Great Moments in Wingnuttery
The beginning of the Obama administration is good for the world, but probably bad for the progressive blogosphere. Fewer conservatives in positions of power equals fewer wingutty policies to complain about it. Fortunately, here comes Big Hollywood to the rescue with a fine wine from Dirk Benedict who played Starbuck on the old Battlestar Galactica. Benedict’s hilariously insupportable thesis is that the old BSG was better than the old BSG and that the specific reason the old BSG was better than the old BSG was the old BSG’s tendency toward simplistic storylines and retrograde gender politics:
“Re-imagining”, they call it. “Un-imagining” is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith and family is un-imagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which we live, one would assume. A show in which the aliens (Cylons) are justified in their desire to destroy human civilization, one would assume. Indeed, let us not say who the good guys are and who the bad are. That is being “judgmental,” taking sides, and that kind of (simplistic) thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Kathryn Hepburn and John Wayne and, well, the original “Battlestar Galactica.”
[...]
Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Hans Solo as Hans Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars. Women “hand out” babies. And thus the world for thousands of years has gone’ round.
Suffice it to say that the original BSG was no Hamlet, the new Starbuck character is great, and to read the new show as claiming that the Cylons are justified in their desire to destroy humanity seems like a perverse reading of the action. What they’ve done is portray the Cylon sneak attack as emanating from a classic “security dilemma” rather than from intrinsic Cylon evil or some such. Because they’re trying to make an interesting show rather than, you know, cheesy crap.
103 Responses to “Great Moments in Wingnuttery”
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January 21st, 2009 at 11:46 am
A blogger likes BSG? Tell me more of your imaginative and iconoclastic opinions, spaceman.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:49 am
Some of your “old”s should be new.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:51 am
Lorne Greene, bitches!
Advantage: TV’s Face.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:52 am
“… the old BSG was better than the old BSG and that the specific reason the old BSG was better than the old BSG was the old BSG’s tendency toward simplistic storylines and retrograde gender politics:”
I’m assuming that, due to the repitition, what I thought was a mistake is not a mistake. Benedict is surely an idiot if he thinks that the old BSG is better than itself.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:56 am
Does this mean Dirk Benedict lined up excitedly to see “The Spirit” directed by hard-boiled fan of manly-man action and girly sexy characters and general dickweed awful pompous director Frank Miller?
January 21st, 2009 at 11:57 am
Yeah, because Katherine “I’m an atheist and that’s it” Hepburn was all about traditional values.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
If somebody posits that the old X is better than the old X, then nobody should be quoting them before they have a chance to correct themselves, or they claim to be exempt from logic, which is a claim MY could accept, but not build a blog post on.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Okay, at this point, someone needs to start the “Matt Yglesias’s hilarious typos” blog. This one’s the first post.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
As a side note, I can remember from my time in NYC in the eighties that Dirk Benedict played Hamlet in a small stage production. It was I think a vanity production that he financed. (This was when he was making A Team money.) The Times review was not kind.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
More like Great Moments in Proofreading.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Wasn’t Dirk Benedict “Face” on the A-Team?
January 21st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Steve:
Damn!! I didn’t even see your post. My guess was correct, indeed.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Considering it’s in response to a post which mispells Katherine Hepburn’s name (and somewhat implausibly at that ‘Kathryn’? REALLY? in the 40s? typos seem appropriate.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Big Hollywood is fast becoming a must read for its unintentional humor.
I remember the old BSG and it sucked long, deep and hard, the way only 1970s shows could.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Well, the original BSG was certainly a lot more fun.
BSG 2.0 is compelling and well-written, but it’s also relentlessly dark and depressing. If I was a character on that show, I think I would have offed myself some time in season 2.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Big Hollywood is fast becoming a must read for its unintentional humor.
Tagline: “You don’t have to be washed-up to post here, but it helps.”
