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BSG 3.01 and 3.02
Now that was a premiere.
Firstly, one worry I had back when s2 finished and some articles mentioned Vichy parallels was that it would be a clear black and white situation, i.e. one of the main reasons why popular tv is so enamored with WWII and WWII allegories. But lo and behold, turns out they're going for something way more interesting. Sure there is some Vichy, but there are also lots of pointed Iraq parallels. With the ethics of suicide bombings being focused on. The scenes with Baltar and Roslin, and Roslin and Tigh dealing with that were among my favourites, and how much did I love that Baltar, despised by humans and Cylons (save Caprica Six and possibly Boomer) alike, gets to make an ethical point? And that we see Roslin, while of course not giving an inch while with him, acting on that later?
The fact Tigh and Tyrol etc. don't get arrested permanently seemed to be a plot hole (obvious ringleaders they), until Cavil's second scene with Ellen, though in retrospect one could see it coming throughout. It makes sense: Caprica Six and Boomer manage to convince the Cylons to try coexistance instead of genocide. The Cavils and the Threes disagree, but go along at first, and now Cavil by letting Tigh stay around to lead the insurgence and provoking him just that much more by taking his eye is adding deliberate fuel to the fire, furthering a situation where there are more and more deaths on both sides and Caprica Six and Boomer are losing more and more ground with the other Cylons. Oppressors and insurgents, literary feeding off each other, though Tigh doesn't know it yet.
While we're talking of the Colonel, let me repeat that I love the Edward Albee relationship between him and Ellen more and more. Back in s1, the explanation Adama and Roslin had as to why these two are still together and Saul puts up with her was that he loves her, no matter how much she cheats on him, but what they missed out is the other reason: that she loves him. Leave it to Ellen to show that clearer than ever by having sex with another man. And even Ellen haters should feel for her when it's made clear she might have saved herself the bother, Cavil was playing her the entire time.
Competing in the field of dysfunctional relationships and a new strong contender: Kara and Leoben. He's not physically torturing her as she tortured him, but he's pulling all the stops, mind-wise, with the child being a masterstroke. (In Flesh and Bone, he made a reference to Kara's mother, so clearly he knows all about her backstory there.) Methinks Ron Moore was envious of that mindfuck Joss wrote for Emma and Scott and decided to go one better. And I think the crowning touch is that part of the mindmessing consists of Leoben letting Kara kill him again and again. For now, the obvious ending seems to be "I love you" followed by a kill he doesn't expect and an escape, but perhaps RDM will come up with a twist.
Moving on to the next dysfunctional couple (is there any other kind on BSG now?): I want to see Baltar and Caprica Six together unobserved, but for now I'm content to wait. (Six-in-Baltar's-head reappearing after Caprica Six got shot probably indicates she's not present when Caprica Six is around.) Doral shooting Caprica Six was a shocker, though logical from the Cylon pov, and now I wonder: what if Sharon (Agathon, I think I'll call her Sharon and the other Sharon Boomer to avoid confusion) gets shot while on New Caprica? The downloading process should happen automatically, unless she gets "boxed" as was threatened to Boomer. Back to Gaius Baltar: like I said, loved his scene with Roslin (and that he brought another chair for her, and the shoes, but mostly that she while giving no square didn't trounce him like I thought she would but that he was allowed to make a point and got her to look away at least once), and the fact he didn't immediately sign. Baltar wouldn't be nearly as interesting if he was all simple, leaning back to enjoy the comfortable life with his now corporial Six who loves him and not giving a damm about what happens to humanity. Because he does give a damm. He's weak, and he can't bring himself to die rather than to sign, but as opposed to the amoral Gaius from the miniseries whose reaction to the news of a planet-wide nuclear attack was "Get me my lawyer!" he actually cares. The irony is that back then, he was popular, whereas no, everyone hates him. More, please.
Speaking of Boomer, I must say that though I guess I'm supposed to sympathize with Cally more, Boomer comes off better to me. The big stumbling block on seeing the current relationship between Cally and Tyrol as not-dysfunctional remains to me that Cally shot Boomer. (And that Tyrol seems to have married Cally mostly due to guilt after hitting her involuntarily when she woke up him from his nightmare.) I very much doubt that if positions were reversed, Cally would have even tried to help Boomer.
Moving on to Sharon: I'm glad the strange bonding she and Adama did in s2 got build upon, though I still wonder why she forgave him for what she has to believe was the death of her baby. Probably by deciding to blame it all on Roslin, I guess. Anyway, observe the consistency: Adama can still talk better to his "adopted" children - Kara, Dee, now Sharon - than to his son.
Lee: boy, with everyone else having a lobby in the US, how about corpulent people? With "fat" and "soft" flung around as insults so often, I mean. Also, people who regret the loss of Lee as a sex object, you should have watched the first seasons of Cracker, in which Robbie Coltrane as Fitz was one. I kid you not. And good old Bamber with his artificial weight is nowhere near that size. Anyway, Lee for the first time since... Epiphanies, I guess did feel well written again. Also, was I ever glad to see Dee back to her no-nonsense talking self.
And now to the couple who made me giddy, I confess: Zarek and Roslin. Ever since that "And here I shaved extra close in anticipation of getting smacked by you" from Colonial Day I thought that if I want to write one Roslin pairing, it wouldn't be one of the Adama boys but Tom Zarek. Their uneasy alliance in early s2 had been lovely to see, and now Ron Moore gives me that "Tom" and "Laura", and though they're being as ironic as ever when using their first names it's a friendly spar. Not that I don't think if in some hypothetical future where everyone is with the fleet again they won't be political rivals again, but you know, that's part of what I enjoy about their scenes together.
