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Time Names Battlestar Galactica Show Of The Year
szyzyg writes "Time Magazine's Television Critic James Poniewozik has put Battlestar Galactica at the top of his list of the Best TV Shows from 2005. His summary starts off 'Most of you probably think this entry has got to be a joke. The rest of you have actually watched the show.'"
6 out of 10 shows on the list are cable/satellite only and of those, 2 are on pay channels only. Can the big networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC compete anymore? It seems like the talent has moved elsewhere and the big three are caving in under their own weight.
http://religiousfreaks.com/Because it has Grace Park, need I say more?!?!?!
Ever see the first season of the simpsons? That was aweful to look at, but I think a lot of what a show offers is measured in potential also. It might not have many of those bad qualities you described as it progresses and the team gains experience.
Attention authors of lesbian slash fanfic, that is not an invitation to depict... or is it?
I love this show. Battlestar is the only show in the last 10 years I have watched every episode of. It was disappointing to see mini-series + 13 episodes being season 1 then only getting 10 more for season 2.0. I really hope they get some budgeting to do more episodes now.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
This is definately a pleasant suprise - I personally think that Battlestar Galactica was remade with class, care and just the right ammount of respect. The show neither attempted to please everyone like so many do (then fall on their faces as bland clones), nor did it attempt to remain 100% true to the original and thus dated itself. It was a well deserved award, for a good peice of science fiction.
...that it probably is the best TV show. Have you seen the other stuff - at least the ones that men can watch? The only other good shows I can think of in the US market are "reality" Discovery shows like Mythbusters, Monster Garage and the one where they build custom motorcycles (and I am not a gearhead at all but there is something satisfying about watching someone create a machine by hand).
The Simpsons went downhill after Conan left and they shipped all their animation to Asia.
Uh...Season 2 has 20 episodes. They started on the second season so soon after 1 that there needed to be a break to catch up.
Have you been watching TV recently? Tell me a show that's better than Battlestar Galactica, because i sure can't think of one.
Sure there are a few retarded episodes, and a few annoying holes in the storyline, but I think they've done a superb job with the remake.
And yet with all these problems it's still a lot better than 99% of the crap on TV.
Hell you wanna see bad? just watch 24 or Lost...
Congratulations to the whole team at BSG!
I know that. They are selling it as 2.0 and didn't even show reruns after the first 10 airings. Other shows like 'Lost' got 25 in the first season. Battlestar got 13.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
Where's Lost? That's another great show! :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Season 2.0 is the first half of Season 2. They just called it that for the DVD's so they could get more of your money faster.
I'm surprised that neither Stargate SG-1 nor Atlantis are on the list.
Personally, Stargate beats BSG anyday.
I thought it would stink when I read about the changes they had made to the original such as making Starbuck a woman, but it has turned out to be pretty good overall. There are a few things I wish they hadn't changed. There was something I like about those polished chrome Cylons, and the old fighters. (Both Cylon and Colonia)
And after watching the original series again for the first time in over 20 years, it wasn't nearly as good as I remember - even the first season before it started going south. (I won't even mention Galactica 1980) I was only 12 or so at the time the originals came out, so my standards in entertainment were probably lower. On a negative note, I would swear both original and new series must have been sponsored by a tobacco company.
I hope next season will be still showing on weekends in HD.
I wonder when the six million dollar man remake comes out?
My rights don't need management.
Andromeda was: Not released in 2005. (In my view) poorly acted. Attempted to be what so many science fiction shows try, which is appealing to "the common American", who doesn't tend to watch science fiction anyway, rather than being a decent, realistic show. Not released in 2005! Don't get me wrong, I liked Andromeda, but I'm under no illusions - it was a formulaic science fiction, watched for a bit of fun, with no real merit to it. I can name off the top of my head at least 5 better mainstream science fiction series (in the same sub-genre of space/futuristic), and as there aren't many science fiction shows of that type... It doesn't bode well for Andromeda.
Numb3rs? As far as sci-fi, I'm with ya, but the pickin's are slim in general. I'm trying to think of other new shows and I'm failing. Bunch of reality tv crap, and interminable crime scene investigations where the CSI guys aren't dorky pale geeks who never leave the lab, but instead tanned field agents who run down suspects and shoot people and crap.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I also hope they get more episodes for the next season. Ten eps left me feeling a bit wanting at the end. I'm glad the SciFi channel is starting to get some recognition for their attention to detail and great writing for this series.
I've seen every BSG episode, old and new, and I don't want the show to suck. I'm waiting for the day they fix the acting and writing. But I'll probably be waiting forever.
Shakey-cam is because the show is supposed to be done in a pseudo-documentary style, not because the cameramen are stuipd ;)
what are you high? has that little annoying bitch of an AI re-programmed you?....andromeda....better than BSG....your crazy imao
http://www.thebesttrek.net/forum/index.php - visit my FORUM
Both seasons of Galactica have been great. The second season has been extremely good. Better than the first season. There have been some episodes that are just amazing.
Absolutely the best show on. House would be my number 2.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
He writes: "The basic-cable budget sometimes shows in the production..."
Um... seriously, where did he see this?
24 should be there. It is a great show. (Does Fox count as a big network?)
Religion and politics, without the flame. godgab.org
Ignore the blasphemer. Battlestar Galactica is the best TV show that I've seen in years. If you haven't seen the show yet, you should. You will need to start from the first episode, though, since the show actually has an ongoing plot.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
I had never seen the show. Thought that remakes of pedestrian 70's shows and sci-fi channels universally shabby line-up and platinum-blond cylons meant this show would suck hard. I was wrong. BSG is what would happen if Steven Bochco or David E Kelly decided to do sci-fi. Fine dramatic episodic TV with character arcs that would span months or even years. And the back story of the sucky original actually makes a perfect stage for current events lessons without being Star Trek preachy (or so obvious since they had to cram everything down you throught in a single episode). I must eat my words. There may be hope for the sci-fi channel other than as an outlet for crappy action with poor production values and pseudo science masquerading as thoughtful sci-fi.
Lost and 24 are both missing, and they are both most-excellent shows
ROCKS. Man, that show is funny. Every character is fleshed out well, unique, and humorous. Dwight Schrute.... LMFAO. If you are a British-comedy snob and refuse to watch the American version... your loss.
Oh I know you ain't hatin' on BSG!
No seriously... best all around television sci-fi in the last 15 years hands down. I would lean toward Firefly... but obviously it lacked staying power.
Obligatory Joe Dirt Quote--
"You guys got somethin' to say to me? Why don't you say it in the microphone. I got a backup mike right here. Check one two, testing, testing. Yup, they both working and guess what? they don't like no feed back, what's up?"
Every single Episode of "Andromeda" wipes the floor with the whole Battlestar Craptica crap.
There isn't an episonde of Andromeda past the first season and a half that can compete with BSG. If you didn't notice, once Wolfe left(or was forced out, depending on who you believe,) the show basically became "Hercules in Space."
The over abundance of these idiotic "reality" shows is just completely out of hand. I don't even turn on network TV anymore except for a vanishingly small number of shows (Boston Legal, NCIS, CSI, 24). At the current rate of degradation, I figure I can write off traditional network TV entirely in another couple of years.
C'mon. Prison Break?
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Tell me about it. This show is one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever seen (as is most 'Sci-Fi' on the Sci-Fi channel). It's selection is very telling about the competition it has. My wife and I watch very little television anymore because it's rapidly losing it's appeal as a form of entertainment. The television and film mediums have really got to get out of the sequelitis hole they've dug themselves - it's kicking their ass. Everything's either a rehash, a 'reimagined' approach to an old series, or a knockoff on someone else's successful idea.
Shouldn't all 10 entries be "reality TV". With the way all the networks push this type of show, you'd expect them to be absolute chart-toppers. Shouldn't a show like "Who Wants To Eat A Bug" (aka "Fear Factor") be at #1?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
By the Gods of Cobol! There's an infiltrator in our midst!
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
The Office was a good choice, though.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
OK, so the standards are low. But that's showbiz.
6 is on Tripping the Rift another fine show. And being animated, there is physical limit to what she can do.
Tell me a show that's better than Battlestar Galactica, because i sure can't think of one.
:) Mckay rocks... he's like a whiny arrogant Spock..
Stargate Atlantis
seriously though... I've been watching Galactica to try and figure out what it is I don't get that everyone else does... but I don't understand what's so great and that all of geek-dom is lauding this as the next Firefly... And what's not so great about Stargate Atlantis that it hasn't made the cut?
i'm not trying to start a flame-war... I honestly want to know the right mindset to appreciate Galactica and it's airplane-style-flyin spaceships and odd notions that water is scarce in the universe but bullets are plentiful...
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
No Arrested Development? It's the funniest and most clever sitcom I've seen for many years, but, sadly, it just doesn't get the public recognition it deserves.
