Matthew Yglesias » The BSG Era

Dec 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

The BSG Era

Newsweek “asked its cultural critics to pick the one work in their field that they believe exemplifies what it was like to be alive in the age of George W. Bush.” Unfortunately, the very first one to answer is the television critic and he makes the right choice — Battlestar Galactica. I found this via Scott McLemee who also concurs in that judgment.

There have been better television shows than BSG, which I’ve tended to find uneven. But the show’s had some brilliant runs, and really nothing else has done nearly so much to capture the dystopian nature of the Bush years.

Comments
89

Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Culture, Television

89 Responses to “The BSG Era”

El Cid Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
The Daily Show and the Colbert Report may go on, but I think it was context that created this satire, and in particular the complete surrender by all our other leading cultural institutions to this regime which tried to end the nation; and if one single cultural moment encapsulated the height of the Bush years, it was that moment when a comedian stood up to power and told the Emperor to his face that he had no clothes.
Statler Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I know the internets are all over this, but I figured I’d point out the similarities between Saul Tigh and John McCain. It’s just apt, even down to the wives.
Peter K. Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Montana

“The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.”
Ethel-to-Tilly Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I don’t know – “24″ and its glorification/justification for torture in the age of terror very easily comes to mind as a very apt cultural snapshot of the Bush years.
Craig Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
One of the messages of BSG, I think, is that just because you’re fighting the bad guys, that doesn’t make you the good guys. Alas.
Medrawt Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
And one of the things that has made BSG so excellent, when it’s been excellent, is that the way in which it’s reflective of Bush/post-9/11 life is about as detached from a particular political allegory as possible, much to the confusion and consternation of many armchair commentators (on both sides of the political divide, as far as I’ve seen).

The writers, I’m sure, have their attitude about politics, and Ronald Moore at least I believe to be a pretty liberal guy, but one of the achievements of the show is to create a scenario – and commit to its own reality – that’s sufficiently divorced from the reality of our world that an attempt to read the show allegorically is inevitably disrupted by the next story upheaval. (And the extremity of the human situation in the show is such that our current political debates are radically upended as well – consider that I found myself agreeing with the characters who wanted to ban abortion in the fleet, when I’m a diehard supporter of the choice to have an abortion.) So they can riff on terrorism, war, occupation, torture, and the rest and explore those concepts, so relevant to us right now, more freely and creatively because they’re freed from the burden of trying to work their explorations into the context of the 21st century US.
Matt Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Marvel Comics had the big Civil War crossover. After a disatrous encounter which destroyed Stamford, CT, the government required all super-powered individuals to be registered so they could be trained and regulated. The anti-registration side was led by Captain America, the pro-reg by Iron Man. Captured anti-reg heroes were subject to indefinite detention, without trial or due process, in an extra-dimensional prison. Those who did register were pretty much drafted indefinitely and put on teams in the “Fifty State Initiative”. Captain America eventually surrendered because the conflict was causing too much damage to the lives and cities of normal people.

The whole thing was based on the ends justifying the means and promoting physical safety over individual freedoms. Any of this sound familiar? I firmly believe none of these stories would have been written without Bush.
freaktown Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
24 gets a bad rap.

its a tv show. and yet, people act as if it holds some special power that other tv shows don’t. it’s just over the top escapism…
Ryan Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I remember vividly that watching the four-hour miniseries which kicked off the show was the first experience I had that brought some of the emotions which swirled in the immediate aftermath of 9/11/01 rushing back.
mpowell Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
El Cid makes a very good point.
Grand Moff Texan Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
BSG has been science fiction, hold the science. As much as I like it, it’s an ensemble cast drama set on a sci-fi stage.

You could switch out the Cylons for angels or zombies and you wouldn’t lose a thing.
.
Medrawt Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
24 gets a bad rap.

its a tv show. and yet, people act as if it holds some special power that other tv shows don’t. it’s just over the top escapism…

Regardless of how good or bad 24 is, it’s an extremely popular piece of escapism that happens to perpetually articulate a certain kind of unrealistic scenario that people happen to appeal to consistently (as though it were common and realistic) when discussing the morality, efficacy, and legality of real-life torture, and people – prominent people (Supreme Court Justices!) – have made the connection explicit. To wit Scalia’s famous retort: “Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?”
AR Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
24 is different because those in power think it is different. When major figures in the GOP and Conservative movement talk about 24 as if it was a serious study of American intelligence operations (which they do), it has moved past being a normal TV show and into the realm of politics. It is essentially the TV version of The Weekly Standard, the small market that consumes it is very influential and gives it undue weight.
Richard Cownie Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
“but one of the achievements of the show is to create a scenario – and commit to its own reality – that’s sufficiently divorced from the reality of our world that an attempt to read the show allegorically is inevitably disrupted by the next story upheaval”

Well, it’s not a simplistic allegory. But then the very
complexity and ambiguity that it deals with is a refutation
of the Bush’s simplistic good guys/bad guys worldview.

