Catching up with rj...

Over the course of the last month or so, I started re-watching the entire series again. Actually, it was more like this: somewhere around late April or early May, I popped the miniseries in with plans on watching the whole series again, but I really only got around to watching the mini, then episode 1 of season 1, "33" right after. Then life took over, and I got sidetracked.

Until rj's recent entry. It gave me a good point to catch up to, which is basically the first two discs of the season 1 box set: the mini and the first four episodes.

Egad! I'm not sure how many times I've seen these already, maybe 5 or so... but it continues to overwhelm me... in a really good way. The writing is really so rich, and even in the "less intense" episodes, there's always some arc or element that captivates. This show has it's highs and lows as any other show does, but the difference is that it's lows are pretty high in my own humble opinion. And because it's highs are so high, they kind of set a bar for themselves that's hard to live up to, if that makes any sense.

The emotion of it all is what really sticks to me, as well as the character development. Even though I know everything that is going to happen to these characters by watching from the beginning again, I am no less engrossed. In fact, maybe I can look even deeper now, and see the finer details which show me once again just how expertly written this show is. The tie-ins across episodes and seasons are easier for me to catch, and believe me, there are a lot of them and surely more to be seen. There's so many subtle details but our imaginations are still allowed to glue everything together. It's a lot like Star Wars in these ways to me.

Watching Kara tackle flight instruction again, after her and the Adama family's trauma... it's just so frakking human, it tears me apart. The ways I can relate to Starbuck are so vast it scares me a little, yet this one character in particular (as well as the show as a whole) I just can't get enough of. There's something addicting about this show that isn't like any show I've ever watched before. It's the same kind of addiction as Star Wars for me. Maybe I just have a good story abuse problem.

So, I watched the first two discs of the season 1 box set again, and happened to have the chance to visit with my parents this weekend. I finally gave those two discs to my dad to watch. He really loves science fiction, loves Star Wars like me (although he's also really into Star Trek, unlike me), and he's a writer and editor (did I mention I got my screen writing teacher totally into the new BSG?). I've had some pretty lengthy discussions with my dad about the new BSG, and I think we both recognize that one of the only deterrents that he might come across with it is the violence (less so) and the political references (more so) - one major factor being that my mother is a displaced person from the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, so some political references can be a little touchy in my family. A little too much info there...

Basically, I'm really anticipating how my dad will like it. On the one hand, I think that he will absolutely love it (he loves Firefly and Serenity too BTW), but on the other hand I'm a little scared that he will be turned off by some of the references. I know he will love the SFX (remember Boomer and her co-pilot finding the water planet in "Water" - that one shot with the Raptor skimming on the planet surface - incredible), and I hope he will enjoy the writing as much as I do - the pure genius in the story.