Non-comic blathering...

I've been thinking about the new Battlestar Galactica lately. My dad watches religiously and he's been urging me to watch it with him. I love watching sci-fi with my dad, so that's not a chore (though of late I've been too beat to do so, stupid adjusting to diurnal-time) but somehow or another I've just lost interest in the entire thing.

It's weird because I adored the first season. I'm the one who got Dad into the show. And at least as of two years ago, I was still bandying about whatever insane, improbable theory popped into my head.

I still think the writing is remarkably good. I think the ideas are gold. And I have no complaints about the performances of the cast. Even the actors who I thought were a bit iffy in the first few episodes (*cough*GracePark*cough*) improved tremendously as time went on.

It may be the characters. I have to admit I don't like Starbuck At All. Don't get me wrong, I think she's fairly groundbreaking as a character. It's very interesting to see an angry, rebellious, drinking, gambling, casual sex having, traumatized-fuck up (or as I call it the "fratboy with the dark past" syndrome) in the form of a female character. It's rare and kind of awesome. At the same time, I don't tend to like the fratboy-with-the-dark-past syndrome in male characters either. And honestly, I always thought the whole abused childhood thing felt tremendously tacked on. A kind of "excuse her behavior after the fact" sort of thing. And to be honest, I don't think an admittedly horrible childhood is an excuse for atrocious behavior as an adult. (The shame of it is, I really adored her in the miniseries and the first season.)

I like most of the other characters though, even if I want to thwap most of them in the head and forcefeed them a clue. And I have to admit, I adore Tom Zarek. Best stunt-casting ever.

Really though, I think my issue is much smaller than that. I think my biggest problem is the complete and utter dearth of friendships in the crew now. A lot of the best early moments that I loved were friendship related: Apollo and Starbuck, Roslin and Billy, Adama and Tigh, Tyrol and Cally when he was still dating Boomer, Boomer and Crashdown, and so on. Now they're all broken. I can't think of any similar lighthearted friendship moments in the later seasons.

I guess that's a stupid reason to lose interest in a show, but, well, part of how I grow to care about characters is through seeing how they care about one another. The little human touches. I know that flaws are supposed to humanize characters, and they do, but I find a lot more connection for crew members throwing impromptu birthday parties for one another than I do for yet another bout of self-destructive spirals of drink and sex.

It strikes me as even more of a shame considering that for all the *substantial* weaknesses of the first series, the friendship between Apollo and Starbuck was so much at the core of that series. This series started with that too, and I was even only slightly dreading the resolution of the unresolved sexual tension with the hope that the friendship would last. It makes me sad that I was very wrong.

Maybe this season will be different and some of the friendship and camaraderie will return even as the series gets even more dark and convoluted. But I doubt it. I still regret the loss though.