UNCUT REACTION - Battlestar Galactica S1E2 - Water
Added 2024-05-28 12:00:10 +0000 UTC
Comments
OK blah I love blah blah this show blah blah So exactly 33 minutes…. Uh days ago it was BASTILLE Day. I didn’t get into this show until hand of god I liked it but it turned a corner with that episode. I am catching up
Thicketdweller
2024-08-17 05:40:08 +0000 UTCI loved the original BSG as a kid in reruns in syndication. The remake? Uh, I dunno. It's like some seasons I really enjoyed, others I barely remember. But I know there was a really boring, tedious stretch or two from what I recall. That said, it's been a long time since I watched the show on Scyfy, so I might as well give it another looksee along with you gents.
Boggle
2024-06-03 08:00:42 +0000 UTCI think part of why you may be a little more muted in your reaction to the show is the aspect of the audience being ahead of the characters, which can be pretty pronounced early on in this show. What's going on with Sharon(s) here is a prime example. Clearly we've got 2 Sharons, so clearly a cylon, and they even give away with the "some are programmed to believe they are human" that she's like a sleeper agent. I was confused at first why she was wet as well, and even showing the bombs underwater it just looked like it was dark with a dull blue light, almost like moonlight. But when the tanks blew, I put 2 and 2 together and realized she went swimming to plant the bombs. As the show reveals more, the characters catch up to the audience. As far as the shaky cam, depending on the scene I'm torn between whether they're trying to put us in the POV of an in universe camera or an in universe person. Definitely the camera getting hit by the debris at Armistice station was meant to be immersive like we were seeing footage from a security cam. But on the hangar deck for instance there's no reason someone would be running around with a camera, so it's more like some other tech walking around and we're seeing from their POV(though we've all walked or even run and not had our vision shake around like that, so not an immersive effect in that case). Of course that doesn't work when there's only 2 characters in a room. I think it was just a creative trope at the time that ended up being overused. I think Cloverfield in 2008 took it to a point that was so exaggerated and annoying that it ended up being the beginning of the end for that filming style. I get Tyrol trying to cover for Sharon given how he feels about her, but from a professional standpoint his actions are very irresponsible. There's been a bombing and he knows she woke up with explosives and detonators in her bag. She's the prime suspect, and even if his theory she was framed is true, security can't investigate that given he's covering up the whole thing. This ep is very much part of a serialized show. We don't really get resolution on anything, just a Salt Bae sprinkle of progression all around on the plot and character development. Little Roslin and Adama, little water shortage in the fleet, little suspicion cast on Boomer and Tyrol covering for her, little Starbuck and Baltar, little Helo and other Sharon. You just need to keep watching to get the pay off for all that.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-06-01 00:11:47 +0000 UTCName a single flaw any human on the command staff has shown and not overcome in the runtime of a single episode (up to the most recent episode watched; no spoilers.) Regular humans might still have flaws, but Roddenberry very specifically wanted the human crew to be flawless, because in his mind, in the utopic vision of the future, people were better, and Starfleet officers were the best of the best. It's a nice vision, but it's not realistic. The show got better after Roddenberry departed; he was only peripherally involved in Season 2, and by Season 3 he was almost entirely uninvolved. But the show still stuck to his vision of flawless humans.
John
2024-05-31 20:22:09 +0000 UTCI wouldn't say people in Trek aren't flawed, but society as a whole is less flawed.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-31 19:54:15 +0000 UTCThe problem is they were jumping every 33 minutes, and it's pretty heavily implied the jump is a somewhat unpleasant experience, perhaps akin to going down a drop on a roller coaster. So even on shifts, you're getting woken up every 33 minutes. You'll basically never hit REM sleep. So yeah, everyone was getting cat naps, but nobody was able to get a solid 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-31 19:33:46 +0000 UTCI think the problem there was the miniseries was meant to be a standalone, 2 night event, but when it was such a big success Syfy ordered a full show. So AFAIK production on S1 didn't start till some time after the miniseries aired.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-31 19:11:14 +0000 UTCIt was on April 24th. You can find it in the MOVIES collection, or use the search feature and enter “Demolition Man” It’s a live watchalong.