At least 24 or lost don't have dubious (ham handed attempts to deal with or to set forth, I couldn't figure out which) social agendas or try to appeal to the "enlightenment" crowd. Mind you I'd still watch it for that asian chick, my god I'd hit that like a bag full of hammers. Heres the penthouse pic for those with a pulse.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Here, some of the best moments--the real high points of the show--occur when people's non-verbal reactions are highlighted by judicious use of close-up or shifting of perspective. You get to watch people make bad decisions on the basis of their emotional reactions at the same time that you sympathize with them, or at least understand why they feel they have to act as they do. It doesn't always hit the mark, but when it does, I think, it's better than anything else on TV.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Simpsons did get stronger in two ways over time — writing and the quality of art — but it was not necessarily desirable for it to do that rapidly. The Simpsons began (in animated form) as a short on the Tracey Ullman Show and it was "low-quality" by necessity. There simply was not enough time and money to make a more highly finished product. The first season can be seen as a bridge between the Simpsons shorts, and the final product. The Simpsons began with a strong fan base, primarily those who were already Groening fans after either growing up with or at least repeatedly experiencing his best-known comic, Life In Hell.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I wonder when the six million dollar man remake comes out?
We can rebuild him.
illegitimii non ingravare
Ever see the first season of the simpsons? That was aweful to look at, but I think a lot of what a show offers is measured in potential also.
They're on season 3. The show is what it is.
I agree that the "documentary" film style (which was already done, and better, on Firefly) does get kind of distracting sometimes, especially during moments of weaker dialog, but once the main action sequences get rolling, I tend to not notice, as I get wrapped up in the scene. TMMV
On the whole, I think Galactica is a very fun show... but I don't see how you could call it the best show on TV when "House" and "Lost" are on the air.
Still... Grace Park is indeed a hottie.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
The finest pair of performers since Uncle Miltie's falsies!
.nosig
"They are selling it as 2.0 and didn't even show reruns after the first 10 airings."
They've been showing BSG reruns for months, as for Lost getting 25 and BSG getting 13, who do you think has a higher budget? ABC/Disney or the Sci-Fi channel? Remeber that BSG was orginally funded by a fusion of Sky One, which co-financed the series with the Sci Fi Channel and NBC Universal. Actually Lost has the pilot 2 episodes and 22 other eps for a total of 24 in the first season.
As far as scifi goes, there's nothing very good out there.
New stargate sg1 episodes suck, SG Atlantis used to suck, but it's gotten a little better, and.... uh... i know i just named two scifi channel shows so it seems like that's all I watch, but what other new science fiction shows are still going?
go out and buy the DVDs.
i'm thoroughly enjoying watching them again, and every dollar tells the market that this sort of show is worth their while.
+1 fashionably cynical
I like how Adama is just like his previous characters. Everytime I expect him to say, breathing heavily, "A cylon baseship just appeared.. Sonny, Rico, get on it!"
Are we watching the SAME show? Bad acting? What? Bad plots? What??!?!
It's called a "troll", you get variations of the same comment in every single thread about a TV show, movie or game.
Formula to troll thread about X: "X is not good! People who like X are not smart!" with variations of "not good/smart" such as "sucks", "stupid", etc.
Then, the people who react to this not-so-subtle attack provide the troll with much needed attention and a sense of accomplishment that they can only get from pissing people off whilst safely hidden behind a screen.
This concludes today's lesson of "Jerks and the things they do".
You can't take the sky from me...
Tell me a show that's better than Battlestar Galactica, because i sure can't think of one.
House.
Not that Battlestar is bad, but House is to TV medical dramas what Sherlock Holmes was to 1890s pulp mystery stories.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Uggg. "Hill Street Blues" meets Star Trek. Yecch.
Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!
http://financialpetition.org/
I've watched House with both doctors and med students (sometimes at the same time) and both groups find House to be a little unbelieveable.
My question: Do they really keep medicines in clear plastic boxes with biohazard stickers on them?
Doctor's answer: No, that's just drama.
My question: What's going on?
Med student's answer: House discovered an old journal article that says you can get African Sleeping Sickness from sexual contact.
My Followup: But.. I thought you could only get that from bug bites
Med student's answer: Yea, well...
And that was just yesterday's episode.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Because we need SUPER *PAN* DRAMA *ZOOM* EFFECT *SHAKE* DA-NAAAH!!!! in a scene where two people are talking to each other. Because I want to concentrate on holding onto my chair while a robot and mindless collective drone ramble on about who wuvs God more. Please. The BSG leeches are about on the same level of all the people out there trying to peg Firefly as the best Sci-Fi EVAR! Why can't people just admit that there's only bad SciFi on right now?
Sci-Fi is not a situational character drama. There are a hundred terrible day time soaps on television that I can tune to if I desire low-quality emotional baggage. Suck it up and stop being a drama queen. No one liked Han Solo because he was an alcoholic enemy traitor robot nemesis cancer-ridden off-the-handle-but-still-reliable goon. ENOUGH. I'm not 13 anymore, I've grown out of high school, you (and that's the collective you, not you BorgCopyeditor personally, I had to pick one to reply to) should too.
"Don't feel bad for me child; I'm the monster that hides under your bed."
...it really does.
shakey-cam?
By that do you mean the emulation of battlefield witness filming? First time I saw it I thought it was brilliant. I remember, though I try to forget, seeing the original BSG. This series is so far ahead I can't believe my eyes or luck.
bad acting
Huh?
bad plot
I like stories that mess with my head, stories that are complex, make me think and leave me a bit stunned. BSG does this totally. "Lost" tries to do it but seems simple minded in comparison (though it aint bad). The plot is probably the best part of the series.
Sorry I can't help thinking this has to be troll.
Bitter and proud of it.
Yeah because the last thing we would want to do is be enlightened or anything...
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Welcome our new Galactic Battlestarring overlords.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
Being a loyal /.er, red-blooded male, and X-gen (ie - I grew up watching the original series) I wish Battlestar Galactica was one the best series of the year. They definately had the hotties and the FX were reasonable, but overall it just didn't deliver. Alas, this is a B$ plug for the shows that just didn't hack it (not sure what they hope to accomplish), by the aging broadcasting companies. It's sad that so much money get's heaved into the furnace that is Hollywood... The silver-lining, as another poster mentioned, is that the behemoths are loosing their grip and they will do anything to make one more dollar. I just can't wait until there are no more laugh tracks telling me when I should laugh...
My choices (albeit slim pickings)
CSI: Las Vegas - The others still don't have the magic...
Will & Grace - Their last season is starting off pretty good...
NCIS - Abby
Close to Home
Without a Trace
Cold Case
Law & Order
Threshold
Commander & Chief
Numbers
That's just my opinion, I could be RIGHT!!!
BG started back in 2003 according to TV.com for its pilot. 2004 for regular episodes.
Grey's Anatomy is another great show too.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I love the show and catch every episode, but many episodes just don't stand up for a second viewing. Not all of them - 33 and Water I must have watched 5 times the first week after I saw them the first time. Others - eehhhh, not so much.
Someone else mentioned Simpsons. The first season, my roommates and I recorded every episode. As soon as the episode finshed, we would rewind it and watch it again. We must have watched "The Babysitter Bandit" episode 4 times that night.
No show since has had that level of rewatchability, and I doubt another one will.
seg fault
For the Slashdot crowd, I was expecting a few comments here and there about the above show.
If you've never watched it, House MD is an excellent show. The writing is biting and sarcastic, especially from the title character. The acting is excellent, they frequently show wicked CGI surgery goodies, exploding orgrans, pus-spewing ulcers, etc.
House also has a wicked Vicodin habit, his boss is a h4wt13 to boot. It's on tonight on Fox, at 9PM EST.
(No, I do not work for Fox, but will accept per-diem payments if they so choose.)
[http://it-tastes-so-good.blogspot.com] Are you hungry?
Fix it and make it like what? Aside from Law and Order, and House, there are precious few shows on the air that have the quality of acting that BG shows every week. If you can point at an example that you think is better, please do.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
I can't agree more. I have to wonder if the people that don't like BSG are mistakingly watching the original series. I think the plot is great, the only holes in the plot are mostly areas not yet explained. Maybe people like individual episodes where the plot is neatly packaged per episode. I personally like plot lines that extend multiple seasons.
As far as the acting it's one of a few shows where the characters seem like real people. A lot of shows seem to consists of these fearless heros who never flinch when their life is on the line. BSG seems to portray the heros in a much more realistic light.
I still don't get the shaky camera remarks.
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
Well, I know that for one, I am a BSG fan. I am not afraid to say so. I could not care less about the cam. The bad acting is actually good acting when you compare it to other crap on TV. The plot, even if a little predictable is FUN in my opinion. I find that people keep forgetting that TV shows are for entertainment and not dissection of each little flaw. If I have choice between that and the *reality* shows, such as the Osbourns, The Bachelor or the likes, that seem to be so popular on TV, I will watch BSG and it's reruns for the rest of my life without any qualms. Call me ignorant, tasteless or plain stupid, but I find it is one of the better shows to play on TV in a long time.
- Jason Terlecki
Troll my ass. The parent is 100% correct.
The camera man is obviously drunk off his ass 24/7.
The first time I tried to watch this show I changed the channel after less then 10 minutes and vowed never to watch it again.
The acting IS bad. The camera IS shakey. The shakey-cam made me sea-sick.
You need to take Dramamine to watch it and Prozac to survive the bad acting.
Try watching something filmed in the 30's on TCM.
They don't try to cover bad acting with special effects or loud music.
