Marc van Bulck (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} marc_van_bulck) wrote,@ 2009-02-16 17:18:00 |
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Marc *calmly expresses his concerns* about "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica"
*SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!*
Okay, crew. You know the drill. I’m going to talk about spoilers in this post. So, if you're not completely caught up or just aren’t interested in either show, then you might as well just stop reading now ‘cause that’s where this ship is headed.
Let's talk about Lost and Battlestar Galactica for just a moment. I have a bone to pick with them.
Both are very different shows. Battlestar Galactica is science fiction. Lost is a sort of suspense-mystery-adventure. Two shows with different styles and aesthetics set against the backdrop of large, complex overarching mythologies and mysteries. However, both shows have something very important in common. They’re coming to an end. Lost is nearly halfway through it’s second-to-last season on the air, and Battlestar Galactica has literally five episodes left to go. While they’re at different stages of their respective narratives, they’re both in the process of “wrapping it all up.”
And at the same time, I feel that both shows have the very real potential of falling into a similar trap. Lost and Battlestar Galactica started off with very simple premises. Battlestar Galactica was based on the premise that humans created artificial intelligence, and believing to have been enslaved by their creators, these artificial intelligences known as the Cylons rebelled and nearly exterminated the human race and destroyed their home planet. Now, the last of humanity inhabits a fleet of space ships on the run from the Cylons - trying to find a new home somewhere in the universe while being hunted by their very creations.
Very simple premise. Very cool story.
And then there’s Lost. Lost follows the survivors of a plane crash who land on an island. The first season of Lost focused almost entirely on the survivors trying to contact the outside world while trying to survive. But there’s a twist. Polar bears are discovered living on the island. Well, that’s very strange. Also, there’s this sort of mysterious, unseen monster. And then, while wandering through the jungle and digging through the foliage, the survivors discover a hatch in the ground. As Charlie asks at the conclusion of the pilot episode – a quote which seemed to sum up the series in one sentence pretty nicely – “Guys, where are we?”
Two very cool and mysterious premises for two very cool and mysterious shows. With one very important ingredient – both are held together by their interesting, developed, and compelling characters and the relationship dynamics between them.
So, now we’re coming towards the ends of both shows – although more immediately with Battlestar. Lost still has a little bit of time left to go. And this, my fellow nerds, is where my concerns with both of these series are starting to take shape. It seems that both shows have taken the core mysteries and mythologies that were the heart of the stories from the very beginning and have since made them more unnecessarily complicated than either show ever needed to be.
With Battlestar, there have been a few examples of this over the last few seasons. First they introduced this idea of the “Final Five” Cylons and that these “Final Five” that we hadn’t seen yet were special. Okay. Then, the scavenger hunt that was supposed to lead to Earth back in Season Three. Now, I actually kind of liked the “Scavenger Hunt” idea. Those were some of the most compelling moments of the show for me in Season Three. Except that it never really went anywhere. And we just sort of forgot about it. Then this season, there was the introduction of Baltar’s religious entourage, a creative decision I’ve never really fully understood. However, I was very appreciative that Baltar acknowledged that he had not actually gained religion but mostly used this entourage to stroke his own ego (I was afraid the opposite was true).
And then it picked up! Once we hit the halfway point, Season Four seemed to drop all the silliness and re-focused on the human drama and primordial conflict. There was a mutiny onboard the Galactica. Gaeta and Tom Zarek betrayed the colonies and wiped out the Quorum. Now, Adama and Tigh are fighting for their lives against the mutiny like grizzled ol’ war dogs. It was fantastic. And suddenly, the show was interesting again.
But then…there was this week. What’s-his-face, whose name I can’t even remember (Starbuck’s ex-husband, boyfriend, whatever), got shot in the head, and the bullet in his brain conveniently caused him to remember nearly four seasons worth of exposition.
Seriously. That was the plot of last week’s episode.
