Battlestar Galactica – Season 4

Archived review – This is what I wrote for the first half of the season, which aired in spring 2008:

Battlestar Galactica is heading slowly but surely towards its end and the first half of this final season has been a bit lacklustre when compared to the amazing New Caprica storyline from the year before. As if it were possible, things have gotten even more dark and murky but without the instant gratification of interesting plot developments. I guess that's always been the trouble with this show; When they have stories to tell, stories that permanently affect the continuity of the show, there's hardly anything on the box more compelling. Filler, however, is uninspiring and that's what we got for most of these first ten episodes. Don't get me wrong, writing and performances can be strong (how Mary McDonnell didn't get Emmy-nominated for her performance as the President coming to terms with her own mortality is beyond me), but sometimes the show seems to be unnecessarily dark because apparently dark is cool. Fortunately, things suddenly sped up in the final few episodes before the year-long break – and how I'm going to enjoy not having to go through yet another one of these ever again – leaving us with a phenomenal twist that Battlestar Galactica does so well, delivering on its long-established premise whilst completely pulling the rug under our feet. The final ten episodes should be very interesting indeed, particularly if the characters all suddenly remember that sometimes it's OK to crack a joke.

And my take on the final half of the season, and the end of the show:

And so the show that changed the very nature of science fiction television, from light-hearted adventurous romps with aliens to dark character-driven commentaries on our own society, has reached its end. No matter how it would all turn out, I was actually just glad that, in a climate of trigger-happy executives cancelling any show whose viewership will never make it the next CSI or House, this one got to actually reach its planned finale, just as Ron Moore had intended. Was it perfect? No. As with the majority of the last two seasons, there was a lot to like, but faults to tolerate as well. However, let's step back a little bit to the last cliffhanger, where the fleet had just reached the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Earth.

The repercussions of this discovery were more severe than I thought possible, as everyone lost all hope and sense of purpose in their lives, dramatically causing one beloved character to simply give up and die. The objection of many humans to the Cylon integration in the fleet led to a violent coup and the best story arc since the New Caprica occupation. It's testament to this show that the leader of the rebellion is a well-known character who (like everyone else) has been through so many hardships these last few years that it's almost impossible not to understand, even forgive, his extreme actions. That's what the show has always done so well; the characters are more complex than 6+2i (sorry). No human is truly good; no Cylon is truly evil. The following episodes were rather exposition-heavy, attempting to explain (and only half succeeding) the nature of the final five Cylons. These oft-confusing 'revelations' actually manage to showcase how flimsy the show's mythology is, and that its strength definitely lies in its characters and more human elements.

The finale was satisfying, if not perfect, an action-driven adventure that culminated in a surprise resting place with individual farewells to all the characters, some satisfying, some not. Strangely enough, it was Gaius Baltar's final line "You know, I know about farming" that proved to be the most powerful sendoff for the show, again pulling the rug out from under my feet by making me completely sympathise for a character whose narcissism and selfishness had led to the near total destruction of the human race.

Some people may not be happy with the way this show ended. Although there are some fairly cool references to many mysteries over the years, a few loose ends are not so much tied up with a pretty bow as left with an ellipsis, inviting the viewer to draw their own conclusions. Some might also not sit tight with the definite existence of higher spiritual forces at work, although happily their nature is never specifically explored. In the end though, I'm just going to miss a show that made every character count, even minor ones, and never fell into the lazy trappings of labelling any one person as 'good' or 'evil'. It's something not many TV shows can do, and something that makes the viewing a whole lot more fun, if difficult!

NB – Those final comments can actually be even more rightly directed towards The Wire, which I didn't watch until some time after this review.