January 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I thought the old Starbuck was a lot more effeminate than the new Starbuck.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
You know what else I miss? I miss the days when 8000 rounds of semi-automatic weapons fire could be directed at people every single week with absolutely no negative consequences aside from a few sparks here and there. Like on the A-Team! Bullets have been given such a bad reputation these days by the liberal media.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Steve, that’s because the Times is run by a bunch of cigar-hating girly men who don’t know wrong from right.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Democrats have Battlestar and Republicans have 24. Scamper along now, Dirk, and tell us again why torture is ok.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I see Kirchick has given Archie Bunker a column. Sounds like a very promising business plan.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Wait until Mr. Benedict sees the dark, morally ambiguous A-Team remake.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I suspect Dirk Benedict simply misses the masculine embrace of old-school Hollywood manly men, like Rock Hudson.
Also, it’s worth remembering that Benedict penned this screed way back after the debut of the new series; Big Hollywood is just mirroring it a half-decade later. Not, I’m sure, that he’s any less bitter today than he was back then.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
They should change the name from ‘Big Hollywood’ to ‘Wolverines!’
January 21st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Big Hollywood is fast becoming a must read for its unintentional humor.
As is Matthew’s lack of proofreading!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:26 pm
As an old SF fan (I was on an 11-year old’s pins and needles the entire summer of 1966 waiting fot the premiere of Star Trek), I was willing to cut SF TV/films a lot more slack back in the day when there was a whole lot less of it. Nonetheless, the original BSG was, at its best, pretty damn silly and, at its too often worst, nigh near unwatchable. The new BSG certainly has its faults (the worst being that, like almost every serialized show, at a certain point the mounting riddles become more annoying than intriguing) it is a very good one. Always watchable even at its worst (which was likely represented by the season 4.5 premiere last week), at its best, primarily in the first couple of seasons and the conclusion of the New Caprica arc at the start of season 3, it may be the best TV since BTVS and Angel bit the dust.
OTOH, being twice Matt’s age, I might better understand where Dirk Benedict is coming from and be willing to cut him some slack on his remembrances of the quality of old BSG, though I think he’s mistaken. (However, his caveman take on gender roles is just inexcuable by any standards–and was even in 1979 to people with half a brain.) IIRC, Adam West and Ceasar Romero were unhappy about being left out of Tim Burton’s Batman film and criticized its content (ironically, the Burton films today look closer to the TV series after the Nolan takes). As you get older, you get a little more protective of your past.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
New BSG Starbuck is great? Starbuck is the reason I stopped watching BSG in the middle of the last season. Could a character be more annoying? I’d watched in spite of her since the beginning. But I just couldn’t take it any more.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
He’s just mad that Richard Hatch (original Apollo- now Zarek) gets to be on the new show but he doesn’t. I suggest they bring back Buck Rogers and let Hatch play the voice of Twiki.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
oops, should be “let Benedict play the voice of Wiki…”
January 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Laughing very hard and thinking I would definitely pay 9 bucks to see that.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
The old Starbuck did have a better hairdresser — see,e.g,
http://www.star-collector.net/autographs/dirkbenedict1.jpg
Look at that highlighting.
As the Hollywood agents say, definitely “Geffen Bait”.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
@Nicholas Beaudrot
We beat you to it, Nicholas! My friend and I started that blog at the first of the year! We’ve been cataloging Matt’s numerous mistakes since Jan. 1, 2009. You know, to keep a record for posterity. Also, we’ll be keeping track of his greatest hits as well as performing some statistical analysis on just what kinds of mistakes Matt makes, when he makes them, and postulating on the cause. It’s still a work in progress, but come check it out at http://www.yglesiaserrata.com/
P.S. I really wasn’t planning on whoring the link here, but when I saw someone else suggest the exact same concept, I knew I had to say something
January 21st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
BSG 2.0 is compelling and well-written, but it’s also relentlessly dark and depressing. If I was a character on that show, I think I would have offed myself some time in season 2.
Yeah, it’s really strange that the characters are all angsty after only 99.9% of the human race was exterminated by machines of their own creation, forcing them to flee for the unknown in glorified life rafts. I know if I were in their shoes, I’d always be finding the lighter side of the genocide of my people and the destruction of my homeworld.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Michael — Great site!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
The best part of Benedict’s pathetic mewling is his claim that it was his bold artistic insight — which he had to fight those Hollywood suits to keep intact! — to make Starbuck a womanizing rogue (but not really that much of one, as I remember it). A character type never theretofore seen in sci-fi, right?