The actors and plot either worked or failed.
The age of silver screen bling-bling SUCKS......
Actually, the other Friday night shows do this regularly, so if BSG gets renewed (as I assume it will) this'll be normal. They air 10-11 eps of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis from late July to Oct, then do reruns, then finish the season. Other, "mainstream" shows have started doing this, like the "OC" on Fox.
Plenty of soaps, yes, but only one show that has high-quality characters who actually display some depth, as opposed to the one-dimensional "characters" on most other shows...
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
The first possibility is that this show is really, truly deserving of the number one spot of 2005's best television.
The second possibility is that the man behind the article had the self-discipline and fervent determination as a die-hard fan of Battlestar Galactica (and probably any of its sci-fi cousins) to give reasonable, detailed and accountable reviews up until that point to earn the credibility he needed to be in the position to be the reviewer of 2005's best television shows. And then, at the last moment he pulled out his hardcore sci-fi passion and placed it at the top of a list that usually never gets a sci-fi show just to have snuck in the passion of his life into the mainstream.
Sneaky or not, the rest of the list is reasonable (which still allows for the second possibility to actually be true).
My page.
...my girlfriend called me a dork for ditching her to watch battlestar galactica. i said, "you think i'm a dork now? just wait until i start a friendster group dedicated to battlestar galactica where i'm the only member!" so that's what i did.
long story short: i can feel battlestar galactica's ownage with all of my body. yes, even my pepe!
That is one awesome show. I still chuckle every time the show starts. The camera leers at Steven as he turns to it with the sound of an eagle screeching loudly. He's supposed to be ultra-conservative, but he is so over-the-top it is obvious he is making fun of it. For example, he explained how think tanks are good, and one of them sponsors the show. He then goes on to show one of their videos on oil, which shows a jungle setting with a dinosaur and human fighting with the voiceover "5,000 years ago..."
No offense, but movies filmed before the seventies or so almost universally had pretty piss-poor acting. There are a couple exceptions, but most of the "greats" (Wells, Bogart, etc) were pretty damn terrible. Yeah, they were experimenting, and we owe a lot to them, but what they did was not the pinacle of dramatic portrayal.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
BSG just might be the best TV show these days, and there's a strong argument that it's the best science fiction show of recent years. That's a sad commentary on the state of SF TV, because BSG isn't great. It's good, but also has some serious shortcomings. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it about a 6. It just seems wonderful because few other SF shows ever score higher than about 3.
Put another way. . . It's worth watching, but there's a lot of room for improvement.
That is what they should have said about "Firefly".
MadOgre.com
It's funny that you would say this and then say you've "grown out of high school." Look, I like shit blowing up, too, but I need more spice; I have to care, and I can't care, for example, about hunky Kevin Sorbo strutting around his ship playing basketball with "Nietzscheans," no matter how many exciting chase-scenes or laser-pistol fights the show provides.
That doesn't make me a drama queen, that makes me discerning. BTW, nice troll. ;->
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
I kind of like it. I enjoy Battlestar, and they way they run the shows you never have to wait a half a year to see more new episodes.
At least it's better the The Supranos, where nothing happens for 10 episodes and then you have to wait two years to see more.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Shakey-cam...ugh. I got motion sick on the mini-series and couldn't go back.
Why is TV such a big topic ? Seriously - when you get to the end of your life, are you going to wish you spent More Time Watching TV ?
Get off your fat ass, shut off the magic idiot box, and read a book !!
No - I don't own a TV. And yes - I DO feel smug stating that...bunch of poodle-walkin cheese eatin zombies !!
That James Poniewozik dude is also responsible for Hitler being the "Time - Man of the Year '39"
You say that like it's a bad thing. Very few people have had as lasting an impact on the human consciousness as Hitler. As long as the award is for "most notable", and not "most racially tolerant" or "most philanthropic", it was a good choice. You shouldn't just ignore the effect people have on history just because they're evil, genocidal psychopaths - if you ignore them, then you become less equipped to deal with them in the future.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
amen
the camera doesn't zoom in and out sporadically because they don't know how to control it
If you're talking about a hero who saves the day without costing/spending any money, its already been done -- MacGyver!
{ - Generic Guy - }
That would be 33, winner of the Nebula award for best dramatic presentation. I think we'll just have to disagree, it was one of the best and hooked me right from the start.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
The Simpsons went downhill after Conan left and they shipped all their animation to Asia.
Conan was only on the Simpsons staff for a very brief stint (and only wrote a couple episodes himself), and the animation was always done in Asia.
It's not too bad. The acting is tolerable, the science is not completely inaccurate. Of course it absolutely HAS to be a crime show, because that's all we've got these days is crime shows.
My biggest problem with it is the whole friday night thing. I don't have a huge social life or anything, but I've almost always got something better to do on Friday night. Gotta get off my ass and finish my MythTV box.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Meh, I dunno. Whenever I see that Hit-That Hammer-Magnet, it quickly crowds out enlightenment in my mind. (Or whatever remains of it at this point.)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
The X-Files started off filming in Vancouver, and continued a good run until it got successful, moved to California, and began mass suckage until death. The tone and mood that made it good was lost when it "went Hollywood". Let us hope the same fate does not meet Battlestar Galactica, also shot in Vancouver. For now.
Never seen this show, but it sure will be in my bittorrent queue...er...best buy shopping cart soon.
I kill harmless processes for sport
House is a decent show.
There are some gems out there (I just replied to a post referencing the Venture Brothers, which is in my opinion the best show on TV (but not of the year, since it came out in 2004 and no new season until 2006 iirc))
"stories that are complex,"
I've been watching TV for almost 45 years and I have yet to see a "complex" plot.
TV is so formula-matic these days, its unpleasant to watch, even when the actors and director have the best intentions. Its like eating vanilla pudding. Its not bad, you know what you're getting, but its not what you want for a steady diet.
Either that, or TV is now meant for people under 30.
Could be worse. I could be spending my life caring about how other people spend theirs. Why do you care if people "waste time" on tv?
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
No such thing.
Batman begins and (especially) bourne supremacy camera work was unacceptable. It ruined both movies for me.
Well, considering everytime one of these female authority figures you fear so much get uppity, Adama smacks em down (ie, arresting rosalind or attempting to blow Cain out of the sky), I don't understand what you are saying.
"Try watching something filmed in the 30's on TCM"
I think the difference was that entertainment used to be geared towards adults because kids (i.e. under 18) had no money. So your audience was people who worked and had some money to spend on entertainment. Today, I think most films are geared towards an under-30 crowd which has a big impact on film-making. For example, a movie this past fall "Domino" was virtually unwatchable because of the handheld camera thing (I thought that went away when MTV stopped showing videos?), but younger people said they liked it, so perhaps its generational.
I know another poster in response thinks that anything before about 1980 was poorly acted and that Humphrey Bogart was "experiementing" (which is funny, really), but I'm reminded of looking through some book reviews over at Amazon of some classic science fiction (i.e. Dune, The Foundation trilogy, etc), and most of the younger readers just hate the stuff. They view it the way I probably view reading Jules Vernes... done under protest.
Oh well!
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Have you been watching TV recently? Tell me a show that's better than Battlestar Galactica
Life in the Undergrowth
Doctor Who
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Extras
House
Absolute Power
Have I Got News For You
Match of the Day
Family Guy
Arrested Development
Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares
Top Gear
Room 101
Shameless
Lost
Desperate Housewives
etc.
The second season has 20 episodes. The next ten start airing in a few weeks.
BSG is a total cheeseball attempt at drama. Oh no...The Cylons got through our third firewall! Oh no, the Cylons look just like us! Oh no, we can't come up with our own characters, so we will rip off Voyager. I now, lets make Starbuck a woman. That should get us a few more basement dwelling viewers. Oh...Oh...Lets introduce her by having her punch out a guy that has at least a 100 pounds on her. That will show how she isn't a frail little flower.
The gushing that goes on over BSG is amazing. The show is lowbrow, and formulaic. The cinematagraphy is also formulaic. It is a common trick these days. If you want to look 'gritty' then use a sharp focus, and wave the camera around a lot. This is high school quality work with a huge budget.
It is also amazing that a show produced with today's tech, and with a large budget can produce bad guys that are so much less intimidating.
No mention of the new season of Dr. Who, which was easily the best thing I saw all year. Although House is a close second.
Bruce
see, 13 episodes is a very good number - it means that at one episode per week, the series will run for exactly quarter of a year - in a few years time when they try to flog it to a foreign network, they can buy 4 seasons of that length and have exactly one year worth of telly.
Programs which start small (6 episodes) and explode then, only get 7 episodes in their next season so that the first two season make 13 episodes, and then they start getting 13 epsiode seasons. 26 is also a popular number for really popular programmes.
FGD 135
Technically speaking... the TIME magazine issue was released on January 2, 1939 and it claimed Hitler as "Man of the Year" for 1938.
Browse the Information Directory
it has more then one Grace Park!
No, it is not that the acting pre-seventies was universally piss-poor, but the style of acting was different. Dramatical tastes differ for different periods.