Particular examples:

1) The Cylon occupation of New Caprica, complete with torture
(the Cylons putting out Tigh’s eye) and suicide bombings
by the resistance. Much the best exploration of the
Iraq invasion/insurgency mess.

2) The abuse and torture of the female Cylon prisoner.

3) The revelation that some of the most prominent humans
are really Cylons, and don’t even know it themselves.

4) Caprica Six seeking coexistence with humans.

5) Admiral Cain’s purely military approach to the situation
leading to stripping civilian ships of their FTL drives
and leaving them to be starve or be slaughtered.

6) The failure of Tigh’s imposition of martial law.

7) The class struggle between Capricans and others, seen
most clearly in the strike on the trillium-processing
ship.

But you can go on for ever. Every character suffers doubt,
fear, uncertainty, makes mistakes, has regrets. If there’s
any character corresponding to GW Bush or Rumsfeld, surely
it’s Admiral Cain, and she ends up gunned down by her Cylon
lesbian lover.
rmwarnick Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
The essence of the BSG story came down to one statement from Commander (later Admiral) William Adama (Edward James Olmos): “It’s not enough to survive. We must be worthy of survival.”
Leee Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

24 gets a bad rap.

its a tv show. and yet, people act as if it holds some special power that other tv shows don’t. it’s just over the top escapism…

Regardless of how good or bad 24 is, it’s an extremely popular piece of escapism that happens to perpetually articulate a certain kind of unrealistic scenario that people happen to appeal to consistently (as though it were common and realistic) when discussing the morality, efficacy, and legality of real-life torture

Not to mention that low- and mid-level military/intelligence personnel who are fans of the show think that torture should be SOP, which was enough of a problem that a couple years ago, some brass spoke with the show’s producers about tamping down on the show’s (lazy) over-reliance on torture.
Haukur Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I thought the Cylon occupation of New Caprica was the low point of the series. In general, BSG tends to get worse when they get out of space and on to a planet. All the planets turn out to be bland, earthlike and boring. But New Caprica was especially bad – it was a case where the show completely failed to commit to its own reality and instead went over into obvious facile allegories to real world scenarios (German occupation of France in WWII, US occupation of Iraq).

It’s hard for the US to occupy Iraq because there are a lot of people there and the US hasn’t got that many troops. And it’s a big country with borders to other big countries which offer opportunities to smuggle in weapons and such.

New Caprica had a population of 30.000 and no neighbours. It was occupied by an empire capable of militarly defeating the population of 12 planets in a few hours. Oh, and the occupiers are robots who resurrect when they die. It’s absurd that the Resistance would have any success at all.

The US has trouble with a sustained occupation of Iraq. But would the US have trouble occupying the Faroe Islands and subduing the local population?
Noah Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
BSG: a show where all the hot chicks are actually killer robot clones.

In other words, a nerdy guy’s dream world…
No... Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Idiocracy. No contest.
Gabriel Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
It’s absurd that the Resistance would have any success at all.

Did the Resistance have any success, aside from blowing up a few buildings? It’s not like they had any real military goals.
duBois Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
The Wire — the structural components of despair.
Don Williams Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I would say “24″ — because it’s deceitful bullshit illustrates the illusions that right wing propaganda was able to instill in the American psyche without ANY challenge whatsoever from the Democratic leadership.

This nation’s survival NEVER depends upon the performance of one man — although Fox promoted that idea in order to promote the idea of the necessary cowboy lone hero , George W Bush. Aka the Fuherer principle.

You NEVER saw “24″ attempt in any way to examine the US government’s past acts — on behalf of business interests, not the American people — that fed the growth of Al Qaeda. It was always the deceitful Neocon meme — TAJCA. They’re All Just Crazy Arabs.

But ,hey, why criticize “24″ for that?? — the same is true of the whores on the 911 Commission and in the Mainstream News Media.

We are not SUPPOSED to challenge the bullshit of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Rev Hagee, or “24″. After all, it is Opinion. Or Religion. Or Fiction.

Which ignores the fact that the collective opinion –the Consciousness — of the American Electorate is shaped far more by such myths — by such deceitful propaganda — than it is by any objective examination of reality.

Partly because the Left doesn’t have a fucking Spine. It — and certainly the leadership of the Democratic Party — is too cowardly to ever confront the Right’s propagandists.

The same occurred in the Third Reich — Hitler’s deceit won because the Social Democrats were too corrupt –too fearful for their rice bowls — to challenge Hitler and to point out his lies to the public.

The Deceit is not all on the Right, of course. Who ever saw a humane examination of the Middle East coming out of Hollywood? The Arabs are always the crazy but incompetent fanatics — witness the terrorists in “True Lies”.

The Israelis , in contrast, are always Vulcans. Peaceloving, Superior Beings who occupied a vacant desert country. Live Long and Prosper.