January 21st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
“Hans Solo” ?
Dirk’s just mad that the new show doesn’t have any daggits.
Get Off My Frakkin Lawn!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Michael, I think I have to call foul on your claim that “wine” is a typo in this post. I mean, it might be — one can never rule it out with Matt — but I think it’s more of a pun.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:51 pm
IIRC, Adam West and Ceasar Romero were unhappy about being left out of Tim Burton’s Batman film and criticized its content (ironically, the Burton films today look closer to the TV series after the Nolan takes).
Jack Nicholson, in turn, was apparently ticked off that he wasn’t considered for the Joker role in The Dark Knight.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I was 11 years old when the original BSG aired, and was an uncritical SF fanatic, ready and eager to swallow any space themed crap Hollywood put out. But even I couldn’t deny at the time that BSG sucked – they lost me forever with the casino episode.
And Don’s right – Sackhoff’s Starbuck would kick Dirk’s Starbuck’s ass.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Funny he didn’t have a problem until his Nemesis Richard Hatch got a part, and he didn’t:
Starbuck & Starbuck @ starbucks BSG promotion
January 21st, 2009 at 12:54 pm
dammit, hotlink FAIL
here it is:
Starbuck & Starbuck @ Starbucks BSG promotion
hope that works!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:57 pm
He’s just still pissed that they turned his character into a chick with better muscle definition.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
In the Faceman’s defense, there WAS that episode of the old show where Starbuck crash-landed on the planet with a medieval castle, and then helped a bunch of kids defeat the occupying Cylon garrison by writing a goofy poem. I don’t think the new show will ever equal that kind of experience.
And how about that Lucifer! You think Tricia Helfer’s got some fashion sense? Lucifer is on fire with those stripes!
January 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
You mean the PILOT? The casino of death is the second half of the two-hour pilot.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
On the BSG miniseries DVD, check out the special features. They put Katee Sackhoff together with Dirk Benedict over coffee at Starbucks (where else) to compare notes.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
You know, one of these days I’d like one of the great shows (like BSG 2.0 and The Wire) that bloggers go nuts over to be a show that people actually, you know, watch.
Mike
January 21st, 2009 at 1:25 pm
“You know, one of these days I’d like one of the great shows (like BSG 2.0 and The Wire) that bloggers go nuts over to be a show that people actually, you know, watch.”
MBunge: Are you serious with this shit? Then start your own blog, for god’s sake.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I personally liked the old BSG, but I was like 8 at the time. So I think that has a lot to do with it.
As far as the absurdity that has become Big Hollywood, it’s actually done a good job of exposing a great number of men who are apparently afraid of tough, strong, independent-minded women. For them, women are just supposed to “hand out” babies and, I guess, otherwise just do as they are told.
It also lets me know whose movies I should stop paying to see, so it has that going for it …
January 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@Trig or Treat
Thanks!
@Glenn
As we see it, the problem with Matt’s usage of “fine wine” is that he botched the pun. When people use the phrase in reference to someone griping about something, it should be “fine whine,” a pun which is intended to sound like “fine wine.” The way Matt spelled it, it’s no longer a pun and is just nonsense.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I’d just like to point out that the linked article was
posted May 2004 (see bottom of link), before Season 1 even aired. Benedict may still be an idiot, but maybe he’s changed his mind about the “new” show. No, I don’t know why the article was reposted, except to perhaps to see BSG-originalists make fools of themselves once again.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:47 pm
No, I don’t know why the article was reposted,
it’s troll bait.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
to make Starbuck a womanizing rogue (but not really that much of one, as I remember it).
Well, it was those damn Hollywood suits that kept him from realizing his full rogue potential! If Benedict had had his way Starbuck would have been handing out Rufies like candy and putting his cigars out on the bare breasts of his consorts. But, you know, the suits just didn’t have the balls to see his vision…
January 21st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
It’s KATHARINE Hepburn.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:58 pm
You’re not the first person to make this argument and frankly, it’s just plain dumb.
