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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.'"

32 of 520 comments (clear)

  1. Another Note About The List... by gasmonso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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/
    1. Re:Another Note About The List... by Luscious868 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      It seems like the talent has moved elsewhere and the big three are caving in under their own weight.

      It's about risk taking. The major networks simply aren't willing to take risks. They wait for the latest flavor of the month and then rush to copy it. A million versions of CSI, a million versions of Law and Order, a million reality shows. The big three have become a joke. ABC is the only network of the big three that has non-news related shows that I bother to TiVo anymore. Fox, FX, Sci-Fi and HBO are where it's at now. FX has to be my favorite network in terms of original programming. The Shield, Rescue Me and Nip / Tuck are great shows and Thief looks promising. HBO would be next in line with Deadwood, Rome, Curb Your Enthusiam and The Soporanos (which should end after this season ... talk about dragging things out .. but it's still better than 80% of the other shows on TV).

    2. Re:Another Note About The List... by Scrameustache · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's about risk taking. The major networks simply aren't willing to take risks.

      The guy that OK'd Lost's very expensive pilot episode was sacked for it.
      And then the network made a fortune. As far as I know, they didn't hire him back.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    3. Re:Another Note About The List... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny
      A million versions of CSI, a million versions of Law and Order, a million reality shows.

      ... and it only took them 3 monkeys with typewriters.
      I'm sure the suits look at that and say: 'cost effective'.

    4. Re:Another Note About The List... by Rakishi · · Score: 4, Informative

      And it proves the grandparent's point perfectly, The Office was created by BBC.

    5. Re:Another Note About The List... by ajayrockrock · · Score: 5, Informative

      The guy that OK'd Lost's very expensive pilot episode was sacked for it.
      And then the network made a fortune. As far as I know, they didn't hire him back.


      You're talking about Lloyd Braun. From the bio: "During his tenure with the ABC Entertainment Television Group, Braun initiated and oversaw the development of such successful programs as "Alias", "Lost", "Desperate Housewives", "Grey's Anatomy", "Extreme Makeover", "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Boston Legal".

      ABC fired him before his shows were aired and put the network in the #1 slot. He's now at Yahoo.

      --Ajay

  2. And most importantly... by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > Adapted from a cheesy '70s Star Wars clone of the same name, Galactica (returning in January) is a ripping sci-fi allegory of the war on terror, complete with religious fundamentalists (here, genocidal robots called Cylons), sleeper cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-torture scandal.

    ...and most importantly, instead of being guys in clunky robot suits who sound like they're talking through fans, many of the Cylons are teh hawtness. Who is Number One? She is Number Six, and she beats Seven of Nine hands-down.

    Attention authors of lesbian slash fanfic, that is not an invitation to depict... or is it?

    1. Re:And most importantly... by MSG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      aggressive "sex sells" nature of the character makes me resent the makers for attempting to influence me in such a base way

      They're not trying to influence you. The character is manipulating humans, particularly Baltar, and using their human instincts to do it. You should feel like it's manipulation, because it is. It just doesn't happen to be directed at you.

      The whole human-form cylons thing rankles me, too

      You don't "get" the show, then. It's not a cost-saving measure. It's the essence of the show. The cylons are biological. They think and breath and live. They profess a belief in a God that gives them life, and that they are our successors. Are they right? Do they even really believe that? As characters, it's those questions that give them depth in intrigue.

      the camera would zoom in on their face

      That does bother a lot of people, but as far as I can tell, the crew is trying to imitate the way real humans view the world. The camera focuses narrowly when a human watching would feel tense, because that's what a human does. The camera shakes and darts, because that's what our eyes do. You're not accustomed to seeing a camera do it, and it may never catch on as a technique (many will appreciate that), but it's interesting to see it done, when you understand what's happening.

    2. Re:And most importantly... by MSG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Come on...raping the alien? ... After that episode I don't watch BSG.

      That was the best episode yet. The whole show questions the validity of the cylons' claim to humanity, and that episode puts the questions in very certain terms. Are the cylons "human" enough to be entitled to human rights? Was it morally wrong for the soldiers to rape the cylon they'd captured? If not, then would it have been wrong to do the same to Sharon?