Contrary to the donut commercial, America doesn’t run on Dunkin’. American runs on deceit.
Robert Fiore Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Robert Crumb drew a comic strip back in the 1990s called “The Ruff Tuff Cream Puffs Take Charge” that was eerily prophetic.
Ted Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Just want to say that Matt’s reaction was precisely the reaction I and my spouse had last night reading Newsweek. “Battlestar? Oh, yeah. That’s obviously the right answer to the question. That’s what they’ll be assigning in classes sixty years from now when they want to do Bush-era popular culture.”
Mike Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
American Idol.

It’s a show about a bunch of morons participating in a karaoke contest. And yet, millions of Americans followed its every turn and voted every week.

In 2000, Bush was a moron doing karaoke, in the sense that he was up on stage with ideas he never could have thought of and words he never could have written. Also, he was a bit pitchy, dawg.

In 2004, we voted from him again because millions of people in this country care very deeply about things like morons doing karaoke.
raft Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
El Cid, DTM: brilliant comments.

For movies I nominate The Dark Knight.
El Cid Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
For a movie, V for Vendetta kind of captured an interesting bit of the mood for the non-28%-ers. When you’ve got the post-9/11 audiences pulling for the terrorists to succeed in blowing up the British government, you intuit that this is not the reaction of people who like the people running their government.
Tersan Agos Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I vote for American Idol, in which popularity waterboarded musical talent, and the masses said that it was moral and good.
El Cid Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I think it’s clear you have to have different cultural signifiers for those in favor of the Bush Jr. insanities and those opposed.
Dogman Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
~28 El Cid has a point that V for Vendetta makes us root for the Resistance, not the government. cf upcoming movie Valkyrie or back to X-Men2 with the President’s approval to go to the dark side to oust the terrorists. Are the mujahadeen the movie heroes of Bushes 2nd term, like back in the days of Rambo? Ouch.
James "I Went To Art School In The 1980s" Gary Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I think it’s clear you have to have different cultural signifiers for those in favor of the Bush Jr. insanities and those opposed.

In the case of “24″ and “American Idol,” the signifiers are the same—it’s the identity of the thing signified where the disparity occurs.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
“BSG: a show where all the hot chicks are actually killer robot clones.”

Which is why I like Terminator – although three of the hot chicks actually are human. But the hottest hot chick is a Terminator.

Check her out:

Cameron’s Terminator Tactics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6tBAaykg4

Cameron: “They knew where we live” – uncut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCWTThe4Cs&feature=related

Don: “This nation’s survival NEVER depends upon the performance of one man”

Try telling John Connor that. Although he doesn’t like it either.

In fact, the latest sub-plot on the show is that some other members of the Resistance don’t like it either – especially when they see him cooped up in his bunker with his robot love doll.

So they sent back a really ruthless bitch to try to change that. In this week’s episode, her agent – a young girl also from the future who’s been manipulated into becoming present John’s girl friend – is confronted by our Cameron, and slapped around by her handler, and subsequently attempts suicide in John’s bathroom. How this is going to play out is likely that John and/or Cameron find out about Jesse’s ploy with Riley – and Jesse ends up dead – possibly at the hands of her boy friend, Derek, who is not going to be happy he was suckered into this plot.

I agree with El Cid. “V for Vendetta” was probably the best political movie ever made. It exposed two primary truths: 1) government is a protection racket, and 2) fear is the root of all evil.
fumphis Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
RSH, thanks so much for spoiling this week’s episode for me ><

V for Vendetta was basically about how, as long as you believe really hard in something, it’s cool to blow up whatever and whomever you want. Obviously we can take comfort in the fact that Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman were on the right side–that time–and we tell ourselves that that makes all the difference. But on the whole the film’s message was just as self-serving and ill-conceived as the Iraq invasion, and endorsed the acts of al Qaeda and the Weathermen over those of Gandhi and King.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
If you haven’t seen the show yet, tough. Get on it! Besides, that’s only part of this week’s episode and not the most important part.

And how you interpret V is simply bizarre. i TOLD you what the message was. And Ghandi and King would have been black bagged and dead in V’s England – and nowadays either would end up in prison or Guantanamo in the US.
El Cid Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Generally, I’d suggest that anything that ends up being good on its own terms, and thereby produces some feeling of appreciation in the audience, necessarily fails to reproduce the feeling of living in the Bush era.

Actually, such a situation encapsulates it perfectly, given that such moments of inspiration were produced largely within the realm of the fictional; that, too, was part of the Bush era.
fumphis Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
RSH, I do mostly agree with your interpretations (though #1 comes more from the comic book than the film). But at the same time, it does unquestionably glorify terrorism, and the explicit use of fear to achieve political goals. I’m not saying it wasn’t a fun movie, nor that V and Evey really had any other options, but them’s the facts.

And I forgive you about the TSCC thing. But I HAD just taken a break from watching it on Hulu to come read Matt’s blog.
Richard Cownie Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
“New Caprica had a population of 30.000 and no neighbours. It was occupied by an empire capable of militarly defeating the population of 12 planets in a few hours. Oh, and the occupiers are robots who resurrect when they die. It’s absurd that the Resistance would have any success at all.”

