Too many brackets in this post
Oct. 24th, 2020 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessBSG
Three different episodes in Flesh and Bone; Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down; The Hand of God.
The first started with Roslin doing a Galadriel, which turned into me wondering if she was going to have a Cylon in her head now. (This being side-effects of the drugs she was taking made more sense.) Then they found another copy of CKR (sorry, never took in any of the names) in the fleet. As Roslin vetoed the military intention to execute him immediately to try to wheedle info out of him, one saw the sense of it, but also wondered if she was influenced by the dream/vision.
Starbuck was given the job (what, she’s a top-flight interrogator too? Or maybe they have so few people and with her gammy knee, Adama had to keep finding her jobs to do). I note that all the guards were men. Anyway, she soon turned to torture (aha, so this is where the Cylons-as-terrorists, humans who made them the Western world stuff sprang form). This led to a lot of talk about God and the soul, an assessment of her past relationship with her mother that may be confirmed later, as it certainly elicited a reaction, and the Cylon seemed to think she was important. And part of a repeating pattern, as we heard more names for the Lords of Kobol – Athena and Artemis joining Apollo, which ware part of the Greek pantheon, or idols to quote the Cylons, which was emphasised by Kara literally picking up carved idols and praying to them for him. Because she felt bad about the torturing of someone who maybe had a soul.
Roslin turned out to be hardcore and ordered to space him, but Mr Insidious planted a seed of doubt about Adama in her mind. (That would be a longstanding sleeper agent, I thought, and dismissed the idea.)
Was it in this episode that the real Sharon fondled the Cylon ship/pet some more during a cagey encounter with the ex and went to Baltar to be tested? Six (who didn’t seem to recognise her, for what it’s worth) talked him out of informing Sharon she was indeed a Cylon. So, his test is meaningless for all practical purposes, although we were left with the suspicion that someone else will turn out to be a Cylon. (And then maybe he’ll have egg on his face. Or worse.)
Which led to the next ep, in which BSG does comedy. Kinda. Adama was acting funny, Roslin suspected him accordingly. And he was off the Galactica when a lone Cylon raider appeared on the radar. Tigh, who’d just put asie his booze and his past, had to deal with that, Roslin’s suspicions and then his wife turning up (all made up and wearing a range of slutty clothes somehow). Whether she was a Cylon or not, she was clearly trouble, and seemed breezily unaffected by the fact that these were the remnants of humanity, fighting for survival.
The dinner scene and the interaction of the Tighs, Adamas, Roslin and later Baltar/Six was the locus for most of the not quite lolz. What I found interesting was the dynamic between Adama, Roslin and Lee around Ellen, in particular, as Mrs Tigh sexually harassed Lee now he’d all growed up, while Adama and Roslin seemed to play mama and papa. (The contrast between serious brunette Roslin and frivolous blonde with the green booze Ellen especially clear.) But a definite shift in that dynamic, after all the stuff about the doubts Roslin had had about Adama (and she’s a mile away from telling him about her cancer) and all that means for the fleet given their leadership roles.
Meanwhile, I think it was in this ep, on Caprica, Not!Six and the other guy who isn’t CKR gave Fake Sharon new orders, which involved killing Helo if he didn’t do what they wanted, and she decided to run with him (and try to find a ship to get off Caprica – and oh boy imagine if the two Sharons meet) because she loves him now after the sex. Not!Six had FEELINGS about this, which suggests that Six’s consciousness didn’t pass on to her, so Six isn’t dead (just mysterious) (of course, the shared consciousness thing could be a lie.)
In the next, on Caprica, Helo finally noticed Sharon didn’t tire, though she did get sick and slept in and lost them their tenuous advantage ahead of the Cylons and the woman Helo thought had been killed and now saw walking in search of them. Poor, confused, hot Helo.
Meanwhile the fleet was running out of another resource – the fuel that helped them to go FTL. (How are their stocks of normal fuel and power?) Roslin was having visions at a press briefing of EWW! SNAKES DNW! She talked to the priestess who saw it as a fulfilment of a prophecy, except it couldn’t be because Roslin wasn’t sick with something that could kill her, was she?
