I apologize in advance for the geekery that may ensue on this website but I feel obligated to a certain segment of our readership to point out that tonight (Friday night-when all the cool people will be out) marks the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica, a show that one Newsweek writer recently called “indisputably, hands-down and without question, the best show on television.”
About a year ago, I tried to pitch NEWSWEEK’s arts editor on a “BSG” story. He said something along the lines of “Get out of my office, nerd,” which neatly sums up the challenge of getting other people to watch it. The title unfortunately evokes its predecessor, a 1978 “Star Wars” clone that presented humanity fleeing through space, pursued by robots with the same blinking red LEDs that was later adopted by the talking car in “Knight Rider.”
I was never a big fan of the original, but I became an instant convert to the Sci Fi Channel version…At the center of the maelstrom is the ethically challenged Colonel Tigh, the show’s biggest hawk and best character. In his portrayal of the squinting Tigh, actor Michael Hogan brilliantly channels Donald Rumsfeld. Tigh despises all things soft, and anything that smells of compromise or weakness. When he’s told in this week’s episode that a suicide bomber will inflict many casualties, both human and Cylon, he barks: “Don’t avoid them. Send a message. There are no boundaries for the Cylons and there are no boundaries for us!”
Beyond the Rumsfeldian Tigh, the show blatantly co-opts the visual imagery of the current conflicts in the Middle East. Prisoners are marched into jails with hoods draped over their heads and sit alone in cement block cells–shades of Abu Ghraib. [Link]
I am sure many of you are still wondering why I am writing about this on SM. Well, for one thing the show’s opening credits are Hindu friendly, set to…the Gayatri Mantra. Also, late last season Indo-Canadian actress Rekha Sharma joined the cast as Tory Foster, an aide to outgoing President Laura Roslin. I am expecting to see her role grow this season. Or she may be killed off like the President’s former aid. This ain’t like Star Trek, even the non-randoms gets whacked.
And for the record, I won’t be home tonight. I have TiVo.
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My first reaction to BSG was indifference.
But the show has grown on me, a lot. Frinday nights are the ulitmate geek night. Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, BSG (and the re-runs of Star Trek TNG)
I was a huge fan of the original, and just watched season 1 of new series. I like it except for the repeated emphasis on religion. I get enough of that from all the right-wingers around me in my area. Sure, BG is more realistically relevant to present day, but I enjoyed the whole Prime Directive premise of Star Trek original and Next Generation series.
What’s wrong with staying home on a Friday night!
Nothing…if you are married. We expect that of married folk. 🙂
staying in on a Friday is hip as is Si Fi. The rest of you are nerds and geeks.
Last time I checked, Friday was the new Sunday.
Ok fine. If I hadn’t been invited to an Iftar dinner and Chick Pea hadn’t requested an audience while she is in town I’d be at home alone on a Friday night too. Are you happy? Do you like to see me cry?
I’m staying in tonight and cooking a chicken curry. Does that make me uncool, or just non-veg?
Damn it…now I’ve got the Culture Club song going through my head…thanks Abhi…
Honestly, that depends on how it turns out and if you are the only one eating 🙂
He’ll be at his lab 😉
Aha! Wouldn’t you like to know!
You aren’t fooling anyone abhi, desi-friendly or not, you just want to write about BSG, you geek. I foresee a desi-star-trek channel, I foresee all kinds of awful. Kidding (
I, uh, sort of loved ST, New Generation. I mean, I didn’t love it, people in my college dorm made me watch it).*Why does it seem like the ads for television shows always have someone calling it the best show ever? Oh, nevermind. For the record, I won’t be home watching BSG either 🙂
When I lived in Chicago, some of my closest friends used to work in restaurants (Hey Bice/Gioco crowd! I miss you lots) so I used to stay in Friday and Saturday and go out on Sundays sometime with the chef, waiter, bartender crowd. Interesting world, the non-Monday thru Friday types inhabit. I used to love those funny little adventures….plus, my lazy a*s was so happy staying in on Fridays.
Friday night. Abhi’s out with four women, Siddhartha’s cooking curry chicken for friends, and God only knows what border-line legal activities Vinod’s up to.
sigh
Manju’s right, blogging is the path to happiness.