But in BSG it was perfectly clear that the Cylon occupiers
had total military superiority and could annihilate the
humans of New Caprica any time they wanted. The difficulty
was that their goal was not annihilation, but some kind of
coexistence, with a Cylon council calling the shots but an
elected human president still signing the orders to give a
figleaf of legitimacy. That seems rather a close parallel to the politics of the US presence in Iraq, with its ill-defined
goals and its awkward relationship between Iraqi politicians
and US military power.

And while the occupation itself may have been unsatisfying,
it gave us some of the greatest moments of the series – the
desperate mindf*ck of Starbuck repeatedly killing Leoben;
Starbuck’s fake daughter; Ellen saving Tigh, Tigh forced to
kill Ellen after her treachery; and Galactica jumping right
into the atmosphere. That’s a lot of kick-ass intense
material.
fumphis Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
DTM,

Granted, but the genesis of their uprising lay entirely in V’s acts of destruction–it was their decision to emulate and even idolize him that led to the events of the climax. The implication is that bellicose disregard for property, human life, and the rule of law is not just acceptable but a necessary tool in shaping the world to one’s whim. In other words, V’s various violent vandalisms were the vector for their victory. Verily.
john rove Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 12:12 am
In both BST and the terminator it seems that the robots are way cooler than the humans.

I think Derec Reece knows that his girlfriend want to get rid of cameron.

Also, it seems that religion is what drives both the terminators and the Cylons to be a little harsh.
fumphis Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 12:19 am
DTM,

I suppose that thematic confusion is the reason I don’t care much for the movie’s morals. Up until the very end of the film, we’re supposed to sit in awe of this righteous avenger and revel in his gloriously effective tactics of choreographed explosions and X-Treme knife-chucking. But then the ultimate conclusion is that you ought to march unarmed to the town center and plunk your ass down in front of a tank, Tienanmen style? Seems pretty dissonant.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Yes, Derek knows Jesse wants to get rid of Cameron, but he doesn’t know about Riley being a Jesse plant – and he wouldn’t approve of what Jesse has done with Riley. There’s also the possibility that Jesse wants to go further than that – and possibly remove John Connor as leader of the Resistance. We don’t know that yet, but the fact that she’s from Australia and presumably thus not directly under Connor’s command leaves room for the possibility.

There’s also the possibility that Jesse deliberately pushed Riley around and manipulated her into an untenable situation to get her to commit suicide so as to drive a wedge between John and Cameron by getting John to blame Cameron for Riley’s death. This would be accentuated by the earlier suicide of Jordan Cowan in season one where Cameron prevented John from saving her. Since we now know that Jesse and Riley have been stalking John since season one (apparently John’s hair in this episode gives away the timing), Jesse could be aware of the Cowan event.

We’re expecting Riley to survive the suicide attempt in the back nine episodes to come, but if she doesn’t and thus doesn’t spill the beans about Jesse to John, John will be left to blame Cameron for the suicide, at least partially, since Cameron “freaked her out – as usual” as he put it. This will also leave Jesse to continue her campaign against Cameron secretly.

It may well be that Skynet gets indoctrinated into Ellison’s version of Christianity and becomes an AI equivalent of Pat Robertson. All the fans are saying Ellison is a complete idiot for not running screaming to the FBI after seeing Cromartie as the mouthpiece for what has to be the embryo Skynet.

Now, as to “V”, first of all, none of V’s murders were laid at his feet. The government covered all of them up. The only thing V was known for was his blowing up Old Bailey, his takeover of the TV network, his address to the country, and his threat to blow up Parliament in emulation of Guy Fawkes. Then he spread his masks around to keep all that in the minds of the population.

In reality, he did very little actual “terrorism”, killed nobody who was considered “innocent” and he certainly was not intending to induce fear in the civilian population. He followed a pure case of Marighella Theory: induce fear in the government, causing them to overreact and create chaos in the population. Most of the time, that doesn’t work, and it certainly worked very poorly in South America where most of the revolutionary groups who tried it ended up being crushed by their governments and never got significant support from the populations. But as a pure fictional case, it worked perfectly in “V”.

In the graphic novel, which I haven’t read, V was apparently more violent and more representative of the actual historical applications of Marighella Theory. The author explicitly wanted to leave it up the reader to decide if V was crazy or justified in his actions. He disconnected himself from the movie entirely, so it’s not surprising that the Wachovskis changed the dynamic.

However, the basic underlying theme of the movie is as I pointed out: 1) government is an extortion racket – exemplified by Chancellor Sutler’s classic statement “I want EVERYONE to remember WHY THEY NEED US!” – and 2) that fear is the root of all evil. V’s address to the nation and his conversion of Evey into a fearless person clearly show that. If even Evey can forgive him for torturing her for weeks, I think it’s clear that the film makers intended the described meaning.

And it is only when such fear is removed that you can have a population that can engage in the sort of ending the movie showed.

