Cause that's what I want to write about. I'm finally caught up on the sci-fi shows I follow (almost) and I am happy with most of them.
I think last week's episode of Dollhouse was pivotal. Like Bill Simmon, I did see the twist that Helo's neighbor was a doll--she seemed just a bit too curious, too perky, too forward, and a little too oblivious that he wasn't too interested at the beginning. Something was just off. But it was still pretty cool. I do worry that the show will devolve into "who's a doll" mania, like Battlestar Galactica devolved into "who's a cylon" for an entire season. Still, though, this was the first episode that really clicked on all cylinders, and having Patton Oswalt on was killer. For the first five episodes I figured that it had the potential to be a great show, but this is the first time that I saw that it had the makings of one. It might well touch a nerve as well--anxieties about sex, about whether our bodies are our own, about easy victimization--these are things present in our society that the show seems to have some interest in exploring, hopefully at more than a glancing level (a la BSG, which I'll get to soon).
And I find myself continually impressed with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It's really strong, and to look at how the show has improved this season is really staggering. The character development, particularly in the most recent episode, was really strong: John Connor is going to be the leader of the human resistance, and in this episode he started to feel it. Plus, between the two robots (John Henry and Cameron) and the two "future" characters (Derek and Jessie), there's quite a bit of interesting business going on, and I really get the feeling that the show isn't just jerking us around rather than starting longrunning plots that pay off. Anyway, it's likely to get cancelled, because that always happens right when shows start to blossom. Pretty much the only thing the show needs to improve is the titular character--Sarah as played by Lena Headey is intense and charismatic but often two-dimensional and predictable. Maybe making her pregnant with a mechanical baby--a la BSG--is the answer. (Just kidding--it's the answer only if the question is how do you make this show jump the shark.) And now, on to where angels fear to tread...
I have not yet watched the finale to BSG, largely because everyone seems to agree that it wasn't that great. I've read enough to know the broad contours, however. It seems as though the show played up the technophobia in the finale, which was something I didn't expect and has some logic if you look at the beginning of the show, though it is a mighty act of retconning to suggest that it was the primary focus on the show, as opposed to the religious nonsense that dominated the later seasons and wasn't really paid off. I guess it reminded me a bit of the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, only TNG's finale (which is a true classic of sci-fi), only the retconning there made sense: the show started with Q judging humanity, so there was symmetry to having it end that way, and the way it was presented--that Q had been watching along with us for the entire show--was pretty cool. TNG handled this particularly tightrope act elegantly, while BSG bungled it. No surprise for anyone who watched either show.
I think I'm going to be done with BSG complaining for a while, but I suppose I should say that I do it a lot because the show turned out to be a real disappointment. I suppose one shouldn't get too invested in such things, but I guess I can't help it. That is the point of art. I don't understand how this show can still have defenders at this point. For starters, there was no plan, and it's obvious now. The religion obsession was a dead end, and it became clear this past season that Ron Moore had done very little thinking through the fundamental aspects of his universe. Of what relationship were the humanoid cylons to the mechanical ones, let alone to the other humans? This clearly changed over the series. How are humans and cylons different? It is unclear to what extent they ever differed, aside from occasionally having super strength. What was Earth? It changed from originally being conceived as a clearly human world (remember those Cylon virus buoys of human origin? Moore clearly doesn't) to being the Cylon birthplace. Or something. At its best, the show wasn't exactly an intellectual powerhouse, and stuck inanely to "asking questions" about issues parallel to our own instead of making sustained and powerful arguments, likely out of fear of alienating the audience with the answers. The major exception was the "Pegasus" trilogy, which definitely stated that torture is bad, not only for the torturee but for the torturer as well. This isn't nothing. But considering that the show trumpeted its critical acclaim after every episode one ought to expect more than hedging, bloodless "examinations" of situations at best orthogonal to what's going on in the real world, and "haunting" unresolved questions. I'm not asking for a Star Trek: The Original Series level of allegory, but for God's sake, if you want to be taken seriously just say something!
I've listened to a few Ron Moore podcasts in my day, and I'm always amused by his desire to at once be taken seriously as an artist and creative talent while dismissing criticism by saying, "It's just a show." Well, yes, it is, but I'm guessing Moore wants more attention than the usual "watching Two and a Half Men while talking on the phone and yelling at the dog" level given to television. I guess it's the usual human reaction to try to dismiss criticism as illegitimate, but I just kinda feel betrayed by the whole thing. In later seasons the show decided to junk the little genuine humanity it possessed, in exchange for a mirthless, dour, and deliberately unpleasant vision that seemed to think that these qualities alone make the show artistic. It was perhaps "arty" but it just shows how little Moore understands people, that he wasn't able to offer an affirmation or even present a single reason for why his people should have kept going and why they didn't Dee themselves. It reminded me of the post-9/11 West Wing where it seemed like every episode of the show felt the need to show the burden of fighting the g-damn war on terror to get more gravitas. They're all probably right. That's what's really depressing. I'd rather go to the barricades for Annie Hall than for Battlestar Galactica. Human life isn't just strife.
