Catching up with the times: BSG season 3

*The following post contains spoilers for Battlestar Galactica season 3, but that probably doesn't matter as the entertainment sections of the newspaper have been trumpeting them constantly, and anyways, we're halfway through season 4. But I digress.

When you don't have cable, don't like watching streamed TV, deplore piracy, and are admittedly a bit cheap, watching non-network TV can be a bit of a hassle. So you can imagine my distress over the re-vamped BSG being so pleasantly good. Having successfully completed the stellar first season and the "meh, but it had its moments and picked up at the end" second, I've finally got my mitts on my very own copy of season 3, thanks to a husband who always gets me the best media presents. The potted plants I got for our anniversary last year were, admittedly, awesome - yellow and purple and bushy, and they smelled good too - but, with the heat waves we get in southern Ontario, DVDs will definitely last longer.

So, thanks to a little round of stomach flu, I've polished off the first disc, a.k.a. episodes 1-4. And, for any other poor saps who are so behind on the times, or Logan, who simply didn't watch season 3, I am very pleased to report that Galactica is back on track. It's still struggling with using overdone music to prove and/or muddle points - middle eastern-style tunes during a plot line about suicide bombing? come on! - but the writing is (almost) back to season 1 standards.

What's great so far: the human resistance, as led by Col. Tigh, Chief Tyrol, and Sam Anders. Dark and dirty and well-played, it played an interesting arc making a case for why suicide bombing, if used by a legitimate army, is no different from sending a pilot on a mission from which you know they won't return. Gaius Baltar is always gripping to watch, as he is potentially the most consistent character on the show - every decision he makes is perfectly in keeping with the man we've been shown, and his relationship with Caprica Six is deepening in interest, as is the interplay between the Cylons. I have a feeling that's going to be one of the highlights of the season.

And let's talk about Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan). Thrown in detention, tortured, having his eye ripped out deliberately, Season 4 literally began with the shock of seeing Tigh ruined and looking every inch his age. It also began with the writers throwing us the curveball of showing that his wife, Ellen, actually loved him. This was a shock as they've previously played her up as someone who loved nothing but power, and would do whatever it took to get ahead - almost a female version of Gaius. Whether they had a change of heart, or just found it more convenient to the plot, discovering that what Ellen would really do is anything to benefit her husband was startling. She prostituted herself to get him out of detention, then sold out the resistance to prevent his execution. And Tigh, as was previously spoiled for me in an errant newspaper, held to character and after learning of her treachery, despite her reason for it, very gently murdering her with a narcotic overdose. Like Spock, he could not let the good of the one outweigh the good of the many. Unlike Spock, his grief in killing his wife who had sacrificed herself for love was profound, and will likely shape his actions for the rest of the season. Even though I knew this was coming, seeing it played out at the hands of two stellar actors still made it shocking, disturbing, and nearly left me in tears.

Oh, and Admiral Adama will never let me down. Never. And I really enjoyed Sharon/Boomer's re-commissioning into the navy, and am greatly looking forward to the rest of her story. I think she's been the most consistently interesting character, and her journey of literal self-discovery and attempt to re-integrate herself into human society has been well-played.

The weak points so far: the afore-mentioned hyperbolic music, and the rush writing job regarding Starbuck. In the first episode, we learn she's been in detention for four months, held in an apartment by the Cylon she interrogated and tortured in season 1 and who is now completely infatuated with her. She, of course, has quite ably resisted his advances - until the second episode, when he brings her a child he claims is the product of the ovary removed from her at the breeding farm in season 2, which of course is false (or is it?), and when the child is hurt under her watch, she suddenly fully accepts that it is hers. Okay, I realize that in show time four months is enough time to make this transformation feasible - mental distress, breaking point, quasi-Stockholm syndrome and all that - but in two episodes time, this is a bit quick. Hopefully the rest of the season will see the writers not heaping so much on Starbuck's plate, but with the aftereffect of the child and her incarceration, the fact that the Cylon will presumably continue to hunt her until she declares her undying love for him, the return to Galactica, and the fact that both she and perpetual source of sexual tension Lee Adama will now be serving on the same ship while married to other people thanks to the destruction of the Pegasus, I forsee an overly stuffed and rushed storyline in Starbuck's near future. :(

Huh. That was a long post for four measly episodes. Well, there was a lot to digest in those four episodes! Don't know when I'll finish disc 2, as Corey actually wants to watch this season with me, but I'll post again when I do.