BSG - Acts of Contrition

[Fianna]

Well, imagine that happening in a non-science fiction work.

Like, you have a cop drama where one of the lead cops is shown to be Catholic, goes to church a lot, and will refer to some events in the story as being the will of God. Then, sometime in the middle of the second season, they come across the Shroud of Turin and use it to miraculously heal someone of their wounds. Most people would say that came out of frickin' nowhere, despite the character's previously established religiosity.

[Eberon]

I just discovered the series Lucifer (actually just finished season 4 yesterday). If you don't know the series: The Devil was fed up with his job, so he left Hell and is now a nicht club owner in LA. There he teams up with a police detective.

From the very beginning, he tells the police and every one else the truth: He's the actual devil. (And he informs them about his family drama with his dad and brothers and in season 2 his mother.) We us an audience do know that he actually is the Devil. But no-one believes him. Even though he can make people tell him their deepest desires and shows super human strength, they still think he's speaking in metaphors. When people finally see his 'Devil face' and have proof that he is who he's always claimed to be, they're shocked.

And here is the difference between Lucifer and BSG (and its ending): Even though the audience of BSG are told about God, they see Head-Six and all the other super natural things, they still think it's all metaphors. And when in the final season (or episodes) they actually see BSG's 'Devil Face', they're shocked.

In BSG, the audience is the detective.

[Blaze Rocker]

In the review Chuck said you could just watch the next episode on Netflix. Just wanted to let everyone know that it is not on Netflix at this time. It seems to be on Amazon Prime, according to IMDB.

[Mecha82]

Focus to Kara in this episode and her regret over Zack felt to me natural part of series because way I see it NuBSG always had that certain human element compared to what I have seen about OG BSG. Of course I could be wrong about that since I have never watched OG BSG but I did watch NuBSG and I like it. To me NuBSG is up there with B5 and Farscape as one of best non-Trek sci-fi series that I have watched.

[Fianna]

Re: Head Six:

In the miniseries, Head Six claimed to simply be the product of a Cylon computer chip implanted in Baltar's brain. It's not till a ways into Season 2 that we find out that's not the case and she must have some other, freakier origin.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I would agree that BSG brought some of these criticisms upon itself, but I don't think the problem is genre-clash or an abrupt change with lack of set-up.

It's not particularly uncommon for shows, sci-fi or otherwise, to explore religious or mystical themes or even to imply a miracle. The Sopranos regularly (maybe a couple times per season) had characters see strange, unexplained apparitions, experience visions, or go through purgatory. BSG employed religious imagery, symbolism, and language from the very beginning, and it directly implied that God- or some other mysterious being- could be having a hand in things as far back as season 1's "The Hand of God."

To me, the problem is actually too much set-up and too little payoff. I mention The Sopranos because BSG is one of the only sci-fi shows I can think of with the same level of aspiration as the small handful of "prestige" shows of that caliber. The difference is that a show like The Sopranos is incredibly detail-oriented and has a purpose in almost everything it does. After the first couple of seasons in particular, BSG threw stuff against the wall to see what stuck. The result of this haphazard writing style was a bunch of set-up that went nowhere, inchoate storylines that were ended strangely and abruptly, and fans obsessing over small details that the writers may have never even intended to address further. Then there were those things that weren't exactly the writers' fault but that they never really dealt with, like the promise of the opening credits that the cylons had a plan. The religious stuff seems like it comes out of nowhere because its just one of countless threads that were being developed throughout the show.

To put it shortly, BSG did set up its storylines, it's just that they set up more than it could possibly resolve satisfactorily. In terms of characterization, theme, and writing on the micro-level (episode by episode), I think it's up there with the best. On a macro-level, it was sloppier than similarly ambitious shows.

[ORCACommander]

Further is the set up of the khamala extract; It completely undermines the credibility of the mystical events. Khamala is set up to be a very powerful hallucinogen and psychoactive drug. All these prophesies and events don't really start until after roslin starts using the drug.

As for the veracity of maintenance failures? look at the condition of ragnar anchorage where that drone likely came from. no maintenance personnel. it was an ammo Dump not a munitions reserve. this was all old ordnance past its useful life that was likely do to high levels of radio active materials unable to be efficiently decommissioned.

it is no surprise to me that a drone from that environment would have its fail safes fail (although it is clears a case of writers not knowing how machines work). The ratchet strap snapping and letting go is 100% true to life though. I can't tell you how many binders and cords i have spotted on the side of the highway that just let go while in transit.

[RobbyB1982]

I have a much, much bigger problem with BSG hitting a wall eventually and just making half the cast Cylons. Like... really? THAT character was a secret cylon? For decades? But they just didn't know so it was okay?

Well, imagine that happening in a non-science fiction work.

Like, you have a cop drama where one of the lead cops is shown to be Catholic, goes to church a lot, and will refer to some events in the story as being the will of God. Then, sometime in the middle of the second season, they come across the Shroud of Turin and use it to miraculously heal someone of their wounds. Most people would say that came out of frickin' nowhere, despite the character's previously established religiosity.

But in this example, there also needs to be someone who spoke to the cop that seemed to be invisible to everyone else claiming to be an angel. You could write it off as him being crazy. Or... go with it.

Without that part of it there's no build up.

[Fianna]

Except, again, Head Six specifically told Baltar that she was the product of a Cylon computer chip put in his head. She didn't start claiming to be an angel or anything similar until Season 2.

[bronnt]

Well, imagine that happening in a non-science fiction work.

Like, you have a cop drama where one of the lead cops is shown to be Catholic, goes to church a lot, and will refer to some events in the story as being the will of God. Then, sometime in the middle of the second season, they come across the Shroud of Turin and use it to miraculously heal someone of their wounds. Most people would say that came out of frickin' nowhere, despite the character's previously established religiosity.

It also, to me, made much more sense that Baltar suffered a psychotic break from the guilt of what he did. His own perpetual need to shift blame caused him to create an apparition in his own mind that represented his own demons, while giving him a target for his self-loathing. The HeadSix he encountered was also very intuitive and might have just been tapping into his own subconscious in order to occasionally inform him about things he'd noticed but was not conscious of.

That made him a more interesting character, especially when he met an actual Six and started projected the attributes of his own HeadSix onto her, even though she wasn't the same. It remained plausible for quite a long time, but they decided to latch onto the mystical side of things to explain their foreshadowing.

Even so, I'd still have bought into the mystical side of things if there had been some useful or interesting payoff. Ultimately, the payoff to the "opera house" sequence of Baltar picking up a child and walking through a door...is that Baltar picks up a child, walks through a door, and it fails to resolve anything that's happening in the story. Roslin and Athena are freaking out only because they've had that premonition for years, but if they hadn't had that premonition, they'd probably have said, "Hooray! Baltar is rescuing the kid, doing the exact thing everyone was here to do!" It's the opposite of how you create a build-up.