LOL… i don’t know if i am laughing at the comment or masking my tears since that has been a reality for me in the past!
Heck… it’s a reality for me right now… sigh…
There is nothing wrong with geekery. The fact that we are all regular participants on the blogosphere shows that a) we all have a certain amount of geekitude in us, b) geekitude can be cool, and c) geekitude is something we should all embrace. I am proud to admit that I watch BG regularly…thank you lord for Tivo.
Every Friday night we drop our 14-year old daughter at a Hindu religion class and then wait the two hours in a restaurant. It has done wonders for our relationship, not to mention the knowledge the little one has gained. Once we met another couple at the bar and when we told them that our daughter was at a religion class, they wanted to know if our religion did not require the family to attend the “service” together.
Why do I blog at all? Thanks Sriram for the answer. Geekitude aside, I think blogging is the fast food of opinions. How long will it take to listen to over 200 comments on the same topic in the real world? A year? I think we all want the most bang in the shortest span of time in our internet driven, instant gratification seeking culture.
I’m with you; I bought the last two seasons on ITunes and came rushing home to see last night’s awesome episode. I’m totally addicted.
I’m a recent BG convert and like it a lot. Rekha Sharma looks cute, she’ll deifinitely add to the GQ of the show as well 🙂
In about a minute she’s going to be way cooler than her parents and isn’t going to want to go to this on Friday nights. Bizarre time for it if you ask me, especially for teenagers! She has not complained yet?
“In about a minute she’s going to be way cooler than her parents and isn’t going to want to go to this on Friday nights. Bizarre time for it if you ask me, especially for teenagers! She has not complained yet?”
We are bracing ourselves for “the protest” someday. Yeah, it is not a normal time for the religious classes. They are usually held Sunday mornings in temples all across the land. But this family – friends of ours – has been doing this for about 20 children for many years and they like to keep their weekends free.
Friday night, and Abhi was our with SEVEN women. most of them bloggers. 😉
Don’t worry, the geek that he is, he brought up the show as a dinner topic.
please – in the future – if you’re going to run spoilers of past seasons – warn us! i don’t have sci-fi, and I’m trying to catch up with BSg on DVD…so I didn’t know about Billy…so sad…
Dharma Queen:
Now THIS girl (Rekha Sharma) is hot!
I know where Abhi was on Friday night…whoo hoo!
Taz, don’t knock the show until you’ve seen it! I am not a big science fiction TV fan. Can’t really abide most of it, because it’s pure crap.
But Abhi’s right, this show is great. It’s right up there, second only to The Wire. Well-acted, well-written, interesting conflicts and sub-plots, big moral and ethical dilemnas, and it’s not just a bunch of cheesy cliches strung together. I literally paused my Tivo’ed season premiere to write this. 🙂
Ah, hungover Saturdays. Y’all can moan about going out or not all you want. DVR = cake to eat and to hold and cherish, too.
Had a Vinod-sighting last night, totally slumming at some house-party in Potrero with an indoor-pool, weird poured-concrete-nouveau architecture, and 2 million desis, plus assorted hangers-on, including one very pissed off bitchy rich neighbor woman calling the cops and possibly DHS from outside. I was busy doing my normal schtick of pissing off anyone in sight (so easy in San Francisco!), but got some face time. Listened to his friend talk about how built Vinod is for quite a while (I interjected to inform her not to be fooled by his six-pack, it’s all silicone gel and saltwater implants).
The new BSG is outstanding. Some of the main characters are pretty similar to the original versions (eg. Apollo, Adama after the “incident” with Boomer — I’m trying not to include any spoilers here for those who haven’t seen it yet), but I love how they’ve given a “twist” to others like Starbuck — who is ironically the most religious character — and in some cases how they’re completely different (Tigh, Boomer).
Personally I enjoy watching Baltar’s twitchy antics the most; I think the guy should get an award for his brilliant performance, if he hasn’t done so already.
Rekha Sharma was very good too; quite a cold-blooded, ruthlessly-calculating type, eh.
Quite a complex, dark show; definitely not for kids either.
I’m really looking forward to the third season.
