Folks, Arune.Com will return to regular programming soon– stay tuned for regular weekly updates. There’s a lot to write about, but for now, a few thoughts:

• How great is the Legacy storyline on WWE Monday Night Raw?
• College football is actually really fun to watch and I generally enjoy it more than NFL games.
• The newest Scott Pilgrim graphic novel is out in stores– get it NOW!
• I really haven’t much enjoyed Battlestar Galactica since the end of the New Caprica storyline.
• Meanwhile, 24 is firing on all cylinders
• Went on a few Hockey Trips– I shall update everyone on these soon, including my trip to this year’s Winter Classic in Chicago.
• I’m really excited for both G.I Joe: Rise Of Cobra and the new Star Trek films.

No, this isn’t going to be some discussion about bowel movements or natural, yet somewhat smelly, bodily functions performed in washrooms. Yes, washrooms. I refuse to call a public washroom a “restroom”– because I’m not resting there– and/or a “bathroom”– because I’m not having a bath there. But I am washing my hands. Anyway, I seem to do some of my best thinking when I am showering in my own washroom or sitting in my own washroom. Here are a few random things that were on my mind in the washroom this week :

• When are they going to do something cool with Star Trek? Noted cool dude Kurt Ingram and I were talking about ‘Trek because I’ve showed him the awesomeness that is Battlestar Galactica, prompting discussion about why Trek can’t make a kickass comeback. I know there’s a new prequel film in the works, but that doesn’t excite me– there’s nothing that feels “new” about going back to that time. Now I know that Trek is about the bright shiny future, celebrating the greatness of humanity, but it also seems like that rosy future just doesn’t feel very “real” to me anymore. Any of you have ideas for updating the franchise?
• For some reason I started thinking about a somewhat humorous experience from my time in Minnesota. I used to work in the Mall of America and was walking with a co-worker to a little convenience store in the mall, so we could get some gum and soda. Her husband was Hispanic and she was pregnant, but he didn’t work there, so when we ran in to some of her friends, I learned that all brown people do look alike. They congratulated both of us on the baby and while my friend looked at me with a funny expression on her face, I told these strangers, with a straight face, “Thanks, I’m really proud of my work and it was fun getting there.” So my friend proceeded to slap me and explain I wasn’t the father of her child, to which I exclaimed, “What, so who is?” which made her friends seem quite uncomfortable…and I got slapped again. I’m not sure why I was thinking about this particular moment, but it put a smile on my face to know that every so often I can be funny.
• My Super Sweet 16 is one scary show. I enjoy most of MTV’s “reality” programming in some bizarre guilty pleasure way, not enough to ever make an effort to watch an episode, but enough that I can enjoy watching an episode or two. But wow, My Super Sweet 16 just takes everything bad about the growing avarice in my generation and amps it up to make it seem…cool? I’ve never seen such shallow people parading around and acting like brats. Now I know that this is edited by MTV and I don’t know these people, but the sheer lack of awareness of the world and how it works just scares me– do these girls realize the cost of these parties and how bratty they’re being? I can’t watch a full episode of this show again. It just makes me angry.
• How do I describe my surgery to people in the most effective way? I basically had my chest cut open and my sternum sawed in two, but I wanted a more dramatic way to phrase it, so I figured that saying, “my chest was opened up like two french doors” would be the optimum description.
• It seems odd how much I love Heroes right now and don’t really enjoy the new season of 24 in the slightest. I never thought I’d enjoy Heroes this much after what I thought was a rough start, but the show is just firing on all cylinders.

We’re half way through the month and close to tying last February’s record for number of entries, though as with last month, I think we’ve raised the bar in the last year. With that out of the way, let’s get to the stories!

• ‘His words pollute the atmosphere’: In this day and age, why is homophobia so widely accepted?
  

  The host asked Hardaway how he would interact with a gay teammate.

  “First of all, I wouldn’t want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don’t think that is right. I don’t think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room.”

  If he did find out that a teammate was gay, Hardaway said he would ask for the player to be removed from the team.

  “Something has to give,” Hardaway said. “If you have 12 other ballplayers in your locker room that’s upset and can’t concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court or whatever, it’s going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate.”

