Saturday, March 21, 2009

Daybreak

I really ought to sleep and mull and then comment.

I really ought to.

In talking with fellow BSG fans pre-finale, we actually discovered how little mythology stuff actually needed to be answered (as compared to, say, Lost which has oh-so-much blank filling in to do and is actually doing it at a measured pace). We came down to three things, really.

1) WTF Kara Thrace.

2) WTF Gaius Baltar (and to that end, WTF Chip/Angel/Whatever Six and Chip/Angel/Whatever Baltar).

3) WTF Opera House.

And all three were certainly acknowledged and, to a certain extent, all three questions were answered. Even if that opera house thing felt like a MAJOR cheat, and the other two wound up in religious rumbling territory.

I love the twist that Tory's misdeeds basically sends things back to the shitter after things seemed to be on their way to peace (provided either side of the equation could trust each other... which they obviously couldn't... though the pre-Tory solution smacked of "this has all happened before and will happen again").

I need more time with the back half (or quarter, or whatever... the denouement) of the finale. Because it worked. It worked in tandem with the flashback stories that were inserted into the three-part finale. It worked as a message of hope. It even worked in connection, obviously, to our modern day world.

But it also didn't work.

I mean, the last two minutes alone (with Special Guest Star RDM) were just a horribly cheesy winkfest of "MESSAGE MESSAGE MESSAGE." And I think having that cheesy messagefelt actually tarnished my opinion of the series as a whole.

It also took away from one of the show's best major twists, IMHO, which was the fleet arriving at "Earth" and finding it desiccated. Such a cheat, reversing what was such an amazing shock to the senses and jolt to viewer expectations.

I definitely need to rewatch the denouement section to see where characters ended up and why... because certain things were definitely unclear (as stuff like Kara's instantaneous disappearance were probably meant to be).

And, not to skip over the first section of the finale... there were some MAJOR geography issues in that chaotic final battle. I mean, seriously. Who was where when and why... shrug? Especially the Helo of it all (I was really surprised to see him alive at the end... but more of a "hm, that seems unnecessary and yay he's alive, but um how?"

Finally... it was a lot happier an ending than I expected out of the show, given, um, the show. I don't know if it tonally fit (though, with the show as a barometer of current affairs... yeah, the whole ending with hope being realized was appropriate?)

There's plenty that I'm forgetting to complain about... and, really, you wouldn't get the sense from this post, but I did thoroughly enjoy it (more than I can say for the bulk of Season 4.5). The show needed to end. I'm glad it did. I'm just really not on board with all of the OMG OMG RDM GENIUS BEST THING EVER OMG OMG that I'm seeing / hearing.

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