Just kidding.
Ok, because I'm a huge nerd the last couple of days have been very BattleStar Galactica-centric as the big 2 hour series finale aired last night. And I love it, I thought it was a kick ass television show and the ending blew the doors off in all the ways I wanted and used up all the bullets in one big-ass space battle just like I was hoping they would. Hooray.
I am a little bit bummed that it's over, mostly because I'll have to find some new weekly place to get my hardcore sci-fi geek fix, but also because it means the inevitable over-analysis of a TV show. It's just a TV Show!!
I'll never understand why people feel the need to have things ruined for them in this particular way (and as I'm also a huge LOST fan I'm waiting for it to happen on an even dumber scale next year) - demanding that all imagination and mystery be explained out of something that you enjoy precisely because it's NOT REALITY. They might never explain what the Smoke-Monster "IS" and that's fine - it's a goddamn monster!
I saw a quote from the series creator when people were hounding him to give them a definition of "What Starbuck IS" and his explanation sums it up nicely: "The more we explained it and put a label on it, the less interesting it was"
By taking something that is clearly fiction and demanding explanations (LOST - perfect example) and tidy little packages where every little thing makes "sense" is just killing it one little bit at a time, and those same people invariably light up the blogosphere complaining about plot-holes and continuity under the auspices of demanding 'good writing' - never mind the fact that by insisting that everything have a logical and working explanation you've negated the value or even the possibility of writing something new and captivating. I love good storytelling too and some payoff to keep things interesting is great, yes. But it never feels like demanding great writing, it feels like shitting on everyone's imagination, or for that matter our ability to handle things that aren't spoon-fed to us.
Better yet, it feels a lot like this:
What's with the island?
- it's not normal
how is it not normal?
- it's traveling in time
how is it traveling in time?
- Um....magnetism
That doesn't work.
- Fuck you. You're dead inside.
You ruined my favorite show!
- No, YOU ruined your favorite show.
I need this TV show to be mind-blowing enough to justify the number of hours of my life I've dedicated online to proving just how mind-blowing it isn't over the last several years!
- Do us both a favor....Die.
As much I nerd-out about physics humor like THIS, I don't go around pointing it out to children during holiday readings of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" - that's no different than the people that want to demand that people creating interesting works of fiction be called on to explain and justify every little thing. Because once you begin explaining it there's really no stopping.
Normally I don't give a crap what overly-fixated geeks do or don't demand but television seems to be the one medium where people that create or green-light it actually listen to this shit and bend perfectly good ideas trying to deliver "for the fans".
"Fans"....Stop. It. You are ruining what is usually the best thing left in the vast fields of crap that is TV. You are the reason we have "The Bachelor". I hate you.
If they were working for NASA on Faster-Than-Light travel or even something remotely important, fine. But they're not. They're writing science fiction for television for fuck sake. Look!! space ships that jump instantly from point A to point B!! intelligent robots!! a world with a potentially infinite number of this woman!!
This is clearly a fantasy world.
Relax, remember how to enjoy a good romp through non-reality for a goddamn minute and you'll find that it's a lot more fun and you don't need (and don't feel fucking entitled to) an explanation of "what the Six and the Baltar hallucinations are"
I know they are....they're called "fun"
That show was fun.
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