Anybody who thinks V’s actions are “terrorism” in the Al Qaeda sense probably thinks that the actions of the American Revolution are “terrorism”. As the movie said, there’s a time when people need more than a building. As V said, a building is just a symbol and sometimes blowing up a symbol can make an idea real.
Njorl Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 12:57 am
The first season of “24″ was actually very good. The first few episodes (written before 9/11) were great. Had it been “16″, it would have been a better show.

I think it was in the second season of “24″ when they almost had a scene that would have shown torture in a more balanced light. One of the government’s agents, Jack’s squeeze I think, was set up with incriminating evidence. They put her in a room, and sent Jack to torture her. Had they gone through with it, it would have made a useful point, but they stopped just after giving her injections to “enhance” the session.

All it wound up saying is that if you’re about to torture one of the good guys by mistake, fate will intervene to stop you.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 1:13 am
And speaking of “mindf*cks”, Terminator has plenty of those to go around. Apparently from the promos for February, they’re even bringing back Kyle Reese into the present time! Personally I think that’s a very bad idea, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, Sarah Connor has been mindf*cked almost to insanity chasing her “three dots” – and now it appears to have led directly to another bizarre Skynet plot. Which presumably will only justify her paranoia. She’s now to the point of having regular hallucinations of her past selves.

And of course, John Connor has been mindf*cked into thinking his blond busty girl friend has the hots for him, when she’s really from the future and is just trying – on orders from another Resistance group – to get him away from Cameron. On top of which, she might even be a lesbian since she was talking about living with and “being together” with Jesse – before Jesse slapped the crap out of her and informed her that she wasn’t her friend or her mother and get back to work.

So Riley has been mindf*cked, too – to the point of suicide.

Derek has been mindf*cked into believing Jesse’s story and based on his own fear and hatred of Terminators – and especially Cameron with whom he shares some secret they haven’t revealed yet – into going along with it. He’s already lied to Sarah about it, and Sarah told him she’d kill him if he ever lied to her again, as he did about killing Andy Goode.

And Cameron is just looking for an excuse to off Derek because he knows things about her that haven’t been revealed. In season one, she was standing over him with a pillow when he was out cold from a gunshot wound – and you know what that scene usually means.

Ellison has been mindf*cked by the T-1001 Catherine Weaver into actually assisting in the creation of Skynet. He has to be THE dumbest mofo in the series – although he has competition from the rest of the Connor team.

This season, the ONLY people who haven’t been mind-f*cked are Cromartie (who is now just a mouthpiece for the AI since his chip was destroyed – so I guess he’s mindf*cked now, too), Weaver and Cameron – and Cameron was badly glitched for half the season to the point where she didn’t even know whether she was a Terminator or a human.

The back nine episodes are supposed to clear some of this up, so hopefully they will be some seriously intense episodes.

I just hope we see a little less mindf*ck and a bit more action and moving the plot along.
John Rove Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Terminater definitely needs more action and perhaps less Riley.
Marlowe Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Off topic, but I’m surprised that there have been several serious discussions of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Although sometimes uneven, BSG is a very good show. SCC is just horribly written, produced, directed and (often) acted. (I confess to watching it though–I’m a sucker for Whedonverse expatriate Summer Glau.) It’s not necessarily a sin that the writers are clearly making it up as they go along–so are the BSG writers, as Ron Moore has frankly admitted in the DVD commentaries. But the stuff they make up is really, really bad. I may be somewhat biased since I don’t think the series should ever have continued past T2, which had an extremely satisfying ending both artistically and emotionally (I won’t watch T3), nor should anyone have attempted Sarah Connor after the remarkable performance of Linda Hamilton in T2 (certainly the only great, or possibly even good, performance of her career).
john rove Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I was a big BSG fan until they got into the ships politics it got kind of boring at that point. SCC is entertaining although the last couple episodes have gotten a little slow.
Anyone watch supernatural? That is a fun show that in some ways has an “x” files feel to it. And also seems to be working on some interesting religous themes.
You are right about T3 not being that great watched it tonight and other than the car chase with the fire engine it was pretty bad.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:14 am
From episode 10 – Sarah beats the crap out out of a guy for lying – the resurrection of “Crazy Sarah” from the T-2 movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wedys-8VU6U&feature=related

This is what Derek can look forward to when Sarah finds out he’s been lying to her about Jesse.

I’ve been really looking forward to Cameron beating the crap out of Derek at some point. In both seasons, Derek has been making nasty cracks about Cameron, and every time Cameron curls her lip and gives him a look that says, “Monkey-boy, you are SO on borrowed time!”

