TV Tyrant

Battlestar Galactica: Islanded in a Stream of Stars

March 7th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Mar
07

Poor Starbuck. Serves her right for trusting Gaius Baltar.

Oh, did I mention that spoilers abound? Read at your own risk.

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For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in a stream of stars – pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time.

That quote is from Henri Beston, from his book, “The Outermost House.”

It has such resonance for last night’s episode.

The Galactica is, itself, an island in the sea of stars, and also is islanded – stranded – in the sea of stars, as it has nowhere to go and is about to fall apart.

And they are “pilgrims of mortality,” with Starbuck the harbinger of death and, herself, dead. Or not.

OK, I have to tackle this episode character by character, as I usually do, or else my pea brain might just explode.

Boomer

I knew it. Boomer does actually love the Chief. Her pretend projected world on Picon was not just a ruse to mislead Tyrol. She loved him, dreamed up a whole place where she could be with him.

With no chance of ever being accepted back in the Fleet and no desire to truly be a part of the Cylon world, she created her own world. Eventually, seeing she had no chance to ever be with Tyrol (New Caprica pretty much solidified that for her), she decided if she was going to be a Cylon, she was going to be CYLON. She aligned herself with Cavil.

Still, she loves Tyrol. If she could be accepted as human again, she’d do it in a heartbeat. But she knows it’ll never happen.

And so she sees in Hera the child she never got to have with Tyrol. She didn’t want to, and that’s why she treated her like so much cargo. But in the end, she saw this child, this frightened child. And Hera knows that – so she calls to Boomer.

Cavil

I’m not exactly sure what he wants from Hera. Is he looking for a way to use Hera to unlock resurrection? To unlock procreation? As a tool? As a guinea pig to dissect?

By the way, wtf is that ship/facility that Cavil is in? Was that the ship the Final Five traveled in to find the 12 Colonies? Whatever it was, it was very cool. Read full story

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24: The two-hour extravaganza

March 6th, 2009 | by | 24

Mar
06

When I first heard Monday’s episode of 24 was giong to be two hours, I wondered why.

Well, after watching, it became obvious.

There was no freakin’ way that they could keep those two hours apart.

With one episode ending with Red Hot climbing up on a rocky embankment (which my erstwhile colleagues over at Blogs4Bauer pointed out bear absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the banks of the Potomac) and an attack on the White House imminent (by an underwater drill-in?), there was no way the legions of insane 24 fans could – possibly would – have waited another week to find out what happened.

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So, to recap what happened in these two hours:

A general/military dictator from some backwater HAS MANAGED TO BREAK INTO THE WHITE HOUSE AND CAPTURE THE PRESIDENT. And, even more shockingly, JACK BAUER.

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Lost: LaFleur

March 5th, 2009 | by | lost

Mar
05

First off, I just want to say this: Poor Juliet.

While I fully believed Jim (really? Jim? Sawyer’s so not a Jim) when he was telling Horace how he was over Kate and couldn’t even remember her face, you just knew the episode was ending with him finding out Kate was back on the island and that was all going out the door.

What is so frakkin’ amazing about Kate that makes the men flock to her? Juliet’s totally as badass and not nearly as self-conflicted. Being a brunette myself, I should feel more of a kinship to Kate, but I’m completely on Juliet’s side on this.

I can’t remember who said it (Steph, was it you?), but one of my friends in the past week wondered why Juliet is the woman everyone loves when Kate’s not around.

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Did I mention that spoilers abound? Continue at your own risk.

I loved the whole Three Years Earlier/Three Years Later aspect of tonight’s episode. I’ve grown so used to the back and forth in the episodes, from the flashbacks of the first couple seasons to the flash-forwards last season. And I loved how we got the Oceanic 6 one week, Locke the second week and then the folks still left on the island in this third week.

Speaking of, why the heck do we have to wait two weeks for the next ep? What’s up with that? Grr.

OK, so I’m not gonna recap so much as raise the issues that occurred to me:

• Sawyer was in FULL nickname mode tonight. When he called Faraday “Plato,” I almost fell off the sofa laughing. Brilliant.

• When Reiko Aylesworth was crying over her dead husband, I did, indeed, yell out, “So Tony really IS dead!”

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Life on Mars ending, Reaper beginning

March 3rd, 2009 | by | life on mars, ray wise, reaper

Mar
03

Got the bad news this a.m. that Life on Mars has been canceled by ABC.

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I’ve said before that the show’s totally worth watching just for Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli. I wish more people had given it a shot.

The good news, Variety says, is that ABC is going to air the show’s entire run, which entails 5 more episodes, so the show gets to wrap up properly. Site io9 says it will wrap up the rest of the series online, but I’m not clear on where that info comes from, now having read the Variety article (the link in my first sentence).

At least I’m getting back one of my other all-time favorite television characters tonight: Ray Wise as Satan in Reaper.

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In fact, one of my all-time favorite quotes (not just TV quotes, just quotes, period) emanated from his lips:

You’re just upset because you’re realizing the weakness of your species: The most untrustworthy and unreliable creatures on this earth. Except for bears.

