TV Tyrant

Dollhouse: Galactica?

August 7th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, dollhouse

Aug
07

It was rather shocking to most, not least of all Joss Whedon, when Fox picked Dollhouse up for a second season.

Dollhouse

It never really got the ratings needed to get picked up. They weren’t soooo far off, however, so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that it wouldn’t be picked up. It’s just that shows in this situation usually don’t. I think Fox was being penitent for having killed Firefly years ago.

We hadn’t watched it from the start, but had six or eight episodes already on our DVR by the time we started watching.

We plowed through them, and I was glad we watched it that way.

The first couple of episodes had a lot of background to lay down. Instead of having to wait weeks to start picking up the pace, we got there in a couple of nights.

Part of what started getting really good was Tahmoh Penikett’s character, the FBI agent, whose obsession with The Dollhouse began to ruin his career. He didn’t have the support of his co-workers and superiors, and he, eventually, is suspended.

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Penikett is a personal favorite of mine, having portrayed Helo on the late lamented Battlestar Galactica. So imagine how pleased I was when I found out through an article by my friend, Jennifer Wagner, that not one, but two other BSG veterans would be making appearances on Dollhouse in its surprise second season.

Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama) and Michael Hogan (Col. Saul Tigh) will have guest spots this season.

Joss Whedon had this interview with Access Hollywood to talk, in part about Bamber’s stint on the show. Apparently, it was the mutual admiration society.

As well it should be.

I’m loving the DNA mixing between my favorite shows. This can only result in great things.

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24, Lost – the most addictive shows of all time

July 23rd, 2009 | by | 24, battlestar galactica, csi, doctor who, friends, heroes, jack bauer, lost, prison break, sex and the city, the sopranos, the wire

Jul
23

Confirming what most TV hounds already knew, 24 and Lost topped the list of LoveFilm.com’s most addictive television shows of all time.

Now, some might say that Lost is more addictive, and I can see that point to a degree. After all, 24 and Lost are my two favorite shows, now that Battlestar Galactica‘s off the air (still looking forward to The Plan this fall, though!)

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But where Lost is addictive for that hugely mystifying secret that lies beneath it all, carrying its fans from season to season, with the promise of wrapping it all up next year, 24 is more or less a big blast of televised heroin (a drug that, coincidentally, Jack Bauer was addicted to briefly in Season 3). No matter how much you tell yourself you’re going to stop watching, you just have to check it out one more time, just one more time. (See also: Lays Potato Chips.)

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I heart Callum Keith Rennie

June 29th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, callum keith rennie, harper's island

Jun
29

I first “met” this actor in Battlestar Galactica, in the pilot episode.

He played Leoben Conoy, trapped with Cmdr. Adama until he’s found out to be a Cylon and killed by the commander’s hand, in the pilot miniseries.

TIFF 2007 Portrait Session For Normal

We saw him again, now and then, over the course of the first couple of seasons, but really got to know him in Season 3, when he kept Kara captive in an apartment designed to look like hers back on Caprica. She kills him over and over and over again, and he just is reborn and goes back to her – with full knowledge of her murder of him.

By Season 4, he was full fledged crazy, but cool, convinced Kara was the answer to the question of life the universe and everything – and the question wasn’t “What is six times nine?”

I’d never seen Rennie before, but then I saw him again in one of the few almost decent episodes of the Bionic Woman remake. He was in an episode of Supernatural, which I just caught up on over the fall. He’s been in this, that and the other thing.

Then, just two weekends ago, he shows up in the very last minute of Harper’s Island, playing the really bad John Wakefield. He did it so well that I didn’t even recognize him until my husband pointed it out, as we were watching “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”

I was stunned at how crappy this film was. And that Rennie was playing some menacing guy with a bad Russian accent.

Oh, Callum, how could you do this to me?

OK, it’s not your fault, really. I’m sure you agreed to do the film before you realized how awful it would be and then just didn’t want to go back on your word. Right?

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Battlestar Galactica: Classic v. Re-imagined

June 10th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Jun
10

I’ve been thinking altogether too much about Battlestar Galactica lately. Not sure why.

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Maybe because news has come out about The Plan telemovie. Maybe because Katee Sackhoff was cast in Season 8 of 24. Maybe because the Season 4.5 DVD drops next month. Maybe because I have the Caprica DVD sitting on the piano, mocking me for not having watched it yet.

Maybe just because I haven’t been able to cope with the fact that the series is over and it was just that frakkin’ good.

But I was thinking to myself about all the ways the new series was better than the old, and I realized that the old series doesn’t quite get its due among fans of the reimagining.

So I thought I’d do an old-fashioned matchup and see how the two stack up:

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24 + Battlestar Galactica = Awesome

June 8th, 2009 | by | 24, battlestar galactica

Jun
08

It’s almost as if the Television Gods looked down upon Earth, said, “What casting decision could we make that would thrill Amy Vernon like no other?”

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Katee Sackhoff is joining the cast of 24 as a regular for Season 8.

Let me repeat: Kara “Starbuck” Thrace is going to be a CTU data analyst in the reconstituted CTU in New York City for Day 8.

Yes, I am getting a mashup of 24 and Battlestar Galactica. I’m the luckiest girl in the world!

