Frak You, BSG….

[lydamorehouse]

I finally finished watching all of the BSG 2.5 episodes, and I’m never going to watch the show again; I’m that mad.

I think the writers of the show completely misunderstand why I’ve been tuning in. I don’t care about the toasters, their plan, or whether or not the lost colonies ever find Earth. I care about the people. I want to see them interact, every day, with each other – on the ship or on the ground, under stress or in peace. I don’t care about the wham-bam action (yes, it makes my heart pound… but why does it make my heart pound? The pretty explosions? Oh, ORANGE! Wow, THAT’s why I’ve been tuning in, because I love the orange explosions so much… oooh, you added yellow, wow-whee.) No, you fraking idiots. Explosions themselves don’t make good drama. For me it’s the characters, and now...

... “one year later” I don’t know these people any more.

I understand that the writers wanted to skip what they perceived as the boring parts (peace) and get back to the Cylon action.

Whatever.

I think they miscalculated my attachment to these people. For instance, I would have hung on for an entire season of peace, because with 50,000 people struggling for survive on a planet “ruled” by a corrupt president, a degrading military, there isn’t such a thing as “peace.” No, in fact, that’s drama. Human drama.

I want to have seen the military decommissioning – the decisions to do that, the arguments Adoma may or may not have given for continuing it. I want to see what happened the day Starbuck decided to get married (what the frak, btw? Does she really seem like the nagging, yet devoted tent-wife we see in the snippet of the “now”? How did THAT transformation happen?) I want to see Callie and the Chief work through his violence issues (is it just me or has that guy gotten away with murder and assault with almost no consequences?) I want to see Apollo so give up on life that he lets himself get fat (oh, and if there was no longer any reason to tune in, a fat Apollo pretty much clinches it for me; I like my pretty boys, pretty, thank you.) How did the XO become the sole, sober voice of reason, “You and I both know the Cylons could show up any day?” (And his wife stayed on the ship? Five minutes earlier in the episode, he said she could go cat around without him.) Giaus as completely corrupt? (Yeah, he had his moments, but when the nuke blew, he seemed striken… what makes his character interesting is that conflict between being human and being a completely misguided, manipulated cylon-fraker. He HAD been one of my favorite characters. Not no more.)

And now I hear from my friend Rick that they’re going to skip ahead another year or more? I’m supposed to go the BSG site and download a few minutes of condensed storytelling to satisfy my need for ACTUAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

No, not interested, thanks.

I’m too mad. And, frankly, I don’t care any more. You rip out the stories of these people and you rip out the heart of the story. That’s a quick bleed-out. I’m done.

Oh, but thanks for the black fighter pilot… too little, too late, especially since he doesn’t get a story. Apparently no one does any more.

Comments

[swords-and-pens.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering what your reaction would be when you saw the season finale.

FWIW, I blew up during the last 45 minutes or so of the finale, too. I kept expecting it to be something other than it was - a cheap gimmick that jumped over a lot of messy, and potentially every rich, story. I was even hoping it would be something as hokey as a dream, or a vision, or something. Given the pacing of the show up until then, a flash forward of that magnitude was just too jarring and out of character for the narrative to believe. It took a while for me to admit to myself that they had f*cked up the story that badly.

I've still got the DVR set for BSG, and I figure I'll catch the first couple episodes of season 3 to see if there is any hope of redemption. I *had* hoped they'd do a bunch of flash-backs, to explore a lot of the points you mention above. Not the best story telling on their part, I admit, but I could see how they might be able to make something like that work. There can be good drama in wondering how you got from A to M, especially if you only give a bit of the intervening alphabet now and then. But from what you said about what's on the web, it sounds like I'm dreaming. *Another* flash forward? Ugh.

Like I said, the DVR's still set; but that can be fixed easily. I'm just disappointed that something that has been developing so well could get screwed up so badly so quickly.

[naomikritzer]

Well, keep it set; I still want to see the next season, and we don't have the magic laptop-to-TV gadget yet.