In the thirties and forties, acting styles seem to have been more heavily influenced by stage acting and being able to project emotions and actions broadly enough for those in the back rows to relate. The epics of the fifties seemed to require a larger than life stance to live up to the broad material. In the sixties and seventies, the cultural revolutions playing out in society as a whole seem to have seeped into both scripts and acting. Scripts ceased to focus on epics and refocused on individual struggles and personal drama ("I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small." - a perfect lament for the death of epics.). Such scripts required a more natural acting style. The eighties brought us action heroes, with their odd mix of broad and natural styles capped with one liners. The nineties brought us blue screen acting, trying to combine any of the above styles whilst playing to nothing.
To return to our topic, Battlestar Galactica is trying very hard to stay with the modern, naturalistic style while incorporating a notion of naturalistic production. The idea for the look of the show is a war documentary. The acting style is as natural as possible and the camera movements are, by and large, an attempt to replicate the feel of a handheld or shoulder mounted camera. Effects shots seek to replicate Gulf War footage and acting tries to replicate human emotional response under massive pressure. For some, this succeeds admirably, feeding the show's atmosphere. For others, it just looks like bad camera work to hide the lack of a budget and mopey, neurotic characters portrayed by actors who run the gamut of emotions from A to B, as Miss Parker would say.
I don't see Arrested Development in that list.
Granted, that does not stop us savvy net users here in the States from watching it... Sunday's "The Christmas Invasion" was a great episode...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
You are forgetting Monty Python. Monty Python blows simpsons out of the water. It's older and has stood the test of time. It also has fewer over all episodes than the simpsons and therefore less material to work with and yet still as memorable and rewatchable.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Actually, Season II part 2 starts a week from Friday on January 6th.
I agree on 24 as well. Another good show.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I am not familiar with this "Wolfe" character in Andromeda. Do you mean the Kodiak pride Nietzschean, Tyr Anasazi by Barbarosa out of Victoria?
Oh, wait a minute... Nevermind
Babylon 5 and Farscape trump Andromeda in my books, and are in turn trumped by BSG and Dr Who.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
That James Poniewozik dude is also responsible for Hitler being the "Time - Man of the Year '39"
And Hitler wasn't? Did he or did he not influence what was going on in 1939?
Every single Episode of "Andromeda" wipes the floor with the whole Battlestar Craptica crap.
You have got to be joking. Andromeda is weak, deriviative stuff starring a second-string hunk as your standard rebel hero in cliche-land. I can hardly finish an episode even when I'm bored. Galactica breaks ground in so many ways it's not funny. the space flight is more realistic than anything else out there. The ensemble acting is superb. The plot arc raises interesting questions...
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
i assume the original poster is talking about the first episode of the mini series and not "33", either way the original poster is a fool
Films in the 30's having good acting?
Tell us the truth, are you high?
BSG may not be the best acting in the world, but its a damn sight better than almost everything made before the 70's. Most of whats on TCM is just painful to watch, since its all so contrived and sooooo fake.
Then again, different stroke for different folks, I like BSG, I like Lost, I use to like Andromeda until the 3rd season. But if you want to watch American Idol, Survivor (Insert Location Here), and movies made almost half a century ago, well then I wish you the best. But I do disagree with you.
" That would be 33, winner of the Nebula award for best dramatic presentation."
Must have been the title that put it over the top. So clever. I wonder if anyone bought that man a beer?
"it was one of the best and hooked me right from the start."
You and a lot of other people, evidently.
Its a pretty sad world when everything which is successful is just a remake of something that was done before: Battlestar Gallactice, Lion, the Witch, and The Warddrobe, The Office (a.l.a. office space), King Kong, etc.
I still think the true winner because of originality are of 2003 was "24". For 2004, it was "Lost", and this year it was certainly not Battlestar.
-- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
From the blurb "His summary starts off 'Most of you probably think this entry has got to be a joke. The rest of you have actually watched the show.'"
I have seen the show, that IS why I think it's a joke.
24 doesn't have dubious social agendas??? Are you sure you actually WATCH 24?
The Office, totally agree with. That is one of the funniest shows ever. But Wonder Showzen? That is the dumbest, unfunniest show I've ever seen. I still have not been able to make it througn an episode of Battlestar Galactica. I grew up on the old show and as campy as it is I'd rather watch it then the new one.
Aside from Arrested Development, I'd have to greatly disagree with your choice of TV shows.
Not that it really matters, as it's all a non-operational matter of opinion (it's not like my liking BSG has ANY direct, tangible effect on your liking Lost, or vice versa). Haven't seen many of those shows, I'd have to disagree that any of them are really any good, and those that may be good are not quite as good as BSG. Family Guy is one of my favorites, of course, but BSG has to win out (in my book). End result? Doesn't really matter.
Are you sure you actually WATCH 24?
Well okay, you got me there, I've never even heard of it. I just wanted to talk about Grace Park.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Absolutely loved the Rome miniseries (HBO/BBC2). A bit too heavy on sex, but it kind of fits the theme. They did not have the budget to do large scale historical battles (even in CGI), but the show still beats approximately 95% of the shows out there. It's all about epic scale intrique and backstabbing in late days of the Roman rebublic era. So what that everyone knows what happens to Julius Caesar, the main characters are rather insignificant non-historical characters that just happen to be in the all right places when something important happens.
Here's my top list for 2005:
1. Rome
2. Lost
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. My name is Earl
I must admit I haven't seen most of the shows on the list. But, an American adaptation of The Office? OMG.
My other SIG is a Sauer.
At least 24 or lost don't have dubious (ham handed attempts to deal with or to set forth, I couldn't figure out which) social agendas or try to appeal to the "enlightenment" crowd.
What?? You're ripping on my favorite show!! I'm so angry right now!
Heres the penthouse pic for those with a pulse.
I can't stay mad at you... Thank you.
nt
This space available.
Did that show ever get funny? Is it even still around? I saw a couple episodes (against my will) last spring, I think it was. The sense I got was that it was a sad attempt to create a show staring Pamela Anderson's breasts.
Actually, the 6e6$ Man remake has already been redone (well):
"Now and Again" (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212395/
It was a great show, managing to address some pretty serious issues while providing lots of "badass" moments. It was a sad day when CBS ended it after only 22 episodes.
It isn't just that the scripts that are sloppy, it's like the concept behind the show was only an afterthought. Military dudes shooting at aliens is all we're meant to be interested in. Never mind that I don't even have to be paying attention to notice gaping plot-holes where writers have thrown science out the window. It's fiction, so that means they can stretch things a little and invent magic gizmos that can bend time or materialize fresh pretzels out of thin air, but there's still a point where things get a little too nutty. There's limits to how far you can stretch creative licence.
Shows like BSG, Firefly and even Farscape have shown that you can have outlandish plots without having to abandon all logic, so there's really no excuse.
% mkdir
% ls -dF
1. Person comes in mysteriously ill
2. No one know whats wrong
3. Med students guess some crap but house arrogantly shoots them down
4. House makes an off the wall obscure diagnosis which:
5. (not neccesarily in order) House gets in fight with Cuddy or other superior
6. House was right on all preceding counts. Everyone else is wrong and foolish
7. Meanwhile, some ultimately unrelated and useless person drama is affecting one of the main characters.
In the end, no-one but house EVER makes the correct diagnosis. Thew few times House permits his assistants to actualy do anything they are wrong and the patient almost dies, setting up an even more dramatic "House Saves the Day" moment...
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
The Lords of Cobol? I think you mean Kobol, unless you are referring to the deities of ancient and best left forgotten programming languages...
It's spelled "syzygy."
> Heres the penthouse pic for those with a pulse.
Uh, dude, in Penthouse she'd be totally naked, probably with a guy and a couple of other women.
And a donkey.
To be fair, it must have taken the AC about 5 seconds to pose the question. That hardly constitutes spending his/her life caring about the issue.
Everything's either a rehash, a 'reimagined' approach to an old series, or a knockoff on someone else's successful idea.
I, OTOH, have this great idea for a series: see, there's these two families that hate each other, and a boy from one family meets a girl from the other family, and they fall in love, and everybody gets really upset and there's lots of death and destruction . . .
What's that?
Oh, OK, Nevermind.
If we required every TV show to be absolutely original, we wouldn't need even one channel, much less 500.
The cylons are hacking TIME's network!
BSG has been renewed for a 3rd season. For some reason it appears as though the originating press release has been pulled from Sci-Fi's website.
Season 2.5 of BSG begins on January 6
I'm not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.
And you are just a varation of the "Anyone who doesn't like what I like is a troll" troll, pointing fingers and calling names just like the person you are deriding. At least the OP's post was substantiated, whereas trolls like you are just flinging insults rather than having a discussion like an adult would.
6 out of 10 shows on the list are cable/satellite only and of those, 2 are on pay channels only. Can the big networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC compete anymore?
How can any list of the year's ten best shows not include HBO's Rome?
I mean - the dude watches BSG and he doesn't watch Rome? I'm sensing some serious cognitive dissonance here.
I think I work with a few of those Lords of Cobol. They have gray hair and can sometimes be heard muttering about how the program won't work unless statements are started at the proper indentation point.
... until I watched Firefly. After watching Firefly, I realised that I didn't really care about any of the characters in BSG. I'm not all that excited about the new episodes of BSG, but if new Firefly episodes were being made I would be counting down the days in anticipation.
