thread: 2005-10-05 : Various Media Comments
On 2005-10-05, Jonas Karlsson wrote:
I'm half-way through season one of Battlestar Galactica, watching three episodes a day or so, and I like it. A friend recommended it by saying "interesting characters, tough decisions and an exciting story," so of course I had to check it out. I haven't seen the original series, so I can't compare them.
I won't spoil any specific things in this post, but since I'll talk about the series I'll spoil what it's generally about, just so people know.
Even though I like it I'm totally watching it with my PTA goggles on, almost a little distant. It's really hard to not get "character issue" or "setup for a tough decision in the next scene" in my head as I watch it. I think that's a good thing though, both for PTA and BG.
I like the focus on hard decisions. It has kind of a Star Trek or DitV feel to it, the feeling that they sometimes have to go beyond what they've learned and beyond the rules of a normal society. Still they struggle with keeping a semblance of the society they left behind, and some of that is interesting stuff.
Some of the things, though, feel very heavy-handed and obvious. Using children to get the viewer to feel more for what's going on is rather cheap, and there's a lot of stuff going on that makes you draw too obvious parallels to where society might be heading today, complete with moral speeches. When I watch those scenes I can't help but think "Hey, I could've set that up better in an RPG session!"
This makes JonasK go "By the way, Vincent"
If you tell us when you've finished Battlestar Galactica, we can discuss the characters' issues and the situations they get themselves in. It's hard to do now without spoiling stuff for you.
This makes XP go "Hard Choices"
They keep on coming, and keep getting better. That last episode, 210, was totally intense in that regard.
