(no subject)

[salinea]

Episodes 3x01 to 3x04 (Occupation, Precipice, Exodus 1&2) + Resistance webisodes



All right folks, I'm actually miffed about my opinion of the beginning of BSG S3. It's good television, with occasional brilliant scenes and excellent action, but I'm feeling disconnected from it and vaguely annoyed. Half of it is watching the two first episodes with a very bad image (I thought it was the DVD which were in bad state but actually it was the connection to my screen oops), and I may have to rewatch them.

One of the thing I was worried about the one year gap is loss of immersion. It was kind of surrealistic and we didn't know those characters anymore. Not that I mind skipping to where the action is, they probably need to do that, but after while they need to reestablish the setting firmly. BSG has never been very good at immersion, because, well they chose to go for a pseudo-realistic tone (which means that mistakes are more obvious and less easy to handwave) and because their worldbuilding was crap. Now I don't mind the latter because I've yet to see a SFF TV show with good worldbuiding :D but the United States IN SPACE! vibe could be annoying at times.

Trouble is they want to mix it with Noir again. Cuz Resistance stories are Noir, if not pulp. And it's already been established BSG does bad Noir. And they're mixing their metaphors. And all that political goo of mixed analogies is preventing me from reconnecting with the show's immersive quality (perhaps because those analogies have become more personal to me).

On the other hand :

Starbuck : Chilling, beautiful scenes. Part of me thinks I should hate it, but the scenes were gorgeous, and Kara still kicked ass. And it's the kind of dark stuff I love. I didn't think Casey were her daughter (she's way too old for one), but that one was still punchy. Way to go.

Zarek and Roslin : hilarious and kick ass reunion. I was wondering what he was doing, glad to see him back in shape. I wish I'd believe you actually were going to get killed.

Ellen and Tight : Ellen's no Lucie Aubrac, which is sad but not unexpected. She still makes total sense and her death is a heartbreak. Tigh as the one-eyed motherfucking badass to end all badasses is awesome though.

The Cylons : we get a little more clarity about what the fuck led to the situation. Obviously their society is getting more divided even though we've yet to get much insight on how they function, still.

Visions, Spirit!Six, Oracles : That's confusing and I still quite wondering who's pulling the string of this one. Spirit!Six is still around, I wonder if Caprica Six and Baltar ever talk about it? Generally speaking, what do they talk about? (not much, judging by the scenes they've had XD). Loved d'Anna's visit to the Oracle and her bonding with baby Hera/Isis.

Baltar and Gaeta : I admire the writers' ability to thread the thin, thin line between antipathy and sympathy with him. Loved the two scenes with Gaeta, so that's what he was thinking. And then Baltar gets to.... hand a baby over XDDD not exactly the heroic action he expected, heh XD

Battlescenes : were pretty. Too sad I was emotionally involved enough to enjoy them properly. I wish I had been surprised when the Pegasus appeared.

Hairy Catterpillar of Doom: is GONE! HURRAH! Thank you Adama, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

Anders: shows hints of personalities. He's not dislikeable, but he still feels a bit bland.

Jammer: thick strokes. Too thick. I still feel rather sorry for him but metaphors get in the way.

Comments

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

Pretty much agreed everywhere.

I feel like the political allegory in the start of season 3 is just heavy handed and clunky... they could have taken the same ideas and done them a little differently and I think it might have worked but what's there is sort of tacky.

[werthead.livejournal.com]

The one-year gap I don't think is a major problem in the first four episodes as you hit the ground running and just have to go along with it. There's no real time for reflection.

