I typed up a comment regarding my thoughts about the new season of Battlestar Galactica over at The Central Cortex. Therem had given a review of the season opener that you should all read here (warning: spoilers). When I tried to publish the comment, I couldn't remember my password so I just decided to make it a Candleblog post. These thoughts come in part from a conversation I had with Candleblog reader AlexW...
I have three main issues with the direction BSG has gone:
- It's overwrought and heavy-handed. I agree the Iraq parallels were appropriate (see Therem's review), but amidst the heavy, grey, humanity's-darkest-hour landscape (of course, following on the heels of the near total destruction of man), it's a little much. They have to go back to bringing the fun occasionally lest the show suffer from the fate of Six Feet Under (so much content that's wretchedly dark that the show becomes unwatchable, despite good writing). I'd also appreciate a little more drama from simple scenarios. "33" was intense and awesome and didn't require the worst things possible happening to every single character simultaneously.
- Missed opportunities. I bet those 4 months that have passed were pretty interesting. I worry that in Ron Moore's zeal to shake things up, he's missing some opportunities for real drama.
- Don't break up the party. Anyone who's played D&D knows that any time you split up your party, the game play starts to suck because you spend half the time waiting to do something. The story also suffers from too many separate threads. Sometimes the coming together can be satisfying enough that it was worth the wait (LoTR), but usually you're just waiting around for the party to come back together so the story can move forward again.
All of this said, BSG is still one of the best SF shows in the history of SF shows.