So over a few marathon sessions, I have graduated from having seen absolutely no episodes of Battlestar Galactica to having seen all those available to me on DVD, from the miniseries to the cliffhanger end (aren't they all?) of season 2.5. As it's a show firmly rooted in the science fiction genre, I assume they felt obligated to use decimals in their season notation. Who am I, lowly student of the Humanities that I am, to question their overly precise, mathematical wisdom?
First, be warned this is less a review of the show's quality as it is a rumination on my own hesitance to fully embrace it. The curious thing to me is that this show couldn't be much more tailored to the sorts of things I enjoy watching. It's well written, and while they did dip into the same well from time to time for a plot gimmick, the core elements of the series maintain senses of tension and suspicion that keep the viewer (well, me at least) entirely enthralled without going over the top and leaving the viewer feeling used or manipulated (which is often the case in this sort of endeavor). I feel affection for a number of the characters, and an equally positive sign, distaste for others--it's the apathy you don't want. When certain characters have been killed--and kill them this show does--I have felt disappointed about the loss. But as I loan it out to friends now, I do so not because of a compulsion of my own to share it but more of a sense of fair play, that the "buzz" is that this is a good sci-fi series, and thus if I have it in my possession I may as well share it with friends that I believe appreciate the genre.
This is my dilemma. The standbys of the genre, mine at least, have lost some of their glitter for me over the years (though I suspect this is the natural result when you place a trophy on a shelf and smile at it affectionately from a distance as it slowly collects dust) but still I cling to them. I still love Star Wars, but I'm not going to pretend that Lucas didn't do some damage to its mythology, at least in my eyes, with the prequels. Moments of those films were like watching a father beat his child, and not in the way you wish some would do in grocery stores, airports, and Chuck-E-Cheese. After I had seen Firefly and Serenity, I made a conscious effort to spread that aborted series and film through my network of closest friends. But with BSG, I feel no such compulsion. And this brings me to my point. It seems as if I have reached some critical mass where I appreciate new entertainments but cannot embrace them with the fervor I once did.
And it's not all about BSG. God help me if I degenerate into such musings over one show. But it's the same across the board: the music I listen to, the subjects I study, the games I like--I haven't significantly deviated in any of these for over a decade. How bleak a statement is that? But whatever handicap I might have in the academic and entertainment portions of my life, the good news is that I've found a happy medium with the more important part of that same life: my relationships. I still maintain a stubborn loyalty to the best people from my past, but I thankfully seem to show no hesitance to embrace new ones, even here in the land God forgot. Unlike this television series, I have no reservations about telling everyone about my new friends, forcing them to meet my old friends when they visit, to make them team up together with me when gaming online to have our collective asses stomped by children literally too young to even understand the remedial classes we teach.
So what the hell is the point? Not much, really, save perhaps a warning not to let those murky green waters stagnate too much. And if you're interested, give Battlestar Galactica a try. Of course for me, those are one and the same thing.
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