Even in stories whose premise is dark and depressing, there’s always opportunity for lighter moments, positive sub-plots, happiness and humor. Such elements provide contrast for the serious themes and dark tones and ultimately make them more effective.
Just about every element in BSG is dark, depressing and full of moaning angst. On occasion it makes watching the show more of a chore than a pleasure.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:11 pm
New BSG > Old BSG.
Dark TV > Silly TV.
Katee Sackhoff < a rock.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
But the new BSG does not have their main characters in MOTHERFUCKING CAPES. Game, Set, Match: Lorne Greene!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Following that link made me realize how bad ass the old Cylons were and how utterly afraid I was of them when I was young.
Face man has another one that’s worth a read for all the unintentional comedy. I’ve never heard of this Big Hollywood place before and if I had to choose without any knowledge of it, I’d say Dirk Benedict probably wouldn’t be part of it. But now that I see that site for what it is, it makes perfect sense.
Maybe we can get Murdoch to blog for our side?
January 21st, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Adrock: That crazy fool Murdoch can’t be counted on for nothin’! Stay in milk! Drink your drugs! Don’t do school!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I was 9 when the old BSG came out and, being a nine year old, I loved it to death.
Never the less, there was always something odd about it. At the time, I was too young to put my finger on it. Now I can see that it was deeply strange that the series was so upbeat given that it was, essentially, a story about refugees fleeing the aftermath of a horrific genocide and being pursued by their enemies who want to exterminate them once and for all and who have the means and the motivation to do just that.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Benedict might’ve been happier if he listened to any of Ron Moore’s audio commentaries, during which Moore constantly smokes and drinks whiskey.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:28 pm
You know, one of these days I’d like one of the great shows (like BSG 2.0 and The Wire) that bloggers go nuts over to be a show that people actually, you know, watch.
Mike
You can only post and comment on the same synopsis of Everybody Loves Raymond, or 2 & 1/2 Men so many times. It’s the same damn thing every episode, with a few mildly witty, crude, jokes. It’s old by the second episode, and 1/2 the audience comes back for the eye candy only. In the case of Raymond, I think Dirk might have a comment that rings true about the emasculated man on that show and it’s main audience.
there’s about 3-4 shows out there worth anything as works of art and entertainment, the rest is dreck vaudeville meant for HDAD consumption.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:35 pm
““You know, one of these days I’d like one of the great shows (like BSG 2.0 and The Wire) that bloggers go nuts over to be a show that people actually, you know, watch.”
MBunge: Are you serious with this shit? Then start your own blog, for god’s sake.”
This isn’t blog-bitching about what people blog about. It’s more an observation that the folks who extravagantly rave about these sort of shows are oblivious to the fact that no one watches them and what that may say about the quality of the show.
Mike
January 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
“there’s about 3-4 shows out there worth anything as works of art and entertainment, the rest is dreck vaudeville meant for HDAD consumption.”
Uh, Everybody Loves Raymond may not have been your cup o’ tea…but it was a very well written and performed show by just about any measure. The “limited appeal niche programming = good” mindset seems to be one of the enduring aspects of blogthought.
Mike
January 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
it’s troll bait.
Does that make Matt a troll, or bycatch?
January 21st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
to read the new show as claiming that the Cylons are justified in their desire to destroy humanity seems like a perverse reading of the action. What they’ve done is portray the Cylon sneak attack as emanating from a classic “security dilemma”
Well, exactly. It doesn’t show the enemy as purely, intrinsically evil. With the black-and-white worldview we see in a lot of conservatives, that’s tantamount to justifying it. Between that and the suicide bombing and terrorism in Season 3, I’m amazed conservatives haven’t actively boycotted the show and tried to blacklist the actors in it.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
it was, essentially, a story about refugees fleeing the aftermath of a horrific genocide and being pursued by their enemies who want to exterminate them once and for all and who have the means and the motivation to do just that
But we could rest safe in the knowledge that Humankind was safe, because the show would be on again next week.
… Now, OTOH, someone above wrote that the Cylons’ genocidal ambitions in the old BSG were childishly undermotivated. If, as is unfortunately not the case, the Holocaust were not a historical event but a schlocky TV series, would the Nazis’ motivation seem any more plausible? Less so, surely.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:56 pm
“It’s more an observation that the folks who extravagantly rave about these sort of shows are oblivious to the fact that no one watches them and what that may say about the quality of the show.”
