My apologies for the boring introduction to the review!

Some History for the Series
The first season of Battlestar Galactica follows the survivors of a Cylon (robot) attack on the Twelve Colonies. The survivors are living in what is known as the “Fleet” – which is the logical name that they give to all of the spaceships that survived the attack and are carrying human passengers. The show stars Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama (and thus Commander of the Fleet) and Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin (President of the Colonies/Fleet). Jamie Bamber also stars as Olmos’ son, Captain Lee Adama (a fighter pilot) and Katie Sackhoff stars as Starbuck (another fighter pilot).

The first season follows right after the miniseries ends with the surviving humans (slightly less than 50,000) are on the search for a mythical place they know as Earth (yes, our Earth). The bulk of the series takes place on a ship called Battlestar Galactica which is an older type of warship that wasn’t affected by the robot attack due to its age. Commander Adama is prepping for retirement and getting his ship ready to become a museum.

Then the attacks hit and the series begins.

My Review
Now, lets get down to some business in terms of what I thought of the television series. I really enjoyed the first season. The best part of the first season was that when watching the episodes it seemed more like watching a prolonged movie and not your traditional television series. I like that. Of course you get all of the history talked about above in the first season, but you also get the progression of the main storyline – that the humans are running from the cylons and trying to find this mythical place called earth.

By the end of the season, the refugees haven’t found earth, but they have found a planet known as Kobol (or the place where humanity was said to have begun). It’s sort of an interesting twist on what one would expect as the payoff for the first season – look for earth, find a different planet, get attacked by the bad guys anyway.

The second season and third seasons become a little bit too episodic for my liking. I understand that this is a weird criticism for someone to report about a television series, but when one of the biggest draws of the first season is the feeling that you’re watching a prolonged movie, it’s a bit of a bummer when the following seasons begin to feel more like your traditional TV show. The other criticism that I have with the second and third seasons of the show is that many of the plots are retreads of earlier pieces of the series.

For example, how many times is there a mutiny (or mutiny-like event) declared where Admiral Adama has to retake control of the battlestar? Or how many times does Lee Adama have to reconcile with his father? Same deal with Starbuck and the Admiral. Then you have the constant battles for power in the colonial government where President Roslin is in charge, then unseated, then she becomes President again – I mean she even gets rid of her cancer before it comes back again! It began to wear on me as someone who was so impressed with the first season.

Then you have the occupation of the “New Caprica” planet first by the refugees and then by the cylons as invaders. I watched that part of the end of season two, the intervening webisodes, and the beginning of season three with a sort of “ehhh” attitude. I don’t know – it was just a bit tedious to watch when you consider that the first season was so well put together and that this is one of those traditional television series where the “good guys” are always going to win in the end (in fact, isn’t that the way with all TV shows?).

And although it began to make sense toward the end of the fourth season, I really didn’t like how the last five cylons wound up being such major players in the series (Col. Tigh? Really?). However, the fourth season really did a great job of tying up loose ends and the series finale was very well done.

If you get a chance to watch the miniseries or first few episodes of the first season, I would suggest giving it a shot. There’s probably not much value in watching a random episode in the second, third, or fourth seasons if you don’t really know anything about the series, but I reiterate that the series is definitely worth watching and the series finale is worth the time investment.

And for those of you who are a little down now that Battlestar Galactica is over, don’t worry. The spin-off series, Caprica, is coming soon!

I’ll put up a more thorough review of the entire series in the next few days, but I wanted to offer some quick comments on the finale itself.

• Endings: It was nice that all of the fans of the show were allowed to see the respective stories of each of the main characters come to a reasonable end. It can be assumed that General Adama spent the rest of his life living near to the grave of President Roslin, who we also saw enjoying her last few minutes of life. The sudden disappearance of Kara “Starbuck” Thrace was a little weird, but it speaks to the nature of her being nothing more than a ghost for the last season. Still weird.
• Connections to Today: I thought the writers added a nice touch by having the planet which the refugees finally landed on be our earth, but 150,000 years ago. And making Hera the “mitochondrial Eve” that made so many headlines a few years back was a nice spin, too. Also, it was a nice touch to have the angel versions of Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar walking around modern day earth with early versions of what could grow to be cylons as part of the backdrop.
• The End of the Cylon/Human War: The final battle between the Battlestar Galactica and the cylon colony base ship was well done and it looked great in high definition. Also, the way the “war” ended between the two civilizations (complete with the cylon leader blowing his head off) was a good way to end the constant conflict.

So that’s the quick and dirty review of tonight’s Battlestar Galactica series finale. All in all, a great show which answered all of the right questions. Sure, some people will want to know more about how the human refugees went from an extremely advanced civilization to essentially nomads and there might be an opportunity in the future to tell some of that story via a made-for-TV movie or maybe through some quick webisodes shorts or something. However, I think that most people will be content with what they saw and will be eager enough to see the coming made-for-TV movie “Battlestar Galactica: The Plan” this summer!

