05.30 Reaper
06.30 Battlestar Galactica
Reaper. Season 2, Episode 3. "The Sweet Science" Boxer.
Usually, the case-of-the-week isn't very strong - or, indeed, very important - on Reaper. The show has settled into a groove where the characters, the comedy, the ongoing stories are the most important thing. But this week is an exception: the story of the boxer who escaped hell to win a title honestly was very good. Unlike all the other escapees on the show he wasn't out to kill people and he was basically a nice guy who, in his previous life, had given in to temptation.
I thought the dilemma that Sam faced with this case was great and I really enjoyed the ending (corny though it may have been).
Aside from the boxer storyline, this was one of the funniest every episodes of Reaper. Jenny Wade was hilarious as Ben's new girlfriend, and The Devil at the AA meeting was priceless.
Best bit? The sub-plot where Sock created a fictional employee called Les Nessman. Wow. Les Nessman, huh? Reaper is the coolest show on TV.
Battlestar Galactica. Season 4, Episode 20. "Daybreak, Part 2" The end of the journey.
The final episode of BSG is wonderful and overwhelming. No review I would write at this point would do it justice, so I'm going to pick out a few points and leave it at that.
The Action. The first half (or middle third of the entire 'Daybreak' movie) is truly action-packed and thrilling. Every major character gets their moment of glory (with Baltar's scenes being my favourite) and the sight of the Galactica physically smashing into the colony is one of the coolest things they have ever shown on the series.
Baltar. I spent various scenes of the movie in tears and it started very early, when Baltar made the right choice and opted - finally - to go with fleet and try and save Hera. That moment was wonderful.
Baltar and Six. They worked together to bring humanity to her downfall (in the pilot) and they worked together to kick-start a whole new life for humanity (in the finale). Epic symmetry.
Starbuck. I went into this movie wanting more than anything to know what the frak Starbuck was. And... they never told us. They actually made a point of deliberately not telling us. And I loved it better that way than any answer they could have given us.
The Various Goodbyes. The final hour of the movie was a series of goodbyes, as the surviving characters said good-bye to one another and - of course - to us. The most poignant, for me, was the final scene with Tyrol and his final fate. In much the same way that the final fate/destiny of Lennier is the one that has haunted me the most from Babylon 5, I suspect it is the destiny of Tyrol that will stay with me most vividly in the years ahead. It was/is epic and lonely in a way that television storytelling rarely manages.
Highlight? Battlestar Galactica (good-bye)
Yet Another TV Review Podcast
Yet Another TV Review Book
Yet Another Film Review Blog
A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
Sun, Mar 22, 09 - Reaper, Battlestar Galactica
