Monday, January 5, 2009

Battlestar Galactica

God, what an awesome show. I admit I loved the original late 1970's show a lot, I even bought the book tie-ins because I wanted to know the ending of the story. Then I heard about the new Battlestar Galactica that launched in 2003 on the SciFi Channel. Wow, I thought, cool, I'll find out what happened to Starbuck, Apollo, Adama and Athena.

I was in The Hague when the show premiered and didn't show there until some time after the U.S. premiere and I'd heard about how Starbuck and Boomer were suddenly women, and that a lot of the story was different. Well, I just didn't watch it. Then time goes on and the blogs and TV websites I read were praising the show to the skies and I was in the process of relocating to Islamabad for a year and I thought there would be little on TV so I bought the first three seasons. And they sat on the bookshelf for a year while I read a lot more than I watched TV.

Suddenly, I'm off to my new post in Canberra with a lot of travel time in between, so I packed the first and half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica to watch on my laptop. Still the DVD's just sat there. Then I arrive in Canberra with lots of free time on my hands and I finally, finally put BSG in the DVD player. I WAS HOOKED.

I couldn't stop watching, when I had to wait for the rest of the DVDs to arrive the first thing I did was unpack my TV and VCR so I could finishing watching. I was so hooked than when I finished Season 3, I went to iTunes and bought the available shows of Season 4. I went through those episodes in a weekend, albeit a long weekend. Now I'm totally into the webisodes and anxiously awaiting each new one and the start of the final part of Season 4 completely regretting the fact that the series is ending so soon.

I am inspired by the creativity shown on all levels in the production of this television series. From the writing, to the actors, the music and the production values this show is hard even for the most expensive Big-3 TV network to surpass. To my mind Lost is it's closest competitor. The parallels to modern day situations is dealt with and not in a "rosy" future world way, but in a realistic and messy manner. Which is one of the hardest parts of watching this show. Sometimes because the parallels are so close to what we are living through, I want a happily ever after Star Trek ending to each episode and we don't get that -- I salute producers who don't go the easy route.

If you want a great overview of the series so far, go to http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/ to see the terrific work of Maureen Ryan. She has take the last few weeks to watch and write about the previous seasons of the show -- I believe she still needs to finish writing up Season 3, but what I highly recommend reading her blog.

I can't wait for January 17th! I hope iTunes is prepared for loads of people wanting to download!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

RIP - Soap Operas

As a huge TV fan, I've loved soaps since I was a kid. My first soap memories are Meredith's death on One Life to Live -- it was so sad; and the string of saliva between Philip and Tara on All My Children -- it was so gross. I was fasicnated by the relationship between Marlena and her evil twin Samantha on Days of Our Lives and was sad when Marlene and Don's baby was killed by SIDS. By the time I hit the college years I was totally into Luke and Laura's adventures on General Hospital followed by plenty of Bo and Hope on Days of Our Lives. Then it was the star-crossed romance of Cruz and Eden on Santa Barbara, and the tragic death of the saint-like Mary by the letter C. I went to visit my cousin in Florida and she started me watching the CBS soaps too -- oh dangerous James Stenbeck and Alan Spaulding kept me interested for quite a while.

I used to take a late lunch so I could watch Days of Our Lives and I would put my tape recorder on so I could listen to at least part of General Hospital. I got my first VCR so that I could watch the soaps. As the years went by I became less and less interested in the soaps. A sick day was only fun because if I could stay awake I would watch my shows. I subscribed to Soap Opera Digest magazine to help me keep up.

As time went by General Hospital deteriorated into "Stories From the Mob" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a hospital and with love and loss. I stopped watching. Days of Our Lives deteriorated into "The Stefano DiMera Evil Show" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a real people and with love and loss. Again, I stopped watching. One Life to Live became "The Most Boring Show Ever" with very few guest appearances by the previously mentioned stories and I stopped watching.

My "soap" life didn't go away completely because I found Eastender's. A British soap opera that had real people with real situations. The actors had a normal attractiveness about them and I bet that most would have never even gotten past the doorman of a U.S. soap studio. The stories were enthralling, they had everything I could want in a soap. Sure, if I was sick I would run through the U.S. soaps, but the remote would be working the entire time, just picking and chosing the stories I was interested in watching.

