BSG Liveblogging, spolieriffic version

[coraa]

Watching the BSG miniseries.

Will be edited as I watch more.



Okay, the people who didn't get to go on the shuttle off the dying world? REALLY hard for me to watch. Really upsetting. I know that's the point, but ow. Especially alongside the bit where they had to seal the bulkhead and leave the soldiers to die. People who watch BSG -- is it this hard throughout?

(Pava says that Mr. Overconfident Dickweed is good to have along, because he's a nice antidote to the overwhelmingly noble people left alive otherwise, but holy cow, I was so angry when Nice Pilot Dude gave up his place for him. I mean. I mean. He cause the destruction of his people because he was thinking with his dick! AUGH. Although he DOES get bonus points for not lying to the old blind woman when he could have, so he's not totally irretrievable, and he obviously feels awful for having thought with his dick, but still. I wanted the noble pilot to live, not the dickweed, but at least he's a dickweed and not a sociopath.)

And I kept having moments where -- okay, they had this bit where they noticed that the Cylons ships had, like, Cylon heads stuck to the ships. And they were like, "OMG, they don't have pilots! They ARE the ships!"

And I was like, well, yeah? You made them as tools. Now they're making themselves as tools against you. You're surprised? They are what you made them. You reap what you sow.

But I am liking a lot of the individual characters. Poor Apollo, for one, oh man, I like him a lot. And Starbuck, I really like her. But my favorite character so far? The Minister of Education, later the President, who is calm and compassionate and thoughtful and intelligent, and who stands up to Adama. Hurrah. I love her!

And I like the Asian woman in the shuttle with the kids and the old woman and the dickweed, but I have a fear that she's going to die in some noble fashion in the near future. So I'm afraid to get too attached to her. (I know that Starbuck and President Woman and probably Apollo survive at least a couple seasons, because I've seen Sci-Fi Channel previews featuring them for season two, at least.)

EDIT: I love the way it's unclear whether Gaius(?) is completely batshit insane, mildly insane and hallucinating due to guilt, or implanted with a Cylon monitoring chip.

Also, yow, more heavy 'you have to sacrifice people to live!' Wow.

This is reminding me of Babylon 5, but, yowza, more depressing.

EDIT 2: "They'd better start having babies."

"...Is that an order?"

LOL.

EDIT 3 and final: AUGH. I KNEW I shouldn't get attached to Boomer. But I like her so much! *sob*

Comments

[eepmirva.livejournal.com]

"People who watch BSG -- is it this hard throughout?"

Yes, yes it is!

Are you two going to be watching the whole series now? Would love to know what you think of the show!

[dancambull.livejournal.com]

While someone already said it, yes, it is a hard show, but there are some terrific episodes.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's that hard. Sometimes worse, but rarely better.

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

I would say most episodes are not that hard. But yes, it stays hard.

[theinated.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd have to say that this show is one of the few TV series I've happily put down money to own. The characters are all shades of grey, and rarely one-dimensional. And boy do they get a dose of trial by fire.

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

So you're ready to watch a few episodes on Friday, yes? ;-)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Well, I was very excited to watch more, but now that like five people have told me that it's this hard and depressing throughout, I'm... less sure. :S

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

I think people say that because it's not a typical "We're awesome and we're going to smile as we kill all the aliens" type of sci-fi show. The characters are nuanced and it's amazing storytelling. I imagine that B5 is also like that?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Well, if it's just that it's not happyshiny, that's okay. I'm just not sure how I'll do with, what, four or five seasons of that density of pain. ;)

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

B5 was not happy shiny, everyone lives and all is perfect all the time.

It didn't have rapid succession of people having to be sacrificed so the rest could live. I mean, not constantly.

That's the exact thing I was concerned about when I watch it with Kevin. That's a bit above and beyond, and while it was certainly appropriate to some degree for this initial scenario, it's a bit to get through. If it's just not fluffy, that's fine. But the question is is it actually trying to be malicious, like it seemed to be doing in the opening here a bunch.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I cried three times in three hours, and then the bit with the people fleeing the city and the lottery to get them on the ship with Boomer spiked my anxiety like crazy. I did enjoy it! A lot! I would love to watch more! But it was kind of... um, emotionally exhausting, and there's only so much emotionally exhausting I can do at one time.