  Sure, we all have our own views and I accept that, but I don’t understand the need of some such as Hardaway to push his views on others. If he dislikes gays, fine, I’m not going to waste time arguing with the stupidity of his discrimination, but why does he feel the need to make sure his views are forced on gay players so they’re forced out of his team? If someone did that to Hardaway because of his ethnicity, he’d cry foul, so why does he endorse the same kind of senseless hatred? I’ll never understand it.

• “Ben & Jerry Scoop Colbert”: While I do enjoy The Daily Show more than The Colbert Report, one can’t deny the charisma and sense of humor possessed by Stephen Colbert, so I’m glad to learn he’s being honored for his work:
  

  Ben & Jerry’s is fudging the truthiness.

  The maker of Phish Food, Cherry Garcia and Vermonty Python is adding Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream to its collection of cult figure-inspired ice cream flavors.

  Billed as “the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth,” Americone Dream is vanilla ice cream packed with fudge-covered pieces of waffle cone and a caramel—or is that a conservative?—swirl.

  “I’m not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal agenda,” Colbert said in a statement. “What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case.”

  Freedom has never tasted so sweet

  I’ll definitely have to try out this ice cream, as it sounds quite delicious and supports Colbert, which is always a good thing.

• “Should We Bury The Penny?”: I don’t know enough about the report involved in this story, but I do know that pennies have become increasingly useless in my life, which doesn’t mean we eliminate them, but I can understand the idea.
  

  The figures “show clearly that the one cent coin is not very useful and that consumers hoard or throw it away rather than deposit it and put it back into the distribution system,” the report said.

  Maybe I’m in the minority, but I can’t see a downside to removing the penny from circulation and slightly altering prices so that they’re not required.

• Battlestar Galactica Returns For A Fourth Season: Sure, this isn’t as important as the above news, but it’s good news for those of us enjoying this phenomenal (though uneven at times) show. This show seems like one that has a finite life and I’d like for the story to be told as need be, so viewers aren’t left with a lot of questions or an unfortunately rushed season (such as happened with Babylon 5).

There are a lot of little television tidbits I wanted to write more about, but I lack the time and energy to do that right now, so I’m going to touch upon them all here with the hope I can expand on these thoughts later this week. I doubt it’ll happen, but we’ll see how things turn out– after all, I never thought Arune.Com would be this busy one year later and we’re on pace to top last January’s numbers, with even better content than a year ago.

• Heroes returns this week, after finally airing an episode I liked and piquing my interest. I’ll say one thing for this show– it’s true to what it is, doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur and delivers real payoff. I do think that the pace hinders the shows in ways that affect my enjoyment, but considering the stellar reception by the rest of the world, I’m in the minority. I’m not sure I’ll watch this Monday, as I’m already recording two other shows, but I look forward to watching it on Sci-Fi later in the week. Fans need to check out CBR’s exclusive Heroes videos spotlighting this week’s episode and some specific cast members. CBR also offers weekly Q&A with the show’s writers, so make sure to check the site every Monday for more updates.
• WWE Monday Night Raw threatens to become less and less important to me, as each week’s show becomes more boring. Friday Night Smackdown is a brilliantly done wrestling show and with some minor exceptions, is the perfect wrestling program for me. TNA Impact!, airing on Wednesday this week, needs to promote the high flying X-Division if it wants to stay in the game. Right now it’s looking like a second rate show and not a real competitor.
• 24 has another new episode this week, hopefully without the “Stupid Person Plot Device.” What is that you ask? The father in last week’s premiere felt over the top stupid, when he knew what he was doing and still helped the terrorists. I understand the big impact of the final moments, but it would have mattered more to me if the character who put it into motion wasn’t acting so stupid. Same with the death of a major character– he seemed wildly out of character and his death had no meaning to me. I’m still loving the show, but I hope the silliness ends sooner than later. Jack’s “Count Jackula” moment was still pretty cool.
• Goodbye Smallville. I can’t begin to list all the reasons I dislike this show and I’ve watched it primarily because I’m a Superman fan…but since this Clark Kent is a petty, hypocritical jackass, there’s not much Superman for me to watch anymore on television. Still, one can’t ignore how much this show helped keep Superman in the spotlight over the last six years and for that reason I’m glad it came around. It also still features what I consider one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen and had some pretty good moments along the way, but I’m done with it now.
• For the Canadians, how much do Corner Gas DVD sets cost up North? The prices on websites seem ludicrious, so I’m hoping that Future Shop/Best Buy might have some deal on them that I’m not aware of right now. It sounds like a hilarious show and I’d love to check it out.
• With the cancellation of Passions and likely Days Of Our Lives cancellation in 2009, one has to wonder if the daytime soap opera is long for this world and if the powers that be will do anything to draw in new viewers– or even retain the ones they’re driving away. That’s a whole blog entry for another time, though I’d be surprised if we see daytime soaps on our television in 10 years.
• Studio 60 may be cancelled, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me, since the show hasn’t been able to find an audience. It’s a shame that television shows aren’t given more time to grow an audience and I’m hoping Studio 60 survives.
• If you’ve forgotten, Battlestar Galactica is back tonight.