      That episode was directed at everyone who did not or does not believe that the cylons are "human" themselves. If they're "toasters", as so many of the human characters believe, then is anything that you do to them wrong? There are definitely characters in the show that think so, and in believing so, they are beginning to see the cylons as a living race.

      Of course the show is an allegory. Rape is torture. The cylons, as a race, are trying to exterminate the human race, although some individual cylons don't support that goal. Are the humans justified in torturing the individuals that they perceive as the enemy? What if they cylons might give up some information that could save human lives by doing so?

  3. Maybe now they'll get more than 10 episodes/season by Cat_Byte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  4. A pleasant suprise by ChowRiit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:Maybe now they'll get more than 10 episodes/sea by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  6. Lost? by antdude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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).
    1. Re:Lost? by RonnyJ · · Score: 4, Informative

      I would also put forward 'Arrested Development' and 'Veronica Mars' as great shows that deserve to be on that list.

    2. Re:Lost? by drsquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps he saw through the shallow attempt to string people along watching thousands of empty episodes with nothing happening, with each minor plot point stretched out for an hour, and the obligatory bit of 'scary' music at the end of every scene to try and make the viewer think it's exciting. Not to mention endless unjustified hype and a new 'mystery' introduced every episode just to keep people from switching over.

      Lost is what happens when the marketing suits are in charge of writing the script. Cynical TV at its worst.

    3. Re:Lost? by Dadoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Where's Lost? That's another great show!

      Umm, yeah, whatever.

      I watched every episode in the first season, where they built up mystery upon mystery upon mystery. That's fine, but at some point, you have to solve the mystery. I figured they'd answer most of the questions in the season finale, but no, they just made up more questions. At this point, we still don't have any clue what's going on - whether the doctor is dreaming the whole thing, or they're subjects of an experiment, or they're actually lost on a tropical island.

      Personally, I think the writers don't have a clue, either. They probably only wrote enough for the first season and they didn't expect the show to become popular. When it was very popular, they got caught off-guard and now they're scrambling to keep up.

      --
      Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
  7. It kind of grows on you by earthforce_1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:It kind of grows on you by Spackler · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, you were thinking "Wow, Erin Gray in spandex", just like the rest of us one handed Buck Rogers watching 12 year olds.

    2. Re:It kind of grows on you by Guppy06 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "And after watching the original series again for the first time in over 20 years, it wasn't nearly as good as I remember"

      Someone on a mailing list I used to be on summed it up like this:

      New: Run away, they're right behind us!
      Old: Run away, they're... oooh, a space casino!

  8. Re:Could you say that again? by ericdano · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Are we watching the SAME show? Bad acting? What? Bad plots? What??!?!

    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!
    --
  9. No Arrested Development? by RonnyJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  10. $6 million man by rodentia · · Score: 5, Funny


    I wonder when the six million dollar man remake comes out?

    We can rebuild him.

    --
    illegitimii non ingravare
  11. Love the show, no rewatchability by rwhamann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  12. this one time... by davez0r · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...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!

  13. THAT by Mad+Ogre · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is what they should have said about "Firefly".

    --
    MadOgre.com
  14. Re:Yeah... yeah... by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  15. Re:Could you say that again? by Mr_Huber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  16. It is an ex-parrot!!! by hellfire · · Score: 4, Informative

    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"

  17. Re:Yeah... yeah... by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

  18. Re:Umm, Stargate? by Dadoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Personally, Stargate beats BSG anyday.

    Not the last season, that's for sure. I don't know what they're trying to do, introducing another "invincible enemy", at this point.

    Come on, Stargate writers, it's time to reveal the stargate to the public. All the social, political, and economic fallout would give you at least another two seasons' worth of material. Then, re-visit a bunch of the planets we've been to before and let's see if SG-1 made things better. (What happened to O'Neil's child, for instance?)

    Anyway, I'm afraid this might be the last season for SG-1, and that would be disappointing.

    --
    Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
  19. I used to love BSG by ibentmywookie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... 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!
  20. I found the cylon detector by hikerhat · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.