Abhi — More on BSG in this earlier discussion thread, including a link to the Gayatri Mantra-inspired theme song and a really interesting NYT Magazine article from two summers ago. Note also that the show may be Sikh friendly as well, evidenced by the Khanda-like insignia. (okay, maybe a stretch, but not as much as the Wu-Tang Clan logo or bat-symbol….)
Fortunately, I have DVR — but if Tamasha says Friday is the new Sunday, she’s not going to get any argument from me….
I’ll probably get flogged for saying this, but Rekha isn’t doing much for me either in the looks or acting departments. She’s a competent actor, but seems “robotic” (granted, it could just be the role)… I’m waiting to see more personality.
Maybe she’s a Cylon!
No Desh —
flog, flog, FLOG! 😉 What — didn’t she show enough personality for you, um, (scrupulously trying to avoid spoiler) during the election??
Salil,
The rerun was on the Sci Fi network on Sunday. I said to myself, “Maybe Salil and Abhi have a point- maybe I should watch this.” But then, after one minute of softly spoken dialogue and gray scenes, I switched. Sorry! I have a short attention span. I need colors. Loudness. Glitz. And drama. Like Sweet Sixteen on MTV…. 😉
The show is fatastic and the lead writer/exec also headed ST:DS9, one of the best ST shows, mostly because of how dark it was. It’s easy to see how, absent Roddenberry’s constraints, Moore can shine in a vehicle like BSG.
Sorry, Jai Singh. I have to disagree with you there. His acting is really bad, but even worse is how his character gets away with talking to a hallucination. It’s a little too outlandish a dramatic conceit for me.
As for Rekha, I think she’s human. The amazing thing about the show is that the cylons are more human than the actual humans.
I found it a mildly annoying conceit, albeit an entertaining one that provided comic relief. Until it got flipped — then it just seemed retrospectively brilliant.
Absolutely. You can see the similarities with the tone of some of the darker and more complex political & psychological plotlines in the later seasons of DS9 (a classic example is the episode where Sisko is talking to the camera and was involved in assassinating that Romulan senator), obviously made significantly more “adult” for BSG. I like the way they don’t have an “alien of the week” theme which is so common in SF shows, and instead focus on the human drama.
I think he’s basically indulged by everyone because he’s supposed to be such a genius and a highly-respected figure in Colonial society. They think he’s a bit…..eccentric, but tolerate it as symptomatic of a “mad genius”.
She is human, just an extremely cold-blooded and Machiavellian one 😉
If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about — the very end of Season 2 — then yes I agree with you. What a brilliant twist !
The only thing I don’t like is the fact that there is a little too much similarity to modern Western dressing styles (suits & ties, glasses), along with some very modern European/American-origin first-names for some of the characters. This does strike me as very unrealistic, although I think this was a deliberate move by the show’s creators in order to make it easier for the viewers to identify with/relate to the characters and the modern-day parallels with some of the political/military situations they encounter (torture, “sleeper cells”, religious warfare etc).
However, since it’s still very unclear whether the show’s set in the past, the present, or the distant future, maybe it’s something to do with that too. I guess we’ll all find out at some point 🙂
Yep, that’s what I’m talking about.
Yeah, the premiere wasn’t exactly approachable. It wasn’t a good way to get in, in medias res. I agree with the criticisms above, too. If you had any urge to watch this show, start with the first season.
My favorite tv dramas all seem to have to do with guns lately: The Wire, BSG, and The Unit. Not sure what that says about me…but if it’s negative, don’t tell me or I’ll kill ya with my gat.
…including the initial mini-series. It’ll all make sense then.
The plots are frequently very unpredictable, which is something else I really like about the show.
I just started watching this, but am barely 4 episodes in.
One question puzzles me. Shouldn’t they be Ceylonese? Or more properly Sri Lankans? I mean, what’s with this neo-colonial naming anyway?
ennis — interesting point. the humans are definitely punjabi….
i hope you’re watching from the very beginning.
This search for Kobol is amusing – only desis would fetishize an ancient root programming language that nobody uses any more.
requested an audience? ;).. that night you missed a rockstar performance..and me possibly winning your money..since afterwards, i played my first ever game of poker–against 9 guys who play in vegas all the time… yeah the looks on their faces when i took home the cash was priceless.. next time abhi.. next time…