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-05-31 17:20:28 +0000 UTCI'm glad I'm watching along with you guys. I don't feel so lost and alone. 😕
T’Pynyn of Vulcan
2024-05-31 04:07:48 +0000 UTCHey guys! I still can’t find your Demolition Man reaction video? I love that movie I first saw it when I was 13.
Philbot
2024-05-31 03:44:39 +0000 UTCI love this show, saw originally religiously, and I LOVE YOU GUYS! And now I can say, I do have to admit and agree, my god it is like the one cameraman is obviously on high caffeine or no pee breaks with a super zoom lens, lol, and rewatching with you two has confirmed omg lol. But I'll say, I think they eventually ditch that cameraman or adjust it later, I don't believe its that much as time goes on.🤓
Phluke Skywalker
2024-05-30 06:40:41 +0000 UTCIt literally had a subtitle saying "120 hours without sleep"... but whatever
Andreas Schmitt
2024-05-30 03:42:58 +0000 UTCAlso, don’t wish to labor the point as we have mentioned this before but this was written to be the antithesis of 90s sci fi shows and movies. At this point in history we had around 28 seasons of Star Trek under our belts. I can see how this feels strange to watch right in the middle of the Golden age of Trek.
Jon1701
2024-05-29 21:41:16 +0000 UTCI think you never love the school teacher but you get to understand her and appreciate what she is doing.
AzoriusMage
2024-05-29 18:33:04 +0000 UTCThumbnail made it look like you were going to be super negative but you actually were quite reasonable. It is good have a non episodic show for a change.
AzoriusMage
2024-05-29 18:30:48 +0000 UTCThe shaky cam and the way it is filmed improves greatly as it goes on. Dr Baltar is my favourite character in the series and I think although you are not impressed at the moment you will come to really appreciate him for his complexity and the acting of James Callis.
Felicity Hudson
2024-05-29 17:17:14 +0000 UTCThis is a wonderful take. I think what Ron Moore was trying to demonstrate with this show is that science fiction can very much be a serious TV drama. It doesn't have to be goofy or campy, and depend on comic relief and quirky aliens. That you can do a real real drama with wonderful writing and acting but also have a sci-fi setting and sci-fi concepts. This show really did elevate the genre. It's an important inflection point in TV history in my opinion. Right up there with the way The Sopranos basically created the modern concept of adult, cinematic, episodic television.
Aaron Wells
2024-05-29 16:36:58 +0000 UTCRADIATION!
Steven Johnson
2024-05-29 15:42:05 +0000 UTCIt was pretty clear that them not sleeping at all wasn't literal. They were taking shifts.
Ca$hWednesday
2024-05-29 13:23:16 +0000 UTCY'all gotta retune your phasers to a different frequency. I think you're going into BSG with a "Star Trek" mindset, and that's not gonna work. The show is far darker than Star Trek, obviously. Maybe that fact was understated. It's not an uplifting, hopeful vision of humanity'a future. It's well... more complicated than that. This is still one of my favorite television shows of all time, but it's NOT episodic, and can't be watched with the expectation that every episode will be a self-contained story. Nor is every episode guaranteed to be a net positive for the characters. I am concerned that you haven't really liked either of the episodes so far, because I was hooked after "33" even without having seen the miniseries. I didn't like "Water" as much, but I still REALLY enjoyed it, and it was still good science fiction. I feel like there's a certain lack of comprehension, but I can't explain what I thought was obvious my first time through without possibly spoiling what is to come. "The Cylons were created by man" text is important. I always felt like it took Star Trek a couple seasons to really find its feet, and that Battlestar Galactica hit the ground running. Obviously you don't have the same feeling.... I did have a few friends where it took them some episodes to feel engaged and connected. And one who absolutely hated it, because it wasn't BSG (1978). And he told me that was the reason he hated it. In the end, it's down to each person how they individually approach it. Like I said before, I think the darkness of the show was undersold when you were being told how good it is. It's very dark, and has a much less flattering portrayal of human beings. But as a result you get stories and concepts that Star Trek couldn't explore because human beings in Star Trek are not flawed. They're all well-educated and cultured and evolved. Not so in Battlestar. Rodenberry's vision of the future REQUIRED that there be no interpersonal conflict between humans. So while he was still overseeing the show, the writers had to find external conflicts in every episode, because they couldn't do internal, interpersonal conflicts. Not so in Battlestar, as we saw in part in this episode. The show is about humans. Flawed, conflicted, terrible, wonderful human beings. I hope you enjoy the next few episodes.
