And yet they seem to have done very well by following their established formula. What's ironic is that the viewing figures tailed off a bit when they moved away from the "realism" and  focussed on more overtly space operatic stuff.

I could have lived with the drama part if it was good and smart drama.
But this was just awful predictable, unimaginative, slow moving and with uniformly unlikeable characters. Add to that the basic bodysnatcher setup that is without any irony or other redeeming features.

Good real-life US-navel-gazing drama in sci fi drags:

Space: Above and Beyond

Good relationship drama in SciFi drags:

Rose Tyler storyline
Absorbaloff episode, both Dr. Who.

@Drew: I hear Friends, Grey´s Anatomy and the OC are successful, too.

Quote from: Settembrini@Drew: I hear Friends, Grey´s Anatomy and the OC are successful, too.

I wasn't using popularity as the sole metric. It's been nominated for and won numerous awards, and has been listed by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best shows on television.

As I said it's definitely not for everyone, but it's been held in high regard by people who can be trusted to string a sentence together for a while now.

I´m puzzled.
Well, back to joox watching 1st to fourth Doctor, it seems.

Quote from: DrewFunny that. I consider it to be one of the grittier, more realistic offerings out there. Mind you that's not saying much when you look at the competition.

I forget the number of times that a scene played in slow motion or is seen from different angles or repeated or moody looking off into the distance (actually, normally moody looking down at bootlaces). Don't get me wrong, i think it's ok, but i can do without the melodrama. Doesn't deserve the hype IMO, but then little does!

See, I only watched like half the pilot and was like. Yup, dont like this. Its not for me. Then for the last couple seasons my friends have been telling me. Oh its really dark, and it good. My response was, are you sure cause it seemed like a melodrama with sci-fi trappings. Then the third season came out. All the people who were telling me to watch. Said that it was as good. Said well the third season inst as good. That it had become more or less a melodrama in sci-fi trappings. Hmmm.. seems like I had heard that before :hmm:

Quote from: Bradford C. WalkerToo much yapping, not enough zapping. I don't watch sci-fi movies or TV to watch people go on about shit that works just as well in the real world; if there ain't metric shitloads of fleet battles, dogfights, firefights, badass action and weird power-flinging going on with dazzling spectacles every chance you get to display them then it's fucking waste of time and money to make it. Quit with dressing up real-world shit in genre drag; you'll always do better to stay well away of that crap.

Ditto.
New-BSG is far too dark and depressing for me. Every third person is a Cylon in disguise, the fleet gets is ass handed to it on the odd occasions they do have a battle (space or otherwise), and most of the episodes are about the survivors arguing amongst themselves.
There's just no hope.
 
Old BSG might have been camp as hell, but you can be sure that the good guys could kick shiny metal ass and take serial numbers when they had to.

So what if it's crap drama? It's *fun* crap drama.

Like Heroes.

The pilot drew me in; sci-fi that made the characters a focus, instead of their shiny magic tools? Not since DS9 had I actually watched sci-fi on TV, and I proceeded to do so.

First season was -excellent-. I woke up 4 hours early to watch it on my day off.

Second season was really, really, really good. I still woke up 4 hours early, but I missed an episode or two and had to download them. I sat jumping around waiting for 3rd season.

3rd season...well, I missed an episode and didn't care much.
Then Adama took it to the fucking limit.
And then it shat the bed.
I watched half-heartedly for a couple episodes, and eventually gave up. I looked over at the future Mrs. Ape some time during the

Spoiler

secret trials

and asked "Can you even remember the last time they launched more than four Vipers at once?". Character-driven sci-fi is cool and all, but you've really gotta blow up some robots to make it worthwhile.

I still love the show and hope that my future wife looks pretty close to Kara Thrace. (or maybe Athena or Dee)

 Loved the last episode/cliffhanger this past season.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Christmas ApeNot since DS9 had I actually watched sci-fi on TV, and I proceeded to do so.

Not having seen BSG, that was the first thing that came to mind when I read Sett's post. DS fucking 9. That show was the reason why certain friends of mine wouldn't play Traveller with me.

They: "So THAT'S what scifi is like?!"
Me: "Nonono, you don't understand, it's totally different, it's about daring adventures and firefights and running from the law and ARE YOU LISTENING???..."

You LIKE that show, CA?

/dies

I dug it until about halfway through Season 2, when I got tired of it trying to pretend it was smarter than me.

How could you think it was smarter than you?  I don't recall any cast member wearing that natty tie (admittedly, I only watched the pilot and a few eps of season 1)....

Oh, it just tried real hard to convince me and I got tired of it.