Monday, March 23, 2009

Quick Thoughts on the Finale of BSG

Warning: Spoilers
(spoilage factor: about the same as food in the backpacks of the colonists in the heat of... oh, well, that'd be a spoiler, wouldn't it?)

It was alright but not great.

I saw the first run of the finale Friday evening on Space, and then again this afternoon when the channel re-ran it.

The mysticism didn't impress me. And before you get protesting that BSG was full of religion, let me point out that it's one thing for a show to portray a culture that has a regligion or a couple of religions, and quite another for mysticism to factor into the resolution of the plot. The whole "God wanted it that way", the Kara nonsense, and the casual acceptance of the miraculous same-ness of the local humanoids was cheap and unnecessary.

And then there was the giving up of the technolgocially-enabled life for facing down hungry predators of unknown size and cunning, not to mention potentially hostile native humanoids? Uh-huh.

And then there was the outcome of the final battle itself. I don't want to come off as bloodthirsty, but that was way too much of a complete victory for the Colonials. Cue the prolonged happy ending.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the finale. There was some good character development (especially in the form of some of the flashbacks), and the battles (space-based and aboard the Cylon colony) were pretty cool and had me on the edge of my seat.

But at the end of it all, I wasn't left sitting there stunned. While I was somewhat emotionally engaged, I wasn't emotionally spent by the end of it like a show of this calibre with an ending of this scale should have left me.

More later.

No comments: