Recently I decided to see what all this Battlestar Galactica noise was about and Netflixed the first couple seasons. As of this writing I'm about midway through the second season and I have to say that yes, it is as good as people say. I don't mean it's good by the sometimes lower standards of other sci-fi fare, I mean it's just a good television program period. Consider me frakking converted.
Since I'm late to the game, however, and spend a lot of time writing about TV, it has been like maneuvering through a minefield on roller skates to avoid learning what happened during the third season finale. And trust me, there are a lot of people talking about Battlestar Galactica online. The moment I see those two words my eyes try to focus on some other part of my computer screen so they don't absorb any information. I've been doing this so much I've actually built up the muscle tissue around my eyeballs and can juggle strippers with my eyelids (the secret is to have the strippers roll themselves into the "cannonball" position, it makes them easier to catch and throw).
If it were anyone else, I'd tell them to just avoid TV sites until they catch up with the series, but I can't write about TV without frequenting TV-centric sites. It seems inevitable that I'll be exposed to what happened before I've actually made it through the third season: when enough time has passed, people will start speaking more openly about it just as they do certain "movie secrets" like Citizen Kane's sled, Luke Skywalker's father, that "chick" in The Crying Game, and the inexplicable all-animal mass-suicide/sex orgy that was the denouement of Benji: the Hunted, possibly the most disturbing ending to a G-rated movie, ever.
Anyway, much like my first viewing of all those aforementioned films, I'm sure once I finally get around to season three of BSG I'll already know what's going to happen. That's kind of a bummer, but what the hell, it's a good show. Lord knows I can't fault anyone for liking it and wanting to talk about it. Otherwise, what's the point of the internet?
One other thing: I notice that in the sex scenes involving the "human" cylons, they always show a red light running up and down the backs of the cylon. Wouldn't they be able to figure out which ones are cylons by just sexually arousing everyone and seeing whether or not their backs light up? If not, I may have just come up with the plot for some erotic Battlestar fan fiction.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-27-2007 @ 4:09PM
Yayaja said...
I only remember the spines lighting up in the first episode when baltar's bangin' that blonde. Which other episodes did it happen in?
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3-27-2007 @ 4:12PM
Scott said...
Adam, if you're midway through the second season, you know the show is getting bleaker and bleaker. I think the red light on the back thing was pretty much abandoned by the producers because things are so dark and depressing in BSG world, we rarely see anyone even having sex.
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3-27-2007 @ 4:40PM
Bob said...
When Boomer and Helio were on Caprica doing the nasty.
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3-27-2007 @ 4:42PM
Bill said...
I think the trick would be to fill your head with fake spoilers, then even if you see the real ones, you won't know what to expect.
So in the third season finale is that the President is revealed to be a cylon. Not a skin job kind, but one of the big centurions. She's just been wearing an intricate disguise the whole time.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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3-27-2007 @ 5:07PM
Akbar Fazil said...
I think the glowing red spine was just for us viewers. Helped us realize that she was a cylon. I dont think anyone in the story ever sees it.
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3-27-2007 @ 5:23PM
mamaloo said...
Yayaja, Sharon's back lights up when she fraks Helo.
I'm in the same boat as Adam. I got into BSG part way through the 3rd season, both the first couple of seasons on DVD and just couldn't get caught up fast enough to watch the show on TV with everyone else (and I don't have TIVO or its equivalent, so I couldn't just record the damned episodes until I did get caught up.) I have heard a few spoilers along the way, but I'm not looking for info.
I'm hoping beyond hope that Space in Canada or maybe CityTV will (re)run season 3 over the summer so I can watch it before the next season rolls around.
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3-27-2007 @ 5:26PM
Curt said...
They get to Earth in the third season, only to discover it's overrun with intelligent, talking apes.
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3-27-2007 @ 5:27PM
Chris said...
Congrats on getting into Battlestar! It's certainly quite a ride!
As for the spoilers... I went into the latest season finale knowing everything that was supposed to happen (damn you AICN!!!) because I couldn't stay spoiler-free.