That’s why I enjoyed watching her trash Ellison:

Cameron Fight Ellison EP9SE2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLrqIfbpwAs

This is what Derek can look forward to if Cameron finds out about Jesse and him before Sarah or John does.
john rove Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Sarah has been too nice lately. She should have killed they at the bowling alley but didn’t and she should have shot the guard in the last episode.
I have a feeling she will be a little more trigger happy in the future.
Cameron makes the show although Cromartie was kind of funny as well. Something about the lack of emotion makes the machines very endearing.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:34 am
I definitely agree that this season of TSCC, although in some ways better than season one, has definitely had some problems. The producers decided to do more “stand alone” episodes in order to attract new viewers – but that has backfired badly. The stand alone episodes have distracted the viewers from the overall plot arc and the basic concept of the franchise. It’s also messed up the characterization of the main characters to the point where the “heroes” of the show are acting like idiots every week.

Otherwise the show is really well written in terms of dialog and situations and definitely well acted. Everybody on the show, especially Summer Glau and Lena Headey, has turned in good and occasionally great performances. Brian Austin Green has been excellent as Derek, given the huge stretch from his previous acting performances. Summer Glau is incredibly talented and has played Cameron to perfection, especially in the “Allison From Palmdale” episode, for which she should get an Emmy nomination. And I believe Lena Headey does a very good rendition of Sarah Connor – except for the lacks of the writers who are turning her into a tortured nutcase. Lena’s acting is impeccable, however, given that she’s British and never once do you detect that. She’s also as tough as Linda Hamilton was, since Lena’s an amateur boxer.

I do have problems with the evident fact that the writers have spent more time trying to be “cool” instead of intelligent. Hopefully the back nine episodes will be somewhat different and hopefully they will learn that stand alone episodes and “Terminator of the Week” episodes simply don’t work. They’ve had at least FIVE Terminators in 13 episodes, not counting Weaver and Cromartie. It’s been Grand Central Station through the time portal for Skynet, which is abusing the time travel concept badly. James Cameron kept that sort of thing very limited in his movies for good reasons.

They’ve also abused it by sending back hints from the future for the Connors to chase after, while the Connors have been IGNORING the hunt for Skynet itself. This has made the Connors look like idiots. Basically the writers were lazy and didn’t try to make the Connors find out what was going down on their own.

To some degree, this is deliberate. James Middleton, one of the producers, said that the Connors actions could cause Judgment Day to be advanced rather than stopped – and that’s what we’ve seen all season. But to my mind, that messes with the characters and makes them less the “heroes” of the show and more the “victims”.

Last week’s episode was badly directed, and did nothing to move the plot along. The worst scene was the Terminator throwing Cameron through a window and then taking another ten minutes to make it to the door. That was just bad directing.

This week’s episode was much better. Things moved along at a good clip and at least the sub-plot of Riley and Jesse was moved along. Sarah, despite her hallucinations, was being reasonably competent in tracking down her leads and being tough – although still not that smart to go barging into the warehouse without backup.

This is an example of the inconsistency the writers have been afflicted with all season. In season one, Sarah was ready to back off entering Terminator Carter’s warehouse despite the presence of John and Cameron. It was John who wanted to get to it. Now she’s ready to invade an unknown warehouse with who knows what inside all by herself.

It IS a major problem that the writers are apparently making stuff up as they go along. I know Josh Friedman has an overall view of the show for out to four or five seasons, but the individual episodes are concentrating too much on the “future controls the past” and time travel paradoxes which must inevitably lead to the show “jumping the shark” at some point. They need to reign that in and concentrate on the present and the problems in the present, without so much influence from the future.

The show needs to be more like “24″ or “Fringe” in that things move along with momentum and tension, and don’t interrupt that tension by ignoring the overall story arc for two or three episodes at a time.

Still, it’s a very good show, the only one I watch (since I have to download the episodes, although I do watch “Fringe” on Hulu. It just could be a lot better with very little additional effort.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:42 am
BTW, the reason T-3 was bad was that they made John Connor into a whiny loser instead of the brash, smart, confident kid Furlong played.

And that’s exactly the mistake they’re making in the series. John Connor as played by Thomas Dekker was a whiny e-mo teen in season one. Tom didn’t like playing him that way and likes the John Connor of season two better. John’s been tougher and smarter in season two – until he ran into Riley. Then he started acting like a moron. Of course, once that whole situation blows up in his face, possibly we’ll see him wise up.

In some respects, the problem with the series in season two has been that putting the heroes into difficulty has meant basically screwing up the psychological things that make them the “heroes”. A lot of the fans have had problems with the portrayal of John, Sarah, Ellison, almost everybody on the show this season. Only Cameron has pretty much escaped criticism, although I feel the “glitch” thing went on too long. And even there the writers have tried too hard to make the Terminator more “human” even while declaring that they weren’t interested in doing that.

The Connors have their flaws, but right now they’re so screwed up that my constant refrain is: if these guys are the saviors of mankind, it’s time to send in the first string.