*goes to rewatch![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
k_julia's Zarek and Roslin vid*
Firstly, one worry I had back when s2 finished and some articles mentioned Vichy parallels was that it would be a clear black and white situation, i.e. one of the main reasons why popular tv is so enamored with WWII and WWII allegories. But lo and behold, turns out they're going for something way more interesting. Sure there is some Vichy, but there are also lots of pointed Iraq parallels. With the ethics of suicide bombings being focused on. The scenes with Baltar and Roslin, and Roslin and Tigh dealing with that were among my favourites, and how much did I love that Baltar, despised by humans and Cylons (save Caprica Six and possibly Boomer) alike, gets to make an ethical point? And that we see Roslin, while of course not giving an inch while with him, acting on that later?
The fact Tigh and Tyrol etc. don't get arrested permanently seemed to be a plot hole (obvious ringleaders they), until Cavil's second scene with Ellen, though in retrospect one could see it coming throughout. It makes sense: Caprica Six and Boomer manage to convince the Cylons to try coexistance instead of genocide. The Cavils and the Threes disagree, but go along at first, and now Cavil by letting Tigh stay around to lead the insurgence and provoking him just that much more by taking his eye is adding deliberate fuel to the fire, furthering a situation where there are more and more deaths on both sides and Caprica Six and Boomer are losing more and more ground with the other Cylons. Oppressors and insurgents, literary feeding off each other, though Tigh doesn't know it yet.
While we're talking of the Colonel, let me repeat that I love the Edward Albee relationship between him and Ellen more and more. Back in s1, the explanation Adama and Roslin had as to why these two are still together and Saul puts up with her was that he loves her, no matter how much she cheats on him, but what they missed out is the other reason: that she loves him. Leave it to Ellen to show that clearer than ever by having sex with another man. And even Ellen haters should feel for her when it's made clear she might have saved herself the bother, Cavil was playing her the entire time.
Competing in the field of dysfunctional relationships and a new strong contender: Kara and Leoben. He's not physically torturing her as she tortured him, but he's pulling all the stops, mind-wise, with the child being a masterstroke. (In Flesh and Bone, he made a reference to Kara's mother, so clearly he knows all about her backstory there.) Methinks Ron Moore was envious of that mindfuck Joss wrote for Emma and Scott and decided to go one better. And I think the crowning touch is that part of the mindmessing consists of Leoben letting Kara kill him again and again. For now, the obvious ending seems to be "I love you" followed by a kill he doesn't expect and an escape, but perhaps RDM will come up with a twist.
Moving on to the next dysfunctional couple (is there any other kind on BSG now?): I want to see Baltar and Caprica Six together unobserved, but for now I'm content to wait. (Six-in-Baltar's-head reappearing after Caprica Six got shot probably indicates she's not present when Caprica Six is around.) Doral shooting Caprica Six was a shocker, though logical from the Cylon pov, and now I wonder: what if Sharon (Agathon, I think I'll call her Sharon and the other Sharon Boomer to avoid confusion) gets shot while on New Caprica? The downloading process should happen automatically, unless she gets "boxed" as was threatened to Boomer. Back to Gaius Baltar: like I said, loved his scene with Roslin (and that he brought another chair for her, and the shoes, but mostly that she while giving no square didn't trounce him like I thought she would but that he was allowed to make a point and got her to look away at least once), and the fact he didn't immediately sign. Baltar wouldn't be nearly as interesting if he was all simple, leaning back to enjoy the comfortable life with his now corporial Six who loves him and not giving a damm about what happens to humanity. Because he does give a damm. He's weak, and he can't bring himself to die rather than to sign, but as opposed to the amoral Gaius from the miniseries whose reaction to the news of a planet-wide nuclear attack was "Get me my lawyer!" he actually cares. The irony is that back then, he was popular, whereas no, everyone hates him. More, please.
Speaking of Boomer, I must say that though I guess I'm supposed to sympathize with Cally more, Boomer comes off better to me. The big stumbling block on seeing the current relationship between Cally and Tyrol as not-dysfunctional remains to me that Cally shot Boomer. (And that Tyrol seems to have married Cally mostly due to guilt after hitting her involuntarily when she woke up him from his nightmare.) I very much doubt that if positions were reversed, Cally would have even tried to help Boomer.
Moving on to Sharon: I'm glad the strange bonding she and Adama did in s2 got build upon, though I still wonder why she forgave him for what she has to believe was the death of her baby. Probably by deciding to blame it all on Roslin, I guess. Anyway, observe the consistency: Adama can still talk better to his "adopted" children - Kara, Dee, now Sharon - than to his son.
Lee: boy, with everyone else having a lobby in the US, how about corpulent people? With "fat" and "soft" flung around as insults so often, I mean. Also, people who regret the loss of Lee as a sex object, you should have watched the first seasons of Cracker, in which Robbie Coltrane as Fitz was one. I kid you not. And good old Bamber with his artificial weight is nowhere near that size. Anyway, Lee for the first time since... Epiphanies, I guess did feel well written again. Also, was I ever glad to see Dee back to her no-nonsense talking self.
And now to the couple who made me giddy, I confess: Zarek and Roslin. Ever since that "And here I shaved extra close in anticipation of getting smacked by you" from Colonial Day I thought that if I want to write one Roslin pairing, it wouldn't be one of the Adama boys but Tom Zarek. Their uneasy alliance in early s2 had been lovely to see, and now Ron Moore gives me that "Tom" and "Laura", and though they're being as ironic as ever when using their first names it's a friendly spar. Not that I don't think if in some hypothetical future where everyone is with the fleet again they won't be political rivals again, but you know, that's part of what I enjoy about their scenes together.
*goes to rewatch
k_julia's Zarek and Roslin vid*
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