TV Roundup: Battlestar Galactica, #5
Well, now ... it's been a little while, but we're back here at the TV Roundup, my countdown of my favorite shows of all-time. To recap, it's a list of 21 - because I tried to make it a list of 20 and couldn't handle it - and thus far, it looks like this:
21. Kids In The Hall
20. Taxi
18. Dexter
17. The Simpsons
16. The Daily Show
15. Mad Men
13. 24
11. Lost
10. Cheers
6. Survivor
If I look back at the shows listed above, not one of them was a show I resisted watching - I didn't get to see Dexter right away because I don't get Showtime, and I didn't start watching 24 initially, at least partially because I was sick of people telling me I "HAD" to see it. (They were right, damnit.) But my next choice I resisted for years, and if you haven't seen it, you probably have the same instinct. It's a remake of a campy, 70s show that I hold no special allegiance to, and it sounded silly and not remotely up my alley.
And then, someone I trust said this, and this was all that mattered: "It has the best writing since The West Wing." They were right, and the show - my fifth favorite show of all-time - is Battlestar Galactica.
Yes, Battlestar Galactica. If you haven't watched the remake, you are probably rolling your eyes - or perhaps you have surfed to another page, in which case we can start talking behind your back. But my friend who made the West Wing comparison was at least the third or fourth person - all who seemed like they'd like different kinds of television - to recommend the program.
Do I have a valid reason for using this photo? Do you care?
The series began with a mini-series - and if you are starting to watch it, you must begin with this - which includes one of the more shocking and suprising moments in any TV show I've ever seen. (It involves Six, to the right, and a baby, and that's all I'll really say.) For those who remember the metal robots with the cool sliding red eyes, they're here - those are the old models (the 'Centaurians'), and have been usurped by the more elite Cylons, like Six above and others - they look just like and are in most ways indistinguishable from humans. (And on this show, by the way, that means that they are impossibly good looking. The future might be bleak, but it's very pretty.)
What makes BSG such a brilliant show is that it's incredibly dark -- each show begins with a posted number of the ever-shrinking number of surviving humans -- with brilliant performances across the board. I'm not typically a Edward James-Olmos fan but he positively dominates as Captain William Adama. Mary McDonnell steals almost every scene she is in as President Laura Roslin. Other actors I'd not seen before but now eagerly look for include James Callis (whose Gauis Baltar is one of the better characters in years), Katee Sackhoff (as Starbuck - a character who was an African-American male in the original), Michael Hogan (Lt. Saul Tigh), Tricia Helfer (6) and Grace Park (Boomer).
The entire premise of the show is based on some interesting choices, and BSG continually made those choices throughout the life of the series. Die-hard viewers were disappointed at times - and many with the finale, which I rather enjoyed - but I honestly looked forward to this show being aired on a weekly basis. Not watching it the night it was aired - and it was aired on Friday nights, by the way - felt inconceivable. The writing never cheated - we lost some characters we were forced to care about, the show answered most (though clearly, not even close to all) of the major questions it asked, and each show was a small piece of art on its own.
If you yourself haven't seen the show yet, it's probably because you, too, think of it as that silly 1970s show with Dirk Benedict and Lorne Greene. I've had the pleasure of turning several people (including most of my family) onto this show and they all agree how fantastic it is. I can't stress enough how lucky you are if you have yet to experience the series in its entirety, because it's just that frakkin good.
That's why it's my fifth favorite show of all-time.
So Say We All.