Battlestar Galactica

Political bloggers like Battlestar Galactica so I thought I'd give it a try. Overall, it's been good, but disappointing. I've also been watching HBO dramas such as Oz, The Wire, and other shows such as Homicide and in comparison BG is superficial and unrealistic. It wants to examine current political issues, especially those relating to the war on terror, but at least through the second season hasn't really said anything interesting.

Anyway, here are five things that annoy me about Battlestar Galactica:

1) All the major romantic relationships involve women tempting men. Sharon and Helo. Sharon and the Chief. Tigh and his wife. Gaius and 6.

2) "Fracking"? Still sounds stupid and is jarring.

3) All the political dissidents are terrorists. They might be justified, or have the right aims, but they all use violence. This isn't surprising as there evidently isn't any government beyond the executive office (and an ineffective Quorum), and so no recourse to democratic means of change.

4) Somehow the 12 Colonies were able to develop the technology to create AI without a hint of developing a philosophy to go along with it. There is a lot of talk about how the Cylons are machines ("toasters"), not human, etc., but this is a starfaring people, one who you would think have grappled with the idea of non-human persons, and at least have people who claim that the Cylons are persons. But even the empathetic people on the Galactica seem unable to even think beyond the non-organic nature (which doesn't even apply to the human-like Cylons) of the Cylons. Why is this?

This last one is the most annoying. The biggest emotional conflicts the characters have is coming to terms with the "humanity" of their opponents--and this conflict rings false because there is no sense of why they are so prejudiced against the Cylons--why they are not just evil, but also not persons.

As was said on some anynomous blog comment

If nothing else, blogs, and especially blog comments, have proven the fact that you can find a liberal or a conservative or anyone else that disagrees with you that have said pretty much any outrageous or stupid thing you might wish or expect.

We already know this. Therefore, please, if you write an article describing the reaction to some event, just don't bother quoting them. I don't care what some guy who emailed you said, and just because I'm a liberal doesn't mean that he or his views or invective is representative of what I said or believe.

yeah, I'm talking about you NY Times Public Editor.