Still, I’m hanging in there that the show will get better as they learn not to screw up so much – both the characters and the writers.
Haukur Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:56 am
The Cylons explicitly say that they don’t have the resources to control the humans and have to resort to sterner measures (mass executions). That just didn’t ring true to me. A robot armada can’t control a bunch of humans living in tents? Great series and all but I just don’t buy that part of it.
AlanC9 Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Haukur, that’s exactly why it was like our occupation. The Cylons had a space fleet and an air force, but not enough Centurion boots on the ground.
Haukur Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am
AlanC9 – that just isn’t believable. The Cylons are robots with the industrial capability of at least a whole planet. How many Centurions per human do you need? One seems pretty generous to me. The Cylons can’t field 30.000 cannon fodder troops? A high-tech AI civilization can’t install enough surveillance equipment to keep people from keeping weapons buried in their tents?

Sure, some rationalizations can be offered but this is still a pretty bad case of villain decay.

And, yes, it’s still an awesome series and there were some pretty good scenes in the New Caprica storyline.
Ginger Yellow Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
“It may well be that Skynet gets indoctrinated into Ellison’s version of Christianity and becomes an AI equivalent of Pat Robertson.”

I felt a shiver down my spine when Ellison said that the reason human life is sacred is because we are God’s children. In the midst of trying to teach John Henry right and wrong, he could be sowing the seeds of humanity’s destruction. John Henry/Skynet may decide that if humans are God’s children, and Skynet is the child of humans, that makes him a God – Judgement Day just became a lot more literal.
Jamey Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Arrested Development. Because the rich avoiding poverty, irrationally, dysfunctionally (Madoff, anyone?) and by any means possible is THE story of our times.

And a comedy about incest during the tenure of a self-professed devout Christian president? If nothing else, ours is the time of the insignificant and obscure gesture of rebellion. It’s the old boarding school thing: The big matters subsume us; so we show our displeasure by wearing the wrong tie to a formal school assembly.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 10:49 am
The producers of TSCC have hinted that maybe Skynet isn’t just interested in exterminating the human race – maybe it wants something more. Maybe it wants to be worshipped. Maybe it’s punishing humans for their wickedness.

When Cromartie told Sarah she should have killed the boy in the bowling alley, she said, “I’m not a murderer.” Cromartie came back with, “Who is?”

There’s definitely no element of faith in the Terminators, however – since obviously a programmed machine doesn’t need faith to obey its master. And Cameron explicitly said, “Faith isn’t a part of my programming.” But she’s also probably the only AI besides Skynet to have a fully independent nature.

The most important statement they made in season one was in episode two which she told Sarah she does not take orders from anybody except future John. And I think she was lying about that. I think she’s compliant, not obedient, even to future John. I think some combination of the Skynet programming to make her the most advanced infiltration robot ever combined with future John’s reprogramming somehow made her independent of either. I also think she’s developed the rational decision to preserve her own existence regardless of the outcome of the war.

I also think future John never sent her back to protect his past self. I think she came back on her own. She had access to the time chamber and she knew how to use the machinery. I think she came back to insure her own survival. Whoever wins the war in the future, she loses – if mankind wins, she gets tossed on the scrap heap regardless of what future John may want. If Skynet wins, she gets put back under its control or destroyed also. So the only safe place for her is in the past. And the only person who knows what she is and accepts that is John Connor. So he is as much HER protector as she is his. She needs him, temporarily at least, to survive in the past and to stop Skynet from ever existing so she can survive into the altered future.

It’s just possible that future John knows and approves of her actions and possibly even her agenda. He certainly does not appear to have taken any action to reverse it.

She hasn’t revealed this to present day John because she needs to make sure their relationship is solid enough that he won’t turn on her. And with him under the influence of his mother and uncle, both of whom hate Terminators, she can’t trust anyone but John – and he hasn’t grown sufficiently attached to her yet to trust him with the truth. And now she has Riley to deal with.

She’s been trying to seduce John since season one – indeed, since the pilot – to get him to develop emotional feelings for her. She’s been partially successful, but her glitch in episode one of season two nearly destroyed her efforts. Since then, she’s been slowly trying to get back in John’s feelings, but hasn’t had much opportunity until just before the Mexico episode. Since then, however, she’s been working on him steadily. Once the Riley situation blows up in his face, however, she should be free once again to move in on him, assuming he learns the truth about Riley after Riley’s suicide attempt.

Cameron is THE most interesting character on the show. Exploring how a killer robot from a war torn future deals with human society in the past while pursuing a uniquely personal robot agenda is probably the show’s best subplot.

Cameron is at least fifty percent of the show. She gets most of the good lines, too, and paradoxically generates most of the humor.

The funniest bit in the show was in an early episode this season when John walked in the front door and saw Cameron in the living room standing frozen. At first he was afraid she was glitched again. Then she said, “This is the exact center of the house.” He says, “Great. Good work.” She says, “The house is moving.” Bewildered he says, “Where is it going?” She says, “Down, at a rate of so-and-so centimeters per year.” He says, “Well, does that affect the security system or the sight lines for the night scope? How does that affect the security of one John Connor?” She says, “It doesn’t. But we’ll have to repaint next summer.”

