OT: Season 3 BSG

[Renegade 13]

Atrocities said:
Just think if BSG was 5 or even 10 minutes longer each episode.

If they were BSG episodes like the last few, I'd have to gouge my eyes out if they were longer

[Baron Munchausen]

Actually, the trend is for direct product placement so that the entire show becomes a commercial. And yet they aren't dropping the interrupting kind of commercials. Granted, this is a bit hard to do with Scifi shows. Most brands wouldn't fit in the hypothetical "future" depicted. But for television in general, that's where it's going.

[Azselendor]

Advertisers are demanding more time for their crap and paying less and less to the networks. The shows are paying the price, as a result, the long-term multi-arc series that were once scoffed have returned in force.

If you look at all the top shows, they all followed a continuing plot arc. 24, Lost (not anymore), Heros, Prision Break, and so on. Even older shows, that was once always episodic, are shifting over to the style. BSG also followed this, where each episode would lead into the next. That's how show producers and writers are answering the reduction from a 51 minute hour, to the 42 minute hour, to the 38 minute hour. Supposedly that will be cut down even more to a 32 minute hour.

The miniseries lead to 33, which in turn lead to the eventual first fuel crisis of the fleet then to kobol. Water lead to the Tom Zarek arc. That's why I maintain Resurrection Ship was where the show dropped a bit in quality, as they began a shift to more episodic format after that point.

I would've loved to see Black Market as a prelude to a big power play by Zarek to take control of the fleet from underneath everyone while trying to take control of the government. for example.

And the food crisis in season 3 could've been played out more. oh well.

[Fyron]

Renegade 13 said:
"*raises hands* It wasn't me who said it was a minority opinion! "

It was not my intention to imply that you did.

Mr. Pedant said:
"*dragged"

I don't recall enabling the -pedantic flag on my post-making.

[Renegade 13]

Azselendor said:
...to the 38 minute hour...

And that will be when I stop watching conventional TV, and just download all episodes from the internet Advertisers should pay for the privledge to waste my time, rather than me paying my satellite subscription for them to waste my time. <---A rather awkward way of saying it, but the point should be perceptible.

[Azselendor]

The 38 minute hour is the current standard in TV, only older tv shows can get exemptions - but that's normally only to 41 minutes.

[Will]

Well, the only reason I have a cable subscription is because it was cheaper to get the package cable/phone/internet deal than it was to just get phone and internet separately. I never watched much TV in the first place, and the cable I get has ****ty selection. About the only thing worth turning on the tuner card for is Comedy Central for Daily Show and Colbert Report. I don't get Sci-fi for BSG. The other shows I "watch" all air in other countries, but not in the US.

But the plus side is, never need to watch commercials

[AgentZero]

This is why I don't bother watching TV anymore. If I download and watch say Heroes & BSG, I'm done 40 minutes before I would have finished watching them on TV. That gives me 40 minutes extra to study, do some cleaning, play some SE, do whatever, but it's 40 minutes of my life that I didn't have to spend watching the uninspired drivel that passes for commercials these days. I mean, the ads aren't even entertaining anymore!

As for product placement, it doesn't really bother me. Replace the Galactica with a giant Pepsi can, and the Colonial uniforms with Nike or Adidas gear, I don't really care, as long as the show is good, I'll watch it. On my computer. Without the extra commercials. Mwah.

[Baron Munchausen]

I stopped watching TV years ago. Don't even own a TV anymore. Babylon 5 was the last thing on TV that I had any interest in. Now, only when I visit someone else who still has a TV do I see any TV programming.

[AngleWyrm]

Azselendor said:
Actually, I would say the series dipped right after Resurrection Ship 1 & 2 but I don't blame RDM directly

Near the end of Season Two, He stood upon his pile of poo, and enacted the tale of "Writers!? We don't need no steenkeen writers!". The ego-intoxicated Jack of All Trades went on to rediscover that, yes Virginia, "Jam Sessions" may have soul, but so does a well executed orchestra.

That was the beginning of the end. Self-Importance made an appearance in the form of Political Statement. We're so big we talk about national stuff--nevermind the tale. Then Tyranny set in, with the threat of firings, and so the Cylons were demoted from the realm of immortals (with genuine sci-fi interest) to just another 'them' that are also afraid to die. Just keeping the troops in line, I'de wager.

Without real material, the bottom-up scene assembly continued as a bluff of sorts. Mysteries began that had no finish. The blonde's adventure beyond the door of death promised to reveal a secret, but no joy. The woman left the show. The Eye of Jupiter was another mystery that didn't have any impact. The imperial social structure of 'born a miner, die a miner' was never resolved.

Baltar's "Am I a Cylon?" preview exhibited poor work in the editing room, and it looked like someone was pushing to make Baltar turn out to be a Cylon after all. Screw the characters. Nevermind that he made a Cylon detecter early in the first season. The Cylon Baltar didn't sell, and so the episode was a wierd cobbled together mishmash of dream scenes and whatnot, with a weak proof of humanity by behavior. The bad edits continue to be displayed in "Special Clips from the Cutting Room Floor" tacked on at the end. Commercial enterprise hard at work.

Ellen Tigh also left the show. And now it seems Kara Thrace has left as well. Rats, fleeing the sinking ship.