Roadrunner

In looking back over the course of the entire series, and subsequently evaluating where things stand at the end of season 3, I've identified a number of potentially VERY problematic issues that could prove extremely troublesome if they are not handled with considerable care in season 4. It looks as though Ron Moore has relied far too much upon making things up as he goes along and has fallen too much in love with the immediate shock effect rather than putting sufficient effort into planning things out in advance and evaluating the long-term effects of his sudden shifts in course. As a result, he may be soon realizing (if he hasn't already) that he has in multiple instances painted himself into a corner where the only way out is to tip-toe hurriedly across the wet floor even though it means tracking sticky, colored footprints around through the rest of the house, leaving telltale evidence of shortsightedness that he hopes won't be noticed.
( Ooops...now what? )

Remember all the advanced hype over "Unfinished Business" because of the mysterious reasons for Lee and Kara's falling out? Remember how cast members and writers gave interviews claiming that the reason for the breakup was something truly surprising and shocking? Remember when you saw it that there was nothing surprising or shocking about it? {sigh} It was a nicely executed piece, but shocking? Hardly.

Well, here we go again. Perhaps this episode should have been called "Tempest in a Teapot" considering what a frenzy of hype we've heard about it over the last several weeks. It was hardly a complete letdown, but like "Unfinished Business" it definitely suffered from over-inflated expectations.
( Cut to protect the innocent )

This was an episode that I've been looking forward to since I first heard about it several months ago. They were finally going to address the fact that Lee once had a mother! Beyond knowing that she was engaged to be married again before the Holocaust, we knew absolutely nothing about her or about her relationships with Bill and Lee. Lee got a little teary-eyed looking at her picture waaaaaaaaaaay back in the mini-series, but after that it was as if she was completely forgotten by both men. Considering that she played a VERY significant role in the lives of 2 major characters, the complete omission of any mention of her existence by both Bill and Lee has been a source of some irritation for a long time.

So finally, the writers decided that Carolanne Adama should be the focus of some backstory development for Bill and Lee. It's about darn time.
( Read more... )

"The Woman King"
I've always found the title for this episode to be extremely clumsy.
The Woman King ~ The Man Roberts ~ The Girl Hera. Yuk.
Let’s just call it “The Very Bad Title”
Surely, the team of skilled professional writers working on this show could have come up with something better. But...as it turns out...this very clumsy title is rather appropriate for a very clumsy episode.

This was, by far, the weakest effort of season 3 to date. A 100% standalone throw-away episode with no character development or anything of particular interest. Worse, we had characters acting out-of-character, contradictions to prior canon, and a script that even contradicts itself. And perhaps the worst criticism of all is that, for the first time in season 3, I was just plain bored. When you have an episode where both Doc Cottle and Head-Baltar make an appearance, and neither one of them has anything memorable to say or do...well, you just know it's a snoozer.

It's probably already apparent that this is going to be a veritable bitch-fest, so I'll send out the warning...
[Evil Bitch Mode = ON]
( Read more... )

I'll just be rambling about the A story for now. The Lee-centric portion will follow later because I expect it to run long.

I have to start off with a rave for James Callis. Once again, this guy proves why he is the reigning MVP for the entire series. ( Welcome back Mr. President. )

Laura...damn woman! When she wants to play Bad Cop, there's no room for anyone to play Good Cop. ( PMS'ing Madame President? )

The writers mentioned at the Burbank convention that they had just written a story where somebody "unexpected" would have a kind of breakdown. Enter Psycho Felix. ( The pen is just as deadly as the sword...unless you miss the jugular. )

And this leads to the discussion that Laura had regarding the Final Five. ( The Cylon God is... )

Heeeyy...Wait a second....

One of the big bombshells of the season 2 finale was suddenly seeing Kara and Saul all chummy and BFF. Something was supposed to have happened in the missing year that made them resolve all their long-standing animosities.
Well...WHAT WAS IT? The new season is half over and we still don't have a clue why things changed so completely between them. (well, we do know that it wasn't because Kara was behaving herself so well down on New Caprica.) And hey...in the season 2 finale, why the heck did Saul act like he knew all about what happened between Lee and Kara to cause their falling out...and more important, why did he think that Lee wouldn't still be mad at Kara for it?

At Comic Con last July, RDM said that Lee and Laura would have a very special relationship again in season 3. This was regarded as very good news by many fans who have been missing the dynamic between those two characters ever since it completely and inexplicably disappeared from the show after the characters departed from Kobol in early season 2.
Ummm....okay...we're still waiting...season 3 is half over and Lee and Laura STILL don't have any visible relationship at all.

Katee Sackhoff is reported to have told fans at a convention in November that "3.08 - Unfinished Business" and "3.16 - Maelstrom" are the only episodes in the back two-thirds of season 3 where Kara has much of a role. She reportedly told fans that while she appears in all the other episodes in-between, she doesn't have much to do in them.
WTF?????? She's played a significant role in every single episode from 3.08 onward so far, and she looks to have a big part in the next one too. WTF did she mean that she didn't have much to do except in 3.08 and 3.16?

[scratches head in bewilderment]

This was a good episode, but not particularly outstanding. I'd also say that this is the first time on BSG that the 2nd part of a mult-part story failed to be better than part 1. It had some very entertaining parts to it, but it was also dragged down by a few logic bombs and a couple of sadly lackluster performances.
( Rapture ramblings... )

I'm placing my latest thoughts on this subject behind a cut to protect devout spoilerphobes, but I'm only making general reference to the high-level subject and not discussing any actual spoiler details nor making any predictions.
( A storm approaches...Let's hope it's meaningful. )