Actually, Rasputin, I think Angel got quite bad in season 4 (is that right? Second to last season). It’s hardly watchable to me. But the final season picked it up again. Buffy had more years of awful, but it also lasted more seasons, so it’s hard to compare. Very few shows are good throughout their run, and most of those only get to have that happen because they get cancelled (like Arrested Development).
Well, when you watch a serialized show for several years; you watch the overall plot evolve and the characters develop, it becomes confusing and annoying when the writers diverge from what you understand about the rules of the story universe. The reveal of the four Cylons at the end of last season, for example, threw out several key rules that the audience had come to understand, and those questions still hover. Colonel Tigh simply couldn’t have been a Cylon, because it was the audience’s understanding that the Cylons hadn’t started developing humanoids until well after the war. Yet Tigh was in the war, fighting alongside William Adama. Moore has stated (arbitrarily) that no human has been replaced by a Cylon, so that’s not the answer. The only solution comes in information that has been completely absent for several years. And that’s the symptom of either a retcon or insufficient planning.
Before this reveal, none of the 12 had significant backstories, and this was often a clue to the viewer. No one had ever met their family members, who would have been conveniently dead anyway in the attack. The first seven models were obviously slipstreamed into human civilization.
When you watch a show like BSG, you want the writers to do right by the characters that you have come to like. You want their motivations and actions to be understandable, or at least available for inspection. So when the middle of the third season spends several episodes on a love triangle between Starbuck, Anders, and Apollo, people get bored and wonder what happened to the whole “trying to find salvation through finding Earth while being pursued by robot eugenicists” deal. Which is, for sci-fi people like me, more compelling. What’s the payoff been so far? Apollo and Starbuck exchanging a passionate kiss before she leaves on the Demetrius – because he thinks she’s going to be shot out an airlock. Was it worth the wait? Sometimes, watching the show becomes a process of collecting payoffs. And the longer you wait, the better it needs to be.
BSGs problem is they’re afraid of consequences. They have their characters do crazy shit, like military coups, mutinies, shootings, etc and then they all make up and move on with regular life. There’s zero consequence for major action.
The writers want to seem edgy, but at the same time, not ruin whatever magic formula they have with this show. I don’t think they ever expected it to be the big success that it is, so they can’t kill off main characters or even change them very much.
I mean, the biggest Cylon hater ever, Tigh, found out he’s a Cylon. Woah, major revelation! And he’s done… nothing. Just go on as normal. Baltar is a known Cylon sympathizer and the President knows he’s responsible for the genocide of the human race, but, hey just stay outta trouble you rascal!
Personally I thought DS9 had a good first series (when it was doing typical trek stuff), a good last series (when it was really all about the war and was pretty gritty) and everything in-between was a mishy-washy mess of half-and-half. I admit there were some fine episodes in there, but unlike B5 it didn’t have as good an arc to keep the crap from annoying too much.
Likewise with Angel, I thought series two was awful because it was Joss Whedon does angst, and I hate when Joss Whedon does angst, it’s awfully similar to pointless whining.
But none of these shows have changed direction as incredibly as BSG, which, after 2.5, seemed to become a different show, going from consequences (even if there were some really irritating holes) and continuity, to one-off episodes and then, finally, from humans to cylons.
Oh, and if you want a sci-fi for non-sci-fi people then Firefly is that beast. I tried BSG, but it didn’t work beyond the mini-series.
I think Farscape kept getting better and better; season 3 is one of my all time favorites where sci-fi is concerned. Of course, I haven’t seen season 4 (Netflix doesn’t seem to have them) and I’ve heard that quality does drop off. Nevertheless, the series was never short of good stories.
I’m just thankful we have something other than ‘Midget Wife-Swap Makeover’ and ‘Single Female Lawyer’ to watch on TV.
I believe season 4 was when David Greenwalt stopped being an Executive Producer and “show-runner” (you can tell because they stopped using the quick cut to commercials with the “whoosh” sound). I think even more than Joss Whedon, Greenwalt was the heart and mind of ‘Angel’.
Apropos, most fans of DS9 consider the first and last seasons to be the worst of the lot.
Yeah, BSG has lost its way a bit. I personally would have loved more drifting aimlessly, trying to survive episodes and less Balthar as Jesus Christ. I just wanted some good, gritty, pulp sf.
Some people don’t like season 4 because it isn’t as adventurous as 3, but IMO it’s the best of the bunch, certainly the most consistent. The ending is superb. Even if you prefer 3 I’d say it’s better than 1 and 2 (2 being the weakest IMO).
Urgh, God, why? The other seasons have plans so awful they made me cringe. These intelligence agencies built up to be wise and cunning lured into the single most obvious trap of all time. Oh no, they won’t expect us to attack the homeworld they know we know where it is. Yeah.
Because in the first season the cast chemistry hadn’t developed yet and the writers were still figuring out the characters, and the last season was weighed down with excess mystical “Prophets” crap, some truly ridiculous filler episodes, and the loss of Jadzia Dax.
The arc where they evacuate and eventually retake DS9 was some of the best military sci-fi Trek has ever done. And then there was the episode where the Klingons attack and Sisco gets to give his “Behold the power of this fully operational battle station!” speech. Ahh, good stuff.
I disliked that stuff immensely. Trek has always sucked at battles, and DS9 was no exception. Yes, the prophet stuff sucked, so I was glad for the war, but the planning was just so… awful. A favourite of mine would be that turret episode with the power source outside the shields. Just grand. It may be the best military stuff Trek had done, but it was running alongside B5 which was doing it a hundred times better.
Shame, there were glimmers here and there, like when the latest clone adviser (I forget his name) turns and tries to escape with Odo. Or that one where the clone (again) of the chief thinks he’s the hero when he’s the villain.
I agree with Zylon, that was the best part of DS9. I thought that after Jadzia left, the series had gone on too long (kinda like how ER goes to shit after Anthony Edwards’ char leaves.)
To me series seven is where they stopped fannying around with random rubbish and got back on with taking the arc somewhere. The battles and prophet storyline still sucked though. It wasn’t that the other seasons were rubbish, they just felt a bit meh and lacked purpose. The odd gem, but so much bland back and forth, and without a compelling telling of the arc to get you to ignore that.
Personally I thought TNG was better, ignoring those first two dreadful seasons.
Wow, you must really hate Dr. Who.
Isn’t Season 7 the one with all the Vic Fontaine lounge singer crap?
What, why? When did Dr Who give a rat’s backside about arc? It’s an enjoyable series of episodic romps. Okay, there’s a little arc, but it’s hardly the focus.
Exactly my point.
BSG gets away with being inconsistent because it’s a Sci-Fi show for the masses. The masses expect that Sci-Fi shows don’t make sense. The problem is when people who expect better (us) believe the show could meet our expectations.
With that said, without consistency there can be no suspense, because no outcome becomes any less likely than any other and therefore nothing that happens can be considered surprising.
I mean honestly, if the final reveal of the series was that Adama’s been a cylon all along, would that even shock anyone at this point?
I’ve never seen the new BSG. Is there anybody who isn’t a cylon?