This Sunday, Battlestar Galactica returns with the second half of the stellar third season. I’m mentioning this today because the show has aired on Fridays for ages, but has now moved to Sunday, with the hopes of a ratings boost. Check your local listings to see the time it airs on the Sci-Fi Channel.

If you’ve never jumped into this show before, I doubt this will be the best time to delve into the intricate plotting that has made the series so famous, especially since the focus is on the religious aspects of the show, which have trended weaker. I find a lot of the ideas fascinating– looking at the way Cylons view humans vs the way humans view God, for example– but the overt religious episodes, such as the Tomb of Athena arc, always leave me a bit dry. That said, religion is always handled maturely in the show and in way that shows both sides of the argument.

Regardless, this season has included some of the series’ best moments (FTL jump inside the atmosphere!) and I’m excited to see where it is all going. If only Sci-Fi didn’t feel the need to use “It Ends Tonight,” the over-played song by The All American Rejects, in all their commercials for Galactica. It just doesn’t fit at all, as evidenced by this spoiler-heavy promo, which is sadly one of their better efforts at integrating the song into the advertising.

Regardless, Galactica fans can’t miss this Sunday’s episode– if Season 2.5’s first episode was any indication, this one should be a doozy!

Well, we’re back with more New Year’s Resolutions from Arune.Com and a reminder that both 24 and Battlestar Galactica return soon. Onward!

Resolution #4: Write More

As I’m sure you know, we just celebrated one year at Arune.Com and while I’ve written a lot over the last year, I want to try and write even more this year. Not just for the sake of writing, but because the more I write, the better I will be at it. While that’s motivation enough, I’ve found that writing fictional stories allows you to challenge your own views and perceptions of the world by letting those characters take their course.

Working on this blog has also led to some interesting discourse about subjects ranging from comic books to moral law, so I’d like to continue to push myself to find new topics for discussion on such a public forum where so many people can offer responses. So if all goes well, I’ll be able to not only write more fiction, but also write more non-fiction through this blog.

Well folks, if you haven’t done so yet, make sure to check out Casino Royale the new– and my favorite– James Bond flick. It’s a really fun film with more depth than you might expect from a Bond movie. Not only does it borrow the best moments from the book (except one interesting philosophical debate that is left out), it adds a lot new scenes and interesting nuances to the origin of 007. Over at CNN.Com, there’s a good review of the film.

Onto the news!

• I interviewed the writers of the new Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Wars comic book mini-series over at CBR and fans of the show will definitely not want to miss this book, which may well be in continuity when all is said & done.
• What are the ten bigget watercooler discussion moments from television? EW thinks it has the answer, citing the obvious (Luke & Laura’s wedding on General Hospital) to odd choices (a moment from Buffy). Still, it’s an interesting list and well worth a gander.
• IGN reviews Microsoft’s new music player, the “Zune” and while it sounds like a decent device, I really don’t know how Microsoft can hope to stand side by side with Apple in the digital music war. So many people have invested in Apple’s iTunes and like it or not, the music downloaded from iTunes can’t be used with another player– unless you concievably burn CDs and then rip the songs using the Zune software. I hope Microsoft does well, because competition would be a great way to get Apple to up their ante and deliver even better stuff to consumers.
• In time to buy me for Christmas: a Transformers chess set! Jokes aside, this is horribly overpriced and I may love Transformers, but even I have my limits.
• Lou Dobbs talks about being a populist and why it may not be a bad thing. It’s an interesting essay, though I’m sure that many may disagree with his viewpoint.

It’s that time again– Random News is back! Hope you all had a good weekend. Hopefully you can all help me: do you know of any reliable and reputable websites that can create long sleeve t-shirts and/or thermal tops? I want to create one like Iron Fist is wearing in this picture, but I don’t know where to start looking. If you’ve got any advice, just leave a message. Thanks!