Here’s what Michael Ausiello had to say:

Sources confirm to me exclusively that the Battlestar Galactica heroine has been tapped to play the series regular role of Dana Walsh, a highly respected and down-to-earth data analyst at the new and improved New York branch of CTU.

…

She’s in a relationship with fellow agent Davis Cole (played by the just-cast Freddie Prinze. Jr.), and she apparently has a skeleton in her closet she’s trying desperately to keep hidden.

Just wondering: Does CTU ever hire anyone who doesn’t have some sort of secret they’re desperately trying to hide? Remember Erin Driscoll’s schizo daughter?

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Battlestar Galactica: Eagerly awaiting The Plan

June 8th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, telemovie

Jun
08

I’ve not ended the So Say We All blog carnival for simply one reason: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan – the BSG telemovie – airs in September and from what I read this weekend on SciFi Wire, it’s gonna be amazing.

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It’s written by Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos and it’s not exactly a secret what it’s about: It’s the Cylon perspective on basically the entire series. How and why the Cylons did what they did.

I think it’s a brilliant move because we pretty much were conditioned to believe the Cylons were just bad, unfeeling machines. Sure, they were given more humanity than the original BSG allowed, but in the end, they were bent on the destruction of humanity and, being human, that didn’t go over too well with us, the viewers.

Lest we forget, it was humanity who made the first move, by making slaves out of the machines. (I have the Caprica miniseries on DVD, by the way, and just haven’t had a chance to watch it. I’m hoping the slow summer season gives me the opportunity to watch it and finish Season 1 of Torchwood, too, but that’s another story for another day.)

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Battlestar Galactica: It’s all over (sniff)

April 6th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Apr
06

I’ve had a very hard time blogging about the incredible finale of Battlestar Galactica, as most of you have likely noticed. (Not that Adam and Rickey have been harassing me about it. Not at all, not one little bit.)

But I truly think the finale ranks up there with the great series finales of all time, exemplified best in recent television history by The Wire and Six Feet Under.

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I still hardly know how to approach looking at the finale, so I thought I’d actually start with what I thought were the problems with it:

• Daniel was a red herring. No answer as to whether Daniel truly was Starbuck’s father and WHY she came back as an “angel” and why she was connected to “All Along the Watchtower.” (An interesting thought, though – the song was among the things that have happened before and will happen again, as Anders composed it way back on Earth, Starbuck’s father played it for her and it became popular on “our” Earth many thousands of years later.

• Who inspired the design/personality of the other Cylons? I’d have loved to have known more about Leoben and Sharon and Six and D’Anna and Simon and Aaron. We know Cavil was made in Ellen’s father’s image. And I’m fascinated that Six was one of the “angels” and so how did the Cylon model Six come to be made in that image?

• Why was Gaius an “angel”? How did he come to be born in that body? Was he truly a full human?

Those are all relatively minor issues, however.

So let’s look at how it all came to an end:

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So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, Ed. 4.5.9

March 17th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, blog carnival, so say we all

Mar
17

Everyone, it seems, felt as if they were in a holding pattern this week, with a really good ep of Battlestar Galactica that was totally just the first hour of the end, and answered really nothing at all.

The biggest question seemed to be what the point of the flashbacks was, though the consensus was that they were quite good, whether or not they were necessary.

I would like to make this comment about the Baltar flashbacks – I think that Caprica Six was so solicitus toward Julius Baltar for more than one reason. I think she saw solving that problem as a way to get on Gaius’ good side, and that was vital. But she was, indeed, taken with Julius, despite his crudeness. Was it a matter of having a respect for one’s parents, parents whom Six did not know but, somehow, deep down, knew she had and had respect for?

Or, and this is TOTALLY speculative and I have no reason to think it other than I’m trying to figure it all out, is Julius some frakked up version of Daniel and Six knows on some level that he’s important and should be taken care of? There’s been some speculation in the blogosphere that Kara and Gaius could be brother and sister, both children of Daniel. I find it hard to believe that Julius could actually be Daniel, but don’t forget that Daniel disappeared from Kara’s life when she was quite young, and there were multiple copies of all the “new” skinjobs.

There are a zillion reasons none of this makes sense, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the broader scope of BSG.

Oh, and just one more thing: way back when, Ron Moore told Mo Ryan that the ruined Earth WAS indeed our Earth. Not some other Earth. It’s Earth. There’s no Earth they’re suddenly going to discover.

They have found Earth. This is the Earth that the 13th Colony discovered, they christened it Earth. They found Earth.

And with that, I give you the penultimate So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

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So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, Ed. 4.5.8

March 10th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, blog carnival, so say we all

Mar
10

I just realized the other day that I am going to MISS the final two hours of Battlestar Galactica when it airs because I’m going to be on an airplane to Italy.

Yeah, you read right. And the way Hulu’s been airing the last few episodes, they’re not available online for eight days after the original airdate. So what does that mean? Well, it could actually mean no BSG blog from me for more than a week after the LAST TWO HOURS EVER of Battlestar Galactica airs.

It’s like a cosmic joke being played on me. Sigh. I know, I really have no right to complain, it’s not as if I’m going to prison or, say, Des Moines, but still …

Anyway, this episode had mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed liked appreciated it. It’s hard to say I enjoyed or liked something that was so gut-wrenching, but I definitely appreciated it.

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So, after the jump, the entries: Read full story

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