Even though I knew what was going to happen, it was still one hell of an episode, and the build-up made it that much more. Don't worry bout anything you already know, the differences between reading it and actually seeing it are very big.
(And despite what others are saying about "filler episodes", it helps you understand what the characters are about to do based off those experiences. That's generally the whole point.)
Enjoy!
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3-27-2007 @ 5:41PM
radwimp said...
Welcome Adam! I'm curious, are you a regular sci-fi viewer or is this one of your first?
Chris, I agree with you. I imagine the "filler episodes" of season 3 wouldn't be as bad as (some) people say if watched quickly on DVD. I think most people just bitched because nothing "exciting" (as in cylon battles) was really happening for long periods of real-time. That's my theory anyway.
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3-27-2007 @ 6:30PM
David said...
The first season and a half were the best.
And the writers i think realized that the glowing red backs were lame and dropped it.
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3-27-2007 @ 10:42PM
erroneous_nick said...
Maybe I'm just easy to please, but I've enjoyed every single episode of BSG since the beginning. Some were very action-oriented while others were more straight drama, but in my opinion every episode of BSG was superior to a lot of what else is on television. When it's finally over and done I plan on watching it all over again.
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3-27-2007 @ 10:53PM
malren said...
Just because I LOVE to spoil things:
Rosebud was his sled.
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3-27-2007 @ 10:54PM
Kyle Beasley said...
Minus a few episodes here and there, this show has been consistently great television.
And yeah I thought about the spine thing. I think it, like that Boxey kid (Remember him?), got abondoned because it was just too silly within the context of the show.
http://kylebeabo.blogspot.com/
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3-27-2007 @ 11:49PM
drake said...
I'm in the same boat as you Adam... I started taping the 3rd season when it began, but didn't start the mini-series and season 1 until Christmas. We didn't catch up in time and since I write and prepare images for another site (http://www.film.com/tv,) I was bombarded with spoilers all season long. Finally, I got asked to write about the finale without even seeing it (writing from the music angle - spoiler link alert: http://www.film.com/story/musiconbattlestargalacticaisbobdylanacylon/13931129) and thus it's thoroughly been spoiled.
Still, I'm even more excited to get to the end, and am paying closer attention to details along the way that anticipate upcoming events.
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3-28-2007 @ 12:20AM
Mike said...
*Spoilers*
Everyone NOT named Adama is either a cylon or the figment of some other character's imagination. Also the universe is infused with the music of the gods, which turns out to be a very MOR vanilla-rock version of a classic Dylan song.
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3-28-2007 @ 3:18AM
Pete said...
I, too, have gotten half way through season 2 and think it's great television. The first time I saw that their "space fights" weren't all your typical laser beams with typical laser sounds, I was hooked. It's definately one of the top 5 shows on tv.
I've been avoiding everything to do with season 3 as well. I even have the Entertainment Weekly with them on the cover buried on my coffee table...unread (until I get to season 3.)
When I started renting, I forgot about the mini-series and started with eps. 1. I figured, what the hell, and stayed with the first 13, then went back to the mini-series. I don't think I missed a thing. If anything it made me pay attention more to figure out who everyone was.
Frakkin' Cylons!
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3-28-2007 @ 4:41PM
Zach said...
Your not the only one Adam regarding who's been converted. I got my mom hooked onto this show. And let me tell you, she HATES TV. She only watches 24, sometimes The Office and this. And she's totally hooked. She's NOT a SciFi fan either.
I got her the 1st season and she made it through and I'm about to give her the 2nd. She read an article in the Boston Globe about a major thing that happens this season and tuned in for one ep. I was really pissed that she did because it ruined the S1 cliff hanger.
But she loves the show. She normally goes to bed around 9:30pm or so (she wakes up early to go to work) and has a couple times stayed up and started eps at 11pm. So your not the only convert Adam. My mom is. :)
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3-28-2007 @ 7:09PM
TomB said...
Funny you should mention this today, Adam. I too wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The mini-series arrived today from netflix.
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