• Battlestar Galactica continues to get rave reviews, this time from the L.A Times, which includes an interview with the producers.
• Kal Penn looks to have another success on his hands with The Rise Of Taj, the Van Wilder sequel in which he reprises his role as a nerdy Indian student. I’ve talked about Penn at length previously and I’m glad to see him headlining another film. I’m sure this film will have the same crude humor of the first film, but I’m sure I’ll still enjoy it– the first film didn’t offend me and wasn’t nearly as crude/vulgar as some more recent films.
• How is Heroes affecting comic books? No, this isn’t me criticizing the show– it’s Entertainment Weekly reflecting on how the show reflects & impacts the industry. Now despite what some think, I’m glad this show is succeeding and showing people how fun & complex superheroes can be. If it brings some people to comics, and they can discover all the great comics out there (All-Star Superman, Astonishing X-Men, etc), then all the better!
• Want to find that song you heard on a soap opera? It’s often hard to know the name or artist of a song on soaps, since soundtracks are never released, and they often use less known singles from artists.
• X-Box doesn’t see the PS3 as competition, only the Wii. That’s pretty bold, as Sony has strong Playstation-only franchises, but I personally do see the Wii as the big gaming system if the motion sensor works well. Nintendo may have another hit on its hands.
• EW lists the top 10 Bond Girls. What do you think?

You think you’re sick of me gushing over Battlestar Galactica already, praising it almost every day in some context? Well folks, it really is one of the best shows on television, with some of the strongest writing, visuals, and overall vision that I’ve ever seen. Of course, that’s just my point of view, but the point is that it’s nothing compared to what you’ll see written about 24 when it returns in January. Now I love the show, but it’s far from perfect, and while I’m happy to turn off my brain so I can enjoy the excitement, there are a few things I’d love to see improved. That said, the show just gets better each year and somehow all the plot holes don’t much bother me because of the payoff.

So, please, no e-mails or comments about “why do you hate this show?” or “why can’t you enjoy it for what it is?” because being objectively critical and enjoying a show are not mutually exclusive states of mind. Nothing and no one is perfect, but it doesn’t mean we can’t love ‘em, now does it?

SPOILER WARNING: Beyond this point, this post contains spoilers for Seasons 1-5, as well as speculation for Season 6, based on revealed casting decisions and extrapolations from that information.

