I’m Looking Through You – The Beatles
You know that moment when you know for sure that it’s over? It’s been pretty bad for awhile but you kept holding onto the hope that things would turn around, that the good things from previous years would reassert themselves and the painfulness of recent days would fade. And then, you finally come to realize that it’s not getting any better and it’s time to jump ship.
That’s where I’m at with Battlestar Galactica. The whole second half of season two was pretty disappointing, as people began to behave more and more irrationally and it became ever more clear that the writers really have no idea where they’re going with all of this. We’ve been told all along that the Cylons have a plan, but you would never be able to tell it from what they actually do.
Nor could you tell that they’re sophisticated robots. You’d think that with all that technology, they’d have developed the capacity to best mediocre human pilots in battle. Or might (just maybe) have developed slightly more sophisticated tracking devices to follow the “insurgents” running their pathetic little campaigns.
Or, if we’re supposed to imagine that they’re letting the humans have a chance for some unknown reason, you’d think the writers would…you know…make the Cylons seem slightly more together than a bunch of whiny kids. For super-advanced intelligent robots, they’re unbelievably dense.
In short, we’re now into the third season, none of the fundamental plot questions have been resolved, though many have simply been left behind, replaced by new, complicated but ultimately irrelevant plots, the sole purpose of which seems to be dragging out the amount of time before they have to actually engage any of the real questions. Nothing that’s going on anymore makes much sense, and all the main characters (except the old man) are really getting on my nerves.
I will probably watch a few more episodes, just because the first season was so good and I don’t want to give up entirely, but unless there’s a serious change, I’m pretty much done.
As for other shows that I’ve been watching, the new episodes of Veronica Mars have been pretty good. So far, the third season isn’t quite as good as the first two, but I’ll be happy to give it some time for the mysteries to deepen before I really pass any judgment.
I also finished watching season 3 of Buffy on DVD, and I think it’s the best one they did. The Mayor is a fantastic villain, the Buffy/Faith tension is great, and even the Buffy/Angel storyline was interesting at times. Plus, there are several episodes with evil-Willow, which is one of the best things ever.
The finale wasn’t as good as the end of season 2 but on the whole, it was some seriously good TV.
Finally, in baseball, the Tigers (the same Tigers who lost 119 games only three years ago!) are in the World Series. I lived in Michigan during that 119-loss season, and one of my first Little League teams was the Tigers, so I’m definitely rooting for them to win the whole thing. Go Tigers!