John
2024-05-29 12:12:03 +0000 UTCNo sleep bothers you more than all the BS science in TNG? I love TNG but some of the science is basically magic.
AzoriusMage
2024-05-29 07:17:16 +0000 UTCno way.. more like Dr Pulaski.
Lt Dan I scream
2024-05-29 05:24:34 +0000 UTCWell, on the one had, Galactica was a day away from decommissioning, about to be turned into a museum and probably not operating with a full compliment. Additionally, while it was 120 without sleep, that was a bit of a misnomer. They were getting what sleep they could, even if just ten minutes. As for leaving, I'd say... stick it out until after episode 4 or 5.
Nolan
2024-05-29 05:18:47 +0000 UTCPresident Laura Roslin = Doctor Beverly Crusher
ScotchBeard78
2024-05-29 04:20:48 +0000 UTCThis is one of the best science-fiction television series ever aired, in terms of a prestige TV show with quality writing. It is very much of its moment: the post-9/11, GW Bush years with the war and occupation in Iraq. That's at the spiritual core of the topics being explored. It's this high-minded, nuanced political series, BUT it's wrapped in this amazing, dark, pulpy, psychological-thriller, political backstabbing, body horror, Sci-Fi space battle epic. It can get grim, but it's just so frakking GOOD. You may hate it, but I really think you'll love it, and it'll end up being one of those shows you think about forever. Just like TNG. :)
ScotchBeard78
2024-05-29 04:17:56 +0000 UTCYou must remember the original Battlestar Galactica was episodic. This series is not. It takes its time to build. In time you'll be hooked. Some questions will be answered, but other questions will take there place. Baltar is not the mustache twirling evil villain he is in the original. The actor simply plays him as an emotionally confused, pumpous ass. And i think he does a great job of it, and he's funny. Edward James Olmos is an Academy Award winning actor. If you want to see him at his finest, check out "Stand and Deliver" or "Blade Runner". He won for "Stand and Deliver".
startrekiborg
2024-05-29 00:37:25 +0000 UTCI’m curious if my willingness to stick with the show originally had a lot to do with already liking the actors playing Adama and The President going into this. I know I wasn’t hooked yet at this point but liked this episode more than the previous one.
Jonathan
2024-05-29 00:26:45 +0000 UTCI agree. I think BSG is probably one of the finest television shows ever made. It's far better than any Star Trek, and I say that as a pretty hardcore Trek fan. The same is true of The Expanse. Truly excellent science fiction.
Aaron Wells
2024-05-29 00:22:38 +0000 UTCThat's how I am with TNG and what to me is normally bad writing. Worf drinks tea and lights candles = Worf is noble. I'm thinking "what is this garbage?"
Ken R
2024-05-29 00:03:13 +0000 UTCWill miss you, but certainly understood. I am going to stick it out for as long as I can. I hope I can make it to the end of the season, but we'll see.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-29 00:00:06 +0000 UTCSorry Ken, I can't see it. In fact this is one of the least interesting and entertaining things I've ever watched. The Expanse started extremely slow but at least I liked the characters and wanted to know where they're going. Here... honestly I couldn't care less about any of these people. There's not even one I like... they're just... figures running around on a shaky screen. None of them feel real or likable to me. This doesn't feel like a real group of people, this feels like... a TV show. There's zero suspension of disbelief to me. And in terms of wrting... 120 hours without sleep? Give me a break. First of all, ever heard of shifts? How on earth did the writers think a real military operates. Do they think we just stop sleeping when action is going on? As a trained military guy our max is 36 hours with a 50% load on personell with the rest resting usually. If things go bad and actions is going on, it can go periodically up to 100% but quickly down to 75% and 72 hours without sleep is ABSOLUTE emergency. Because after that your guys are going to be absolutely useless for at least 48 hours straight. I've seen people underno sleep conditions. They feel asleep while walking. You cannot even prevent yourself from falling asleep, even during an activity. You can forget about stimulants. You won't be able to concentrate, you'll have second sleep episodes. Flying a fighter jet? Yeah good luck with that. Total utter bullshit. After 120 hours you wouldn't even be able to put your socks on because your hand eye coordination and fine motor skills would be shot to hell and you'd be glad if you still knew what 2+2 is. That fact alone pulled me out of it.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-05-28 23:26:46 +0000 UTCWow, to me this is 5000x the show TNG is.