I'll still watch BSG, but it's not as good as other sci fi shows in recent history.
-- The doctor said I wouldn't get so many nose bleeds if I just kept my finger out of there!
"female authority figures you fear so much"
Yes, terrified. Nothing like an estrogen soaked little lady to just scare the bejebbers out of me. Little boys that stick their dicks up each others butts really terrify me too! Get over yourself. Disgust and fear CAN go hand in hand but in this case... NOT!
There's an old buddhist saying: that, the teachings are like fingers pointing at the moon. If you look at the fingers, you'll never see the moon that's being pointed at. Somewhere along the line, you have to take what you see, and add a bit of your own judgement, in order to make the leap from what is said to what should be understood.
Nope, you've got that backwards. They're manipulating YOU. Sure, the story is that Baltar is the one being manipulated, but that's just a thin veil over the real thing, much like the storyline and "acting" in a porn movie is a thin veil over its real objective.
In fact, if you understand that, you'll understand a lot of things in our culture, like why Microsoft says Office XML is a "standard", or why "Terrorism" is the big evil we all should fight.
The simple, direct version: Read between the lines.
And at one point all the Grace Park(s) all NAKED!
(oh, and if you haven't seen the new BSG, you can download that very episode [Last episode of season 1] from the SciFi channel website)
Numb3rs season 1 - Maybe. I really liked it. So did a friend of mine who just started working on a Ph. D. in Mathematics. There were a few articles talking about the technical consultants they hired to make sure they got things Right, and it (for the most part) showed.
In season 2, it's become clear that the aforementioned consultants are no longer involved. In any case where they touch on electrical engineering concepts I feel competent to judge the show on, they botch it every time. I'm not qualified myself to judge how they're doing with the pure math, but the fact that my aforementioned friend went from loving the show to refusing to watch it because they got so many things wrong in the first two episodes of season 2 doesn't bode well for how they're doing with the technical accuracy in those areas.
While I can understand wanting to come up with a good story, it's inexcusable for them to be spreading misinformation where the truth would fit the story just as well. For example, at one point Charlie states that the GPS system uses satellites in geosynchronous orbit - HE'S WRONG! The main GPS constellation consists of satellites in highly elliptical orbits, and the main navigation system has no geosynchronous components. (The only geosync component of modern GPS are the satellites that broadcast WAAS correction data, and that is neither required for a navigation fix nor even run by the US military.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I'm a star trek fan. I really like all the series. Even voyager was fun to watch despite its cheeseballness. But I wouldn't call myself a diehard trekkie. I've never been to a star trek convention nor do I know how to speak klingon.
As such, I also loved Enterprise, especially season 3. Enterprise was a mature star trek. Cynical, sexy, scary, and occaisonally bizarre. When Season 3 came out, I watched that season over and over again. It was thrilling, had a fluid story line throughout the whole season, and seemed to be very high in production value. Point is, I loved having this show. Scifi TV that I loved. I had something to look forward too. When enterprise was cancelled, I had nothing.
Then I found BSG.
BSG is a well planned show. It has that same fluidic story line, not very, episodic per se. While the constant zooming of the camera was a little bit disorienting at first, I came to appreciate it. The acting is top notch, the special effects are better than most shows, the concept and over all storyline is intense, and the way the show is done, it's a story that is very well told.
But I have a feeling that this show will soon fall into the depths of the "niche" and eventually get cancelled prematurely.
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
amazing how those ancient and not forgotten languages are still around whilst other fade to the back. reminds me of the story about the guy who went into cryogenic sleep and....ahhh...its and old story. Someday young bucks may say "Remember C, or was it D, what ever, it was a simple language to work with"
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
Uh...Season 2 has 20 episodes. They started on the second season so soon after 1 that there needed to be a break to catch up.
While you're right about the 20 episode part, I think you're incorrect about the reason for the hiatus. Sci-fi channel has been doing this for years with SG-1, and now they do it with the other Friday night fare: SG:A and BSG.
But it's good to see that sci-fi is finally getting some cred in the mainstream, BSG is the best writing on TV, with some stiff competetion from the premium channels' shows.(Sopranos, Deadwood, Weeds)
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
I personally think that Battlestar Galactica was remade with class, care and just the right ammount of respect.
As do I. I love it when they do a small tip of the hat to the original series. Like the schematic of the original Cylon being shown briefly in a camera sweep. Or the deck of the Galactica during the decommissioning ceremony where they played the national anthem, and it was the old theme song. Very very nifty, and damn clever.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Tell me honestly, have you watched the original? If so, how does it compare, taking into account the different tastes of the different decades? I have not cared to see anything more than commercials for this show because I simply can not accept that the Cylons could be anything other than shiny, faceless, evil robots controlled by what's-his-name. I don't care if sex sells, evil robots are evil robots and their effect on a show simply can not be replaced. Imagine Futurama with another Leela-like character instead of Bender. It also bugs me that they would screw up the characters. If you must have a female pilot then fine, introduce a female pilot, but changing who Starbuck is just to meet the Title IX bar just seems stupid.
That said, from the commercials I have seen, Adama looks like Adama should and the Vipers kick butt.
By the way, anybody else out there love the Homeworld series of real-time strategy PC games? They're pretty similar in plot.
You forgot to mention in your second possibility that the original series honestly wasn't really very good. Only thing that made it good at the time (for me, IMHO, etc.) was the fact that I was a kid.
If you doubt that, try to watch some of those old shows like the original Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers now. They'll give you a nosebleed they're so bad. That's part of what makes the new BSG so great. As it turns out, you really can polish a turd.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Ok, this is Slashdot so we know the story is false. You watch BSG and post here...and have a girlfriend?
Next time try something more believeable, pal.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Water is relatively scarce
...using magnets to pick up spent bullets and all...
The episode where they're going from planet to planet looking for water was so stupid it made me cringe. In our solar system anything outside of the asteroid belt is _mostly_ water. And even the inner planets have large deposits of ice or water with the exception of Mercury.
What might be rare are iron and heavier elements (those can only be in solar systems formed in the second generation of star formation or later)... yet they seem to have all of the metal they need as they don't seem overly concerned with salvaging wreckage after battles... I'd think they'd be trying to get every last scrap of metal after each battle.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
33 is fantastic. Creepy as hell and seriously intense. From that point on, calling it science fiction didn't quite fit. I describe BSG as science fiction horror.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
It pisses me off, every time there's an article about TV, the "I've gotten rid of my tv and my life is much better for it" people come out of the woodwork. Your life CAN'T be that much better if you're spending your time in the exact same way I am, reading slashdot comments about TV!
Not only that, but the cylons imho look and sound worse than the original, the vipers are crappier than in the original, and would you really have me believe you can fly a crashlanded cylon attacker by digging into its guts and then squeezing certain organs?
I was hoping that in season 2 they would atleast be able to create episodes without atleast one huge plothole in it, but so far season 2 is even worse than the first one was.
Al rules!
Anything filmed after the 70's is pure shit.
/. people to watch ANYTHING on Turner Classic Movies. I suspect that if any of you would have to sit through a black and white movie you would burst into flames. This is the same crowd that would DIE if they had to ride in a car without an FM radio. I haven't listened to FM radio in 15 years. I listen only to AM radio or nothing at all.
When I go through looking for something to watch, if I find a black and white film that's a good prospect. Very few things in filmed in color pass as watchable. There were some GOOD color movies filmed in the 40's and 50's, they began to drop off steeply in the 70's and by the 80's, it was all over with.
I quit going to movies years ago once they began to pull film reels out of a monkey's ass.
One of the very, very few exceptions has been the LOTR movies. I thought those were well done, the plot was excellent, the actors were excellent, and yes, there was a lot of digital effects but they actually worked.
I am so f*cking sick of all these new movies and tv shows that bombard you with shit blowing up and people flying around and shit zinging all over the place with 37 fireballs per hour. It's all a distraction from the fact that the plot sucks ass, the "actors" suck ass and the entire movie sucks donkey ass in general.
I'm 45. The original Battle Star Galactica came out when I was a teenager in the 70's. Then, at that time, I thought it was cool. Now, when I look back at repeats of the original show, I can see how badly it sucked.
As for the new version of it, it sucks too. And that shakey-cam sucks. Whoever came up with that method of filming MOVIES needs to have their ass kicked and a camera shoved up there too. I can't tolerate that at all.
REAL documentaries do NOT have shakey camera effects. Watch the History Channel or any of the many educational channels on TV and you won't see shakey-cam.
Not even in WWII when bullets were zinging past the photographers head and bombs were raining down on them and blowing up within spitting distance did they pull that BS. They held those cameras steady and got good footage.
The shakey-cam is just a piss-poor method of disguising piss-poor, low budget SFX. Nothing more. If the camera was rock solid you could easily see how crappy the effects are. But with the camera whipping around madly like a drunkards arms on a balance beam it's impossible for you to detect the visual anomalies of cheap and badly done FX that ARE present but obscured by this very annoying methodology.
If you like that crap, fine. I don't. You can keep the sci-fi channel, I find it to be utterly worthless except for when they run old, ORIGINAL Twilight Zone shows. Bad acting? Yeah. Bad effects? Oh yeah. But you know what? It worked then and it still works. People still love those old shows and they are still wildly popular. It's because they were GOOD..
I suspect that you couldn't get 99.9% of the
Beh...
When I'm lying on my couch, eating chips and watching TV, this automatic correction does not happen. For one thing, the screen is not large enough for this, the visuals at the edge of the screen keep falling off in total blackness (the edge of my TV) and then reappearing as the camera swings back. You cannot correct for this, as essential visual information is simply missing (it's like watching through a tube, cause only the center of the screen is visible at all times).
The fact that they don't realize this (so called "professionals") is just sad. Coupled with the fact that a lot of people get motion sickness from this kind of camera work and it doesn't really add anything makes me wonder why it is being done at all, hence why I would favor incompetence over intended effect.
I also think they messed with a good thing. The old special effects are way better, just use those as a model instead of creating totally new ones. Why the hell they felt it neccesary to totally change the "robot form" cylons and vipers, especially the sounds of both, is beyond me.
That's saying something when I've managed to watch stuff like Andromeda, Stargate and Enterprise without too much of a problem.
Professionals should realize this, and stay away from these MTV practices. Also a significant portion of people actually get motion sick because their brain tries to correct this shakey vision, but fails because the image is too small and things keep falling of the edge; it's like the center of vision says "we're moving!" while at the edge of your vision you can still see you are lying on your couch...
At the end of the day I can understand how people don't "like" BSG05 because it is a show with an edge and a style of it's own. I think though that even if you don't "like" it as a matter of taste you should be able to see that there is much there to be appreciated.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Atleast they could hold a camera still in those days. Presenting a shakey picture on a TV screen, and seeing one in real life (because you are walking, running, dancing) is a totally different thing. There's a reason why they call shakey "real life" footage taken of plane crash landings, tsunami's and what not "amateur video"; it's because it makes it hard to see what is really going on and is annoying to watch.
man of the year tends to have a positive meaning implied...
You're right. Clearly his time is much better spent replying to posts about a TV show on slashdot.
I watched the two-part mini-series, and then about the first seven or eight episodes, before stopping. I thought the writing and acting were quite good, but the never-ending gloom and doom got to me eventually. If I want that I can watch CNN.
The basic problem is in the premise. The Cylons are hugely more powerful than the human fleet; they could wipe them out at any time, and the fact that they haven't done so just shows that they choose not to, for as-yet-unrevealed reasons. Since the humans cannot possibly put up any sort of a fight against the invincible Cylons, the only possible plots involve humans fighting each other.
Basically what bothers me about the show is that its message is that adversity brings out the worst in people, that the terrible situation our heroes are in reduces them, makes them smaller and meaner. If I'm going to watch a story about a gigantic disaster and people's reactions to it, I would prefer a story where the disaster makes people grow rather than shrink, and teaches the lesson that people are at their best when things are worst. For one thing, I believe that's actually true; and for another, even if it weren't, I think that kind of story would help encourage it.
I'm not saying BSG sucks or anything--I think it's well-made all round--but I find it overly negative.
I decided to stop watching the show when I started cheering for the Cylons to finish the job by exterminating all the humans.
Not for Time Magazine. Time has consistently said that "Man of the Year" refers to the person who has had the most impact on the news that year. It is meant in the sense that 1938 was "the year of Hitler," just as 1940 was "the year of Churchill," not that Hitler was the greatest man of 1938.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
From S0303:
e velopment
t ml
Tobias - "I'll have you remember I was a 'professional' two times over. Both an analyst AND a therapist, an analrapist."
Lindsy - "Yeah, and the business cards almost got you arrested."
Tobias - "I did NOT quit my job because of the police inquiry but because I wanted to help raise my daughter."
This is just a glimpse into the writing in this show, which, for example, has social commentary on par with South Park: George, seeing a military humvee and a pope mobile decides to escape in the pope mobile as it has "actual armour".
It has EVERYTHING. And it does it all well. The show is just as good if not better than The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad. Like those, it tries to capture the essence of American life in a humorous light. The problem is that unlike those shows, it has a bit of sexual innuendo humour. In fact, a big theme of the show is repressed sexuality, which is a perfect allegory for the American way of life. Violence is primetime viewing and a nipple is a national scandel. Sad. But a reason to cancel a great show?
Please, go to http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=arrested+d
If you already have bittorrent running, a single show is like an hour dl. Any of the third season is a good intro to the show, especially 3, 6, or 7. Or watch it Mondays at 8pm on Fox.
Also, if you like the show, sign the petitions:
http://www.getarrested.com/
http://www.petitiononline.com/Arrested/petition.h
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/arresteddev
Why the hell they felt it neccesary to totally change the "robot form" cylons and vipers, especially the sounds of both, is beyond me.
Simple. Because it makes for a more interesting show, one that can explore interesting moral questions about the relationship between humans and their creations. That's what *real* sci-fi does... use the futuristic setting to explore our understanding of ourselves. I'll grant you that BSG is a little ham-handed in the way it approaches this goal, but that's typical of dramatizations that are written for audiences who aren't used to stories that require them to think. At least BSG tries, which is more than you can say for anything else on TV.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
well time gets something right. battlestar galactica is the best thing on tv in the last few years.
t ml
and make sure to watch the miniseries aka 3 hour pilot before diving into the show, its on dvd or through rental.
and of course heres a nice comparo between the old and the new http://dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/battlestar/index.h
I am a long time Doctor Who fan... I'm sorry, but the new Doctor Who does not stack up against BSG. I enjoyed the new series, and will probably buy the extortion-priced DVD set that is rumored to be headed to the USA, but BSG outclasses Doctor Who in every way other than some comedic dialogue.
The new Dr. Who plotlines are swiss cheese, nonsensical, and full of Davies' hang-ups. The Daleks have religion and hate on humanity while screaming "blasphemy"? Whaaaaat? Giant farting baby headed goblins can't wipe out humanity directly? The TARDIS flies through space and dodges missiles? Whaaaaat? The Langoliers have turned into giant time dragons who eat the past?????? The big plot thread that goes through the entire season is just an absurd, self-referential, paradoxical red-herring that plays on the worst executed deus ex machina since the device was invented THAT IN THE END MEANT NOTHING AT ALL? Huuuuuh?
I've watched the first two seasons of BSG, and I didn't want to like it, but it's good. The acting is great (contrast Rose Tyler, everyone in the bunker episode, etc), the characterizations are great and spot on (contrast the Doctor [humans==apes whaaaat?] and Rose Tyler), the plot is pretty interesting and deep (contrast the Slytheen, the Daleks, the nanovirus, bad wolf), the storylines are cohesive and generally believable even though they are all written by different people...
Again, BSG just outclasses Doctor Who on just about every front, other than comedic dialogue. I don't know if I'm going to buy the payoff for the Cylon plans, the remaining Cylon agents in the fleet, how and why the Kobol scripture reflects reality and its relation to the Cylons, or any of the other plot questions that BSG has set up.... but I'm looking forward to the payoff. With Doctor Who, I'm just hoping Tennant plays the character a little more coherently, and that they come up with more believable and interesting plots. The new Doctor Who had huge potential to set up a rich and detailed universe, even if it broke with canon... instead, the writers hodge-podge together a bunch of contradictory bullshit [THAT THEY PARODY IN THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!!!!!!!] and expect to come up with a good show. BSG has created a deep and involving universe, that has a deep, consistent history. The show's plot revolves around this history, and the struggle to survive a very perilous situation. Doctor Who hints at this kind of thing, but contrast the solution to the Dalek threat (both the one shown in the season and the one referenced in the time war) to the potential Cylon solutions. The Cylon scenario is both vastly more intriguing and vastly more open.
I love the Doctor, and I'll watch the show, but I am addicted the story and characters in BSG. Doctor Who I watch out of nostalgia and cringe at the shitty writing.
And on the other shows you mention, many of them are quite good, but aren't comparable to BSG (e.g. Family Guy, AD, Extras).
-Greg
It's the only way to be sure.
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
If galactica is the biggest piece of shit you've seen on scifi, you obviously weren't watching when they were showing the Earthsea movie.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
"Arrested Development", From S0303:
e velopment
t ml
Tobias - "I'll have you remember I was a 'professional' two times over. Both an analyst AND a therapist, an analrapist."
Lindsy - "Yeah, and the business cards almost got you arrested."
Tobias - "I did NOT quit my job because of the police inquiry but because I wanted to help raise my daughter."
This is just a glimpse into the writing in this show, which has social commentary on par with South Park: George, seeing a military humvee and a pope mobile decides to escape in the pope mobile as it has "actual armour".
It has EVERYTHING. And it does it all well. The show is just as good if not better than The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad. Like those, it tries to capture the essence of American life in a humorous light. The problem is that unlike those shows, it has a bit of sexual innuendo humour. In fact, a big theme of the show is repressed sexuality, which is a perfect allegory for the American way of life. Violence is primetime viewing and a nipple is a national scandel. Sad. But a reason to cancel a great show?
Please, go to http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=arrested+d
If you already have bittorrent running, a single show is like an hour dl. Any of the third season is a good intro to the show, especially 3, 6, or 7. Or watch it Mondays at 8pm on Fox.
