Friday, April 3, 2009

Battlestar Galactica--Finale

I was never a huge fan of the retooled Battlestar Galactica, not because it wasn't a good show, but because it didn't entertain me the way I want to be entertained. Overly complicated, often too preachy for my tastes, and with no sense of humor about itself or anything else, it just never quite managed to be my kind of show. By the time the last few episodes rolled around, I had lost interest in all of the characters, because there was nobody left that I found likeable at all. But then the plot started drawing me in, so that I had to stick around just to see how they managed to tie everything up.

Happily, they wrapped things up fairly well. The seemingly incomprehensible plot threads that were strung out in Season Three actually managed to weave together in some semblance of order, and the final ending brought everything nicely full-circle. I wasn't entirely sure what the final message was meant to be, though. Would the changes and knowledge that occurred during the Galactica's journeys prevent history from once again repeating itself, or is humanity following the same path of hubris and segregated prejudice that led to the original Cylon War? The answer remained unclear, and I'm still not sure if that was deliberate or a slip-up in otherwise fairly solid storytelling.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Friday Night Lights

While Friday Night Lights seemed to suffer less from last season's writers' strike than many other shows, it still faced the specter of cancellation due to low ratings. Due to an innovative agreement between NBC and DirectTV, though, FNL returned for a third season.

Aired on DirectTV starting in January, Friday Night Lights returned to NBC January 16th with a return to its first season mix of realism, poignancy and, yes, football. After plot mishaps of last year that seemed to be trying to turn FNL into yet another teen melodrama, it's nice to see the show playing to its strengths again.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Leverage

Leverage, TNT's new caper drama, has grabbed me right off the bat. It's a fun, flashy show with great characters and a good heart.

Timothy Hutton stars as the leader of a team of con men who specialize in getting revenge for the everyman. Featuring past favorites Christian Kane (Angel) and Aldis Hodge (Supernatural, Friday Night Lights), the cast carries this show into an hour of pure fun and entertainment every week.