honestly only watched a few episoeds of BSG..seemed to rely on the idiot plot too much (every one had to be an idiot for the plot to work..kinda like the new starwars movies) you know..oh my good some one blew up a nucular device, lets not wonder if its taht guy who has shown he isn't allways on our side who we jsut gave a bomb too.
BSG is the best show on network television. The Wire is the best show period.
Thank you so much, Jesse, for directing us to this interview. I can't wait to relax at home and watch.
I'm with you, Jesse. Buffy is at the top of my personal pantheon, followed by BSG and then by Deadwood. I dunno about you, but many folks are astonished when I tell them that shows with the goofy names of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica are the finest dramas of the modern TV era. People tend to think I'm kidding. No. I'm not.
Both shows are true to their themes. Buffy was about the travails of growing up, and living through your own changes as well as witnessing the changes in the people around you. Battlestar is about ambiguity. Imagine that: A TV show whose theme is ambiguity. Think of the chutzpah it took to create this show. As you said, "you're genuinely uncertain whom to root for." That is absolutely revolutionary in the annals of broadcast TV.
'Cause in the back of loyal viewers' minds lurks this question: What if, at the end of the fourth and final season, we find out that we are the descendants of the cylons?
What if it's a cylon who dictates those Ten Commandments to Moses? Nah, the show's creators won't go that far -- but isn't that an intriguing notion?
Having read lots of SF over the decades, I found BSG's plots and themes unoriginal. For me, the strong point is the acting.
Buffy was so good that I watched it despite a complete lack of interest in vampire fiction or symbolism. Some of Angel was really good, too.
One of the best TV things ever: HBO's Rome. Wow! WOW!
I also think this is the best written tv series I have ever watched. The characters are fully fleshed out people, not the standard caricatures of the usual archetypes of villain, hero, politician, military, etc.
It asked questions that you didn't see anywhere else on television especially in regard to current politics. The writers didn't take the easy out and just reverse the roles either, to where they cylons = terrorists and the humans = good freedomists. They put everything in a freaking blender and came up with a heaping helping of goodness. Not only did it focus my questioning of our occupation of Iraq, but it also made me question my questioning of our occupation of Iraq .. if that makes any sense 
moonglum, as Jesse said you really can't just watch a few episodes of the show. People did actually question Baltar's role in the nuking of the ship, but since he had just been elected President most everyone took the explanation that it had been stolen from his lab at face value ... sort of reminds me of the last few years in the real world heh. Show continuity is one of their strong points in my opinion.
BSG has a fine cast, but to me, it's yet another humorless sci-fi program in which gay people don't exist; how fitting that Moore used to work on the equally gay-denying Star Trek. Even Buffy was chickenshit on the subject of gay men. The new Doctor Who is far better, more adventurous and more human on every level, IMHO.
As for my favorite American show, it's gotta be The Wire. I'm still stunned over what happened to Omar this week.
Mike, I believe Admiral Cain was a lesbian. Granted, that wasn't front-and-center like so many hetero relationships are on the show.
The Prisoner is and likely will always be tops. IMHO naturally.
bsg rocks out loud. ambiguity, nobody who lives up to their own ideals, choices every step of the way. . .it's all good.
Mike: i love the new doctor. great stuff...reminds me of the tom beaker eare.
as for buffy...at least they borached the topic and had prominante lesbina charicters as well as gay charicters.
Lupin: who is number 1.
I remebmer doing prisioner marathons in the 90's off of bootleged VHS tapes...now i got hte whole series on dvd and can't get anyone to watch them with me.
I need to lock my self away in a room for a week or so, watch that and robotech.
BSG on GNB
i'm in geek heaven
Yes, Admiral Cain was a lesbian. She and Gina (the Number 6 assigned to her ship as a security contractor) were lovers. All this comes out in Razor.
Once you've seen it, you understand much more deeply, the brutality with which Cain treated Gina. I didn't say excuse it. But it wasn't just Cain beating the hell out of prisoner. It was also a betrayed lover, as well as an Admiral trying to find out how to save her crew in the immediate aftermath of an attack which Gina had clearly cleared the way for.
Also, no gay characters? Please. Lt. Felix Gaeta is so absolutely gay.
Yep, best show on tv.
Yep, I've waited 15 damn months for it to come back.
I see I should rent BSG's season 3 when it comes out on DVD. I had seen the miniseries and the first two seasons, which were 100% hetero.
Hey, moonglum, glad to see you enjoy Doctor Who, too. David Tennant really does feel like the new Tom Baker.