You gotta love Cameron.
Karl Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 11:12 am
You are right that they give Cameron the best lines but I think you are wrong about the role faith and specificaly the role teaching John Henry the ten commandments plays in Skynets desire to destroy all humans. I am pretty sure most of us violate the ten commandments regularly and thus from a computers prospective deserve to be punished. Or if you really believe in heaven as a religiosly trained robot might, you might be tempted to do humans a favor and send them there.

I think the name “Judgement Say” is very litteral, the computers are judging humans.
karl Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I met to say “jugdement Day”
Leee Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
RHS,
You’re completely wrong in saying that the decision to move away from a longform serialized story has abraded the quality of TSCC (your taste level is also in grave doubt), as the whole drawn-out story about the Turk was uninspired MacGuffinism at its blandest. Instead, the show has finally exceeded the sum of its mediocre parts and flourished as a diverting pleasure once it began focusing on one-off stories; longform serialization de-fanged Glaubot because the audience needs to consistently sympathize with her (SC is boring, JC is whiny and boring, DR is usually a failed hardman), but when the episodes are encapsulated within themselves, Glaubot is given the liberty of doing some heinous things that restore her danger and robotic otherness.
American Citizen Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
It’s interesting reading the Sarah Conner analysis because I decided long ago to avoid analyzing it. It’s too goofy to take going back in time seriously, so I try to enjoy it without thinking about it too much. Unfortunately, good episodes tend to lead to dreams about being chased by robots, so I guess there’s no winning.

Keeping to shows and movies already nominated, my vote for the Bush TV show would be Battlestar Galactica, and Dark Knight the movie.
Dave!!! Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Dystopian? Exactly how much human misery, squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding have you endured personally as a direct result of the Bush administration?

Nerds…
Bob Oso Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I would go with “Ultimate Fighter”. Contestants beat the crap out of each other for the chance at a “six-figure UFC contract.” You lose, no money but thanks for playing. You win, you have to fight some more to earn your money. Sounds like today’s job market.
Peter K. Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Idiocracy.

I second this guy.
James Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 4:42 am
The whole point of the original V for Vendetta is that you can go through the whole thing thinking that he is a well trained madmen, up until the point that Moore makes it abundantly clear that he has at least one super-power.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Leee: “the whole drawn-out story about the Turk was uninspired MacGuffinism at its blandest”

Wrong. Without an overall story arc, it ends up being like the original Star Trek – nothing that happens in any given week matters.

As for “Glaubot” (I prefer the term “Caminator”), as I pointed out above, there is little doubt that she was never sent back by future John to protect him (or just to protect him, anyway). She has an ulterior agenda – that’s been clear from the pilot and episode two of season one. The only time she’s been dangerous is when she was glitched. The real danger comes from the facts that a) we don’t know what her real agenda is, and b) she could flip out at any time and turn on her associates. And she’s already done that, although they keep reminding everybody (and her) that she could do it again for basically no reason – THAT’S a MacGuffin I don’t like.

But if you assume she has an ulterior agenda – and also an unsavory background as was established in “Allison From Palmdale” – then there’s plenty of room for interest in an overall story arc. Half the story at this point is about her – the whole presence of Jesse AND Riley is completely oriented about Cameron (although it took Josh several episodes to establish that, which is precisely the problem.)

As I said, Cameron is at least fifty percent of the show, both in terms of side plots and in terms of characterization.

The problem for Friedman is that he’s taking too damn long to move the story along. And the one-off episodes do nothing but erode the momentum and the tension.

The point of the show isn’t to be just a quickie pleasure, even if you like it that way. Go watch old Star Trek if you want that.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 5:02 am
American Citizen: You’re right. The entire premise of time travel is total crap. Nonetheless, once you accept it at its minimum, it makes for interesting stories.

The key is to avoid abusing the concept too much – which TSCC has been doing lately, as I indicated.

James Cameron kept it simple in T-1: one Terminator came back, one Resistance fighter came back, the time machine was destroyed, that was it: “Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through.”

Then they opened that a crack with T-2 and allowed two more Terminators through. They had to or they had no story.

Then they opened the same crack in T-3.

The TV series has opened Grand Central Station – which is not a good idea. If they continue that, the show will inevitably jump the shark when the writers get so confused they can’t think straight. This is called the “Black Hole” in the writers room at TSCC – and they’re already in it, in my view.
Prescription pills with overnight Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Prescription pills http://MyRxPill.com
viagra Says:
March 1st, 2009 at 5:09 am
viagra
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
levitra Says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 am
levitraIt is the coolest site,keep so!
viagra Says:
March 11th, 2009 at 4:19 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
xanax Says:
March 14th, 2009 at 5:03 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
xanax
tramadol Says:
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:00 am
tramadol
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
brand viagra Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
buy cheap viagra
viagra brand Says:
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
cheap brand pfizer viagra
cheap viagra Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 4:59 am
thanks !! very helpful post! viagra

Matt Yglesias

The BSG Era

89 Responses to “The BSG Era”

Blogroll