Now, it would have been one thing if this had been done with flashbacks, so we could have actually seen all of this, but instead he just sat there in his hospital bed for nearly twenty minutes monologue-ing it. On top of that, instead of him having memories that actually explain why the Cylons believe in God, or why Baltar sees a Six in his head, or what the hell Starbuck is – you know, mysteries that the audience actually cares about or that have roots from the very beginning – we’re given this ridiculous 13 Colonies / Tribe of Cylons / “all this has happened before” timeline which makes absolutely no damn sense. The Cylons existed thousands of years ago, and there was a giant war? Since when? How are we only just now finding out about this? Really? There was no mention of them in the Scriptures? Anywhere? I mean, a massive war thousands of years ago and the existence of Cylons just managed to conveniently fly under the radar of history?
Really? Are you sure? Sounds EXTREMELY fishy to me.
“But, Marc,” I can hear some of you saying, “Don’t you get it? Humans created Cylons. Cylons created skinjobs. Or hybrids. And there was a war. And then there was the Final Five. And they created humaniform cylons. Or something. But don’t you get it? ‘All of this has happened before, and all this has happened again.’ That’s the phrase they’ve been saying over and over again since Season One. It’s like they’re referencing that!”
No, it’s not. It doesn’t count as “tying it up” if it doesn’t make any reasonable sense. You are right about one thing, though. All of this has happened before. Unfortunately, it was called Twin Peaks.
On top of that, just a few weeks ago, Ron Moore said in an interview that the writers didn’t even know for sure that Ellen was the Fifth Cylon until the beginning of Season Four.
What?!?! I thought. Are you serious??? Until Season Four??? You mean, they didn’t know that until this year?! You mean to tell me that when my friends and I were sitting around debating who the final Cylon was after “All Across the Watchtower”…at that moment, the actual writers of the show were doing the exact same thing?!
Apparently so. And that’s when it hit me. And I didn’t want to accept it.
“Holy cow,” I said out loud after reading that interview, “they really are just making it all up at the last minute.”
---
And then there’s Lost.
Lost’s entire first season was, I would argue, nearly perfect narrative storytelling. Sort of like Battlestar’s first season. There was not a single episode that didn’t have my complete wrapped attention and full emotional investment. And then there was the second season, which even though it started to become a little more convoluted, was still just as compelling. On top of that, the season two finale was quite possibly the single greatest cliffhanger I’ve ever seen on television. Ever. Seriously, I cannot remember a cliffhanger that I have ever seen on a TV show that left me more completely satisfied and yet simultaneously unabashedly excited for what was to come than the Season Two finale of Lost.
But then there was Season Three, which made absolutely no sense at all. The writers introduced a second island, right off the coast of the first island, which conveniently nobody noticed. Yeah, remember that? Then, the writers revealed that the Others were living in houses, which conveniently nobody noticed. Then, Desmond blew up and then conveniently had superpowers, and before long, I was contemplated quitting the show. It was just becoming ridiculous for no apparent reason.
But then, it picked up. Just like Battlestar did. The producers announced they were ending the show in three seasons, and they were ready to execute the game plan! Great! I thought. And then they hit us with the absolutely phenomenally awesome Season Four, and it seemed like they were right. The show started becoming slightly more graphic novel-esque in narrative style, but it was more tightly-written, returned to the character drama and the original mythology, and started slowly answering some of those long-term questions. Bam! Bam! Bam!
And then there was this season. And boy, was I excited. I mean, if Season Four was awesome, I just could not WAIT for Season Five! Then I heard that opening line of dialogue of Dr. What-His-Face-Scientist-Man in the premiere.
“Don’t you see, man?! This island has enough power…to travel through time!!!”
…
…
…
What?! I thought.
What the hell?! Are you kidding me???
Now, the island is traveling through time. I kid you not. We are on a time travelling island.
Now, to be fair, the producers have slowly started using this device to answer more questions about the island’s back story and some of the mythology’s secondary characters. Also, the show has hinted at the idea that the island has always been sort of abstractly isolated from “the rest of the world” either spatially or temporally. And the series has hinted at that since…well…Season Two, really.
But seriously? A time traveling island? With that line of dialogue?
This better start making sense, fellas.
