The Entertainment Weekly just published a
review of Battlestar Galactica in advance of its season 3 premiere next Friday. While reading, to my horror, I came across THIS:
'...Galactica averaged 2.3 million weekly viewers in season 2, and while that's impressive by Sci Fi's standards, conventional wisdom says its ratings could — and should — be much larger. Blame the complicated plots and the genre's fringy rep, a stigma that's only exacerbated by a glut of similar-sounding (and inferior) shows like Stargate Atlantis, Farscape, and Andromeda. Says Callis: ''It's strange to exist in the popular consciousness, but so few people actually watch the show. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell people, 'No, we're not Stargate. Really.'''Now, I'm a sci-fi fan who evidently qualifies as BSG's "target audience," yet I've come to love both BSG
and Stargate for what they are and seek to accomplish. To me, they're each essentially classic and unique sci-fi stories that represent life's journey by
taking life seriously without
taking itself too seriously ... or so I thought! Perhaps some quotes have been taken out of context, but could it also be that the Peabody has gone to the heads of the BSG cast, crew and media sycophants?
Now I celebrate the good and lament the bad moments of both shows (in my book, season 2 wasn't the best for either franchise), but it upsets me to see such unprofessional and unwarranted oneupmanship in a time where we face a
real dearth of good sci-fi these days. Furthermore, it's troubling that more value is assigned to "darker" storytelling when there are countless examples of successful entertainment that can be both irreverent yet relevant today. Tragedy and angst is real life, but hey, so is humour and levity. You know what they say about too much of a good (or bad) thing....
Anyways, I'll still look forward to watching the new BSG episodes again, but sadly, this has got me all wired up - negatively. I've also consciously avoided setting too much expectations (which is partly why Stargate Atlantis' season 3 so far has been such joy for me) and fear that some of BSG's pre-season hype may lead to unfortunate disappointment down the road.
Stay tuned, we'll see.