The discussion of Roslin’s prescience from the last ep but one and the whole idea of recurrence ties in in a very meta way to the habit of giving us flashforwards for an ep at its start. I’m sort of not engaging as hard in the What Does It All Mean – Six knew the Colonial prophecy too, or maybe Gaius did retain it in his memory if he studied it as a child, because genius) and the significance of 12 in Judeo-Christianity, both monotheistic religions (not as familiar with Muslim beliefs, but shouldn’t discout them referring to that) while the polytheistic Kobols are linked to Hellenic beliefs, because I think I know stuff via fannish osmosis. But there’s also the nod of ‘this has happened before’ to this show being a reboot and storytelling…and how much of this did they always have planned?
And then there was the tension of the mission, with the added tension of Starbuck, best pilot in the fleet and don’t you forget it, being benched and Apollo (not the favourite son, not the most highly regarded pilot despite his higher rank, but still an Adama) being given the job. And the tension of whether Baltar’s guess was divinely insired or a wild, destructive guess, because the stakes were REALLY high.
And there were moments on the new set for the model of the battlefield or in the hangar, where the blockbuster nature of the production sank in.
Ghosts 2.05 Bump in the Night
Beautifully set up: Alison going out and not telling the oblivious ghosts, Mike, not too keen on spending the evening alone with the phantoms he can’t see, but knows are there, but falling asleep anyway. The musicale making Humphrey’s head the most useless guard imaginable…
And it all fell out beautifully, even if much of it was in very low light (grr) because the thick burglar cut off the electricity when he was meant to cut off the landline. The mobile runnin out of battery is a modern horror cliché.
Had we met the plague girl who can be heard by norms before?
Anyway, so many delightful beats, Julian expending all his energy for little reward and being snitty about it, Kitty and Mary interaction again, Lady Fanny railing at the ineptitude of the burglars, Mike (dressed up in armour) falling over – this gt the biggest laugh from me - Pat uselessly lecturing the thick young burglar about the wrong path he was taking. And Robin’s helpful intervention with the dogs, which Alison recognised, even though it turned out that it was a group effort to catch the burglars.
I’m not sure if Alison got a lift in the limo of the hen night for the wedding they were hosting.
Three different episodes in Flesh and Bone; Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down; The Hand of God.
The first started with Roslin doing a Galadriel, which turned into me wondering if she was going to have a Cylon in her head now. (This being side-effects of the drugs she was taking made more sense.) Then they found another copy of CKR (sorry, never took in any of the names) in the fleet. As Roslin vetoed the military intention to execute him immediately to try to wheedle info out of him, one saw the sense of it, but also wondered if she was influenced by the dream/vision.
Starbuck was given the job (what, she’s a top-flight interrogator too? Or maybe they have so few people and with her gammy knee, Adama had to keep finding her jobs to do). I note that all the guards were men. Anyway, she soon turned to torture (aha, so this is where the Cylons-as-terrorists, humans who made them the Western world stuff sprang form). This led to a lot of talk about God and the soul, an assessment of her past relationship with her mother that may be confirmed later, as it certainly elicited a reaction, and the Cylon seemed to think she was important. And part of a repeating pattern, as we heard more names for the Lords of Kobol – Athena and Artemis joining Apollo, which ware part of the Greek pantheon, or idols to quote the Cylons, which was emphasised by Kara literally picking up carved idols and praying to them for him. Because she felt bad about the torturing of someone who maybe had a soul.
Roslin turned out to be hardcore and ordered to space him, but Mr Insidious planted a seed of doubt about Adama in her mind. (That would be a longstanding sleeper agent, I thought, and dismissed the idea.)
Was it in this episode that the real Sharon fondled the Cylon ship/pet some more during a cagey encounter with the ex and went to Baltar to be tested? Six (who didn’t seem to recognise her, for what it’s worth) talked him out of informing Sharon she was indeed a Cylon. So, his test is meaningless for all practical purposes, although we were left with the suspicion that someone else will turn out to be a Cylon. (And then maybe he’ll have egg on his face. Or worse.)
Which led to the next ep, in which BSG does comedy. Kinda. Adama was acting funny, Roslin suspected him accordingly. And he was off the Galactica when a lone Cylon raider appeared on the radar. Tigh, who’d just put asie his booze and his past, had to deal with that, Roslin’s suspicions and then his wife turning up (all made up and wearing a range of slutty clothes somehow). Whether she was a Cylon or not, she was clearly trouble, and seemed breezily unaffected by the fact that these were the remnants of humanity, fighting for survival.
