Anyone catch Battlestar Galactica last night?
Man, what a great show. I forbid anyone to mock it without first watching a few episodes. It’s almost got as many twist and turns as Lost and as much drama as The West Wing…which also happen to be two of my most favorite shows as well. Seeing the Cylons fall apart from within is a direction I never dreamed the show would take. I can’t wait for next week.
Sci-Fi has not renewed the show for another season, so the episodes being aired are the last. I reckon they must need to make more time for all the amazing “original” movies they crank out every other day. You know…like Boa vs. Python.
What is this phenomenon in which networks yank shows before they can find their groove? Firefly, which only lasted 13 episodes before Fox canceled it, is one of the most heralded sci-fi shows of the last decade. Shows like Farscape, Sports Night, Space: Above and Beyond, and most recently Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip were fantastic shows who found themselves singing their swan songs long before their time. Studio 60 was far more intelligent than its counterpart 30 Rock. (Maybe that was the problem.) Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator seems to be driving motivation behind The Powers That Be. Even the producers of Battlestar were forced to make “filler” episodes last season so that “the show would be more ‘accessible’ to new viewers.”
Load of crap. Those episodes sucked.
Shows like the X-files (which, ironically, went on for a couple years longer than it probably should have) would never get renewed for a second season in today’s tv world because they would take up time-slots that could be more “wisely” used to crank out more asinine reality shows. After all, you just can’t have enough of these things, right? Isn’t it frightening how we’ll glue ourselves to the TV each week to watch people tear each other apart just to get some fleeting reward? What about The Bachelor? These women sign up to compete to marry this guy whom they’ve never met beforehand. Those marriages have success written all over them from the get go I’lltellyouwhat. And what about that new show (name escapes me) where people are hooked up to a lie detector (because those are sooo accurate that they aren’t even passable as evidence in court)? Can we be any more voyeuristic? Are we so fallen that we love to see marriages crumble all in the name of the almighty dollar?
I think today’s typical American viewing habits are indicative of the state of the soul. I’m not saying Lost and Battlestar are God-inspired, but they are shows that center around this idea of redemption. We are a fallen society in desperate need of redemption. These shows are about what I believe reflect the greater Human Story: the search for salvation.
And now Battlestar is coming to a close. Lost’s end is set and in sight.
As a minister, I worry when artforms like these disappear because I wonder if, with each passing, our own story gets diluted just a little bit more by the garbage being shoved down our throats. As a dog returns to its vomit…
Recent Comments