• No More Stupid Marwan-esque Plans: I loved Season 4 of this show, but the intricate super villain plan from Habib Marwan was just way too over the top. I’ve discussed it before, but there were much smarter ways to get to that endpoint without incurring the wrath of Jack Bauer. I’m all for over the top fun, but I’d rather see the intricate villainous planning of Season 5, which was also a bit “Nyah Nyah,” but felt a lot more logical. This new season is supposed to be more “grounded” and while I don’t want this show to turn into The Shield (a show I love), since the craziness is so fun, I wouldn’t mind if the villains’ plans felt a tad more plausible.
• No More Stupid Heroes: Honestly, Jack usually isn’t stupid, nor is Chloe, but there were so many moments near the end of Season 5 where it felt like they were stupid to prolong the show. How could Chloe NOT copy the audio file onto her computer before manipulating it? Why would she manipulate the original? And why would the toady CTU guy, Miles, who no one trusted, be allowed near her? It’s just plain silly and really draws the viewer out of the show.
• No More Stupid Women: Over the years, this show has been criticized for its uniformly poor portrayal of women, and it’s one of the most fair and important criticisms. Sure, we’ve had Audrey Raines, Michelle Dessler and now Chloe O’Brien, but most of the women in this show seem horribly written. They’re either stupid, incompetent, angry for no reason, or just objects of sexual desire. I’m not saying that the writers are sexist and/or purposely undermind the portrayal of females in this show, but there is a continuing problem with how women are written in the show. There have been great strides to rectify this, and with writers like David Fury onboard we’ve seen improvement, but I’d love to see women take a larger– and more powerful– role in the show. Sometimes they just seem like arbitrary plot devices, instead of organic to the plot, and I’d love to see it change.
• More Jack Bauer Insanity Please: Who didn’t enjoy Bauer shooting the terrorist in the knee to end the first hour of Season 4? Or when he asks for a hacksaw in Season 2? This will sound twisted, though I’m sure my fellow Bauer fans will agree, but I want to see more of Jack Bauer’s vigilante justice. Would I want that in the real world? Probably not, but so much of this show is wish fulfillment and that includes Bauer kicking ass in all kinds of ways. There’s a great moment in Season 4, when Bauer pulls strips two wires from a lamp and uses them to torture Paul, that really gets you thinking “this guy is nuts…but…GO JACK!” It’s what I would call “justified physical insanity.” The show is simple when it comes to morality: Jack is always right and if you disagree, the world is in jeopardy because of you. Now that sounds a lot more insane than it is, because in the framework of the show we’re shown that objectively, Jack is always right. That’s why we can forgive his trespasses. My favorite moment from the entire show has to be Jack’s raid on the terrorist base early in Season 4. You see him sneak in and blow the brains out of out dozens of terrorists. Fox Television advertised it as the most “pulse pounding ten minutes on television” and not much can come close (except a certain moment in a recent Galactica involving a certain FTL jump). That’s the kind of action I love.
• Kim Bauer Is 24’s Kryptonite: Do I need to explain this? Even in her guest starring role in Season 5, she sucked the life out of the show and made me want to beat my head with a brick. To me, she represents forced dramatic tension and a character who doesn’t seem to act logically or intelligently. It’s not just that I don’t like her character (I didn’t like Tony much at first), but she’s just so stupid all the time that it’s baffling that she could ever work for CTU or be trusted by Jack (as opposed to Tony, who acted logically and was therefore tolerable…and became quite cool).
• Insight Into The Supporting Cast: With most of the popular supporting cast members dead, and Chloe likely being safe (she’s so damn popular now!), I’d love to see the supporting cast further developed. We saw hints of it last season with Curtis Manning, Bill Buchanan and Wayne Palmer, but they often seemed to disappear for episodes at a time and there wasn’t as much insight as there was with say, Tony or Michelle in the second season. With Wayne’s role as President this season, I’m sure he’ll pop up more often and we’ll get into his mind, but I’d love to see a strong supporting cast emerge from what is a “good” supporting cast so far. We’ve got great actors who have the potential to create some memorable sidekicks for Jack. They’re doing a good job with this, and I know that Bauer is the focus of the show, but there are some strong people that could be pushed to Chloe’s level and become just as integral to the mythos.

Well folks, that’s my list. I know that Jack Bauer navigates LA traffic faster than possible, never eats, excretes, or really even sleeps, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I know it may bother some– and I understand that– but those kinds of things aren’t on my list because they just seem insignificant to me. 24 is just such a damn fun show and even the things I’ve listed don’t affect my enjoyment that much– it’s just too damn exciting and thrilling a show for me to ever be really disappointed.

So do you have anything else to add to my list?

It’s about time for another one of these. I figure if I’m going to express displeasure with so many things, I should express some pleasure to balance it all out. It’s no secret that my love for Battlestar Galactica seems to grow with every episode. This is one show that meets and exceeds every criteria I have for a television show, proof that I’m not really too cynical to appreciate brilliant television.

Interestingly enough, I had a hard time getting through the mini-series that launched this current series. But by the time I finished it, and got into the amazing first season episode “33,” I was hooked. The show keeps getting better and better. I haven’t a single complaint about Season 3, except for the way that a certain character loses a lot of weight WAY too quickly to be realistic (and I say this because the show is otherwise very realistic), and we all know that I can bitch up a storm at the drop of a dime.

Warning: there are spoilers in this article for Season 3, so if you aren’t current on the show, be warned. That said, this show is about the journey and I don’t think that I’ll say anything that will ruin your enjoyment of the show.

So, I could on go forever about all the aspects I love about Galactica from the special effects to the cinematography to the music, but I’ll focus on my favorite aspects:

