Although the title, the starting point of the plot and some characters' names are the same, it is best to consider the new BSG as completely different from the original series. Comparing both will only result in liking one over the other, bashing one to promote the other, and I am not going to do that.
I bought the mini-series and season one of the new BSG on DVD not knowing what to expect. I was hooked from the opening scenes on. When I finished watching the last episode of season one -and what a cliffhanger!- I almost immediately ordered season two.
This is not a black & white show where the "good guys" are all good and the "bad guys" are all bad. The humans are human. They have qualities and flaws; good, bad and mixed feelings. Even the Cylons don't appear to be entirely evil, although they do, of course, tend to be somewhat ruthless. But so are some humans in the show.
This is not a family show: the story tends to be "dark" and combines drama, action and (some) sci-fi with some metaphysics. The mix between these four elements is, for all the episodes I have seen, quite good. The sci-fi part is downplayed a lot. Yes, these people live in spaceships that can do FTL jumps, and yes the Cylons are man-made machines, but there aren't any neutrino wave emissions to save the day at the end of each episode and the technobabbel is kept to a minimum. This show centres around a story, not around fictive technology. The metaphysical part is much more than just the search for (the) god(s) and seeing some predictions/visions come true. The show also deals with the questions who we are and what defines life: "Are you alive?" The drama and action complete the stories and keep them interesting. I've never seen an episode without wondering what would happen in the next one.
To top all this, the cast is simply great. Most of the actors are fairly young and relatively new, yet they succeed in portraying their characters with conviction. Kudos to all of them, but especially to James Callis and Grace Park who, in my opinion, have the hardest roles. Why? Well, you'll need to watch the show to find out.
33 out of 81 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends