The Politics of…Battlestar Galactica? – The L.A. Times Speaks…

While reading the Los Angeles Times politics section, I found this interesting article about the themes in Battlestar Galactica that touch on current events in a way unique to television programming of today.
It’s worth a read, since it’s a great way to acquaint yourself with this series, if you’ve not already checked it out, and also to see how people tend to project on to a piece of programming as much as the programming tries to project out.
Meaning, that there is a tendency today by people today, especially hyper-active partisans on all sides of any issue, to imediately “see” in a TV show what they want to see, regardless of the original intent of the author. People who want to watch a piece of sci-fi programming like Battlestar Galactica will immediately draw simplistic parallels to Our World of Today, and then start assigning blame or praise to the writers and producers, fitting their MoveOn or FoxNews pre-salted interpretation of world events.
(To be fair, I engaged in a wee bit of this myself for fun’s sake last year when I wrote about the series beginnings, and about Gen. Wes Clark. It was fun and all, but I didn’t make the mistake some of these fans do, and get all militant about things that do not exist!)
People are free to watch TV how they like, but I think doing so denies a viewer a chance to really see what it is the creators are trying to do. Plus it shows a simplistic thinking – i.e. “we” are the “Colonials” so therefore President Roslin is a 1 for 1 stand in for President Bush – which isn’t really the way to watch something like this. (I had to grimace when I read that someone called it “The West Wing in Space” – that show is so pompous and overblown I literally get ill when I hear the theme music while flipping channels).
Better instead to enjoy it for what it is – a new kind of sci-fi that can address issues, but in an alternate continuum not bound up by the world of Today and Now, and a great way to develop solid characters and explore their actions and responses to extraordinary events. Such TV writing is not easy, nor is it common in an era of reality show dreck and methodic repetition of scientific terms set to bad rock music.
Which is why I’ll be taping/watching/bittorrenting/whatever-ing the new series when it starts on July 15th. Woo hoo!
PS: I’ve had Comcast digital cable + Comcast OnDemand for 3 months now, and am going to write a review of my experience with the service vs. Netflix…If anyone out there has had experiences with Comcast, good or bad, I’d be curious to hear them. Send me a message if you’ve got any suggestions or comments. Just be sure to leave your name so I know you’re a real person, and not a spam-bot.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com