Zub Tales

Okay, watched the Battlestar Galactica Resistance Webisodes and Season 3 so far.

I know the webisodes were filler material to keep the fanbase active during the months long gap between seasons. It unfortunately felt like that filler – 4 minute long conversations stating the obvious and off screen action to keep the budget down to near-home movie levels. When a couple people told me I didn’t have to watch the webisodes to keep up with the story, they weren’t kidding.

Season 3 begins. Here are my thoughts so far loosely in order:

Episode 1

– The mix of Nazi Germany (the Hollywood standard bearer in evil regime symbolism, of course) and America occupying Iraq symbolism is crazy obvious. If the show is trying to comment on current events masquerading behind a sci-fi show mask that’s okay I guess, but it still seems all out-of-whack considering that they had a solid mission, signs from the Gods and a cohesive cast that I cared about before this twisteroo.

– Rosalin writing a diary seems like a bad idea considering the Gestapo-esque methods of Cylons detaining people at the drop of a hat. I assume it’s an Anne Frank kind of parallel or just a way to inform the audience through narration. But considering that she was the President before Baltar (their past and current puppet), I’m pretty sure the Cylons would have an airtight observation on her and get ahold of that written info.

– They skipped ahead 134 days into the Cylon occupation. Almost a year and a half since we had cohesive plot material to follow. It still just feels like a shock value ploy instead of paying off on plot threads established earlier in the show.

– Fat Apollo makes me chuckle. The character’s become a joke, unfortunately. I feel sorry for the actor having to slam on the poundage and/or wear padding under his uniform.

– The Iraqi suicide bomber parallels are eerie. It’s good drama but doesn’t actually feel like Battlestar Galactica any more. The whole storyline going sideways has taken away my empathy for the cast and rebuilding that isn’t going well so far.

– Wouldn’t they have told their suicide bomber that the crucial target was Baltar? I know he’s emotionally screwed in the head and might have blown himself up anyways, but it still felt odd that they wouldn’t stress that especially since he’s sacrificing himself and this may be their only shot at the President.

Episode 2

– The guy who joined the secret police -his name hasn’t stuck with me and I actually assumed he was dead in the explosion from last episode until he miraculously showed up in this one without a scratch on him – his dialogue and motivations are too obvious for me. If the Chief had half a brain in his head he’d see that this guy’s part of the Secret Police. The part where he’s explaining to the Chief about humans who may have joined the Cylon Secret Police for good reasons was head slappingly stupid. He might as well have a neon sign over his head flashing “Look at Me, I’m Guilty!” They could’ve done a heck of a lot more emotionally without most of that dialogue. It felt spoon-fed.

– They gave Starbuck a baby? Wow. Who decided this? If I was a female viewer I’d be kind of choked as she gets brutally hamstringed as a self-made woman and action element.

– If one more character says “last year”, “in the past year”, “over the last year” or “a year ago”… I think I will puke.

– Holy crap. Bags over heads and detention camps are 100% parallel with America occupying Iraq. Maybe the producers just wanted to get all controversial/political and rammed this stuff into the show?

– The scene where Baltar struggles about signing the death order was effective and solid, thankfully.

– The Secret Police’s assault uniform is balaclava-wearing terrorist meets Nazi Gestapo. Subtle.

Episode 3

– Maybe I’m just nitpicking now, but a full quarter of this episode is rolled back in time to previous material from different camera angles with almost nothing that couldn’t have been covered last episode. That reeks of filler to me.

– I like the idea of Zarek and Rosalin working together. It amuses me.

– Thankfully Adama sends Apollo with a back-up plan to find Earth.

– Starbuck went from half-breed hater to loving Mommy. I can understand on one level why that would happen after seeing the little girl injured, but it still feels severely out of place for me.

– Holy shit. They just added the slightly-crazed mystic fortune teller cliché times TEN. The fortune teller even spoon feeds the Cylon chick her future and what her character evolution arc will be. I like how fortune tellers in Hollywood are retardedly specific while in real life they’re vague-ass charlatans. That fucking sucked.

– I like that the actors have become comfortable saying “frack” enough that they’re now slurring it a bit so it’s almost perfectly “fuck”. Tigh in particular is pretty much dropping the F-Bomb on national television. Heh.

– Can we just kill Ellen already? She went from being a character I loved to hate to just being a moronic opportunist emotional slut who’s jeopardizing everything.

– The set up for next episode’s rescue mission was good… but the reasons leading up to it still aren’t sitting well with me. This isn’t just me being a whiney fanboy wanting things frozen at the point in the show I liked, it still really feels like it’s a betrayal of the character arcs they were pursuing up to this point.