Battlestar Galactica: Black Market When then executive producer of a show spends the entire 45 minutes of a podcast apologizing to the audience for an episode, you know it's got to be pretty bad. And that's basically what Ron Moore does this week. Let me sum up the podcast for you--"What the hell were we thinking?!? It sure seemed like a good idea at the time but boy howdy did it not turn out that way. And yes, it is all my fault as the show runner and please don't blame anyone but me."
I'll give
Battlestar a mulligan this week for the episode. I think a lot of it was that this one was trying too hard. It could have been interesting to really deal with the black market that's grown up in the fleet due to the nature of supply and demand. It could have been interesting to have some of the backstory filled in on Apollo and to look at why he wasn't happy when he was rescued after bailing out of the stealth ship a few weeks ago. It could have been interesting to see how Tom Zerrick straddles the line between being a black market operative and player and the politician we've seen him become in various episodes leading up to this one. Notice that I say--could have. There's a lot of potential for a good story here and some good character work. And that may be why so many of us (myself included) came away from this one disappointed. It was lackluster, yes, but there was so much more potential for the show to be something special, to be something more that in the end, we were all disappointed by it.
I will agree with Ron Moore--the best scene in this one was the confrotation between Tigh and Apollo. That was a nicely done scene. It doesn't make up for the staggering dissapointment of the rest of the story, but it's nice to have one small nugget of greatness in there.
I'll give
Galactica an A for effort and a D for actual execution. I'm hoping next week gets things back on track...
24: Day Five, 12 - 1 p.m. Watching
24 last night, I began to wonder something. So, these terrorists are going out of their way to get rid of Jack Bauer, right? So, why not pick up the phone and call the Chinese government and go--hey, remember how you thought that Jack Bauer guy was dead? Yeah, not so much. And here's how to find him.
Seems to me that would be a bigger distraction and would kill two birds with one stone. The Chinese would want Bauer turned over to them and it would distract Logan and CTU from the developing threat for the day.
I wonder if this will become a tactic for the terrorists as the season progresses.
But enough with the "what if"s and onto this week's hour.
Ah, the wonders of the soap opera that is CTU. Audrey still loves Jack, Jack still loves Audrey and in fine soap opera tradition that can admit it to everyone but each other. I love how Connie Britton comes in and gets confessions of love from both of them as a virtual stranger to Audrey, but yet the two can't really say those words to each other. I have to remember that next time I'm in a relationship that if I get her really mad at me, I should fake my own death and turn up 18 months later and it will make everything OK. Cause that sure seems to be working with Audrey.
Meanwhile, the power struggle between Bucannan and McGill continues. There has to be some connection here, though I'm not sure what it is. Was Bucanna once McGill's boss and now the roles have reversed? And will McGill's by the book leadership style come back to haunt him or CTU before the day is out.
Meanwhile, over at the White House, Logan is cracking under pressure. So, you're Secretary of State comes to you, says--hey, by the way, I'm working with terrorists and you're gonna help me--and Logan goes along with it?!? I love how Logan is consumed by the spectre of his legacy--which we've seen since the beginning of this day. He's far more concerned with the public perception of him and his administration and not as much with whether what he's doing is right or wrong. He thinks the nerve gas will be used to wipe out terrorist cells and never used on innocent civilians. Yeah, right and I've got real estate in Florida you might want to buy. I kept thinking is some guy wandered into Palmer's office and told him this, Palmer would rip him a new one right there on the spot. But then again, Palmer was more concerned with doing what was best than his legacy.
Thankfully, there are people in Logan's staff who are loyal to the office and not to him. If they were, Logan would still be between a rock and a hard place and Jack would be hauled away in chains. And the day would be over after six hours in a shocking turn. We'd see Jack rotting in a prison cell and maybe Kim would come by to visit, chased by a cougar, no less.
But that doesn't happen. Instead, Jack kicks some butt, interrogates a prisoner and is allowed to continue on doing what it is Jack does best. Kick butt, breaking hearts and taking names. And now there is a retalliation set for the U.S. with the nerve gas in play. Hands up if you saw that one coming, because I sure did. We can't find it this early in the day....what else would we do for the remaining 18 hours?
posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/31/2006 07:37:00 AM |
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