I guess I am the exception. I’m not wetting my pants over the series as many are. I purchased the season 1 and 2.0 boxes but I think I will skip the rest. A while back I would have also posted a five star review. Having seen one-and-a-half seasons, I am generally about as annoyed as I am entertained or inspired. The series is all about style and is just so completely thin on substance. I call the new Battlestar Galactica (BG), “FTV sci-fi” (Fashion TV). There is definitely plenty to like about the show as its broad appeal demonstrates. I suggest, however, that people are so excited over BG as compared to the incredible amount of crap on TV today. I too was initially very excited with the series. It is well filmed and directed and pleasing to the eye.

Each and every character is significantly more well-rounded than the one-dimensional TV characters that are so common, but not that much more so. What I mean is that characters don’t fall into the traditional politically and morally correct molds. For example, Laura Roslin is the even-tempered thoughtful leader and yet she surprisingly executes the enemy without batting an eye. But, once these character surprises are revealed, the characters are quite predictable as any other TV character is, just in the opposite way. That is to say, the producers of the show very simply have characters behave against the common TV stereotypes. But, that does not make for actually well-rounded complex characters as many have suggested. I too was pleasantly surprised at the change, but because they are not actually rounded characters along the lines of FireFly, this initial appeal wore off for me.

There is also an excellent teen-aged “Smallville”-type soap opera plot which I too found very appealing to start. That said, there were also some interesting and fun plots/episodes. However, I find most of the episodes don’t stand up at all to any kind of plausibility. It’s sort of like watching a James Bond flick: don’t question why Bond is not simply shot in the head; just go with it and have fun. By this I do not mean a geeky hyper-analysis of scientific minutiae. There is no alternate world vision. It is very much a 1990s TV drama set on a US aircraft carrier. Try it–call it the USS Galactica and set the fleet in the Pacific in 1943. The whole show still works. In “Pegasus”, Adama shakes hands with Admiral Cain and they do it horizontally as opposed to vertically. This and about five other discrete items differentiates the world of BG from our own. There was such an opportunity missed to present really interesting plots related to the nature of human beings and artificial intelligence.

Apparently, these humans are an advanced space-faring race capable of creating profoundly advanced artificial intelligence, but the entire body of technology of their society is rooted in 1965. If you found the original BG series corny with their computers as a bank of flashing lights, the new series is an updated version of the exact same thing. Personally, I don’t like the attempt at manipulation and speaks to my previous comment of style over substance. The suspension of disbelief required is quite profound. Really, the one and only aspect of the show that has anything remotely to do with science fiction is that everyone is riding on spaceships. If this is not a problem for you, then more power to you. Personally, because of the “falseness” of the show, the style lost its appeal for me by the end of season one. And then, I just became annoyed with the pretense of it all.

A lot of what I just said is rooted, I think, to a personal psychology behind this series. If you listen to the producer/writer commentaries, there is definitely something going on here. One of the producers was a former producer for Star Trek the Next Generation. The commentaries drone on and on about how this show is not Star Trek. In terms of style, the show tries to present itself with an “Alien” (Sigourney Weaver) grittiness as opposed to the antiseptic feel of Star Trek. But, it doesn’t wash. It is a very false and veiled maneuver at budgeting. Whatever one might think of Star Trek, it did present a world vision where technology has solved the day-to-day needs of mankind, allowing a unified and unprejudiced mankind to concentrate on bigger and better things. The commentaries repeatedly speak of an intentional lack of techno-babble. I find the producers disingenuous as their comments clearly show a lack of vision and knowledge. That they are Hollywood hacks really comes across strongly, such that anything that might require a little more thought or effort to understand is just ignored. Listening to them speak, I couldn’t help but think of Paris Hilton. And yet, at the same time, several times the producers express their pride at the scientific realism of the show, such as how the Vipers move in space and the documentary style footage of space-action sequences. In that case, even a rudimentary geeky critical look at the realism of the show demonstrates that apart from Vipers flipping end for end, there is absolutely not a single thing in the show that is scientifically plausible. I’m not sure what the producers are so proud of.

Politics is not very subtle in the show. BG is quite allegorical. Just remove the phrase “the Colonies” and replace it with “the United States” and everything fits precisely, including folding of flags. The over-confident “colonials” are all but wiped out by the Cylons. Several times it is explained that the Cylons are of the colonials own making and that all of this is the colonials own fault. Sound familiar? The Cylons’ genocide of the human race is several times justified as horrible but understandable. Sound familiar? There are typical scenes of mistreatment of Cylon prisoners by colonials whose unjustified and uncivilized behavior are emphasized at length. Whereas, the entire genocide of the human race and continual shredding of individual colonials by Cylon centurions is glossed over. There is a continual and underlying sentiment that the colonials had all this coming. The parallels between the US and the Islamic world is quite obvious. From what I can see from the WebEpisodes, the colonials take on the role of Palestinians and the Cylons of oppressive Israelis in the occupation of New Caprica. The not at all subtle point is made such that the colonials actions inline with current Palestinian actions become justifiable now that the shoe is on the other foot. Where the show’s sympathies lay is quite evident and understandable taking into account that the producers are British Hollywood types. If your politics are right of center, you will be very annoyed. If your politics are left of center, the show should be right in line with your thinking.

In terms of value, the DVD sets suck. I think the point has been made regarding the splitting of season two into two parts. I would note that suddenly a “season” has now been cut down again to 20 episodes from 22. Episodes are cut down a lot with so much recapping. It is almost a half-hour show instead of one hour. There is the plot recap, then the explanation of Cylons recap and then the show’s theme. Again, if you listen to the commentaries, the producers are very concerned about minimizing channel surfers’ confusion should they fall upon the show. I like the thin individual cases for the DVDs. The menus are confusing and not agile. The box is simple and made of thin cardboard; not at all durable. All-in-all the entire physical product is an exercise in cost-cutting and profit maximization. I rate the value of the DVD sets quite low.

In summary, yeah BG is a much better show than most of the reality junk out on TV now, but in my opinion it is hardly this great piece of fiction to get so excited over, especially for the price. I think my post has very much to do with the type of person one is. If you are more impressed with a person because they look good and dress well, you ought to love the show. If you are much more interested in what a person has to say, you will initially be turned on by the show’s excellent good looks, but quickly lose interest once you see that there is nothing underneath. If you are annoyed with the show’s childish attempt at allegory or its political slant, then you will be annoyed. From start to end, I find the whole show and its marketing one continual and organized attempt at manipulation. I don’t like how all the people involved with the show look down upon me, the consumer and viewer. I choose to vote with my pocketbook and not buy the series.

I would love to review this product and do so fairly but since I placed the order October 3, 2006 I still have not recieved it!!!!!!!!!!!! Piss poor cutomer service e-mail system prevents me from sending an order specific mail. Shame on you Amazon.