Yeah, and also, why do college classes teach Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Joyce, when The Da Vinci Code and Twilight are what people are reading?
January 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
This isn’t blog-bitching about what people blog about. It’s more an observation that the folks who extravagantly rave about these sort of shows are oblivious to the fact that no one watches them and what that may say about the quality of the show.
Well, one thing to say is that, simply, in the scheme of things not that many people have HBO, so, despite all the media coverage of The Wire (or Deadwood or The Sopranos), how many people were going to order a whole new channel, spending more money, just to watch one or two hours of TV a week? With Battlestar or The Shield that’s not the issue (I don’t think), but the cable networks just have much lower audience ratings for their dramatic series in general.
Beyond that, my attitude for several years has been that especially among people who are really into a particular art form or medium, their favorite thing is more likely to be a bit more niche-y. I’ve got buttons that I like to have artistically pressed, and the more something pushes them the more I like it, but the more it pushes them the less likely it is to be pushing everyone else’s buttons in the same degree. The more “specific” (I’m using the word in a wavy sort of way) a show (or band, or movie, or book) is the harder it is for lots of people to come to it; the more “general” it is, the easier it is for lots of people to like it but less likely for people to love it. There are lots of exceptions, of course; I think of Stephen King as an artist with a relatively personal and specific sensibility who was able to tap very deeply into the personal issues of millions of people. The (by all accounts; I was eight years old) mass popularity of the first season of Twin Peaks, which I am Netflixing right now, an incredibly specific and idiosyncratic show, would be another.
I enjoy a well made Hollywood action movie, and appreciate that it’s a piece of art that I can enjoy in tandem with a hundred million other people, but my favorite movies aren’t Hollywood action movies because a Hollywood action movie isn’t likely to push enough of my specific buttons for me to love it that much. If other people aren’t as stirred as I am by Battlestar (or Gone Baby Gone or Arrested Development) I don’t presume that to be a comment on the intrinsic quality of the shows, but rather on how universally relatable they are. I don’t really see the point in worrying about it too much, in either direction.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
If, as is unfortunately not the case, the Holocaust were not a historical event but a schlocky TV series, would the Nazis’ motivation seem any more plausible? Less so, surely.
Why? The Nazi’s motivations were in some ways quite clear – resource constraints. The Germans simply could not adequately feed the conquered populations of the lands they occupied, so they brutally exterminated the Jewish population (and purposely starved Russian POWs and others) in order to maintain a higher standard of living for Germans. There’s a reason there were no death camps before WWII – the Nazis didn’t need them. Hitler had no moral issue with exterminating all the Jews of Europe, but there was no big push for a Final Solution until WWII made it seem more imperative. If the US had offered to take all the German Jews off Hitler’s hands in 1938, he probably would have let them go. The Nazis were deranged, but still better motivated than Cylons.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
BSG’s 4th season premiere had 1.4 million viewers, and when you factor in DVD sales (which are very strong) and the fact that SciFi pretty much reruns everything, you can guess more than 1.4 million people watched it.
I’ve never seen the show so I won’t vouch for quality but 1.4 million people plus does not equal ‘no one.’
January 21st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
One thing people forget about the original BSG is that you couldn’t – could absolutely not – get away on TV with what you do now. If the original had been able to be darker, it probably would have been. Instead, you had the network whining that the original was “too violent” (in fact, the Cylons were originally supposed to be living beings of some sort, not robots, but in the 70s you could only kill so many “people” per hour of TV. For those who have grown up post-Andy Sipowitz’ naked butt on the tube that’s probably astounding) and emasculating the crap out of it.
And Dirk, frankly, has always been a nut case.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Why? The Nazi’s motivations were in some ways quite clear – resource constraints. The Germans simply could not adequately feed the conquered populations of the lands they occupied, so they brutally exterminated the Jewish population (and purposely starved Russian POWs and others) in order to maintain a higher standard of living for Germans. There’s a reason there were no death camps before WWII – the Nazis didn’t need them. Hitler had no moral issue with exterminating all the Jews of Europe, but there was no big push for a Final Solution until WWII made it seem more imperative. If the US had offered to take all the German Jews off Hitler’s hands in 1938, he probably would have let them go. The Nazis were deranged, but still better motivated than Cylons.