And for those of you who are a little down now that Battlestar Galactica is over, don’t worry. The spin-off series, Caprica, is coming soon!

I’ve watched a few episodes of Late Night and I think there are definitely some positive aspects of the show. For example, having The Roots as your house band is incredible. Also, Jimmy has been able to maintain a high quality list of guests for his first few days of the show and that’s pretty impressive.

One aspect of the show that seriously needs improvement, though, is Jimmy’s tone during the interviews. There are times when he’s talking to the guests where the volume of his voice lowers to a somewhat inaudible level. I don’t think it’s my television that is creating the awkward sound quality – I think it’s a fluctuation in Jimmy’s voice. All of that being said, let’s be real – if that’s the biggest complaint that I have right now with Late Night, then the show is doing pretty well!

All in all, Jimmy will probably do well with the show, but it’s likely that we’ll be seeing a much different product in another few weeks. That’s how these network television executives are with their new programming – put it on for a few weeks, change it up according to what the demos suggest is working, then crank it to the extreme.

The miniseries begins with the robots essentially going back on that promise and blowing up all of the humans (some 20 billion) except those who are in the Battlestar Galactica (which, incidentally, was about to be retired from the fleet) and other spaceships. The total number of humans up in the air during the attack and thus alive? A little less than 50,000. Going from 20 billion to less than 50,000 in one day is a pretty bad day on the battlefield, don’t you think?

Get that? The only humans remaining are those who are on the spaceships, which have now formed their own fleet and are desperately trying to avoid the robots so they can save our species. To avoid the robots, the humans use an FTL (faster than light) jump.

In order to form some type of respectable government, the politicians that are in space look to the senior-most official to assume the role of President. This happens to be the Secretary of Education which causes a great deal of angst among the hardened military officials who were literally minutes away from retirement before the robot attack. They don’t want to take orders from a glorified school teacher and can you blame them? The writers of the miniseries added a twist in this particular area by making President Roslin both the last remaining figure of governmental authority and diagnosing her with breast cancer. She, like the rest of the human species, is in literal race against the clock.

There are some interesting back-and-forth scenes between President Roslin (played by Mary McDonnell) and Commander Adama (played by Edward James Olmos). The first victory for the President is convincing the Commander that with almost the entire human race wiped out, the war is over and Battlestar Galactica needs to head into “save our asses!” mode. I made that phrase up, obviously.

The miniseries also has three other intriguing aspects. First, the robots have figured out how to look and act just like humans and they have spies planted on the ships. In fact, some of these spies may not even realize that they are robots until they are remotely activated. Second, these humans are not Earthlings. These people hail from an “earth” called Caprica and are part of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol (of which Earth is not a member). And the third, and related, intriguing aspect of this show is that some of the people up in space know about our Earth and think it is a legend. Nonetheless, the crew dedicates itself to finding Earth as the last hope to preserve the human species (though I assume that we’re all living pretty fine on Earth without these people).

The show was kind of fun to watch, but it had too much inside-speak for my liking. Maybe if I get a chance to watch it again I’ll understand more of what is going on during the show. If you’re into this sort of thing, then I would recommend giving this miniseries a shot; if not then I don’t think you’re missing too much in terms of pop culture by not watching! This miniseries served as the basis for the Battlestar Galactica show that is on the Sci Fi Channel now so you may want to catch a few episodes before you decide whether or not this is something that you’re interested in watching.

From this point forward, I don’t think I’m going to do episode reviews of the shows any more. The show just isn’t worth carving out free time on my Wednesday night to watch it. I’ll just start catching the online replays.

Poor Oliver Queen – he’s just trying to be the “good guy” in a bad place – literally stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. That’s not quite what Lois Lane thinks, though. This episode began with more reasons to believe that Smallville has the best wardrobe department in the history of television! As the cast attends a Luther fundraiser for Metropolis, the Green Arrow manages to swoop in and steal a necklace that Lionel gave to Martha.

First point – if Jonathon was still around, he wouldn’t have any of that shit.

But, after we watch this episode, the Arrow lets us know that the items he is stealing (including the necklace from Martha’s neck) have all be stolen from other countries and their rare collections. I won’t spoil the episode in terms of how this revelation comes about, but the story is mildly well-written, so be sure to catch a replay if you can.

This episode impacted the larger story in that Lex and Lionel test Lana’s loyalty to the Luther clan (sounds like a bad tongue twister). In addition, the Green Arrow finds out about Clark’s super powers and Clark finds out that the Green Arrow is actually Oliver Queen. That part of the episode is worth watching again – if just to see the veiled references to the future Justice League of America that these two help found.

All in all, a good episode – not the best one, but much better than some of the ones that we’ve had to suffer through over the last few years!

This is getting repetitive and old.