Are you starting to notice something about both of these shows? They both started out with very simple, very compelling premises that make you want to invest in them. And then, in what appears to be an attempt to make it more interesting they started adding just a little more…just a little more…just a little more. Until now, both shows have become nearly massive webs of interconnecting narratives, characters, and mythologies. The problem here is that now, we’re coming up on the end of both shows…but instead of seriously starting to untangle these webs, they’re still adding just a little more….just a little more…just a little more…
As a friend of both Lost and Battlestar Galactica, as they both approach the twilight of their tenures as television shows and prepare for their respective final bows, I would like to offer just this one humble nugget of…constructive criticism.
STOP IT!!! You hear me? Just stop it!
You can’t keep adding “just a little more” at this point! You can’t introduce MORE STUFF this late in the game! Your shows are almost over! Battlestar, you basically ARE over! You are at the narrative juncture where you need to start wrapping up the established mythologies, or both of your shows are going to completely fall apart at the end of the final inning before the eyes of your adoring, devoted, and deserving fans.
Battlestar should have basically wrapped all that up by now. You shouldn’t be spending your final six episodes explaining what was essentially four seasons worth of exposition. If that information was even remotely relevant to what's to come, you should have started planting those seeds back in, like, Season Two. The final five episodes should comprise of the final conflict. I couldn't even tell you what that is anymore. These shows are supposed to be about character drama. Not how many narrative twists can we possible come up with? I have already made the deliberate decision to stick with both of these shows to their bitter and hopefully satisfying ends. But I’m very nervous. I am very, very nervous, indeed.
When I think about a show like Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity, one of the things that made that show great (and Whedon is really good at this) was not how complicated they could make the story or how many twists and turns they could give to their universe. It was always about the characters. Their flaws. Their moments of greatness. Their beliefs and convictions. It was about what made them human and the dynamics between them. And that was always enough. And at their very best moments, this is exactly what Lost and Battlestar Galactica are about. But then I think about what happened with the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels. They kept adding midichlorians and Architects and “chosen ones” all that nonsense. It stopped being about the mythic growth of the characters and became about all this other “stuff.” They kept adding just a little more…just a little more…just a little more…
Showrunners of Lost and Battlestar Galactica, I really hope you know what you’re doing. I really, really hope you know what you’re doing. Because this it, friends.
And you will be remembered for it.
-Marc
*SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!*
Okay, crew. You know the drill. I’m going to talk about spoilers in this post. So, if you're not completely caught up or just aren’t interested in either show, then you might as well just stop reading now ‘cause that’s where this ship is headed.
Let's talk about Lost and Battlestar Galactica for just a moment. I have a bone to pick with them.
Both are very different shows. Battlestar Galactica is science fiction. Lost is a sort of suspense-mystery-adventure. Two shows with different styles and aesthetics set against the backdrop of large, complex overarching mythologies and mysteries. However, both shows have something very important in common. They’re coming to an end. Lost is nearly halfway through it’s second-to-last season on the air, and Battlestar Galactica has literally five episodes left to go. While they’re at different stages of their respective narratives, they’re both in the process of “wrapping it all up.”
And at the same time, I feel that both shows have the very real potential of falling into a similar trap. Lost and Battlestar Galactica started off with very simple premises. Battlestar Galactica was based on the premise that humans created artificial intelligence, and believing to have been enslaved by their creators, these artificial intelligences known as the Cylons rebelled and nearly exterminated the human race and destroyed their home planet. Now, the last of humanity inhabits a fleet of space ships on the run from the Cylons - trying to find a new home somewhere in the universe while being hunted by their very creations.
Very simple premise. Very cool story.
And then there’s Lost. Lost follows the survivors of a plane crash who land on an island. The first season of Lost focused almost entirely on the survivors trying to contact the outside world while trying to survive. But there’s a twist. Polar bears are discovered living on the island. Well, that’s very strange. Also, there’s this sort of mysterious, unseen monster. And then, while wandering through the jungle and digging through the foliage, the survivors discover a hatch in the ground. As Charlie asks at the conclusion of the pilot episode – a quote which seemed to sum up the series in one sentence pretty nicely – “Guys, where are we?”
Two very cool and mysterious premises for two very cool and mysterious shows. With one very important ingredient – both are held together by their interesting, developed, and compelling characters and the relationship dynamics between them.