Ken R
2024-05-28 23:20:41 +0000 UTCYou're not the only one. I haven't tried SUPER hard, but I can't get into it, either. I just can't even make myself care about anything or anyone on the screen.
Jovet
2024-05-28 22:55:57 +0000 UTCI'm gonna be honest.. I have REALLY hard time getting into this show. So far I'm bored out of my scull, can't stand the Baltar character and the shaky cam is giving me massive motion sickness due to my eyes having issues. I can't even look at fast scrolling chats anymore without feeling very uncomfortable. So I might drop out. This show isn't for me.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-05-28 21:50:01 +0000 UTCI see a lot of Excedrin in Aaron’s future
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-05-28 21:02:23 +0000 UTCI'm not watching this, but seeing that thumbnail made me chuckle.
KatWithAttitude
2024-05-28 19:52:45 +0000 UTCThat wasn't the issue though. They didn't understand why she was physically wet after planting bombs in a water tank.
Aaron Wells
2024-05-28 19:45:56 +0000 UTC...she was wet because she was in a WATER tank planting bombs :)
Aaron Wells
2024-05-28 19:19:16 +0000 UTCShe played an insufferable character in the Mike Flanagan “Fall of the house of Usher” show. So a bit of my feelings towards her are bleeding from that.
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-05-28 19:19:14 +0000 UTCBy the season finale you will secretly yearn to binge the rest of the show, but will be unsure how to tell the other these strange feelings of desire and guilt. My calculations say there is an 11% chance one or both of you cheat on the other and watch ahead late at night when no one is looking.
Ken R
2024-05-28 19:17:07 +0000 UTCI like the character of Laura Roslin. I do not find her arrogant (like Baltar is). She is intelligent, good at what she does, not condescending to others, and able to accept ideas from others as well as make the big decisions herself. I have not seen her be deliberately mean, hurtful, or deceitful to anyone. Sooooo. Kinda confused as to why Alex finds her character arrogant. I know Alex and Josh are not intimidated by strong women; can we all say Dr. Crusher?? ;) I am just confused as to why the opinion started off that way so soon. Thank you for the reaction, guys!
Deidra LaMoria
2024-05-28 18:58:35 +0000 UTCThis is a legitimate drama TV series. This is how its going to be. Its not funny. There aren't any Marvel movie style jokes and comic relief segments every few minutes. It's not going to have a resolution and an upbeat, uplifting moment at the end where people laugh and slap each other on the shoulder while the music swells.
Aaron Wells
2024-05-28 18:58:25 +0000 UTCyou like character development and will love this show
David Marcoot
2024-05-28 18:42:10 +0000 UTCYes, documentary style was the intent even in the space scenes. No drone-like camera flying past a ship, the virtual "camera" in the 3d-render would be stationary and just turn while the ships flew past it.
Mel Primus
2024-05-28 18:28:14 +0000 UTCYeah I think it was another 9/11 reference in this specific case, not to keep hammering on 9/11. People were seeing the news events unfold all the time on their televisions with a lot of footage with handheld cameras, so this drew a direct connection with that. It made it feel linked to real world events at the time.
Michael Ducharme
2024-05-28 18:07:40 +0000 UTCI figured you guys would like this one a bit more than the previous one because this has more of the character stuff, while the previous episode was more of a nail-biter. I think you'll really love some of the episodes coming up.
