Deadwood’s a must-see as well, I often pair it with Rome. Guy that plays Al Swearingen (Ian McShane) is a genius and you will never forget him when you see him in other movies. Guy who wrote it (David Milch) said when he did research into the west, he found that people cursed in every sentence. You’ve never seen a western movie/series like this. There’re some slower episodes and it gets drifty at times, season 3 kinda bored me, but Al and Dan (nasty guy but funny - see if you remember him from Something About Mary) and Seth (Hitman, and the bad guy from Die Hard 4) and of course Wu will keep you riveted. Watch this show at least until S01E10 - “Mr Wu” - you will not regret that.
Yeah Deadwood didn’t go “awry” but definitely petered out.
Dexter is definitely only for some, Michael whatever (Dexter, gay brother from Six Feet Under, which was awesome) is not for everyone, and that weird tan and lip gloss they give him is strange. But he grows on you I think, they’ve got a couple decent supporting characters (Matsuka, Miguel, Doakes). They threw a “shocker” in at the end of season 4 to keep things lively (and not totally unwanted, one of the characters that grates on me gets it). Very well written though and the overall season arcs are real good.
Deadwood and Rome, do kid of go together. They’re about whole societies. Especially Deadwood. I love the way it depicts the way societies formed. I’d put The Wire in there too. Three must-see shows about the way societies operate.
Yeah, one of the most interesting angles was that democratic government had nothing at all to do with any highfalutin’, lofty ideals about the rights of man. It was merely the best vehicle for commerce, the least-cost solution. In Deadwood, democracy was the only way that expenses could be made to be mostly of the dollar kind and minimally of the blood kind.
When did watching TV become like reading a novel? Don’t get me wrong - TV these days, North American TV in particular, is way better than it used to be - but one reason I haven’t started The Wire or Deadwood yet is this mass of hours waiting for me to watch. The feeling isn’t entirely far off what I get when I look at “Anna Karenina” sitting on the shelf - I know I’ll enjoy myself once I get going, but I just haven’t yet mustered the energy to start.
I’m very glad TV has become all literary, but the mindless TV has totally disappeared from what I watch (I suspect Forumosa and the internet has replaced that niche). But it’s a strange reversal - when I want something braindead, I turn on the computer; when I want to be a bit more awake, I open a book or turn on the TV!
My wife and I keep meaning to get to the second season of Rome as well, but we have real trouble finding the time when we can both watch at the same time. And yes, I have “I, Claudius” waiting for her to see as well - she has no idea what’s coming. Ah, John Hurt as Caligula, and the oddity of how Patrick Stewart has looked about the age of 50 since the mid 1970s.
Well, capped off the Battlestar Galactica series last night.
The Good:
Baltar character is excellently written and acted
Gaeta character is excellently written and acted
President character is good, though she plays it too dreamy sometimes, doesnt map to her hardline “execute them” commands
Tigh character is real enjoyable to watch, though a little Shatner hammy at times
Adama’s pretty good (tho Olmos will never get out of being Crockett and Tubbs’s boss in my lifetime)
OG Apollo as Zarek was actually a real good comeback role for the guy
Apollo character pretty well acted for the “pretty boy” role
Nice everyone’s smokin and drinkin and basically saying Fuck all the time
Nice occasionally blowing semimajor characters out the airlock or otherwise killing them
Nice patching up Galactica with cylon goop, though they might as well just smack you in the face with the allegory there
Nice different way to wrap up - I thought the drawn out end was OK, it was shorter than LotR Return of the King for fuck’s sake:
[spoiler]- no cities is interesting
splitting up is interesting
baltar “getting away” with helping destroy caprica is interesting
baltar’s caprica 6 being a vision from the future
caprica about “god”: “you know he doesn’t like to be called that”
Dean Stockwell blowing his brains out in the control room, apparently intending to be reborn in the new colony/ship
old style cylons on the evil ship
nice twist on the back history of the cylons[/spoiler]
The Bad:
the middle of seasons 3 and 4 was a bit weak with the standard plot lines
despite being hot as balls, the Boomer character seemed pretty weak to me, motivation for some of the stuff not clear
[edit: after watching The Plan (sequel wrap up mini-movie), some of her motivation becomes clearer, tho not entirely believable]
Caprica 6 character seemed like she was in a different show most of the time
so what happened with Dean Stockwell and his fleet?
the “Opera House” plotline made no sense to me
overall wrap-up had a LOT of problems:
[spoiler]- liked the concept of “no cities this time” at the end but individuals eeking it out? makes no sense
bit cheesy with the future baltar/caprica being all pimpy looking[/spoiler]
The Ugly:
never cared much for the Starbuck character, realize she’s supposed to be smarmy, but after a while it’s enough already
black cylon looked like he was on a totally different show all the time - underused - also that weak whitey cylon
[edit: The Plan sees more use of him]
the “wraparound” Greek theme (150,000 years before real Greece?) doesn’t really make sense
not enough explanation of how human merged with cylon in the 12: you’d think they’d realize with their “superior strength” sometime in their life that something was not quite normal
I don’t think the Caprica-planet Caprica (who seduced Baltar there) standing in front of him would protect him from a nuclear blast
Several characters actually said “NOO KYOO LER” instead of the correct “NOO CLEE UR”, leading me to think W may have been somehow involved
All Along the Watchtower? I think not, despite the so-called reason for it
[spoiler]- no way a guy (Adama) who loves and misses his family and his flame (the president) goes off to die on his own, leaving his kid
angels? Come on, they had no clue what to do with Starbuck’s character eh?
driving the fleet into the sun? nah, they weren’t (all) born on a farm, and retarded
Ellen is the last cylon? uh, no, they totally screwed the pooch there. surprise is good, stupid surprise is bad[/spoiler]
[edit: for a little extra pleasure]
Guess I have to watch “The Plan” to see some of the loose ends tied up. Overall, very good series, I’m recommending it to my better half (they have Thai subtitle versions now), might rewatch it with her then.
And thanks everyone for basically recommending to stick with it.
On the black cylon: yeah, I kept totally forgetting about him, then being happy when he showed up again. You’re right about him being underused. One good thing about “The Plan”: he does play a more prominent role.
I really liked Dee’s arc. BSG did second-level characters so well. Uh, except for Helen Tigh.
That actor (Alessandro Juliani) is playing Prince Hal/ Henry V in Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare festival this summer. I always go to those plays anyway, but I’m curious to see how he’ll do.
[quote=“lostinasia”]I really liked Dee’s arc. BSG did second-level characters so well. Uh, except for Helen Tigh.
[/quote]
We agree on Dee’s arc, but the difference is, I would like to insert several body parts and accoutrement into hers…
Watched “The Plan”, it wrapped up a bunch more stuff (the story from the cyclons point of view), still didn’t quite hold enough water for me, also, it looked like they were going back and making excuses for some people’s behavior that didn’t quite fit for me (Boomer, Caprica 6). But definitely worth watching if you watch the series first. But I’ll be looking to see if it really fits into the story when I watch the series a second time with the missus