Yes, Buffy did very well with Willow and Tara, but I found it very moronic regarding gay male characters, especially Andrew and the Mayor's deputy.
I've enjoyed reading this blog for some time. You guys, Gleen Greenwald and Digby are my essential reading when I turn on my laptop. Odd that I should make my first post about a TV show.
I'm currently working on a novel loosely inspired by my five years teaching in a tough inner city public school in Philadelphia. Wish me luck.
I'm a bit queasy about the assumption that Gaeta is gay. He's submissive, unmacho, unsure of himself and even has "gay" embedded into his name. Not a very subtle or intriguing character.
The Prisoner is and likely will always be tops. IMHO naturally.
Lupin
Awww Loopy, I didn't know you were a fan!!! Who luvs ya!!!
(...now remember, come tomorrow I'll be effin with you all over again.)
Mike,
Gaeta is a lot more interesting in Season 3, but I never saw him as a gay character.
You said it better than I did. He's an assemblage of stereotypes that folks could read as "gay."
BSG is the best show on network television. The Wire is the best show period.
Actually they are both on cable. And obviously with the Sopranos gone they are the two best shows on TV.
My vote for the best network TV show would be Friday Night Lights. As a recent transplant to central Texas and a teacher at a big diverse public HS I gotta say that FNL has absolutely nailed the life in a small Texas town. The show actually gets better and better the less it is about football.
i so want to agree with the accolades. alas. when i read something like this, " Show continuity is one of their strong points in my opinion." i bridle.
in terms of overall continuity, how is it that while no one on the ship knows the identity of the mysterious remaining human/cylons, neither do the actual cylons? go back to flipping caprica during the resistance episodes with anders and thrace, hilo and boomer. how is it that there is not one cylon on that whole planet, from a cyborg culture that has been developing in secret for two generations, that is not among the ones already known to the crew of the galactica. perhaps the cylons were concerned with spoilers in advancer of season 3. same goes for the resurrection ship.
bsg is good but not great, i'll give buffy the edge by a long mile, a show that started with a far goofier premise and managed to really challenge television convention and engage the characters and viewers in an epic tale.
i also have a bone to pick with ron moore. as a canadian actor and writer, i totally supported the writers strike. how disappointed was i to hear on the 'razor' commentary how he bragged about screwing his bg (background/extras) players out of their rightful rewards. all of the folks that chime in with the stirring chant of "so say we all" got ripped off. under our hard fought actra contract, they spoke a line and were entitled to both the credit and pay of an actor for the episode/day. moore goes into some length bitching about having to put off shooting the scene until he can convince the guild to let him *not* pay or credit those performers, the people responsible for one of the most poignant moments in his show.
shoe on the other foot and ron moore did to performers exactly what he complained about happening to writers. him are hypocrite. so i'm still undecided about buying season 3, haven't seen any of it but i own the rest of the series on dvd. i've heard enough complaining that the quality slipped over the year that i might just say feh.
BSG has a few good episodes but is very inconsistent. Babylon 5 beats it hands down.
Hell, even the Terminator series on Fox is better than BSG......oh my, is that a photon torpedo headed my way 
I am a big sci fan nut - Serenity, Star Trek, Star Wars, anime, anything Sci-Fi - I am there.
Watched the 1st episode of new BSG: saw a sexy woman trying very hard to act, seducing and then killing a security guard - then another one. Real cheesy.
Haven't watched a minute more of this.
It took a while for me to get on board B.S.G.
I would watch a few minutes, and all I saw was a bunch of fashion-babes interspersed with Edward James Olmos channeling Brando's Col. Kurz.
Simmilar experience with "Babylon 5"
Catching a random moment, all I noticed were how "SS" the Earthforce uniforms were.
With both shows it took me the effort of sitting through a couple episodes.
Soon enogh I was hooked.
Some day I may take the time to watch a show with the insipid name of, "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer."
I heard some good things about it.
pretty shaved ape,
Err, the reason that no one knows what the other Cylons look like is that ... no one knows what they look like heh. There weren't any in regular Cylon society, thus there weren't 100 copies of them roaming around New Caprica. Also, since none of them have died (at least the 4 we know of) then how would one of them appeared on a ressurection ship?
americangoy, I love Serenity, Star Trek, Star Wars too ... but out of those you find BSG to be the cheesy one? Hehe
As for whether or not someone likes a show, well who can argue with an individuals taste? I like basically every show mentioned in this thread and I'm surprised at some of the BSG hateration.
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