Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Review

I could make the latest in my long line of SyFy channel jokes, but, I'm in a merciful mood today.

In A Nutshell:
BSG season 3 picks up four months after the end of season two. New Caprica is occupied by the Cylons, who rule with an iron fist and use Baltar as a puppet. The first episodes deal with the humans' struggle to escape NC and get back to the fleet, and the rest show the consequences of the characters actions before and during the occupation, as well as the search for an elusive blue-green marble hurdling through space called Earth.

The Good:
This was awesome. It just was. I mean, the first four episodes alone are one of the most incredible rides in the history of TV, as is quite a bit of the later episodes. At it's best, which it often was, season three was sci fi at it's very best. The characters are growing and being to put into unimaginable situation time after time, and that just resonates with you. Seriously, a lot of the season is character driven, and the show benefits because of it, not only because it was really entertaining, but it makes you give a crap out these people more then ever, which is necessary if you're going to enjoy this show, and it amps up the show's MO of showing what humanity really is. Plus, I just really liked the directions they took these characters in, because I thought it made them more interesting. We also learn a lot more about the Cylons and how they work/live, and that is intriguing, compelling, and honestly kind of mind-bending. Don't even get me started on some of these twists. Season 3 had more twists then ever before, and for someone like me who can't resist a great plot twist, that made it just damn good. And then you've got the ending of the season; I try to avoid spoilers at all costs in these reviews, but that's REALLY hard when you talk about the ending. Let me put it this way: I said in my season 2 review that that ending made me go "oh frack...". If that ending celled that reaction, then season 3's ending made me go "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!" For about three straight minutes. I'm serious, I was in shock to the point where I actually watched the end credits because I was processing what had just happened.


The Bad:
Okay, I'm gonna level with you guys, this followed the same pattern as last season: starts off absolutely amazing, stays that way for the first 13 episodes, I'd say, and then it just lags for the next couple of episodes, which are all random, standalone fillers. But in this season the random standalone fillers were worse then last season. I read somewhere that the network actually made the writers do standalones to amp up the ratings; that makes this the ultimate example of two expressions: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "network/studio interference only leads to crap" (I should make that the 11th commandment of OSR). But, it's only like that for three episodes, and then it goes back to normal and stays awesome the rest of the season.


Final Rating: 98% 


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