However, the one-year gap really hurts some of the following episodes. We don't know these people any more and in some cases - particularly Roslin - they have drifted so far from their original characterisations that you're left wondering if they've been replaced by Cylon replicants or something. Plus whilst the situation with the fleet in Seasons 1 and 2 was grim, in Season 3 it's almost unbearable as you're constantly told how bad things are now. It does feel that what light and hope there was in the show - best exemplified, I think, by scenes such as the Roslin/Adama one at the end of Resurrection Ship II which reduced Olmos to tears and half the audience with him - has now gone. Good luck, because the next few episodes are seriously hard going :-P But it does come good again in the end.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, tacky definitly. Then again, being French and Jewish and having a grandfather who went to prison for doing stuff for the resistance, it's the kind of issues I'm a bit more wary of in the first place.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

... I'll move on to the program now! :D I hope it's not too bad :'(

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

That I can see.

Also now you cna see what I meant about Anders being better when Kara is not around.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Anders really got shafted, since he really was just written in as a random character, and then Katee Sackhoff went, "Oooh, shiny, can I keep him?" so he was always just Starbuck's Manflesh. I've always thought Kara being Soldier!Starbuck instead of some version of a lost little girl with an Anders who was actually willing to push her into being an adult would have been hot enough to blow Starbuck/Apollo out of the water. I have this neat little AU in my mind where Starbuck, Anders, and Tigh run the resistance together and it is made of awesome, because they are competent people making hard choices, with style.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

they kept the character around because the actress said that, really? XDDDD hilarious.

Anders was definitly better running his little resistance. But I think the issue is that between Lee and Helo we already have two pretty similar characters, so it's hard to make Anders interesting in a different way. Although he's hotter than the two others XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he is.

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

Also I love Gaeta's longer hair.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Gaeta's terribly smexy in 3x05 and I want to have him home be my personnal aide and scientific expert ♥

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Indeed.

[werthead.livejournal.com]

Interesting to see what you make of Anders over the next few episodes. I get the impression the writers had, "Erm, what can we do with this guy now?" issues with both him and a few other characters post-New Caprica.

I have a problem with BSG: amongst all the very obviously attractive women on the show (Six, Boomer, Starbuck etc) the ones I think nevertheless are the hawtest are Tory and Racetrack, who don't have a lot of screen time :-(

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Racetrack does look pretty hot, but we never see enough of her for me to properly assess her sex appeal. I like Kat better though, I have a thing for bad tempered curly haired brunette I guess.

Tory's pretty, but she rubs me wrongly for some reason, her character does, I mean.

[werthead.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but that last comment made me laugh :-D

I wasn't too sure about Kat until I saw this picture of her (with the actresses who play Seelix and Racetrack):

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/9/4/a/1/highres_218049.jpeg

Wowsers.

As for Leah Cairns:

http://www.thescifiworld.net/img/interviews/leah_cairns_03_big.jpg

Nice :-)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*inserts foot in mouth* wow even in my non native language I make those unintentionnaly inuendos! XDD

I wasn't too sure about Kat until I saw this picture of her (with the actresses who play Seelix and Racetrack):

There's only one right answer to this photos : start searching the threesome fanfics :p

As for Leah Cairns:
OMG, someone give that poor kid some food! Why are they letting her starve like this! ;_;
(which character is it?)

[werthead.livejournal.com]

Oh, Leah Cairns plays Racetrack (or Lt. Margaret Edmondson, to give her proper name), 90% of whose appearances are in a Raptor flightsuit and helmet so a lot of people don't recognise her. Her main claim to fame was going on the mission with Boomer to destroy thhe basestar just before Boomer shot Adama, and she's appeared on and off ever since. Because she's not a very major character the fans keep expecting her to get killed off (like Crashdown, who she basically replaced) but she's still around.

[rahael.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I loved the start of Season 3. I thought it was really brave and showed great patience - given the kind of commentaries people were making about cylons versus humans in S1-2. I think they were playing the long game in confounding ideas about what a 'benevolent occupation' would entail, and who was playing which role exactly....fiction shows reality as fleeting shadows..

Plus, as someone who has lived in "occupied" territories, it was kind of amazing to see mainstream tv reflecting my experience of life.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to know at least they hit the right tone in this for you.

What kind of commentaries do you mean?