Also, if you like the show, sign the petitions:
http://www.getarrested.com/
http://www.petitiononline.com/Arrested/petition.h
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/arresteddev
Sorry, I did repost this in the main thread to get those petition links out there.
It's true that they have depth, but they do seem to lack the fourth dimension... in a show with a continuing plot, you expect the occasional aspect of the occasional character to change. We are talking mostly relatively young people and a period of several years here, after all...
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
I'd think a being consisting of self-refining computer code would probably be able to walk around a firewall several thousand generations back up the ladder with relative ease. I mean, I generally expect a crew of fully-equipped, professional demolition engineers to be able to get through an adobe wall constructed by a pre-metallurgy human. By the same token, I'd probably be using a ballistic weapon against an enemy capable of sabotaging anything electronically regulated...
As far as the organ-squeezing thing is concerned, though, that one stumped me, too.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
"I decided to stop watching the show when I started cheering for the Cylons to finish the job by exterminating all the humans."
Wow, so by starting cheering the evil mastermind/robot/alien/cthulhu and then only continuing to watch shows that manage to get me to change my mind, I'm actually doing it backward?
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
I call bullshit. Clearly the show of the year is Tiki Bar TV. Goddamn critics.
/. zen: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters...
1. Rome
2. Deadwood
3. House
4. Boston Legal
BSG is good enough that I will record it. It is not as horribly stupid as the origonal children's show. It is still pretty stupid.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
I REALLY like the new BSG. It is WAAAAY better than the 70s version.
But Rome is just a step ahead of ANYTHING ELSE on television!!! The second season of Carnivale also gets an honorable mention.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
What is the excess of violence. Is that pandering???
Personally, I think we as a society would be much better off if their was less shooting and more screwing on TV.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Since some jackhole moded you troll, let me be the second to say it, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
I like lots of the crap that's on TV, even BSG. But it's still crap and there is much better crap available. This guy didn't list Deadwood OR Rome. Project Runway? For shame.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
The doctor did an MRI scan on Baltar. There was no foreign objects.
Can't you tell that Baltar IS a Cylon???? Baltar is a sleeper. And I think we will find out that the "commander" model of the Cylon is the Baltar model.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Deadwood got pretty intense this season. I eagerly await the 3rd.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
I have to agree. Ultra-cheap CG rendering has made the point moot, and the assertion laughable. It's been that way since Hercules and Xena.
I mean, for fuck's sake, we've already seen plenty of the mechanicals. If they wanted more of them, for the sake of the story, you think *THAT* will bust the budget?
BSG is horrific. I've not seen a nuclear holocaust so heart-rending, and they managed that with what, 2 minutes of airtime, total? The space scenes are awesome too, if repetetive. This show does not lack for special affects. And certainly not because they can't afford it.
I would call the Venture Brothers the best adult Cartoon of 2005. The new season of Family Guy would be the second.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Adama looks like he's about to have a psychotic break 24 hours a day. Which is what I would expect someone to do, if they were trying to keep alive what little is left of humanity after a nuclear holocaust. He feels tired, and you can see it. Doesn't know what to do, and is afraid that those he leads will see it and despair. His one confidant, the president is totally whacko, to the point he couldn't even stomach it anymore... but then he's lost it to, and she's forgiven.
Less than 50,000 people left, mostly because they had to abandon the ships that had no FTL. Every week something more horrible than the last happens, to the point that they can't even trust the hardware that keeps them alive in the void of space. And there is no understanding their enemy, period.
vs.
Bad scifi settings with an overcamped enemy and everyone trying to spout the next oneliner.
I only hope that the writers are planning BSG far ahead, I don't like making it up as they go along. Pick the number of seasons you want out of it, and figure out a way to end it with a bang. (The humans manage to escape, only a few hundred left on a wilderness planet, worried that the cylons might not all be dead?)
So either, they only invented wireless networking and forgot to research encryption, or cylons can somehow not only disrupt network cables from a distance, but they can do so in such a way as to plant a virus. The first one would be totally stupid (on galactica's part) and doesn't seem to be the case as they used wires, the second one not even remotely possible.
I didn't even count that one as a huge plothole though, as I come to expect nothing less when it comes to computer knowledge in popular sci-fi.
Well I like some aspects of the techonology where they simply don't explain things. While ST:TNG and later were full of rediculous technobable. BSG consists of nothing more than, "hey, the planet we are searching for Starbuck on clogs our engines." It's nice to get a more realistic approach. Criticising BSG over it's science is rediculous, quite simply the majority of science in your average TV show is completely asnine. BSG simply leaves you in the dark, which quite honestly seems to be the best approach.
I absolutely love the new design of the cyclons including their fighers and robots. Whether you like the "human" clones is debateable and a matter of preference.
I'm not sure how you mention Andromeda, which is Herucles in space except shitty. Stargate is just fun, with unrealistic heros. Enterprise is crap. ST:TNG is way better even in it's first season.
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
They are re-running season 1 on Space now. My wife and I watch it. She likes it more than any other "weird faces show" (her term for the TV SciFi shows), I think it's OK.
> It's the essence of the show. The Cylons are biological. They think and breath and live.
Which brings me to one of the show's most glaring flaws.
I'm a big fan of internal consistency. It helps me suspend my disbelief and immerse myself in the show for the 45 minutes that it is on. Screw that up, especially for something crucial, and I get this nagging feeling that something is not right.
So, on one hand we are shown Cylons that are
(1) much stronger and have significantly better endurance than humans,
(2) their spines glow red when having sex, and
(3) they are adversely affected by radiation that does not bother humans.
while on the other hand, we are told that they are practically indistinguishable from humans and the only test was created by a "genius" and can only be operated by him.
Come on, they made a full post mortem on Leoben and didn't find fluorescent cells in his spinal column? No difference in the muscle tissue that would explain the ability of this model to break metal handcuffs?
The other thing that I don't care for is that this show takes itself so damn seriously.
It shouts: "Hey, pay attention! This is a very serious show talking about very serious issues! And here they are...". It's not as bad as ST:Voyager (and if the couple of episodes that I watched are representative of the series, nothing can be as bad as ST:Voyager) but it still gets old after a short while.
Contrast it with Farscape that seems to say: "Chill, dude. This is just a silly show for your entertainment, but when you done watching this episode, maybe you'll want to reflect a bit about how the characters behaved and, perhaps, find something to think about. Or maybe not, we don't really care".
And the funny thing is, I did find myself thinking about the moral issues presented in Farscape more than those presented in BSG'05.
I also did not mind as much when they violated the laws of physics right and left in Farscape. Maybe because the "holes" did not detract from the overall plot (my favourite was Rigel telling off Sikozu in I shrink therefore I am).
So, in my opinion, BSG'05 is OK, better than most SciFi shows that I'm exposed to, but not the best of them.
Just because the show uses handheld cameras and a rougher style doesn't mean it's amateur. It's done on purpose, because it gives a greater sense of presence and immediacy to the presentation. If you really find it annoying, it's because you've decided to fixate on things you hate. If you would just sit down and watch it and let yourself relax and get into the characters, I promise, you won't notice the camera style at all (except to occasionally say "wow, that's some great camera work").
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
I got the impression that the show so far (miniseries through ep 10 of 2nd season) had taken a total span of MAYBE 7 or 8 months, if not less. And Apollo stood up to the military overthrow... Starbuck stood up to Adama, and then made up with him... Baltar found religion, and stood up to Crashdown, not to mention a ton of other stuff for all the characters. What more do you want?
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
sad but true.
I wouldnt consider this a comment on the greatness of BSG, but rather an illustration of how weak television programming has become. I dont see how they could lower the bar any further.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...that some of the most vicious criticism of BG comes from guys who can't stand the thought that the best pilot in the fleet is a woman. The same guys whose maturity arrested somewhere around the age of 14, the sort who mutter "I could kick that bitch's ass in TIE Fighter any day of the week!" It's hard to a mysogynistic geek dipshit, ruler of Half-Life or Quake deathmatches, when the most kick-ass warrior of the best SF show around - the person who's supposed to be your role model - is a blonde chick who doesn't wear spandex or go down on her knees whenever something vaguely male passes her in the hall. Especially when said blonde chick has a penchant for pounding guys who piss her off....
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
...Sorely misses one Ronald D. Moore.
Moore--who was much of the creative genius behind some of the best Star Trek episodes in The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 series--SHOULD have been at the creative helm of Enterprise, which could have made that show a great experience. As such, Moore ended up taking an somewhat-remembered science fiction show from 1978 and turned it into one of the best shows on TV, period.
So, I've only watched the first season so far. Or most of it anyway. For those of you who've seen all the episodes:
Have the humans figured out that if you want to find out if someone is a cylon they can exploit the cylon's major design flaw? You just fuck them doggie style and see if their back starts to glow? Or do they fuck "ride 'em cowboy style" in every episode? Is that how much life in the future will suck? No more doggie style? Then the future humans deserve to be killed off by the cylons.
Anyway, the cylons don't seem like a real formidable enemy, if they designed themselves to be undetectable in every way except, oops, the massive glowing red virgin alarms embedded in their spines.
