A Frakkin’ Bomb

(Mild spoilers.)

Like so many other Battlestar Galactica fans, my fierce loyalty to the series compels me to voice my frustrations with the last chapters of what could have been a masterpiece.  Since the beginning of this season, the show has flown off the rails - for every scene that sings, there are three that fall flat.  Since learning about the massive rewriting that happened after the WGA strike, I’ve played a kind of futile guessing game:  did that episode suck because it was poorly conceived, or because it was hastily written?

I’ll venture that most of my problems with this season’s revelations have to do with character choices that might have resonated as truthful if they just had a little more room to breathe.  But there are some conceits I just can’t get behind (e.g. Saul & Caprica’s torturesex = love, Kara’s listlessness, Gaeta as unblinking architect of a mutiny, Cavil’s final wtf), and when the plot is so tightly wound a flaw in one thread poisons everything else.  Also: too many money shots of Adama and Roslin in pain.  We frakkin’ get it, already.

The finale was disappointing for so many reasons, but the worst conceit - and I cannot believe no writer balked at this - was the closing scene.  What could this possibly achieve that wasn’t already tackled - more subtly, more intelligently - by the whole show, from miniseries to finale?  We frakkin’ get it already!  Also, Ron Moore loses points for putting himself in front of the camera.

Well, it’s over.  We’ll never know what it looked like before all that rewriting, but I’ll always wonder.