Ever bothers to read Mein Kampf?
January 21st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Matt, this is just a reprint of an article he published in 2006 ( http://www.dirkbenedictcentral.com/home/articles-readarticle.php?nid=5 ). Was inane then, and is inane still.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Dirk has nicer hair, but I agree that Katee could kick his butt.
When I watched the original pilot, it was interrupted while Jimmy Carter announced peace in the Middle East. It was a bit of cognitive dissonance to have the destruction of the twelve colonies preempted over the temporary outbreak of peace in one part of earth.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pm
People tend to talk about the things they like which they think others may be missing. Bloggers do it just like everyone else. I know that whenever I come across someone who has never watched Buffy, or Firefly, or the new Galactica, or Veronica Mars or Babylon 5 I’ll rave about how good it is and throw DVDs at them with a “YOU MUST WATCH!”
As someone mentioned earlier, viewer count != quality. This is rather strikingly true in America today. People often don’t want TV which will make them think – they want glorified soap operas which cater to fantasy fulfillment and escapism. Galactica does none of that. It beats you in the face with questions, dilemmas, and ambiguity in every episode.
Bloggers talk about shows like Galactica because many of them, like me, think people could use a bit more thinking in their TV.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Mm-hmm. “Kathryn” Hepburn…the atheist, tomboy, accomplished golfer and tennis player, divorcee, proud daughter of a birth control advocate, decades-long girlfriend of a married man…cut from the same cloth as John Wayne, Reagan and Thatcher, I tell ya!
Did Dirk simply lose his mind after they never green-lighted a sequel to Body Slam?
January 21st, 2009 at 6:39 pm
I dunno–obviously the original BSG sucked and sucked hard, and Dirk Benedict is an absolute nutjob. I watched the pilot of the original BSG and I’m good for the rest of my life. But the new BSG hasn’t worn well with me. I still think the first two seasons, plus the New Caprica episodes, were excellent television but the novelty has definitely worn off. I’m still watching because I’m curious to see how Ron Moore ties it all together, but that’s about it.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Here’s that Times review:
The first casualty of the Musical Theater Works production of ”Hamlet” at the Abbey Theater is language.
Only Claudius (Douglass Watson) seemed able to let the audience know he was at times speaking in verse. As for this Hamlet (played by Dirk Benedict, who may be well known to television audiences as Face in ”The A-Team”), he could not seem to get the stresses right. Given that disability, it seems cruel not to have simply cut out the Latin phrase hic et ubique from the ghost scene. At least someone might have told him the phrase is not French and that the last word is pronounced oo-bee-KWAY, not oo-BEEK.
But the actors are not solely to blame for this frantic production. The director, Anthony J. Stimac, turns the play into breathless action drama. Whenever a character is supposed to feel or suffer, he yells (the noise of this production is stunning and some speeches are simply unintelligible); lines are delivered so rapidly the characters seem to be interrupting one another; there are endless scuffles, cuffings and clingings (even mad Ophelia is made to climb all over Claudius like a puppy).
The play is gutted of introspection, doubt and perplexity. Here Hamlet’s question about being or not is a cynical joke, avenging Laertes is a mindless puppet, Ophelia’s death is as impersonal as a car crash. Inevitably, the performance leaves one cold. All the action may be, as Horatio says, ”carnal, bloody and unnatural,” and some of it is even spectacular, but it is as distant from one’s own passions and thoughts as any ordinary prime-time thriller.
========
A “breathless action drama” you say? I’m certain that Mr. Benedict tried his best to steer this pathetic hack director Stimac away from such a banal interpretation but what can one actor do against such monomania? Pity the Times and their cultural snottery, unwilling to let those onto the Stage who, having been blessed with a robust payscale and proper Hollywood training, shine like the stars they are in spite of the remedial production environs.