I hope for your sake that english is not your first language.
farking moron.
when I run at a rapid pace through the jungle in real life, my brain will correct for this motion
i've been in the army for several years, and believe me, when you're tired but still have to move fast, this "automatic correction" you speak of doesn't work that great.
get off that couch and go make a better series if you're that smart
n/t
As resurrections of old SF shows go, it's been bloody good fun. I haven't seen any Galactica yet, but the Ninth's time in the TARDIS has got to take some beating.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
As much as I love the show (esp SVU), I keep seeing the scripts when I read The New York Post every day on the train ride home...
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
I refuse to take seriously any list of 2005's Best Television that doesn't include Deadwood. Don't tell me "but it was on the 2004 list", either -- the second season was broadcast in 2005, and after Veronica Mars it was the best thing on all year.
I can't believe no one has mentioned #8 on the list. How I Met Your Mother.
As the writer says, it does take the concept of friends. But it does it in a way that is unique and more friend-like than even friends was. (Say that ten times fast. Neil Patrick Harris as Barney is legendary! The whole group just acts wonderfully with each other.
USA does this for Monk and uses the downtime to air a pilot series that they probably won't keep. Like 'Touch of evil.' It helps to keep peoples minds on the series and there isn't as much time to lose viewers during a long 'off' season.
22 episodes? When did they air? I saw the pilot and was never able to find any further episodes! It just seemed to vanish.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
and it was "low-quality" by necessity.
The early Simpson's artwork actually bore a strong resemblance to Life in Hell, so I think it may not have been necessity so much as Groening's style. Take a good look at Marge next to Bongo. See what I mean?
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
Top Gear was pretty cool, but I only caught a couple of eps on Discovery, and haven't seen it since.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
You're right about one thing. Andromeda does wipe the floor. :P
If they aired BSG on network TV, they would have been hit with so many fines. Too much sexual content, which is a primary plot device for her being able to subvert humans to do their bidding. Baltar getting caught masturbating, etc. There are countless episodes where a fine would have been slapped on them, and the producer knows it.
I'm willing to concede the point (entirely possible) but the simpsons shorts on the TA show were "wiggly" (characters being redrawn, or just an effect?) to the point where it could be hard to look at.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They already made a remake of the $6 million man. It was called Jake 2.0 and lasted only a few episodes.
Religion is actually a VERY important aspect of the story. The Cylons are wiping out humans based on their religious beliefs - that Man is wicked and is being brought to task for their sins (very fire-and-brimstone). This also touches on their desire to procreate. They're not simply wanting to reproduce or become a race. They believe that love, and perhapse the ability to procreate, is key to being one with God. This is why they allow humans to exist at all - to try and understand these fundimental aspects of humanity.
Perhaps they've discovered that kinetic weapons are more effective against the cyclons? I don't think it's a logical argument to say that laser or other types of weapons are a necessary precursor to developing faster than light travel or artifical gravity.
As for the raider, weren't the controls semi-mechanical, and the "brain" was connected to various parts of it? I mean, as much as it was organic, there was a mechanical component to it too.
I love Firefly, too, and the first thing I noticed about BSG was they used the same way of showing the ships in space, with a wildly swinging camera, jumping around, then zooming in or out a little. I wish they wouldn't do that on the people shots though, it gives me a headache.
BTW, "you are" is abbreviated "you're" and if you refer to people complaining, you either mean "whining" or "whingeing". I myself am not familiar with the second term, to whinge, and am not sure if the present tense is whinging or whingeing. Your arguments don't hold water as well when you sound ignorant.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Don't forget the completely unrealistic hippy mentality that seems to pervade stargate. It's a story about a military base for christ's sake. Stop using them as liberal mouth peaces. No military officer I know of talks like Jack or would put up with a crybaby like Daniel. Almost every episode seems to revolve around the team finding an incredibly advanced weapon that would be perfect to save them from the Gould. But of course they don't take it, because the race that they meet convinces them that they aren't morally advanced enough to use it.
Don't forget the part where they don't leave any team member behind and won't make deals that could advantageously affect their planet, because it would be wrong to deal with the bad guys or acknowledge that sometimes the end has to be given more weight than the means.
There are other reasons the show is cheesy. I can't list all of them, but here's a few.
The WORLD is going on outside, and if you don't make a few informed choices, it is going to roll over top of you.
Stop watching TV.
On Bush's say so, you can be hauled away as a 'terrorist' without anybody being informed. Today, you can now be, legally, 'Disappeared', and Battlestar Galactica isn't going to help you.
So get off your bums, inform yourselves, place yourselves appropriately and get your acts together. Watching TeeVee is only going to keep you in stasis while the reaper approaches. There is a lot of work which needs to be done. For instance. . .
What are you going to eat when the food runs out at your local grocery store? The average store has a 3-day supply of food for the community it serves. If there are no trucks running due to fuel shortages or a military lock-down due to a 'terrorist' attack, then there is no resupply. FEMA is then in charge of controlling the food distribution system, and we all saw how well that worked after Katrina hit. How much food and fresh water do you have in stock? The people in New Orleans had none, and so they left their neighborhoods for the promise of shelter and government rations.
What answer are you going to have ready when the mercenary troops arrive at your door to re-locate you to the local sports-dome? Or to inoculate you with something against your will? Or seize your property for the state?
What are you going to do when the really cold weather rolls in and your home, which was designed to leak heat everywhere in order to keep the payments to the oil-industry going, can't keep you warm because there's no longer a surplus of electricity and oil? Extensive insulation is the least expensive way to stay warm. Warm clothing is also a good idea. . .
Do you have a car? Do you have a full tank of gas? Do you have friends who are prepared? Do you have somewhere to hide/retreat to? Do you have a supply of real cash on hand for when the card readers stop working?
Have you read how things were in occupied France during WWII? Have you read up on how things were during the Napoleonic wars in siege situations? --It's a good idea to acquaint yourself with how people managed during such times, because when the power stops flowing, all your technology won't put you in a much better place than all the millions of people affected by strife throughout history. --Except that now the troops keeping 'order' will have better hardware, and you probably won't even have decent footwear. I am not fear-mongering here. I'm just fed up with frivolity surrounding TeeVee when there is so much currently at stake. This is just good sense! Get good boots and extra blankets now. Get some good tools now. Get some food put away, and do it now. History is GOING to repeat itself, and it is going to do so quite soon.
There is no longer an out. All the windows of opportunity were passed several years ago and now all the pieces are in place. Some people are already getting whacked by it, and it's not going to bypass you just because you happen to be a good little TeeVee viewing consumer with the latest DVD drive and a skimpy faith that it's all going to be okay.
There is a little time left. Make good use of it and you can make the coming years a lot less miserable. Stop screwing around.
Watching TeeVee is screwing around.
-FL
The problem with EVERY big company is not that they're averse to risk per se, the people who run it just don't know any other way to be. I use the "Hot Chick at a Party" analogy:
Big corporations are like a hot chick at a party. The woman sits in a publicly exposed area, holding court, surrounded by lots of dorky guys who are just sort of standing there gawking. She's usually already made up her mind about the guy she likes, and she's got him right there fetching her drinks and whatnot, but nonetheless there are all these dorks standing at the periphery, who know they have no chance, but can't tear themselves away. Likewise, big companies have all this money, millions of customers/viewers whatever, and all these dorks in suits say "hey, I need a job that pays a ton of bucks" and they glom onto a big company, weasel their way into middle management, or even into the yes-men circle at the top. These dorks have no chance to genuinely succeed on their own (their own brilliance, ideas, bravery, loyalty etc) they only ride the company's coattails. And since they have NOTHING to contribute, they fall back on what they can remember from college: reduce costs, don't take any big risks, don't stick your neck out. Stick to the formula. (This is, of course, based on these people actually doing the work in college instead of letting their frat get them the answers to the tests.)
So these companies are all blocked up, constipated with mediocre, greedy schlubs who can only copy someone else's ideas. Same for most every big company; when they're just a couple guys in a garage, they kick ass, but when they get big, the mediocre slimeballs come in and start leeching.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Erm. Ok - look - the idea is that if you were to be holding a camera it'd be shakey, not that YOU would see shakeyness. For example, in a combat scene it's highly unlikely that if you were attempting to film it you'd be dead on immediatly, or be rock-steady. I appreciate you don't like it, but don't criticize something based on a false understanding.
Each of those hours passively glued to the TV is an hour of your life. Are you sure you want to spend it there?
That's 44 minutes, thank you very much.
Does anyone else get nauseous watching shows that are too cheap to use the Steady Cam©?
This new phenomenon is making it hard for me to watch TV. Remember the "blipverts" from Max Headroom? Rapid commercials that cause the viewers heads to explode!
The prediction is starting to come true with seizure causing flashing images and nauseous camera work. It's getting harder and harder to find shows and commercials I can watch on TV.
So I can't watch Battlestar at all and I don't like it nor can I fairly evaluate it. Anyone else having this trouble?
Great idea, poor results. That was why the RULES of camera work I was taught were developed! No rapid movements, etc. except where it does work. Not all the time like trainees and low budget interns at a certain TV station I know!
I'll think of a really good SIG just before I die.