Well, I just have a handful more episodes from season four until I'm caught up on Battlestar Galactica. That's not counting the webisodes and Razor. Season four is quickly shaping up to be much better than season three, which was definitely the weakest of the four. That's odd since I decided to watch the show mainly because Michael Taylor was working on it and the third season were he takes over as supervising producer is my least favorite. Part of the problem was the Sci-Fi channel's edict early in the season that they make stand-alone episodes, rather than big arcs, a truly dunderheaded move for this particular series. But it's also that in a show that's already so bleak and tragic, they decided to strip away the few triumphant "Hell yeah!" moments that the the first two seasons threw into to briefly dispel the gloom, choosing instead a steady downward spiral of fleetwide depression, paranoia and angst.
I'm still a little bothered by how they revealed four of the final five cylons. It seemed like a particularly undramatic and lazy way to do it. And seriously what the hell was up with having the characters literally singing along to that sitar version of Stealers Wheel’s "Stuck in the Middle With You?" Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower?" Is that a hint that it's going to be the early 1970s when they finally arrive on Earth or are the writers just high?
Still, overall a great show. Mary McDonnell is just so amazing as President Roslin every damned episode, always bringing her emotional A game. And I'll pretty much watch James Callis's Gaius Baltar do anything. Just throw him in a cell, talking to himself for half a season, and it still makes for good television. I'm especially curious where they're going with him being the sleazy Cylon Jesus.
