I'm more than conflicted about the 5th cylon. No, scratch that. I'm conflicted about all of the final five. This rant is a long time coming from me and I haven't anywhere else to say it, so bare with me.
Ellen? Really? Come on. WTF. I was expecting at least a major character. I mean, I don't necessarily mind the fact that it's Ellen because I do kind of like the whole idea of Saul and Ellen's relationship transcending time and all... but they really built up this last of the final five. Such as with the whole "ONE WILL BE REVEALED! OOOH! WHO'S IT GONNA BE!!!"
And they had you thinking it was Kara during the episode, with her discovering the Viper on Earth that had another corpse of her on it. At that point you're just like, "OK, she's the 5th. That's cool -- kind of expected, but it makes sense." Then I was sure it was Dee because of her digging those jacks up out of earth and having some kind of flashback that we didn't see. I mean, that had me figuring she was a cylon - it sort of would have explained the suicide. But even Dee would have been silly choice in the entire context of the show. But Ellen is just ridiculous. It wasn't remotely dramatic and only slightly interesting.
Honestly, *all* of the Final Five seemed hastily contrived. It being one of the main unanswered questions of the show, it was pretty anticlimactic. They spent so much time focusing on other arbitrary, inane concepts on the show that by the time they got to answering it, I just didn't care. Saul and Tyrol were main characters and it could have been more interestingly integrated, but on the show it was just seemed so random, like the writers just drew them out of a hat and wrote it in.
I don't want to judge too much because I don't want to act like I could do a better job at writing the show. But as a viewer, I've felt disappointed ever since Season 2. BSG Season 1 is one of the most amazing works of sci-fi I've ever seen. It was a little more mundane and they seemed to focus more on the fleet and their surviving in space. The show should have stayed mostly a character drama and left the Cylon conflict a very, very slowly unraveled mystery. There was a lot more mystery in Season 1--a lot of unanswered questions. The problem that the writers had with post-Season 1 BSG is that they answered WAYY too many of them, in way too much detail. They don't realize that our collective imaginations as viewers conjures up more interesting things than they could ever. This is a very "J. J. Abrahms" way of looking at it. LOST has tons of mystery and they barely answer any questions. Some people hate this, but I love it. I want a lot of mystery. I wish the Cylons were still shrouded and barely known. I wish we hadn't seen in their ships and seen them quarrel with each other like little children. It made them seem less like a threat, less interesting, less mysterious, and most of all, less entertaining.
I don't know if I'm alone here with these feelings.
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timeasmymeasure
spoilers and boilers
Date: 2009-01-18 06:23 am (UTC)Ellen? Really? Come on. WTF. I was expecting at least a major character. I mean, I don't necessarily mind the fact that it's Ellen because I do kind of like the whole idea of Saul and Ellen's relationship transcending time and all... but they really built up this last of the final five. Such as with the whole "ONE WILL BE REVEALED! OOOH! WHO'S IT GONNA BE!!!"
And they had you thinking it was Kara during the episode, with her discovering the Viper on Earth that had another corpse of her on it. At that point you're just like, "OK, she's the 5th. That's cool -- kind of expected, but it makes sense." Then I was sure it was Dee because of her digging those jacks up out of earth and having some kind of flashback that we didn't see. I mean, that had me figuring she was a cylon - it sort of would have explained the suicide. But even Dee would have been silly choice in the entire context of the show. But Ellen is just ridiculous. It wasn't remotely dramatic and only slightly interesting.
Honestly, *all* of the Final Five seemed hastily contrived. It being one of the main unanswered questions of the show, it was pretty anticlimactic. They spent so much time focusing on other arbitrary, inane concepts on the show that by the time they got to answering it, I just didn't care. Saul and Tyrol were main characters and it could have been more interestingly integrated, but on the show it was just seemed so random, like the writers just drew them out of a hat and wrote it in.
I don't want to judge too much because I don't want to act like I could do a better job at writing the show. But as a viewer, I've felt disappointed ever since Season 2. BSG Season 1 is one of the most amazing works of sci-fi I've ever seen. It was a little more mundane and they seemed to focus more on the fleet and their surviving in space. The show should have stayed mostly a character drama and left the Cylon conflict a very, very slowly unraveled mystery. There was a lot more mystery in Season 1--a lot of unanswered questions. The problem that the writers had with post-Season 1 BSG is that they answered WAYY too many of them, in way too much detail. They don't realize that our collective imaginations as viewers conjures up more interesting things than they could ever. This is a very "J. J. Abrahms" way of looking at it. LOST has tons of mystery and they barely answer any questions. Some people hate this, but I love it. I want a lot of mystery. I wish the Cylons were still shrouded and barely known. I wish we hadn't seen in their ships and seen them quarrel with each other like little children. It made them seem less like a threat, less interesting, less mysterious, and most of all, less entertaining.
I don't know if I'm alone here with these feelings.