I do want to watch it! I just... yeah. I'm a wimp, and I can only do so much cathartic crying at one time. ;)

(Babylon 5, circa the end of the 3rd season/beginning of the 4th, was pretty bad, too. But then, at that point I was only watching one episode per week.....)

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

As I said in my response to Pava -- the mini-series tries to get you emotionally involved in a short amount of time. Every episode is not going to be like that, I promise. That said, watch the show at your own pace - I don't want to sound like I'm forcing you to do so, because I'm totally not.

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

The mini-series gets you emotionally involved in the main characters. It's not like in every episode a character is just killed off. I really don't think it's trying to be malicious at all, rather, it's trying to challenge one's expectations of how a show is supposed to begin.

Dunno, that's the premise of the entire show: that earth, and most people who live on it, die and a very few people escape. If that's not your cup of tea, then stop watching it.

I dunno. I guess I'm just frustrated by people saying it's depressing. Yeah, it's depressing, so what! Shows that try to be sunshine, moonbeams, and sparkly vampires piss me off because their characters aren't complex and the plots are contrived. I think, ultimately, the show tries to be positive, or at least the people try to overcome and live with the cards they are dealt.

Sorry, you've hit one of my buttons here.

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to attack the show, I'm trying to get a general feel.

You know Cora's anxiety. This SPECIFIC of stuff (not dark, not people being killed, not the end of the world - that was all fine - but having to play up sacrificing large groups of people to save other groups that we saw THREE TIMES IN A ROW in the opening) really triggers it. It doesn't matter how good a show it is if she just can't watch it. :-/

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

I do know about Cora's anxiety. All I can say is that I was able to watch the show. I'm not trying to be mean to Cora or try and get her to watch ANYTHING she doesn't want to. As a person with an anxiety disorder, I would NEVER do that to anyone.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I'm really not trying to attack a show you love, and I'm not even saying I can't watch it. I'm just trying to determine whether I *can* watch it -- and until I got a bunch of replies this morning to this post, I was pretty sure I could, so it's worth watching a bit more to see.

That's all.

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

Three things:

1. I have to stop replying now because I think this is getting a little out of hand. I do not want you to watch a show you don't want to. God, please don't think I was trying to get you to...I was just excited that someone else with a point of view nearish to mine was watching it.

2. I like the show, but it's not my favorite show of all time OMGPONIES.

3. I just get frustrated at people who make a blanket statement about a show (it's depressing) without giving any kind of reasoning, especially if it's going to turn the person away from the show for good.

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

FWIW, it's fun watching BSG vicariously through you, so if you keep going with the show, more liveblogging would be fun. And if you make it to season 4, I'd love to join you, as I haven't seen it yet. I can also lend you S1 and S2, if you're Netflixing.

Without wishing to spoil anything, things get better on at least a couple of the points you found distressing. It's not all hopelessness and despair.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I'm trying to figure out how to explain that it's not the depressing that bothers me. I've watched several shows with depressing, and people dying, and people getting bad shit they don't deserve happen to them. (B5 had a fair bit of that, and so did Fullmetal Alchemist.) It's specifically the 'desperate people trying to get on a shuttle' or the 'desperate shouting from the men locked in the burning section of the ship' or 'desperate calls from the pilots of the ships we have to leave behind' or whatever that does it -- and that's because it triggers an anxious reaction in me, not because it's 'dark.' So that's what I can't handle having happen every episode, but it's so specific that it's hard to describe.

It sounds like it's worth a try watching more -- at least hopefully the density of the desperation might be a little lower. ;)

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

I think I know what you mean about what you find distressing, and I don't remember that sort of thing happening very often in the series. I'm curious how you'll respond to the first regular episode, which has something fairly grim happen, but I think without that panic-inducing edge.

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

I believe they get most of that stuff over with in the first couple of episodes. After that the immediate crisis is over and they start focusing more on long-term survival with the occasional skirmish with the Cylons thrown in.

[geekjul.livejournal.com]

I don't think that sort of thing happens in every episode, or even all that frequently. I mean, I can't say the writers NEVER rely on that device again, because I can think of a couple of instances out of the three seasons I've seen, but there's also a lot of other great non-anxiety-inducing stuff in between those few occasions. They do like to bring the drama but they also manage to find other ways to do so.