The grimdark makes sense for this series though, given that it's the apocalypse. I think more than anything else, BSG is a look at grief, trauma, and how humans as individuals and collectively react to tragedy. And frankly, I think a good number of people's complaints about the show can be answered simply by looking at the reality of their situation and just how damaged these people are. The cataclysmic event serves to ultimately produce and showcase the best and worst that they have to offer- from unrepentant brutality to forgiveness of criminals who don't at all deserve it.Beastro wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 5:18 am I too also didn't like the reboot from the start given how much was changed and dropped form the original. what annoyed me the most was when it came to the human Cylons, the grimdark angle that I loath has been so influential and imitated since then and the stereotypical things nonetheless kept in like martial law being establish and then Adama giving into Roslin that annoyed me given their situation just as badly as the same tripe being repeated in its own way on the Walking Dead.
Obviously, we don't know how people would actually react in that situation since, to the best of my knowledge, humanity has never been almost annihilated by robots of their own creation, but a lot of what the show presents on that front rings true for me. Not many shows on television seem to get that these wounds don't just go away.
They didn't do everything perfectly, obviously, but I love that Ron Moore and company actually went after it and tried to communicate something artistically meaningful. Sometimes this was at the expense of plot or even common sense, but I'd give extra credit for the effort. By comparison the original is just a fun diversion, and there's nothing wrong with that.
That's a good point, and I think it helps explain some of the wildly disparate opinions people have on the show. In some ways I'd liken old-BSG vs. nu-BSG to the relationship between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. TFA is straight-laced, fulfills the expectations of the audience for a fun space adventure, and generally wouldn't be seen as a triumph of thematic or dramatic storytelling.bronnt wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 8:12 am In terms of tone and theme, the reimagined series is beautifully done up until the finale (where it craps out). The plot often fell apart as they seemed to run out of stories to tell within the fleet and shifted their focus to the Cylons, where they were often missing the implication that these characters aren't that sympathetic when they've already been a party to genocide.
The Last Jedi is far more ambitious and draws from identifiable storytelling and philosophical traditions to communicate something that Rian Johnson thought was worth exploring. The Last Jedi is idea and theme driven, and as a result some of story mechanics and plot devices used are pretty weak. How much does this weaken the movie? It depends on how you judge it.
Reimagined BSG is kind of the same way. The first couple of seasons find a great balance and manage to integrate theme and plot almost seamlessly, with the story evolving organically while the writers manage to communicate what they want to say. Later on, good plotting is sometimes sacrificed for the sake of theme. How harshly you judge this depends on what your priorities are. Sometimes I think detail-oriented nerdy circles are probably the people most likely to have a problem with poor plots, while the reaction from critical circles (or "prestige tv" fans) might be more positive.