The dinner scene and the interaction of the Tighs, Adamas, Roslin and later Baltar/Six was the locus for most of the not quite lolz. What I found interesting was the dynamic between Adama, Roslin and Lee around Ellen, in particular, as Mrs Tigh sexually harassed Lee now he’d all growed up, while Adama and Roslin seemed to play mama and papa. (The contrast between serious brunette Roslin and frivolous blonde with the green booze Ellen especially clear.) But a definite shift in that dynamic, after all the stuff about the doubts Roslin had had about Adama (and she’s a mile away from telling him about her cancer) and all that means for the fleet given their leadership roles.
Meanwhile, I think it was in this ep, on Caprica, Not!Six and the other guy who isn’t CKR gave Fake Sharon new orders, which involved killing Helo if he didn’t do what they wanted, and she decided to run with him (and try to find a ship to get off Caprica – and oh boy imagine if the two Sharons meet) because she loves him now after the sex. Not!Six had FEELINGS about this, which suggests that Six’s consciousness didn’t pass on to her, so Six isn’t dead (just mysterious) (of course, the shared consciousness thing could be a lie.)
In the next, on Caprica, Helo finally noticed Sharon didn’t tire, though she did get sick and slept in and lost them their tenuous advantage ahead of the Cylons and the woman Helo thought had been killed and now saw walking in search of them. Poor, confused, hot Helo.
Meanwhile the fleet was running out of another resource – the fuel that helped them to go FTL. (How are their stocks of normal fuel and power?) Roslin was having visions at a press briefing of EWW! SNAKES DNW! She talked to the priestess who saw it as a fulfilment of a prophecy, except it couldn’t be because Roslin wasn’t sick with something that could kill her, was she?
The discussion of Roslin’s prescience from the last ep but one and the whole idea of recurrence ties in in a very meta way to the habit of giving us flashforwards for an ep at its start. I’m sort of not engaging as hard in the What Does It All Mean – Six knew the Colonial prophecy too, or maybe Gaius did retain it in his memory if he studied it as a child, because genius) and the significance of 12 in Judeo-Christianity, both monotheistic religions (not as familiar with Muslim beliefs, but shouldn’t discout them referring to that) while the polytheistic Kobols are linked to Hellenic beliefs, because I think I know stuff via fannish osmosis. But there’s also the nod of ‘this has happened before’ to this show being a reboot and storytelling…and how much of this did they always have planned?
And then there was the tension of the mission, with the added tension of Starbuck, best pilot in the fleet and don’t you forget it, being benched and Apollo (not the favourite son, not the most highly regarded pilot despite his higher rank, but still an Adama) being given the job. And the tension of whether Baltar’s guess was divinely insired or a wild, destructive guess, because the stakes were REALLY high.
And there were moments on the new set for the model of the battlefield or in the hangar, where the blockbuster nature of the production sank in.
Ghosts 2.05 Bump in the Night
Beautifully set up: Alison going out and not telling the oblivious ghosts, Mike, not too keen on spending the evening alone with the phantoms he can’t see, but knows are there, but falling asleep anyway. The musicale making Humphrey’s head the most useless guard imaginable…
And it all fell out beautifully, even if much of it was in very low light (grr) because the thick burglar cut off the electricity when he was meant to cut off the landline. The mobile runnin out of battery is a modern horror cliché.
Had we met the plague girl who can be heard by norms before?
Anyway, so many delightful beats, Julian expending all his energy for little reward and being snitty about it, Kitty and Mary interaction again, Lady Fanny railing at the ineptitude of the burglars, Mike (dressed up in armour) falling over – this gt the biggest laugh from me - Pat uselessly lecturing the thick young burglar about the wrong path he was taking. And Robin’s helpful intervention with the dogs, which Alison recognised, even though it turned out that it was a group effort to catch the burglars.
I’m not sure if Alison got a lift in the limo of the hen night for the wedding they were hosting.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-24 09:10 pm (UTC)That's what I love about the series - all the little things from each of the ghosts, and the way they still have their opinions, despite not being heard. Robin is my favourite, so it was lovely seeing him have a major role. When I say favourite, that's not to say that the others don't equally have their own place.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-27 07:54 am (UTC)Thanks on the plague girl. I might go back and rewatch season 1, depending on whether any new sitcoms come out and how much time It Takes Two takes.