So, now we’re coming towards the ends of both shows – although more immediately with Battlestar. Lost still has a little bit of time left to go. And this, my fellow nerds, is where my concerns with both of these series are starting to take shape. It seems that both shows have taken the core mysteries and mythologies that were the heart of the stories from the very beginning and have since made them more unnecessarily complicated than either show ever needed to be.
With Battlestar, there have been a few examples of this over the last few seasons. First they introduced this idea of the “Final Five” Cylons and that these “Final Five” that we hadn’t seen yet were special. Okay. Then, the scavenger hunt that was supposed to lead to Earth back in Season Three. Now, I actually kind of liked the “Scavenger Hunt” idea. Those were some of the most compelling moments of the show for me in Season Three. Except that it never really went anywhere. And we just sort of forgot about it. Then this season, there was the introduction of Baltar’s religious entourage, a creative decision I’ve never really fully understood. However, I was very appreciative that Baltar acknowledged that he had not actually gained religion but mostly used this entourage to stroke his own ego (I was afraid the opposite was true).
And then it picked up! Once we hit the halfway point, Season Four seemed to drop all the silliness and re-focused on the human drama and primordial conflict. There was a mutiny onboard the Galactica. Gaeta and Tom Zarek betrayed the colonies and wiped out the Quorum. Now, Adama and Tigh are fighting for their lives against the mutiny like grizzled ol’ war dogs. It was fantastic. And suddenly, the show was interesting again.
But then…there was this week. What’s-his-face, whose name I can’t even remember (Starbuck’s ex-husband, boyfriend, whatever), got shot in the head, and the bullet in his brain conveniently caused him to remember nearly four seasons worth of exposition.
Seriously. That was the plot of last week’s episode.
Now, it would have been one thing if this had been done with flashbacks, so we could have actually seen all of this, but instead he just sat there in his hospital bed for nearly twenty minutes monologue-ing it. On top of that, instead of him having memories that actually explain why the Cylons believe in God, or why Baltar sees a Six in his head, or what the hell Starbuck is – you know, mysteries that the audience actually cares about or that have roots from the very beginning – we’re given this ridiculous 13 Colonies / Tribe of Cylons / “all this has happened before” timeline which makes absolutely no damn sense. The Cylons existed thousands of years ago, and there was a giant war? Since when? How are we only just now finding out about this? Really? There was no mention of them in the Scriptures? Anywhere? I mean, a massive war thousands of years ago and the existence of Cylons just managed to conveniently fly under the radar of history?
Really? Are you sure? Sounds EXTREMELY fishy to me.
“But, Marc,” I can hear some of you saying, “Don’t you get it? Humans created Cylons. Cylons created skinjobs. Or hybrids. And there was a war. And then there was the Final Five. And they created humaniform cylons. Or something. But don’t you get it? ‘All of this has happened before, and all this has happened again.’ That’s the phrase they’ve been saying over and over again since Season One. It’s like they’re referencing that!”
No, it’s not. It doesn’t count as “tying it up” if it doesn’t make any reasonable sense. You are right about one thing, though. All of this has happened before. Unfortunately, it was called Twin Peaks.
On top of that, just a few weeks ago, Ron Moore said in an interview that the writers didn’t even know for sure that Ellen was the Fifth Cylon until the beginning of Season Four.
What?!?! I thought. Are you serious??? Until Season Four??? You mean, they didn’t know that until this year?! You mean to tell me that when my friends and I were sitting around debating who the final Cylon was after “All Across the Watchtower”…at that moment, the actual writers of the show were doing the exact same thing?!
Apparently so. And that’s when it hit me. And I didn’t want to accept it.
“Holy cow,” I said out loud after reading that interview, “they really are just making it all up at the last minute.”
---
And then there’s Lost.
Lost’s entire first season was, I would argue, nearly perfect narrative storytelling. Sort of like Battlestar’s first season. There was not a single episode that didn’t have my complete wrapped attention and full emotional investment. And then there was the second season, which even though it started to become a little more convoluted, was still just as compelling. On top of that, the season two finale was quite possibly the single greatest cliffhanger I’ve ever seen on television. Ever. Seriously, I cannot remember a cliffhanger that I have ever seen on a TV show that left me more completely satisfied and yet simultaneously unabashedly excited for what was to come than the Season Two finale of Lost.
