BSG Characters

[jducoeur]

A couple of times in recent weeks, I've gotten into discussions about Battlestar Galactica, and specifically whether the show had particularly good or bad characterization. This makes me curious about what people think on the subject, so I shall assuage my curiosity in the tried and true LJ fashion: let's have a poll!

This poll is intended for people who have watched a fair amount of BSG. If you haven't watched at least half a season worth, just skip right over it. Note that there are two distinct questions here; they're related, but please think about them separately. This is strictly focused on the characters -- for purposes of this poll, disregard questions of plot, plausibility of the scenario, and so on. Feel free to add further opinions in comments.

[Poll #892555]

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

(I'm a few eps behind, so keep that in mind.)

Most of my characterization problems with BSG are actually plot problems, in a sense. They occasionally fall prey to having the plot prevent a character from having to make the hard choice, or from having to take responsibility for it, at any rate.

Of course, they fail in that way far, far less often than a typical genre show, which is part of why I usually like BSG.

One of the subtle character/plot things that I didn't realize until a little ways into season 3 was one of the side effects of the One Year Later thing. They appear to have completely given up on UST. *Any* show can do UST, and usually does to a fault. BSG has bigger fish to fry, like actual politics and difficult ethical dilemnas :-)

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

What's UST?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Unresolved Sexual Tension. It's an useful shorthand term for use in discussion of pretty much any lengthy serialized story. Almost all of them have gobs and gobs of it, and only let it become RST when the series is in danger of cancellation (not that that ever helps matters).

[jducoeur]

And yet, it's worth noting that letting it partially and messily resolve (as we're seeing on BSG) is quite a bit more realistic. The Mulder and Scully dance (which I consider just about the pinnacle of UST) really got to be straining credulity after a while; the Starbuck/Apollo mess feels much more normal, if more painful, to me.

That's part of why I split the "like"/"realistic" axes. What started this was someone accusing BSG of being soap-operatic, and to some degree that's true, but it feels to me like it's in exactly the ways that soap operas tend to mirror real life...