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Don't read this if you don't care, or don't want spoilers.
I like that the writers have realized that they have too many interesting characters, and too much interesting plot, going on to follow it all closely anymore, so they are letting us 'find things out'. Not just the obvious example of 'Roslin has cancer again!", but a little thing like 'Sam Anders is training to be a pilot?" (And what's going on between him and Seelix?)
That said, they seem to have too much going on that's just hanging in space, like the 'bless my baby' scene in Baltar's cell, or the scene where Tory goes to the bar. Other than implying a connection between her, Anders and that mysterious music, what did that scene prove? And why did she go there? It seems completely outside of her usual habits, so why the change? (other than plot.)
Admiral Adama and Dee turning on Lee also seemed a bit arbitrary, especially Dee. I don't really see why she's turning on him now, and I can't tell if she understands better than Lee realizes (and has a valuable insight that she should at least try to share with her husband) or if she really doesn't get it. Either way, I feel that she's dropped the ball. The admiral has too, even though I get where his bitterness and resentment come from more clearly. (Though Lee's behavior for as long as we have known makes it clear that his sense of integrity is his most important possession, so Bill's really making an ass of himself there.)
This does, as I type, remind me of a larger problem that I perceive has developed on the show, namely that characters behave in ways that seem out of character, but that could make sense as consequences of their development in response to the plot, but that we aren't shown. The example that has pissing me off all year has been Boomer, where we have gone from Downloaded 'killing humans is wrong, let's try something new' to the Occupation episodes 'let's try living together--crap, this isn't working as I'd hoped' (oh, and it took her THREE MONTHS to look up the Chief? To even TRY and talk to him, or at least find out that he's married? I find that simply unbelievable--and I mean that literally, as in 'my disbelief is crashing down' unbelievable) to... what? what does she do about the decision to order mass executions? Does she agree? Does she disagree? We don't know. Agreeing with them is TOTALLY contrary to her character theretofore, but if she doesn't agree, why doesn't she do something, anything, to stop them? Or does she? Since we don't see her again until the episode where she's prevented from talking to Adama by Athena, we don't know, but she's still willing to be with the Cylons. And a couple of episodes later, when Athena downloads to get Hera, all Boomer can say is 'that part of my life is over now' and then threaten infanticide. This is what's become of the character who struggled so long in season one against murderous impulses, who rejected being a cylon in season 2 and tried to lead her two peoples and identities into reconciliation? OK, yes, that could indeed be what she's become. But I haven't seen enough to buy the transition. As it is, it's another Ophelia for me--'wait, why have you gone nuts, exactly?'
(And talk about great drama arbitrarily stopped cold by the writers. Were they too chicken to put her and Adama on screen together again? Afraid they'd screw it up? At this point, they probably would.)
So, in the teaser for the season finale, we have a voice (Anders, I think) say something like 'so we're all cylons'. And I'm very, very close to calling shenanigans on the whole show. Anders (and presumably Tigh and Tory) are cylons? I would have to see a lot before I find that a plausible, much less satisfying, plot twist, and the pattern for the past season has been to show too little about too many things. BSG is grappling with the interesting problem of having too many interesting things to put into the time allotted, and in many ways that's so much cooler than, say, Enterprise, where so little of interest happened in the first season that I never bothered to watch the rest. (and I watched the whole first season.) [My hope is that this is deliberate misdirection. After all, there's no reason why Anders and the others can't come to believe that they are cylons and just be wrong. Baltar was, after all, and he is incomprehensibly smart.)
However, doing a crappy job with too much has damaged my interest in the show in ways similar to what happened to Enterprise. I'm not saying that I'm going to stop watching (far too soon for that), but I'm not sure that I feel the need to own season 3 the way I did seasons 1 and 2. Borrow them from a friend or rent them for an evening to check out bonus material and deleted scenes, maybe, but own and watch over again? We'll see.
I like that the writers have realized that they have too many interesting characters, and too much interesting plot, going on to follow it all closely anymore, so they are letting us 'find things out'. Not just the obvious example of 'Roslin has cancer again!", but a little thing like 'Sam Anders is training to be a pilot?" (And what's going on between him and Seelix?)
That said, they seem to have too much going on that's just hanging in space, like the 'bless my baby' scene in Baltar's cell, or the scene where Tory goes to the bar. Other than implying a connection between her, Anders and that mysterious music, what did that scene prove? And why did she go there? It seems completely outside of her usual habits, so why the change? (other than plot.)
Admiral Adama and Dee turning on Lee also seemed a bit arbitrary, especially Dee. I don't really see why she's turning on him now, and I can't tell if she understands better than Lee realizes (and has a valuable insight that she should at least try to share with her husband) or if she really doesn't get it. Either way, I feel that she's dropped the ball. The admiral has too, even though I get where his bitterness and resentment come from more clearly. (Though Lee's behavior for as long as we have known makes it clear that his sense of integrity is his most important possession, so Bill's really making an ass of himself there.)
This does, as I type, remind me of a larger problem that I perceive has developed on the show, namely that characters behave in ways that seem out of character, but that could make sense as consequences of their development in response to the plot, but that we aren't shown. The example that has pissing me off all year has been Boomer, where we have gone from Downloaded 'killing humans is wrong, let's try something new' to the Occupation episodes 'let's try living together--crap, this isn't working as I'd hoped' (oh, and it took her THREE MONTHS to look up the Chief? To even TRY and talk to him, or at least find out that he's married? I find that simply unbelievable--and I mean that literally, as in 'my disbelief is crashing down' unbelievable) to... what? what does she do about the decision to order mass executions? Does she agree? Does she disagree? We don't know. Agreeing with them is TOTALLY contrary to her character theretofore, but if she doesn't agree, why doesn't she do something, anything, to stop them? Or does she? Since we don't see her again until the episode where she's prevented from talking to Adama by Athena, we don't know, but she's still willing to be with the Cylons. And a couple of episodes later, when Athena downloads to get Hera, all Boomer can say is 'that part of my life is over now' and then threaten infanticide. This is what's become of the character who struggled so long in season one against murderous impulses, who rejected being a cylon in season 2 and tried to lead her two peoples and identities into reconciliation? OK, yes, that could indeed be what she's become. But I haven't seen enough to buy the transition. As it is, it's another Ophelia for me--'wait, why have you gone nuts, exactly?'
(And talk about great drama arbitrarily stopped cold by the writers. Were they too chicken to put her and Adama on screen together again? Afraid they'd screw it up? At this point, they probably would.)
So, in the teaser for the season finale, we have a voice (Anders, I think) say something like 'so we're all cylons'. And I'm very, very close to calling shenanigans on the whole show. Anders (and presumably Tigh and Tory) are cylons? I would have to see a lot before I find that a plausible, much less satisfying, plot twist, and the pattern for the past season has been to show too little about too many things. BSG is grappling with the interesting problem of having too many interesting things to put into the time allotted, and in many ways that's so much cooler than, say, Enterprise, where so little of interest happened in the first season that I never bothered to watch the rest. (and I watched the whole first season.) [My hope is that this is deliberate misdirection. After all, there's no reason why Anders and the others can't come to believe that they are cylons and just be wrong. Baltar was, after all, and he is incomprehensibly smart.)
However, doing a crappy job with too much has damaged my interest in the show in ways similar to what happened to Enterprise. I'm not saying that I'm going to stop watching (far too soon for that), but I'm not sure that I feel the need to own season 3 the way I did seasons 1 and 2. Borrow them from a friend or rent them for an evening to check out bonus material and deleted scenes, maybe, but own and watch over again? We'll see.