BfD
January 21st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
“I’ve never seen the show so I won’t vouch for quality but 1.4 million people plus does not equal ‘no one.’”
In a world where 5 million viewers gets you cancelled on any of the 4 broadcast networks, it is.
I should mention I’m not arguing that BSG 2.0 isn’t good. I think it is quite good in certain aspects from both a storytelling and entertainment perspective. I also think it has some weaknesses that get overlooked and rationalized away.
There’s nothing wrong with niche shows, especially if they’re quality niche shows. I just think it’s a silly element of blogthink that such programming gets elevated over something like Everybody Loves Raymond or The Closer. Those are both very well done shows, even with The Closer being only slightly less formulaic than an old episode of Quincy, that get downgraded solely because they go for a broader appeal.
Mike
January 21st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I just think it’s a silly element of blogthink that such programming gets elevated over something like Everybody Loves Raymond or The Closer.
There are some shows that you watch to kill time because they happen to be on, and there are some shows that you actively seek out to spend time on.
While I’m sure plenty of people like Everyone Loves Raymond, I can’t imagine too many people would put it in the latter category. And given all the forms of media that are competing for my attention, the latter category is really the only one I’m interested in.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:09 pm
If people who post comments or write blogs felt like talking about “Everyone Loves Raymond” or “House” or “American Idol” than they would. Obviously there is a significant community in the blogosphere of people who prefer shows like BSG and The Wire. Why is that a problem?
January 21st, 2009 at 8:29 pm
eddy olmos, bitches!!!
January 21st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Dirk Benedict must be queer as a three dollar bill. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Because anyone who says they’d rather NOT be watching Grace Park because he’d rather watch manly men is compensating for something.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Hey, I like The Closer just fine, and I’ve probably seen every episode of Raymond at least twice. They’re perfectly good programs. If we don’t talk and write about them as much as something like Galactica, it’s probably because those shows just don’t give you as much to talk and write about. They’re entertainments–well-crafted, well-executed entertainments, but what is there, ultimately, to say about most episodes of The Closer–boy, those cops were sure right to lock that murderer up? (Actually, Raymond does have some interesting depths to it…it’s a tragedy that insists that it is really a comedy, week after week, and kind of ends up speaking to the ennobling power of suffering. Yeah–Everybody Loves Raymond and King Lear are basically the same story. But I digress.)
Galactica is not without its flaws and its poor hours, God knows, but it at least _wants_ to be about ideas and complicated questions–about flawed, limited, confused characters trying to make their way in this crazy world of competing religions and ethics. There’s just more _there_.
Plus, as I say, Tricia Helfer.
I’m kidding, of course: I’d be Mary McDonnell’s slave tommorow if she’d just say the word.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 am
“Galactica is not without its flaws and its poor hours, God knows, but it at least _wants_ to be about ideas and complicated questions–about flawed, limited, confused characters trying to make their way in this crazy world of competing religions and ethics. There’s just more _there_.
Plus, as I say, Tricia Helfer.”
Ditto on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”. It has all that – and Summer Glau.
And it has the same problems other sci-fi shows have – namely ratings. It gets about 5.5 million live viewers a week plus another 1-2 million DVR’s. This is just barely enough to stay alive on broadcast TV. But the problem so far is that it was on Monday nights, up against the stupid but apparently addicting show “Dancing With the Stars” – not to mention football. The competition was just too strong.
On February 13, it moves to Fridays as the lead-in to Joss Whedon’s new “Dollhouse” series. While Fridays are considered a “death slot”, Fox hopes that two sci-fi shows back to back will carry some weight. Fox also has said they are willing to give these two shows a chance to grow viewership.
One thing Terminator does give you is tons of reasons to talk about it. The characterization is great, the hidden agendas of all the characters is interesting, and the moral dilemmas are considerable (Sarah not killing one of the burglars in the bowling alley directly led to Terminator Cromartie nearly killing her son). Not to mention just trying to figure out how the time paradoxes work out.
The back nine episodes by the accounts of Thomas Dekker and Brian Austin Green are going to be much better than the first 13 episodes of season two. The “standalone” dictat imposed on the producers by the network has apparently been lifted, and the show will be going back to being more serialized and more sci-fi, wrapping up the major issues raised during the first 13 episodes. As Brian says, “It’s so badass, it’s so badass.”
