Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Battlestar Galactica Season 3
Last night I caught up with the third season opener of the new Battlestar Galactica.
I nearly wept. I really did.
When I first started watching the new BSG, I thought it was the best science-fiction series ever made, hands down.
But by the second season I had changed my opinion. By then I had decided that it was one of the best shows of any genre currently on TV.
Now, with the start of the third season, I'm adjusting that again. This show without a doubt is one of the smartest and bravest dramas ever made in the history of television.
If you haven't watched the show, if you've blown it off as just a "geeky" sci-fi show or if you've watched one or two episodes and given up because you couldn't follow the story, I can tell you without a breath of exaggeration that you are depriving yourself of one of the greatest cultural gems of the early 21st century.
What sets this show apart is the sheer depth and complexity of the issues it is willing to tackle. It uses the science fiction genre in the best way, as a tool for building allegories about modern times or the human condition in general.
The show has tackled religion, philosophy, crime, politics and the entire flawed nature of humanity. But underlying it all has been a very thinly veiled allegory about the war of civilizations currently going on between the West and Islam.
The start of the third season has signalled that war issues will be an increasing focus of the show.
In the first episode, the show accomplishes the awesome and terrible task of taking a North American audience inside the mind of a suicide bomber. By the end, you will feel sympathy and support for even the most brutal acts of terrorism.
Some will ask, Why would I want to understand such monstrosity? Because, no matter whether you are a hawk or a dove, no matter whether you are trying to defeat your enemy or make peace with him, understanding how your enemy thinks is important to a successful outcome to war.
Unfortunately, this landmark episode is intimately interwoven with the plot of the series of over the last two years. I say "unfortunately" because I think the world would be a better place if more people watched this one episode.
As it stands, if you watch the episode on its own, you will get maybe 60 per cent of what it is trying to convey. To appreciate its full emotional power you will need to invest a few weekends catching up with the previous 30-odd hours of the show (all of which are currently available on DVD).
Since few people will do that, allow me to recommend a short-cut: at least watch the original four-hour miniseries and the last 2-3 episodes of the second season. You will still miss a great deal, but it will give you a minimum grounding to appreciate the third season.
Just because I'm such a crazy evangelist for this show, I'm even prepared to offer until Christmas a limited-time Mentok the Mindtaker money-back guarantee. If you watch the episodes I've recommended and you don't agree that BSG is one of the best and smartest shows ever made, just email me a copy of your DVD rental receipts and I will refund your expenses.
OK, dear readers, I promise this will be the last BSG freakout I pull this season. Probably. ;-)
posted by Mentok @ 8:44 a.m.,
5 Comments:
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At 3:30 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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Didn't know Buddhists celebrated Christmas? -
At 11:23 p.m.,
Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...
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Possibly a silly question but how do you feel about Star Wars being made into a television series, Mentok? As what is supposed to be in the works.
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At 11:38 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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I can't say I've heard anything about it, but I'm far from being any kind of expert on Star Wars, so I wouldn't be the one to ask.
From what I know about George Lucas, though, I would doubt it. He seemed pretty firm that he wanted the story-line to stop now.
Did you happen to see Lucas on the Colbert Report the other night? Holy crap, was that funny! -
At 10:33 p.m.,
jamwall said...
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this post reminds me of a blog i collaborated on a while back (no defunct). it was called Pirate Monkey Zombies. check it out, it was a good blog!
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At 12:09 a.m.,
Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...
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No, I didn't see him, Mentok. I thought I saw him on Yahoo the other day where Yahoo announced that Lucas had plans to turn Star Wars into a tv show. I guess never say never.
I'll let you know in any case, if there's any updated news.