According to ET (the magazine, not the alien)

[lydamorehouse]

This is where I got the sense that the next season starts further into the future. When the show is taped, let us know if that's true. That will REALLY decide matters for me. (And despite my vitrolic inital response, I'll likely give BGS another chance, if only because, as Lynne says, it's some of the best skiffy drama to come along fraking EVER.)

[sausconys-books.livejournal.com]

I had pretty much the same reaction and I'm sick of watching shows in which the writers and show-runners seem to want to do nothing more than jerk me around and make me angry. Skipping a whole year in the narrative was a huge jump the shark moment for me and I think it went past the point of redemption. I'll try watching tonight but if I feel my blood pressure climbing up, I'll tune out. (At least there's Doctor Who to look forward to on Friday nights).

Advantages of watching on DVD

[muneraven.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I started watching this show LATE and on DVD. Now I know I don't want to keep going and watch the second season because, if it pissed YOU off, it will give me a freakin' stroke. I hate it when I get attached to characters and the writer(s) screw up.

[lynnejamneck.livejournal.com]

I hear all of you.

But in defence of BSG, it's still the best damn show on TV right now. And by far the best sf show in years. Keep in mind that sometimes writers have to pander to an audience to keep them coming back.

I think season 3 will have heaps of character developement, and some pretty explosions to boot. I'm still popping a vein in anticipation.

I love this show. No doubt.

A bit calmer today...

[lydamorehouse]

My reaction has mellowed a bit since the inital shock has worn off.

I remain, however, annoyed that the writers want me to go elsewhere -- ie. to the webiodes - to get what they should give me on TV. I realize this is becoming a popular gimmick, but as a stone age computer user who still has dial-up and a system that is nearly six years old, going to the internet is a pain in the butt. It makes me mad.

And at a time when BSG is talking to the people at Entertainment Weekly about how they'd really like to expand their audience beyond the hard-core skiffy geeks who will tune into anything with a space ship, this seems like a strange move. Even one of the actors agrees with me....Jamie Bamber (Apollo) is quoted as saying, "My personal jury is still out. I think where the show really works is in the daily grind aboard the Galatica, trying to run from this unknown and therefor ultimately terrifying enemy."

Oops, I should clarify

[lydamorehouse]

..that Bamber is specifically talking about whether or not the audience will warm to a story more focused on Cylons (which is what's in the works for season three.)

Re: A bit calmer today...

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

Er, I was looking at your website because I just finished Apocalypse Array and I wanted to know if there were any others, and wandered here eventually. (I checked the books out of my library and rather liked them.) By which I mean to say, you don't know me at all, but I thought I might offer you an alternate perspective, even as a total stranger.

I think the decision to jump ahead 1 year and then again 4 months was made, not to avoid lots of 'boring' storyline, but to avoid a problem common to long, dense television shows, which is that it's impossible for new people to join the dense, heavily plotted work in progress. Because they've jumped ahead basically a year and a half by the third season premiere, someone who never watched the show can watch with very little prompting from someone who has watched the show from the miniseries. Sense the characters and their relationships have been picked up and shuffled, new viewers don't know much less about, say, Kara and Anders' marriage than old viewers do.

By contrast, I have been assured that the Lost third season premiere was entirely undecipherable to anyone who had been following the previous two seasons. I was also a great fan of Farscape (a show I find to be BSG's equal as a drama and superior as science fiction), and the mythology was largely impenetrable by season three to newcomers and totally opaque by season four.

Because television shows lose some viewers as they go along, it's imperative that they pick up new ones every year, and this reset button makes that possible even though the show has a complex mythology and a long story arc that continues across seasons.

P.S.

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

Just put the Tate Halloway on hold at the library. Your novel information page is a little confusing, but I think I have figured out that TH is a new pseudonym for you. You might want to clear that up; I spent several minutes thinking she was someone in one of your writers groups.

Confusion is on purpose

[lydamorehouse]

Though I am Tate and Tate is me, there won't be any official link between the two of us on either my website or hers. My publisher would prefer it that way since a fan of Lyda Morehouse (science fiction) won't necessarily be a fan of Tate Hallaway (romance). I'd apologize for the confusion, except it was on purpose. Still... I'm glad you're putting my newest book on hold at the library.