But then there was Season Three, which made absolutely no sense at all. The writers introduced a second island, right off the coast of the first island, which conveniently nobody noticed. Yeah, remember that? Then, the writers revealed that the Others were living in houses, which conveniently nobody noticed. Then, Desmond blew up and then conveniently had superpowers, and before long, I was contemplated quitting the show. It was just becoming ridiculous for no apparent reason.
But then, it picked up. Just like Battlestar did. The producers announced they were ending the show in three seasons, and they were ready to execute the game plan! Great! I thought. And then they hit us with the absolutely phenomenally awesome Season Four, and it seemed like they were right. The show started becoming slightly more graphic novel-esque in narrative style, but it was more tightly-written, returned to the character drama and the original mythology, and started slowly answering some of those long-term questions. Bam! Bam! Bam!
And then there was this season. And boy, was I excited. I mean, if Season Four was awesome, I just could not WAIT for Season Five! Then I heard that opening line of dialogue of Dr. What-His-Face-Scientist-Man in the premiere.
“Don’t you see, man?! This island has enough power…to travel through time!!!”
…
…
…
What?! I thought.
What the hell?! Are you kidding me???
Now, the island is traveling through time. I kid you not. We are on a time travelling island.
Now, to be fair, the producers have slowly started using this device to answer more questions about the island’s back story and some of the mythology’s secondary characters. Also, the show has hinted at the idea that the island has always been sort of abstractly isolated from “the rest of the world” either spatially or temporally. And the series has hinted at that since…well…Season Two, really.
But seriously? A time traveling island? With that line of dialogue?
This better start making sense, fellas.
Are you starting to notice something about both of these shows? They both started out with very simple, very compelling premises that make you want to invest in them. And then, in what appears to be an attempt to make it more interesting they started adding just a little more…just a little more…just a little more. Until now, both shows have become nearly massive webs of interconnecting narratives, characters, and mythologies. The problem here is that now, we’re coming up on the end of both shows…but instead of seriously starting to untangle these webs, they’re still adding just a little more….just a little more…just a little more…
As a friend of both Lost and Battlestar Galactica, as they both approach the twilight of their tenures as television shows and prepare for their respective final bows, I would like to offer just this one humble nugget of…constructive criticism.
STOP IT!!! You hear me? Just stop it!
You can’t keep adding “just a little more” at this point! You can’t introduce MORE STUFF this late in the game! Your shows are almost over! Battlestar, you basically ARE over! You are at the narrative juncture where you need to start wrapping up the established mythologies, or both of your shows are going to completely fall apart at the end of the final inning before the eyes of your adoring, devoted, and deserving fans.
Battlestar should have basically wrapped all that up by now. You shouldn’t be spending your final six episodes explaining what was essentially four seasons worth of exposition. If that information was even remotely relevant to what's to come, you should have started planting those seeds back in, like, Season Two. The final five episodes should comprise of the final conflict. I couldn't even tell you what that is anymore. These shows are supposed to be about character drama. Not how many narrative twists can we possible come up with? I have already made the deliberate decision to stick with both of these shows to their bitter and hopefully satisfying ends. But I’m very nervous. I am very, very nervous, indeed.
When I think about a show like Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity, one of the things that made that show great (and Whedon is really good at this) was not how complicated they could make the story or how many twists and turns they could give to their universe. It was always about the characters. Their flaws. Their moments of greatness. Their beliefs and convictions. It was about what made them human and the dynamics between them. And that was always enough. And at their very best moments, this is exactly what Lost and Battlestar Galactica are about. But then I think about what happened with the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels. They kept adding midichlorians and Architects and “chosen ones” all that nonsense. It stopped being about the mythic growth of the characters and became about all this other “stuff.” They kept adding just a little more…just a little more…just a little more…
Showrunners of Lost and Battlestar Galactica, I really hope you know what you’re doing. I really, really hope you know what you’re doing. Because this it, friends.
And you will be remembered for it.
-Marc
