Battlestar Galactica [spoilers obviously]

[Abraham Smashington]

Haha. Ok, lets spur some real discussion. Why did you hate the finale, and what would you have done?

[Abraham Smashington]

The puking scene was a great moment as well. Even when Adama is in the gutter vomiting all over himself, he still looks to the stars.

[Ingrid]

Honestly, I still feel like they drug out the rest of the season on some lame plot lines only to have to squeeze awesomeness into 2 hours. I felt like them getting Hera was just too damn easy and Cavil offing himself was the lamest of the fucking lame. His asshole nature deserved something more and worse than that. I feel like if they had ended it with the guys on the hill looking at early man, I would have been happier. Oh and that they dug themselves such a deep hole with Starbuck's story that the only explanation was to just make her disappear? Frak that!

[Captain Russ]

Slowing the pace and reaching Scorched Earth early on in season 4.5 allowed for that sense of dread to pore over the whole rest of the story. I actually thought that there would be a rather nihilistic bent to the finale. I was surprised that after all of the sad and depressing shit that happened on the last leg of the journey made way for something hopeful.

And Cavil icing himself made sense, as it was his choice for his final act to be one of defiance in the face of the opposition.

[Abraham Smashington]

And Russ comes and says what I wanted to in a coherent way regarding Cavil.

So...Starbuck crashes on Earth. Comes back to show them the way back. She was an "angel" the whole time correct? Essentially like Head Baltar, but everyone could see her? She's not human, nor Cylon.

[Abraham Smashington]

And I feel completely vindicated about Baltar being my favorite character. The shot of him talking about farming and crying was one of my favorite bits of the finale. The fact that he spent so much time trying to get away from his past to end up living and dying like his old man was beautiful. Redemption for the win.

[Captain Russ]

YOU ARE CORRECT, SIR!

Starbuck returned in the form of an angel.

And that moment when Baltar realizes he can't escape his fate anymore, and accepts he will live out his days as a farmer like his dad, was the best moment in the finale for me. He definitely got to bookend the series as the most compelling and complex character in the series. Gotz ta give it up for James Callis.

[Abraham Smashington]

So I'm going to assume that people that didn't like the finale either didn't get it, expected the worst, or just like to bitch. I guarantee that LOST's finale won't have shit on this one. GUARANTEE.

[Captain Russ]

It was guaranteed to be a dividing experience.

Ah well, more for me then.

[Abraham Smashington]

Yep. Another reason to fucking hate the internet. Goddamn nerds. What the shit. First Watchmen, now this?! I'm honestly trying to come up with another finale of a show (like this) that moved me as much. I can't really do it.

[Captain Russ]

Yeah. There is nothing that I can recall in the medium that hit me the way BSG did in the end.

But then, nothing I have watched has taken as many things to such a satisfying conclusion. Regarding other shows, they've usually carried it on too long to have the sort of strong endgame BSG was able to carry out. Or they've been cancelled before they had the chance to make their mark.

As much as the mid-season breaks pissed me off, I still have to give it up for SciFi for putting all that they had behind the show.

[Nathan]

The mid-season breaks kinda killed the show for me. Was not really invested after the last break. Maybe why I liked the end as much. There were enough good moments that gave me the same feeling as the good stuff back in the day that I didn't mind the stuff people are complaining about.

Remember internet: it was a TV show. If you can't find enjoyment in it, move the fuck on.

Agree with Baltar end moment. Actually, the whole end montage helicaopter shots gave me goosebumps. Neat-o.

[pureevilmatt]

...nothing I have watched has taken as many things to such a satisfying conclusion.

I suppose if you're the type who accepts "God did it" or "It's all God's Plan" as an "explanation", then yeah, it certainly was a satisfying conclusion.


I wouldn't even have been opposed to such an ending, if they didn't introduce God as an off screen character himself, and had "God's Plan" made any fucking sense at all. Making god into a character is among the lamest things you can do with a work of fiction. If you have elements of plot that can involve anything, don't have to make sense, don't require any further explanation, then you lose dramatic investment in the story. Having a character who's mere existence makes anything possible and explains everything implies that nothing you've been emotionally invested in up to the point of that characters introduction really matters in the grand scheme of the work... it saps the drama and importance of everything.

I continued watching this show, with the fantastical things happening, the "prophecy" of the supernova, etc... because God's existence was merely implied, it wasn't explicit... There was the hope that maybe, just maybe there would eventually be an explanation to the events of the series, something that would at least attempt to provide a satisfying conclusion. But no. God definitively and explicitly did it all, it was all part of some pointless fucking plan. Do I need to bother analyzing the meaning of the pigeon, the archetypes and symbolism behind that superfluous part of L.Adama's character? No. Because every single flashback in the second half was pointless filler, as was we realize, after the fact, the majority of the events of the series. If God exists, then nothing matters.

I still respect this show for the few episodes in the first 3 seasons that managed to be poignant social commentary, but this last season to which the finale is the punctuation mark, is complete shit and makes me feel like the entire series was an epic waste of time. That one would even vaguely stand in defense of this shite offends my geek sensibilities. I'd almost prefer that a drunken puke covered Adama wake up in an alleyway and realize that these past years have all been a dream. Dramatically speaking, it's not that much worse of an ending.

[Abraham Smashington]

I still respect this show for the few episodes in the first 3 seasons that managed to be poignant social commentary, but this last season to which the finale is the punctuation mark, is complete shit and makes me feel like the entire series was an epic waste of time. That one would even vaguely stand in defense of this shite offends my geek sensibilities. I'd almost prefer that a drunken puke covered Adama wake up in an alleyway and realize that these past years have all been a dream. Dramatically speaking, it's not that much worse of an ending.

Your whole post sounds like you didn't even really dig the show to begin with, but that paragraph (while an opinion) is so wrong it hurts my face.

[pureevilmatt]

Your whole post sounds like you didn't even really dig the show to begin with, but that paragraph (while an opinion) is so wrong it hurts my face.

I loved the show. Seasons 1 & 2 and most of 3 are some of the absolute best TV ever made. I also liked a lot of the story arcs brought to term in season 4. Gaeta's slow turn to mutiny and subsequent execution still stands for me as a series highpoint. But, unfortunately this lameduck of an ending renders that entire character's struggle pointless.

And I completely disagree with you about Cavil. Just after we get the Ellen's resurrection episode, where Cavil spills his guts with an epic monologue explaining a bit of his past and how he came to be the big bad that he was, you think maybe they're gonna go somewhere with that... but no... instead, they take the one character who is all about surviving at all costs, and have him kill himself. It was just fucking stupid.

And don't even get me started on Starbuck... first she dies in an explosion while chasing a raider. But then she comes back raptor and all intact, only to later find herself crashed dead on a nuked version of earth. That was never reconciled. Oh, and then in the end, it turns out she was either a mass hallucination made manifest or some direct agent of god. It's just all so incredibly weak.

Again, I'll state I loved the show... but that fucking lame ending invalidates all the tension, suspense and drama that led up to it with it's ending... and all for what? Some vague allegory that should we ever build fuckable robots, that we treat them nice? What the fuck.