Battlestar Galactica non-spoilery reaction

[amanuensis1]

1) When BSG does indulge in cliché, it does it with style.

2) Watching the finale makes me want to run back and watch the whole series again from the beginning, and that does not always happen with a beloved series. I've turned my back on entire adored series in the past after finales that left me sulking.

3) Thanks for giving me conclusions I wanted, conclusions I liked better than those I thought I wanted, hurting me a little in good ways, and for keeping the ribbons and bows down to a tasteful, albeit sparkly, few.

What a fantastic series.


Spoilers will be indulged in the comments.

Comments

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

Add in that the significant religious and mythical names (that mysteriously were passed down pretty much intact for 150,000 years) were *all* taken from Greeks

Yes, this. I don't know why the producers didn't know that this was going to be the monumental spoiler of spoilers re: the ending.

And considering the insignificance of ancient Greece in the broader perspective of human history (in terms of numbers, length of time of their civilization, etc), why was this picked? This has irked me from the beginning. One of the most egregiously stupid aspects of the show.

As to the ethnic mix of the cast, I'd say it has to do with fanboy culture. They appear to have thought they "had" to have a few token hot non-white chicks for the fanboys to drool over. But how many of the reasonably prominent/regularly seen male characters were portrayed by non-white actors? Two. One ended up being a rebel and the other a Cylon. Geez, way to be subtle guys.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Make that three. Edward James Olmos is Hispanic.


Amusing fact: Olmos and Jamie Bamber are well aware that they don't look much alike despite playing father and son. To try to make it less obvious that they aren't related, Olmos wore blue contact lenses to match Bamber's eyes, and Bamber dyed his hair a darker shade of brown.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Er, but, Hispanic has its roots in Spain, which is European! I think you should stick with your original count. ^_^

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Point :)

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

Er, yeah. I know a lot of Hispanic people don't consider themselves white, per se.

But anyway, the cast has always been a bone of contention for me.

*g* Jamie Bamber is about as English looking as you can get.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

His full name is "Jamie St John Bamber Griffith." It doesn't get more British than that!

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

The name St. John always makes me think of that scene in Four Weddings and a Funeral with Rowan Atkinson.

[orchidchaos.livejournal.com]

Delaney!

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

BWAH!

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

And considering the insignificance of ancient Greece in the broader perspective of human history (in terms of numbers, length of time of their civilization, etc), why was this picked? This has irked me from the beginning. One of the most egregiously stupid aspects of the show.

I loved the Greek-but-not-Greek culture references, actually. This was an aspect from the original series, I believe.

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know it was in the original series (I'm ageing myself here, I know :D), but it's not as if they were particularly faithful to the original in other things. This was an aspect I could have done without.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Even weirder: the original series was rumored to be at least partially based on the Book of Mormon. That means that "Apollo" et al. may have been substitutes for "Nephi" and "Moroni" so the network would approve the thing in the first place.

And yes, I liked the Greek references. But why *only* Greek? Why not Cybele or Mithras? Oshun? Gautama? Vishnu? Cernunnos? Epona? Amaterasu? Attis? Isis?

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

Yes, why not? Mithridatean religious practices were much more interesting. Bloodier, mind you, with all that ritual animal sacrifice...

But yeah, I guess they were going for "recognisably old earthian" but not too "weird". *eyeroll*