Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak Part 1

Battlestar Galactica started the beginning of the end with part one of Daybreak, and if last night's episode was any indication, it will be a huge frakking ending to the best frakking TV show out there. WOW! I am so hooked and was on the edge of my seat as things wrapped up in the first part of the finale. The series is going out with a bang (as promised) and it looks like our Battlestar will be doing one final mission and a one way trip to rescue Hera and fulfill a few prophecies.

The flashbacks back to Caprica before the fall were all fascinating, and it's an interesting way to go back to the very beginning and see some of the other impetus that brought our characters to where we are at in the story, that penultimate chapter before the end of this story. I know that there are other stories to tell and more of this fascinating universe that they have created and I am looking forward to more tales, but this story happening right now is so enthralling. We learn how Adama was reluctant to take on the Galactica, how Roslin was stricken with great personal tragedy and lost her father and sisters in a terrible accident and the transition scene from her dealing with her grief in the fountain transposing to her chemotherapy treatment was very well done. Seeing Kara and Zack (and her first meeting of his brother Lee) was poignant, and as it is history that we have not seen much of (but heard about earlier in the series) it gave even more insight into what makes Kara tick, and her ties with the Adama family. Seeing the first meeting between Gaius and Six was a shocker, Gaius was a complete prick with his infirm father, and after literally dismissing her, she turns around and in an very emotional turn of events get his father placed into a great nursing home to take care of him and worms her way into his heart. Six always surprises me with her level of emotion and empathy, pretty frakking awesome for a machine. Anders was the surprise of the flashbacks, showing his love of the mathematics of his sport and his quest for perfection which sounded pretty Cylon from way back when. The deeper you scratch the surface of all these characters the more and more you discover about each of them and how complex and fascinating each and everyone of them is.

With all of that going on, and the continuing dismantling of Galactica, Adama decides that they have a final mission, and they are going to rescue Hera from the Cylons. They draw a line down the center of the hangar and after a huge rousing speech, sides are chosen and they prepare for their final showdown with the Cylons. The biggest shock was seeing Roslin arrive, frail and dying but willing to fight with her last breath and I am in awe of the transformation of the character.

This is it.. the final act ... and I can hardly wait until next Friday to see how it all plays out. This was probably one of the best hours of television that I have ever seen and can now only wait for it to be surpassed with the finale. There are so many questions to be answered and I can hardly believe that it will all be over in just a week...

American Gladiators -- Now with extra Gladiators!

The second season of the `New & Improved` American Gladiators has been kicking some serious butt since it came back a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully the ratings will be going up after the past couple of weeks of `so-so` performances (due to stuff like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars) and we will be in for several more seasons of the show. I am not sure if it`s because it takes a bit of time to warm up to the characters (they are all new after all), but Crush and Toa (pictured-- what a man!) have been gaining points with me each week for their great performances. Crush is beautiful and tough as nails, and Toa is one big beefy tattooed hunk of a man that has a certain look that I find very appealing...

They have been adding some events this year, and Rocketball looks like too much fun (seriously-- I would love to try that one out) and I like some of the other games like Skytrack and Tilt and stuff like Vertigo that I checked out on the Australian version of the game.

I think it`s great that they also have a few smaller guys as Gladiators now (Zen and Rocket), making the games more accessible for smaller guys ( small being relative, most of the guys are still hulking beasts) and making it more about different strengths. The smaller Gladiators are used for the challenges that involve speed and it`s a nice balance to see on the show. The fun thing is that each week they are introducing new Gladiators, and each one seems to blend in well with the crew, and the challenges are getting harder and harder.

Battlestar Galactica - Razor

Things don't get much better than this. After months of drought, we finally get something "new" in the BSG universe and it's a hell of a ride.

I won't get into a length recap of what happened, there are tons of blogs with those around, but this movie pulled out all the stops (as usual) and is still one of the frakking best things written out there.

It was sheer pleasure to see more of what happened before (and maybe doomed to repeat its self?) as we got to see what happened all those months ago when the war began and how the Pegasus survived to finally meet up with the Galactica. Although the story wasn't centered on Admiral Cain (the great Michelle Forbes), we did get to see her slow descent into hell as she tried to balance survival, deceit and more moral dilemmas than you can possible imagine.

The revelation that Cain had been intimate with Six (aka Gina the network administrator) was one that I did not expect, and I have to applaud the writers for including a lesbian relationship that seemed completely normal and accepted by all around.... I think this is the first time we have had even a hint of a gay character (although you would think there are several of them on the show) but how accepting everyone seemed to this.... kudos to the writers. Once Cain and the others discover that Gina is a Cylon, Cain's coldness and dismissal of her shows how polarized she is, and her hurt over the betrayal is pushed even further when Cain tells the interrogator, “I want you to interrogate our prisoner. Pain? Yes, of course. Degradation, fear, shame — really test its limits. Be as creative as you feel you need to be.”

The development of the XO character, Shaw, and her struggle to deal with betrayal and the new world order was fascinating and heart wrenching. No other show deals with characters on such a deep and intimate level. I kept wondering exactly how close to Cain she had been, there were more lesbian undertones than you could shake a stick at in the film. Shaw's acceptance by Cain is highlighted when Cain says, “Sometimes we have to do things we never knew we were capable of, just to show the enemy our will. You have to drop all natural inhibitions and become a razor for as long as you have to be.” The juxtaposition of morality and survival is tested over and over again and the scene in the colonist's ship is extremely disturbing.

It was fascinating to see how the story wove so easily through the past and present, and it was a great shout out to the original series seeing older versions of the Cylons (including those who spoke in that mechanical voice) and the Guardian models, the first in the human/Cylon hybrids. The back story via the flashbacks with a young Adama were great, and the haunting voice that kept repeating “All this has happened before and it will happen again” that was repeated multiple times with different characters added another level to the mythology.

The big shocker at the end, with the hybrid saying that “Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end — she is the herald of the Apocalypse, the Harbinger of Death. They must not follow her” makes me wonder if it is the end for the Cylons or the humans.... and now with the writer's strike we may not know for months.. frak!

Lesbionic Woman

This is a wayyyyyyyy better version than that one on NBC