Eventually I got my first overseas posting. Paraguay didn't have much in the way of television and for a TV-aholic like myself this was a disaster. I found a company that would tape TV shows and mail them to me. I got one tape of soaps, General Hospital and As The World Turns and one tape of dramas, mostly from the Aaron Spelling school of drama, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. I got back into soaps again because General Hospital brought back Luke and Laura, with their young son Lucky. And As The World Turns brought back Lily, and the fun triangle between Lily, Holden and Damien. Soaps were interesting again, they were fun again. The drama inherent in just Luke and Laura -- even with the occassional mob stuff thrown in, kept me glued to the mailroom waiting for my tapes. Watching Lily struggle between her long-lived love with Holden and her new-found love with Damien. When I went to my next posting in London, well my interest in the U.S. shows faded and I started watching Eastenders again. But there were a million other things on television and I just didn't care that much for my soaps anymore.

In London, Tel Aviv, and The Hague I've found that U.S. soaps are popular, about 5 years old - but popular. I've found The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, as well as Days of Our Lives on TV just about everywhere. Occassionally, All My Children is on too. But they are all old, and while I haven't seen the actual episodes, they don't really interest me.

Through all this, I did keep my Soap Opera Digest subscription and kept up on all the stories. I really like the magazine itself. You can tell the writers and editors enjoy soap operas and are trying their best to save this dying medium. However, it's the soap operas themselves that are letting the magazine down. They don't build story, they alienate their long-time views by bringing in young actors who have no training or experience. It's like they're just giving them on-the-job training, a sometimes lackluster story can be redeemed by the performances of competent actors. They focus the stories too much on what worked once and don't even try to go in another direction. Sure the mob thing worked for Luke and his cohorts, but it totally doesn't work anymore. Especially since The Soprano's showed just how violent that life is. I don't want to watch Kate or Michael get shot every sweeps period. I want to watch love, romance with a hint of danger and sometimes I want the danger to be psychological rather than violent. I'm tired of bombings and shooting sprees in my soaps. I get that on the news and on night time TV, which by the way people are not watching anymore.

After nearly 15 years I've let my subscription to Soap Opera Digest lapse. Not because of the cost of the magazine and not because of a lack of quality in the magazine both have remained more than acceptable. But because I just don't care about the soaps anymore. They occassionally peak my interest, when they bring back the characters I actually care about, when the stories are ones that wring the heart. But those are so few and far between that it isn't worth my money, nor any effort to try to watch them or pay for a subscription to a very good magazine devoted to them.

People say that soaps started going down the tubes with the OJ trial. I suppose that could be true -- I can't say whether people actually watched all that trial stuff during the day when soaps were pre-empted or not, I don't have the statistics and don't care to Google them. I can only speak of my own experience. When the OJ stuff was on I turned to another channel -- like millions of other Americans. When OJ was over, I didn't turn the channel back -- like millions of other Americans.

RIP my beloved soaps.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Vintage Television

I have recently been watching some awesome vintage television. Quincy ME with Jack Klugman, Ironside with Raymond Burr and The Rockford Files with a James Garner. What an amazing three hours of television.

Besides the obvious, that they are crime shows and the protagonists name is in the title, they all three have one thing in common. The musical score is important to each episode because it was used to either convey a tone or a mood. This is particularly true of Ironside -- I've just finished watching the first season and am starting the second. In the first season particularly, they didn't just use the score to set mood and tone, but used actual songs. Their music director did an amazing job. I'm only on the second season of Ironside and I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest.

What I like about all three is that the cuts don't jump here, there and everywhere. They stay and linger on and move through the story in a gradual way, but still building up to the conclusion. The shows live and die on the strength of the iconic lead actors. Jack Klugman amazed a lot of people I think going from the comedy of The Odd Couple to the drama of Quincy. However, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple he had the same intense-ness of Quincy. Quincy ME was a great show at the beginning, when it was more a crime drama however in the later years it got a little too strident when espousing or exposing a cause -- I just didn't find it as enjoyable.

The Rockford Files has held up, maybe because it had fewer years than Quincy ME. But in this role James Garner exhibited a lot of what has made him popular over the years. He has a real presence, charm and stubbornness that he exhibited in many of the roles he played in films and television. I love to see the interaction between James Garner and Noah Beery Jr,and the interaction between Garner and Joe Santos and Stuart Margolin. Plus, he works his charm quite well on the ladies, it has certainly worked on me.