How did Locke end up in the jungle? Why was Desmond naked? Why did Boon show Locke all of these weird images in the airport? What did he mean by “No, not that one,” when Locke pointed at Ben? Etc, etc, etc…

If they don’t start answering some of the original questions from the first and second seasons (what IS that monster anyway?), then I might just relegate this show to something that I MUST watch…when the show is posted to the internet.

Blech.

That being said, I really don’t have too much to comment on the third episode, Wither. The ending was great with Clark sitting alone in his barn while all of the other major characters are getting some. It was actually the best written scene in the entire episode, I think – Clark just bouncing that ball against the wall all by himself. Poor guy.

Oh wait, he’s Superman.

As for the rest of the episode, well it wasn’t too too bad. It wasn’t really great, but it wasn’t really bad. Something about a tree woman who plants seeds inside of men just strikes me as overly hokey. Then again, I watch a show about a twenty-something Clark Kent…

The relationship between Lex and Lana seems forced (to me) at this stage. It was interesting before when it was new and taboo, but it really does seem like it’s a bit much. Lex undressing Lana in front of a fireplace at his mansion? Eh – Lana naked does it for me, not the whole forced romantic BS that the writers threw in there.

On the other hand, I am a fan of the Green Arrow and his relationship with Lois. Though I’m having trouble rectifying how a twenty-something Lois Lane and a twenty-something Clark can have such bland feelings towards each other now and eventually wind up wanting to pump each other. And with Chloe’s relationship – she really ought to be getting it on with Clark and not this photographer guy from the first or second season.

I would give this episode a C – it was very average. The ending, though, gets a strong B.

In the first episode we saw that the Others lived in a little suburban community in the middle of the jungle on the island. Well, where did that community go? The writers for Lost make you forget about that community in a number of ways in this episode. First, they re-introduce the Frenchwoman’s daughter, Alex, to us – even if she’s still supposed to be brainwashed by this mysterious cult of Others. Second, they put a not-so-bad relationship in the story between Kate and Sawyer, but this really isn’t the time to be talking about love on the island. Oh, and it’s completely unnatural given the situation (did we forget that these people were in a plane crash only a month ago?)…but then again I guess the entire situation is unnatural in itself.

Another way they make you forget about the tons and tons of questions that you probably have about the show is by throwing a random ending in there where Ben introduces himself, formally, to Jack. In one of the funniest moments that I’ve seen in Lost so far, Ben tells Jack that the Others have contact with the outside world and that since he’s been on the island, George Bush was re-elected and the Red Sox won the World Series. Jack starts cracking up at the thought of Boston winning the Series and Ben gets a little shocked because it’s the truth.

Quite frankly, I still don’t believe that the Red Sox won – especially when the Yankees had a 3 – 0 lead on them! But I digress…

Then Ben turns on a video and shows Jack what he’s missed in the outside world and Jack literally jumps up and watches the TV in amazement (as legions of Yankees fans around the world and I shook our heads in disbelief again at the fact that Boston won in 2004).

What I did like about this episode was that Alex was re-introduced as someone who seems to be working against the norms of the Others’ colony and apparently her boyfriend was the guy in the cage before Kate was in there. Ok. One question answered, I guess. I also liked that Ben said he had been on the island all of his life. That might be something that could answer the tons of questions that we all have about this show, like what the hell is going on here anyway and why are these Others after babies?

Oh, I thought I would just ask this one…anyone figure out why there are polar bears on the island yet? Ah – you all forgot about that, huh? There are polar bears on the island!

All in all, a decent episode. I wish it had a little more in terms of storytelling, but I’ll take Sun shooting some broad in the bottom of a boat any day of the week. Go download it off of iTunes if you missed it last night.

What I do know is that if this show doesn’t start giving real, concrete answers soon – I have better things to do on a Wednesday evening. Besides, why sit here and watch an hour-long show when I can just wait for it to come out on DVD or iTunes and not be bothered by go-nowhere episodes?

As for the season opener of Lost, I thought that they did a good job of explaining why the “Others” are on the island in the first place. But if they don’t tell us more about Ben and more about why Juliet had this book of Jack’s life, then there’s no reason to keep on watching the show. I mean we’re still waiting to know what the “monster” is on the island and just exactly what those numbers means (even though the word is that the meaning of those numbers was given away via an online “season” over the last few months).

The problem with Lost is that they are not answering existing questions and bringing resolution to issues; rather they are making us forget about questions by simply putting more questions in front of us that are slightly more intriguing. I will admit that opening Season 3 with the revelation that the Others lived in a quiet little suburbia in the middle of the island was intriguing, but what’s the deal with putting Jack in a shark tank and Kate and Sawyer in cages? I mean come on already – throw us a friggin bone!

In short, this was a good opening episode for Lost. It was very Lost-like in that it didn’t give you what you wanted to know but made you ask a lot more questions than you already were asking.