Brian Austin Green has some choice words for Terminator haters
http://scifiwire.com/2009/01/brian-austin-green-has-some-choice-words-for-terminator-haters.php
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:37 am
It’s hardly surprising that “quality” shows get elevated over “mass” shows. That dynamic has played out in, well, pretty much every medium that ever existed.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:18 am
@35- yeah, I’m sure we’d all be like Pollyanna in space. That’s the whole point. 39k survivors out of billions of people on 12 colonized worlds. That’s near extinction, and a great theme for a campfire singalong.
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
“It’s hardly surprising that “quality” shows get elevated over “mass” shows. That dynamic has played out in, well, pretty much every medium that ever existed.”
The problem is that the definition of “quality” has become skewed. There’s no essential distinction between “quality” and “mass” shows and the fact that so many bloggers think so is kind of what I’m talking about.
Mike
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
There’s no essential distinction between “quality” and “mass” shows and the fact that so many bloggers think so is kind of what I’m talking about.
Except that you offer no reasonable definition in your complaint concerning how this issue of quality ought to be reassessed. Whatever the definition of “quality,” mass appeal is not likely to be too closely correlated. Your complaint seems to rest upon the dubious notion that there is such a correlation. Popular doesn’t equal good. Less popular does not indicate a lack of quality. You know that quite well. I doubt anyone pass the age of 10 has ever believed otherwise. So what are you talking about exactly?
The bloggers you are talking about discuss the shows they like because they believe they are worthy of discussion. You are making what is, as far as I can tell, a completely unfounded assertion that the primary reason they discuss those shows is not because of the qualities of those particular shows but because of the rather more dubious claim that “no one watches them.” This is not persuasive.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
There’s no essential distinction between “quality” and “mass” shows and the fact that so many bloggers think so is kind of what I’m talking about.
Clearly there are essential distinctions. If you really can’t see a distinction between The Wire and The Closer that tells us a lot about your aesthetic discernment. How about the DaVinci Code and Foucault’s Pendulum? Would you consider them about equal?
And you may have a point that BSG or a show like Firefly or Babylon 5 is not really that much more intellectually challenging or better written than, say, Seinfeld or some other massively popular show. But then you have to ask what are the “mass” shows? The shows that garner high ratings are completely irrelevant to my life. The only show I would say really seems to cross class, age and ethnic lines in this country is maybe American Idol. Maybe “Everyone Loves Raymond” might be a quality show, but I’ve never heard anyone in the office ever talk about it. I’ve never met anyone who’s admitted to watching “How I Met Your Mother”, which is supposedly a very popular show. I’m a white male in my early 40s in the business world – if I had to guess from my peers and co-workers what the “mass” shows in America are it would be “Family Guy”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “Entourage”, “The Office”, “Survivorman” and “American Idol.” And a variety of cooking shows I can’t be arsed to remember. So you probably have a point that BSG isn’t really that much better than the shows I’ve mentioned, other than AI, but so what. Again – the blog clique watches it, if you’re feeling left out I’m sorry for you.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Hans Solo?
That was cracking me up, and I was trying to come up with something funny to say about it.
Then I found this YouTube containing an animation of the original 3 Star Wars movies summarized by a woman who had never seen them. It’s hilarious, and it stars…Hans Solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb2GmBkkaTU
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I was 9 when the old BSG came out and, being a nine year old, I loved it to death.
Never the less, there was always something odd about it. At the time, I was too young to put my finger on it.
Was it that annoying kid and his robot dog?
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:58 pm
@58:
Sorry, but Murdoch is even more of a crazed wingnut loony than Benedict is. He’s apparently got a far-right radio program somewhere to prove it.
Which is too bad.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Perhaps Mr. Benedict would like to discuss the dramatic heft the original BG gained when they added Cousin Oliver to the cast.
Putz.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Way Old@75: Nice catch.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Speaking of A-Team (horrible TV show, but I loved it as a kid), Peppard really was a quite good actor in his earlier career. His performance in Minnelli’s Home from the Hill is really very good.
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