Michael Ducharme
2024-05-28 18:04:30 +0000 UTCI love that I am going to rewatch BG from the start with you guys. It's really a masterpiece of character work, with titanic performances from Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos particularly. You guys are clearly empathetic enough to shed a tear when the drama invokes it, and you won't be short of moments as this series progresses. Ron Moore became a god to me from TNG and this show. Imagine how thrilled I was to learn he was coming to Scotland to showrun "Outlander" for the SciFi channel. Its now in its 8th and final season, and although I now work in high-end television in Scotland (Good Omens, The Rig, Anansi Boys, Department Q), I never got the chance to work with Ron 's team. Maybe its best not to meet my hero!
Gavin Scott
2024-05-28 17:20:16 +0000 UTCTo me, it was less obvious in Firefly (still my fave sci-fi show). Remember at the end of the opening scene of the miniseries; when the Cylon basestar destroys Armistice Station, a piece goes flying into the camera through which we're watching, and knocks it off target to look into space LOL. Then all the dirty and gritty camerawork begins as the story unfolds. McNutt is a great DP; but yeah, cameras get steadier.
MertzRocks
2024-05-28 17:12:22 +0000 UTCAll of the characters do get developed very well, which is one thing I appreciate about a show with such a large cast. Ronald Moore hit the sweet spot with this series, I think.
wildhunt1973
2024-05-28 16:49:38 +0000 UTC"There's a bug casino in the next system..." LOL I think you have heard by now that Eddie Olmos was ADAMAnt (lol) that there be NO 'bug-eyed-monsters' on the show (and Ron wanted to get away from 'bumpy-headed aliens' and other sci-fi tropes anyway), and if Eddie saw even ONE, he would fake a heart attack on set and quit there and then.
MertzRocks
2024-05-28 16:29:14 +0000 UTCMany people are also watching tv differently these days...this amount of shake wasn't as big a deal when you watched on a smaller screen from across a room.....vs many people watching on an iPad or laptop much closer to their face. It is funny hearing them call it workplace comedy style though lol....I've never watched one of those shows...to me this is just documentary style to give it realism.
Derek Orr
2024-05-28 15:58:22 +0000 UTCThey do calm down on the shaky cam as the series progresses. The shaky cam makes it almost feel like the footage was recorded by like a news cameraperson or someone else documenting the events as they unfolded for posterity. Firefly of course used the same techniques. It was a bit in vogue at the time.
Michael Ducharme
2024-05-28 15:52:28 +0000 UTCIt would take a spoiler to answer this, unfortunately, but answered it will be.
Jon Reid
2024-05-28 14:38:30 +0000 UTCI forgot how annoyingly distracting the jerky hand-held camera movement was in these early episodes, but they do calm it down as the series progresses. Long before the workplace comedies, that directing style was primarily used in hour-long dramas, beginning with "Hill Street Blues" in the 80s and becoming nearly unwatchable in "Friday Night Lights" in 2006. It does help to create that sense of urgency and immediacy in a scene, but it can really be a bit much. You're right when you say that the show is planting the seeds of the characters and stories early on, and it is a slow build. That being said, I think you'll particularly appreciate the next episode.
Jeff
2024-05-28 14:08:43 +0000 UTCwe don't know the reason yet why she was unaware....patience:)
Derek Orr
2024-05-28 14:00:56 +0000 UTCI know it's hard to figure out, but Boomer (Galactica sharon) was wet because... well... how do YOU think explosives got inside the water tanks?
CorgiSnapz
2024-05-28 13:32:44 +0000 UTCOne of the few things that I remember about this television series was that it took FOREVER for them to air any episodes. The miniseries aired on December 8, 2003, so I was ready to watch some more episodes in a few days or weeks. No, it took over an entire year for them to start airing the television show. For some reason they started airing the television series in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2004 , but Americans had to wait for another 3 months or over a year to see the television series air on January 14, 2005. They lost all of their momentum with me when they did that. I had never even heard of the term reboot before back 20 years ago, so when I watched the miniseries I didn't have a clue how the new show related to the old show. I can't remember much about the show, but I think some critics said it was an allegory in someways for the War on Terror which was going on at that time. Edward James Olmos was the one thing I remember from this show. I remember that he told those confused about Cyclons to watch his movie Blade Runner. The new show also spawned a very popular board game.
Chtphr Rrr
2024-05-28 12:54:46 +0000 UTC
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