• More Than Meets The Eye: When it comes to BSG, there’s always more going on than we’re explicitly told, making the true brilliance of the show’s writing there to see for anyone who pays attention to the subtleties. It may be the more obvious scenes, such as when the camera lingers on a character’s expression for just an extra second, or the harder to see elements, such as the way that the third season opens with a seven different characters indulging in the Seven Deadly Sins, but everytime we see layers upon layers in this show. That’s also due to the stellar acting, as Galactica features the strongest ensemble cast on television, with The Wire and The Shield as the only shows coming close. The most recent episode was one meant to set-up future storylines, but instead of feeling like filler, its nuances made it a strong commentary on human nature. Every plot revolved around the space between, from the space between people, to the space between dreams, to the literal space between the humans and cylons. The beauty in this is that it’s never spelled out in the show, or even implied by any of the characters. So how do I know it’s there? Read between the lines. The dialogue, the decisions, and the conflicts rise from the space between. Sure, some of you may call it coincidence, but considering that almost every episode of this series features similar compelling undertones, that’s a lot of coincidences resulting in excellence!
• Strong Female Characters: This may seem like an odd thing for a male to point out, but I love that this show provides strong female characters who aren’t all overly sexualized, aren’t just “the girlfriend,” and are as interesting at the male counterparts. President Roslin isn’t a pushover, but she’s not a “bitch” either: she’s a deeply complicated leader with strong religious beliefs. Many shows would make her irrational because she has both faith in God and a uterus, but BSG makes her an interesting counterpart to the warriors (such as Admiral Adama) and the scientists (Baltar). She’s a strong character. Period. Even Cylon Model #6, the blonde female used in so many promotional shots for the show, is a character with a very sexual side, but it never feels like irrelevant titillation when she explores that aspect of her personality. It’s germaine to the character and how she experiences the world around her. Athena, or Sharon Agathon, is a female character whose struggle to walk the line between good & evil feels like the role that a woman would never get. She’s not automatically more virtuous or tender because of loving Helo– that just shows us a new sider of her. She’s not the typical female who longs for love and bases her whole life around those manipulations. Her relationship with Helo actually feels like real love because they both maintain their personalities, but when they’re together, we see whole new sides of their personalities emerge. It’s really wonderful. Never do we see the typical scheming gold digger female emerge in this show. Never do we see it pander to convention when it comes to the roles of women in the show. In fact, the female characters are consistently much more challenging and much more interesting than the male characters.
• No Easy Way Out: This is science-fiction for sure, but don’t expect some techno-babble to save the day. Problems arent solved by re-arranging deflector shields or magically realizing how to manipulate the Force. This show can take itself seriously because the plots are resolved seriously and are consistent with the world in which the show takes place.
• Unbiased, Thought Provoking Stories: The current season has dealt with the definition of a terrorist, the ethics of occupation, the reasons behind suicide bombers, secret trials, and a corrupt president. No, it’s not a commentary on the current American occuptation/invasion/liberation/whatever of Iraq. It’s a commentary on war. We’re shown both sides of every issue, each given equal weight, and the viewer if left to decide what’s right. There’s no simple answer in this series. Next week we see a “solution” to the Cylon problem is discovered and we’re offered arguments on the ethics of genocide, which is ballsy, because we’re trained to see the Cylons as antagonists. When Colonel Tigh began using suicide bombers, we saw arguments for and against from humans. We saw how it could all be rationalized. We saw how it could all be condemnd. Few shows would ever dare to allow that kind of discourse in a show and then not offer a definitive answer. The writers of Galactica understand the complexities of life and don’t ever forget to keep those at the forefront of the show.
• Real Character Motivation: Save the best for last. If there’s one thing this show does better than perhaps any show (even The Shield) is establish strong characters. Even if they’re supporting or guest star characters, every character in the BSG universe is not only interesting, but layered as well. Now this doesn’t mean I like every character all the time. This season we’ve seen Starbuck and Tigh go down the darkside, and even our beloved Chief Tyrol commit some major sins with the help of a certain airlock. I don’t love every character on this show. There are some that just make me angry. But, without fail, this show always explains where a person is coming from and makes them sympathetic. I can understand why some characters do bad things, because they’re painted as people who believe they’re working from sound rationale. No one in real life ever sees themselves as villains. And so no one in BSG does so either, even when they do things that anger the viewers. But unlike many other shows, where that anger rises from frustation with a show, fans of BSG get angry because the show is so genuine in portraying human nature. These are flawed characters, from the protagonists to the antagonists. With such emotional insight into these characters, you can’t help but want to learn more, no matter how they make you feel.

That’s all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my love for this show. I’ll probably write more again in the future about the show, specifically the flawless Season 3 and I hope some more of you tune into the show and/or pick up the DVDs. This isn’t typical science fiction. This isn’t typical television. This is a phenomenal show about everything in life that interests me, from love to the human condition; from the problems of war to the problems of peace; from the slippery slope of good intentions to the question of what defines sound faith.

If you’re already a fan of the show, leave some comments, and let everyone know why they just have to check out this show.