BSG on blu-ray. A quick summary of my thoughts (Spoilers for a show thats ended in a thread about the final season shall follow):

Season 1: good, with some silliness. (Cylons glow during sex? How can a cylon not be detectable but have super strength and the ability to download?)
Season 2: still good, still some silliness.
Season 3: Bad, my wife lost interest, and I lost interest as well, alot of throw away crap filler episodes. Kat’s sendoff was pointless, the union episode that i forgot i skipped half of and well, it didn’t matter anyway as it was never referenced ever again.

Season 4: really really awful.
Season 4.5: better, but still bad. Lots of stuff makes no sense. Ending sucks, but oh well. Cemented my hate for ‘madame president’. Opera house showdown was a weird build-up to nothing.

The biggest flaws of the series seem to be characters that randomly change from episode to episode, and who become less and less likable as the show goes on. Coupled with plots that make no sense, or just feel kind of made up, or you think will go somewhere, but don’t.

Also the later episodes, feel stretched thin, like shots linger too long, dialog lingers too long, I ended up watching some bits at 2x speed, and they still felt took forever to get their point across. Which is kind of funny, considering that from what I gather in this thread, they cut some important stuff from some episodes, like the bit about arming Baltar’s followers.

Overall, its not a bad series, a step up over Dr. Who, not as good as Farscape (which also tends to implode as it goes on), about as good as what I’ve seen of B5. Makes me want to watch DS9 again.

Also, yeah, it is sad that no good space sims came out of this, or at least a homeworld-alike RTS.

PS. I really hate whenever someone suggests mankind revert to “the good old days of being a savage.” It’s utter BS, that must come from people who don’t think things through. It reminds me of that Simpsons where an angry mob burns attacks science, and then Moe gets crushed by something and hopes modern medical science can save him.

2036

The silly stuff from season one has been mentioned before (see #2 below).

It’s pretty well known that Ron Moore intentionally gave up on writing anything resembling an interesting plot. “It’s the characters, stupid!” Except that he screwed those up too - there are few things as annoying as the psycho version of Starbuck from season 4.

To what you said about Luddites, I’d add that I hated all the mystical crap that they shoveled into the series. They did much better when they stuck to reality.

2037

Yech. Guess what - in order to show characters in a light that makes you care about what happens to them and what they’re like, they have to be doing something interesting. That means you need a plot - it’s why soap operas are typically so f’ing dull.

2038

Sigh, yeah, seasons 1, 2 and the first four episodes of season three (Exodus Part 2 is my favorite episode, almost entirely for this), but it totally falls apart after that. Shame, really.

2039

The burning ship jump was awesome - I dont know who they had as sfx guy on the show, but he rocked

My personal favorite though, is Gaeta’s song - brilliant stuff as well

that said, i lost interest 3 episodes before the end

2040

Zoic Studios did the special effects for both BSG and Firefly/Serenity, which is why you see Serenity fly by really quickly in the miniseries at one point. ;)