{"id":775,"date":"2009-03-22T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/blog\/?p=775"},"modified":"2009-03-21T22:56:49","modified_gmt":"2009-03-22T03:56:49","slug":"sail-on-battlestar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/reviews\/sail-on-battlestar\/","title":{"rendered":"Sail On, Battlestar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Society has a different inner voice; one that sounds more like Nickelodean<\/em> or Michael Bay and less like Heroditus or Adam Smith. That, in the end, is likely why Battlestar<\/em> Galactica<\/em> was canceled and aired its final episode this past Friday with such an ending that it would ensure\u2014amidst the regret of seeing such a show go by those who got it\u2014no DVD’s, no movies and no sequels. (Any subsequent stories should rightly occur before the events that transpired in this episode and not after.)<\/p>\n

The reason is not that complex but it will take Battlestar<\/em> Galactica<\/em> spoilers which will occur after the jump.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Battlestar<\/em> Galactica<\/em> was ambitious. From the very outset the writers and producers wanted a show that approached the emotional level of a Grecian Tragedy, the introspection of philosophy, the nature of religion and the complexity of character, usually found in a novel, during a one hour block of television.<\/p>\n

They wanted the voice of a book on the home screen; they didn’t hold back<\/p>\n

If the story arc demanded that they would jump ahead several months, fine. Several years, okay. As long as they could crank up the pressure on the characters and provide a story of humans forced to ask questions regarding the nature of humanity, the producers were fine with it.<\/p>\n

This entire season, in fact, has been building up to this “opera house” of an ending\u2014yet people forget that Opera’s, like books, aren’t known merely for their gorgeous sets and powerful climax; but also the denouement.<\/p>\n

After a high paced first hour and fifteen minutes of a horrifying war where the core characters are, for all intents and purposes, doomed; the show goes on for another (I thought beautiful and necessary) forty five minutes of closing story lines.<\/p>\n

We really get to see the hand of God in play, but not in the awful Deus ex machine sort of way. God, the story long said, has been involved from the very beginning. But how is it possible among such catastrophe, such pain, and such senseless s death?<\/p>\n

Death-defying characters find peace by having had died already; their contribution is finally selfless instead of selfish.Characters that threw themselves into action finally sat down, breathed, and watched a sunset. Characters that spent their time rubbing shoulders with others, or in anguish over desires for others, finds peace by going off\u2014away from others\u2014and enjoying it. A character that lied about his past, changed his\u00a0 accent and denied his roots\u2014this one made me cried\u2014admitted that he identified \u201cgreat soil for cultivation\u201d, that he was indeed the same individual from his past (while cracking to weep); and was thusly embraced by the love of his life.<\/p>\n

Her response: “I know Gaius. I always knew.”<\/p>\n

The show closed with our world, repeating the cycle of ancient Caprica and Earth, Godless and making robots in man’s own image. Will it all have changed? The writers don’t tell us. Sometimes, they suggest, small variations make big changes.<\/p>\n

It’s the type of ending, with such heart-felt tying of character threads and such opening question of the future (being our today) that forces us to say “yeah, the show has made its point.”<\/p>\n

As the curtain closes on this chapter of television history, one can hope that the cycle of near slap-stick television can be broken by the contributions of shows like Battlestar Galactica<\/em>. Television that reaches above itself and tries to think differently.<\/p>\n

Well, I can’t answer that question; but I do raise my glass to these writers. Great job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Society has a different inner voice; one that sounds more like Nickelodean or Michael Bay and less like Heroditus or Adam Smith. That, in the end, is likely why Battlestar Galactica was canceled and aired its final episode this past Friday with such an ending that it would ensure\u2014amidst the regret of seeing such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[280,277,279,278,282,281,116],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-adama","tag-battlestar-galactica","tag-cylons","tag-finale","tag-kara-thrace","tag-starbuck","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rreynoso.com\/reysapoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}