He paused, ever so slightyl, before that last bit, and I guffawed when he said it.

Thank you, Ray Wise, for bringing a little laughter into my life each week. You are the BEST SATAN EVER.

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So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, Ed. 4.5.7

March 3rd, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, blog carnival, so say we all

Mar
03

And so we move one step closer to the end.

The fandom seems a bit split by Someone to Watch Over Me, with some believing it advanced our knowledge of what, exactly, is going on and others wondering what the frak they were watching. I started more in the camp of the latter, but with time and pondering, I’m more convinced that we learned a heckuva lot, though I’m still not sure exactly what.

OK, so I’ll just let you read what others had to say, in this week’s edition of the blog carnival:

First off, Tru presents BSG – 7 down, 3 to go posted at True Science Fiction. He points out that now Starbuck also has a head person, the piano player who may or may not be her father (but at the very least represents him). Does that mean she’s a hybrid?

Norman Doering presents Battlestar Galactica: “Someone to Watch Over Me” posted at A Blog from Hell. He outlines the two main storylines and has some interesting thoughts about the musical score and links to Bear McCreary’s excellent blog. As usual, Norman has some excellent turns of phrase, such as “exposition dump-itis.”

Ms. SP presents There’s a Somebody I’m Longing to See posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. She watched the episode a second time immediately after it ended its first run-through, even though she still isn’t quite sure what happened. But Starbuck and Tyrol, she realizes, were both faced with mirages.

Kenneth Hynek presents Someone to Watch Over Hera & Starbuck posted at Kenneth Hynek. All I can say is, wow. Lots of good stuff here, so here’s what he had to say by way of introduction: ” I was reminded, watching “Someone to Watch Over Me,” of an earlier “Starbuck“-themed episode, which (not coincidentally?) came near the end of one of the show’s seasons (its third). Of course, I’m speaking about “Maelstrom,” in which Kara has to confront one of her personal demons — her relationship with her mother — before she can pursue her destiny to its next stage. This episode puts her through a similar situation, albeit without the apparition of Leoben Conoy guiding her through it; this time, however, the demon she’s confronting is her relationship with her father. ”

Erika presents Battlestar Galactica – “Deadlock” posted at Seriality. She hated Deadlock, as did many in fandom, though I actually liked it. Her reasons are well spelled out, though. But one thing: The last 3 (D’Anna) decided to stay beind on the nuked Earth. She’s done. That was the last episode Lucy Lawless filmed.

Roberta presents BSG So Say We All Blog Carnival – I have a new theory! posted at CouchSlobs – A Monument To Human Idleness. Roberta is on the “Daniel is Starbuck’s father” train, and I’m with her.

Nina presents Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Epi. 17: Someone to Watch Over Me posted at Blog It Out Bitch. As usual, Nina points out some of the best lines in the episode, including Tigh’s oh-so-appropriate “What the frak?!” when Kara is playing The Final Four Theme (which Bear McCreary describes as pretty much All Along the Watchtower, but different).

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of so say we all using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Jericho update

March 2nd, 2009 | by | jericho

Mar
02

More hope that there could, indeed, be a Jericho movie.

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IGN reported today that there might indeed be a chance for us to see the Second American Civil War in action.

Karim Zriek and Dan Shotz said they’re definitely in talks/development for a movie about our favorite post-apocalyptic not-so-distant future, but that there will be an announcement VERY soon (maybe this coming week) about “another avenue” they’re going to use to “continue telling the Jericho story.”

My money’s on a comic book/graphic novel, as there’s been lots of chatter about that ever since Jericho was brought back the first time. But I’d be really happy for a movie. I wanna see Skeet (Ulrich) and Lennie (James) back in action, and that’d be awesome on the big screen (or small, if it’s a telemovie).

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Lost: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

March 1st, 2009 | by | lost

Mar
01

As usual, Lost left me almost more confused than before, while still answering a whole helluva lot of questions with this Locke-centered episode.

The main question it left me with was the same I’ve had since we first learned of the Ben/Widmore battle: Is Ben truly evil or does he honestly have the island’s best interests at heart?

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Hear me out: In order to get back to the island, they supposedly had to replicate the circumstances that led them there in the first place. And Jack had a coffin on the original trip, with his father in it. Didn’t someone have to be in a coffin? And didn’t Locke come back to life (or whatever kind of consciousness that is) on the island? And haven’t we been told we can’t change the past anyhow, so in some way that means you can’t change the future, everything is predestined, so didn’t Ben have to kill Locke?

Oh, and Ben didn’t seem to stop shooting at Locke & Abbadon after Abbadon was obviously dead. And I didn’t buy Ben’s explanation that Abbadon was evil. He seems to have never done anything other than try to get Locke to the island. I mean, working for Widmore, it seems that served his boss’ best interest to get Locke there, but it never seemed he wanted Locke dead.

Yeah, my head hurts, too.

I mean, everyone keeps saying the island wants Jack & Co. there. So, if Jack put himself in the right spot, same circumstances or not, wouldn’t the island find a way to snag him?

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