Galactica Season 4 (Spoilers Within)

[GKarsEye]

I would have enjoyed this episode if it aired like two years ago. Filling in back-story and adding context to characters' relationships are good things in a long-form story. It's weird seeing it at the end, when it's normally the time to be resolving things.

And yes it was Lee Adama chasing the bird and no I don't see the point- maybe it'll have some brilliant symbolic meaning next week.

Hey remember when Tony Soprano was a guy named Kevin walking around some hotel room on a business trip in his coma-dream? That was equally entertaining and useful.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

By the way, was that Vancouver masked as Caprica City?

 

[Recoil]

And yes it was Lee Adama chasing the bird and no I don't see the point- maybe it'll have some brilliant symbolic meaning next week.

See, this more than anything else was my impression of all the "pre-fall" stuff. I didn't, at first glance, take it to be setup for The Plan or Caprica (and I really hope it doesnt turn out that way). I felt like it was put there to be some artsy fartsy symbolistic thing. And I say that with a derogatory tone because I will be disappointed with this show if it ends on that sort of tone.

I'm sure there was some deeper meaning with the Piegon.
I'm sure there was some deeper meaning with Roslyn in the freakin fountain spreading her arms out.
I'm sure they had all of the doorways to the outdoors have INSANELY bright white light for a reason as well (more than just to validate it was a flastback).
Not sure what the daddy issues scenes with Baltar and Six coming to his dad's aid were about, but I'm sure that will play in the next two hours SOMEWHERE.

Still, it has no place being introduced now near the end. And this was a show that was at its BEST when it dealt with the more realistic aspects of the story. When it got all symbolic in its storytelling, it failed miserably. So I hope he isn't going for some super artistic ending sequence.

I'm a pretty smart guy, and I like it when shows add little parts with deeper meaning to them. I like trying to spot them and figure them into the story. But I don't like being hit over the head with that sort of stuff and having it become the story instead of just augmenting it. And frankly, right now on BSG, I'm a little burned out and impatient. I'm sure there was meaning in all that. But at this point, I need someone who gives a shit to post a big blog on how "brilliant" the sky-rat in the apartment was so I can just read the summary of it. Cause I just wasn't in a place to even try to sit and digest all that and try to figure it out. I was just past the point of caring.

There is enough CURRENT material out there to wrap up without throwing some of that other stuff in just to be overly intelligent in the writing (even pretentious).

 

[Sindatur]

Funny that The Sopranos came up here, because both series turned out the same way: the first two years were awesome, and then everything after was overblown, pretentious and boring. Therefore it would only be appropriate for BSG to end the same way.

The Sopranos ending didn't anger me because, like BSG, I was already disenchanted with the show so, whatever, at least it got people angry, which always amuses me. My hope is that BSG ends in a really stupid or vague or confusing way just so that we'll have something to make fun of.

I didn't watch Sopranos, but, the way I heard it, at the beginning of the series, they explained being killed would play out like a fade out, and when they did that in the finale, it was showing you his murder?

 

[GKarsEye]

I didn't watch Sopranos, but, the way I heard it, at the beginning of the series, they explained being killed would play out like a fade out, and when they did that in the finale, it was showing you his murder?

IIRC, Tony Soprano and his comrade Big Pussy had a conversation before BP's assassination about what it would be like to die, and talked about a "fade out" or something. This was done to foreshadow his murder, which was delivered to the audience with a heightened sense of tension and tragedy, back when the show was able to combine art and story-telling in the way that made it so well loved.

Some have used that conversation to argue that the the final scene of the series represents Tony's murder. However, the scene doesn't actually fade. The audio and video just cut suddenly, to nothing. Also, one would think if that moment represents his death, it would logically be the moment of his death, but before that you don't seen anything happens that would immediately precede the taking of his life. Yes, you see some possibly sinister looking men, but you don't see anyone raising a gun or anything like that. In slow motion with music playing, everyone can look "sinister." So if the final cut to black is supposed to be his death, it means he was going to die very soon or something... which I suppose leaves it deliberately vague.

Really they did it just to fuck with us, and those who like do so for that fact.

Look, I like artsy stuff, too. I'm a huge David Lynch fan and my friends do not get my obsession with movies like Inland Empire where you can watch it 40 times and you still don't know wtf happened. The difference, though, is that those movies are deliberately impressionistic the whole time. When you sit down to watch a movie like that you know you're in for a mind-fuck and traditional story telling is not the point. But to throw that kind of crap in a TV series about a spaceship or the mafia is a cheap attempt to inject something "deep" or "bigger" into it. It just don't fit.

To me there's only one show that pulled off abstraction and dream-logic in any successful way for any duration, and that would of course be Twin Peaks.

 

[Recoil]

GKE

Understand that I was not a Sopranos watcher. But the way the ending, and leading up to the ending, was described to me, was that Tony was chatting with someone about what do you think happens when you die, and he said something like "The Music Stops." In other words, nothing, things just stop and go black. So in the finale, in the last scene, there was music playing at the diner they were at. They put you in the POV of Tony, and the screen went to black and the music stopped.

I took it as a pretty direct tie to the prior comment meaning he got whacked. Just because there wasn't any movement in his field of vision of someone reaching for a gun, doesn't mean someone didn't come up behind him and pop him in the back of the head.

Either way, and ending like THAT, I don't have a problem with --- but you can't end a show like BSG with something so central to a single character. They can't pull something like that off here without being real weak.

 

[GKarsEye]

Come to think about it I don't remember if the conversation Tony had about dying was with Big Pussy or Bobby, his brother-in-law, and therefore when it was. Years removed from the show, my memory can't tell one fat Italian criminal from the next anymore.

 

[Sindatur]

Oh, and to the thread topic of BSG...I'm sadly awaiting to see Bobby in the shower

 

[vacantlook]

And yes it was Lee Adama chasing the bird and no I don't see the point- maybe it'll have some brilliant symbolic meaning next week.

And here I thought Roslin taking a shower in the park's fountain made no sense, but at least there was a reason presented for why she did it, even if it was strange and lacking some form of sentimental explanation in order to give the action meaning. But Lee's random drunkenness was completely meaningless? Why did he get drunk? 'Cause his brother has a girlfriend? I mean, sheesh.

 

[vacantlook]

I'm sure there was some deeper meaning with the Piegon.
I'm sure there was some deeper meaning with Roslyn in the freakin fountain spreading her arms out.

The only symbolism I got out of it was from the very beginning. Long before we were told the ass-grabbed story of drunken Lee swatting at a pigeon and Roslin taking a crazy shower, the very beginning of the episode had quick flashes of the bird fluttering about and of the fountain water splashing down in the pool. As soon as they showed it, I couldn't help but to say outloud, "Thank you Noah". It had a rather bird released at the end of a flood imagery-based symbolical quality to it, but that was the montage and not the story from which those images were derived. The story was stupid.

And this was a show that was at its BEST when it dealt with the more realistic aspects of the story. When it got all symbolic in its storytelling, it failed miserably. So I hope he isn't going for some super artistic ending sequence.

Agreed.

 

[Chilli]

I pretty much agree with what GKE said a few posts ago. I'm just a bigger dick about it.

I actually AM hoping that the ending will be stupid, because at this point, I'm so over this show that I just want something I can point and laugh at. Something that'll prove what I've felt for a long time - that the writers had no idea where they where and where they were going with this thing.

No way can they pull of an ending spectacular enough to redeem all the sucking this show has been doing recently. And I enjoy bitching about this show way more than I enjoy this show.

My rant of the week: The Caprica-promoness. Why are you trying to sell us on your new show when you're still in the process of crashing your old show?

 

[Recoil]

Interesting review of this episode:

HERE

Complete with a handy-dandy checklist of questions answered and unanswered. The only thing I think they left off their little checklist from prior interviews was the nature of the song and how it ties into the story.

The writer of that blog clearly has more faith than I do right now.

 

[Recoil]

BTW I know this was off topic, but a great, and VERY detailed analysis of the finale of Sopranos.

HERE

 

[vacantlook]

That article reminded me of one thing I had wanted to mention but had forgotten as a result of the rest of the suckitude of the episode: isn't it great that we are left to fill in Tyrol's incarceration with our imaginations since they didn't bother to show him being arrested post-Boomer escape.

Edit: also from the article, did this make anyone else laugh at the pretentiousness of it:

...Ron Moore, David Eick, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell at the United Nations to discuss the series' approach to 21st century geopolitical issues with a trio of UN reps, moderated by Whoopi Goldberg....

 

[Recoil]

I saw that "news" article last week, and did a complete eye roll. I think I have gone on record here more than once in saying when this series started taking a downwards turn, it was because those running the show felt that it was "more important" than it really was and started trying to make all these statements. Basically --- they not only believed the hype about their own show that they were reading, but they completely drank the Kool-Aid as well.

When it got better is when it got back to its roots.

The fact that they met with the UN about it really sickens me in more than one way. Seriously? Like the UN doesn't have a LOT more important things they could be doing?

 

[Truth_Seeker]

The fact that they met with the UN about it really sickens me in more than one way. Seriously? Like the UN doesn't have a LOT more important things they could be doing?

I agree. And what exactly does BSG have to do with 21st century geopolitical issues.

There are certainly more serious movies or documentaries, which really deserve that kind of recognition.

 

[GKarsEye]

Eh, that doesn't really bother me that much. Pop culture and art has always been part of the national or international dialogue and recognized as such, and sometimes it does effect how people think. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about people sneaking rock 'n' roll records and video tapes behind the iron curtain and what it meant to them and inspired them.

 

[Chilli]

That's very true. I've personally experienced just how much more "western", for example, Estonia is than other parts of the former Soviet Union. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is certainly that the Soviet Union never managed to enforce its block against Finnish television and radio. This not only gave people constant access to western news throughout the Soviet Union's 40 year reign, but also to Rock and Roll, Bond flicks, and the Eurovision song contest.

Iranian study mates have been telling me of the enormous significance American movies and TV series have for kids in Teheran, that freely swap them whenever the teachers aren't looking.

I just don't think BSG has the kind of cultural significance, though, or the kind of global market, to make it important in this way. Not that I'm offended by this or anything. Politicians need some RnR too - like talking about stupid shit.

 

[Galahad]

I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about people sneaking rock 'n' roll records and video tapes behind the iron curtain and what it meant to them and inspired them.

One line of graffiti that was splashed across the Brandenburg Gate at the time of the Berlin Wall referred to Blackadder and proudly stated "Don't worry. Baldrick has a cunning plan!"

 

[Galahad]

The fact that they met with the UN about it really sickens me in more than one way. Seriously? Like the UN doesn't have a LOT more important things they could be doing?

I met an aid worker normally based in Darfur who was on leave on the same holiday as me. She tells me that the pay structure and benefits for aid workers doing an equivalent job to hers are massively better.

There's a lot of things the UN should be doing better (although I'm a lot bolder with my criticism here because I'm not standing in their line of fire along the Golan Heights in the same way I was two days ago!:devil.