Well. Um.
Black Market bad?
Discuss.
BSG Discussion Thread — 3.14 “The Woman King”
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In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set.
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Reproductive Health Matters
More of Feministe On
{ 14 comments }
I’m a newcomer to BSG, so this could be blatently obvious to everyone else, but was that episode insanely literal in its storytelling last night? It seemed like they realized they needed another episode for the season so they wrote this and just stuck it in somewhere.
Well, on the one hand, they used the episode to indicate the kind of conditions (crowding, rationing, etc) that were being forced on the civillians. Did you notice that 6’s prison cell was more luxurious than the refugees’ space?
On the other hand, the only scenes that drove the story arc forward were the ones where the president was discussing Baltar’s trial with her VP, so from that perspective it almost was a “stick-anywhere” episode.
The thing that bothered me most was that I felt that the Admiral was forced to act out of character early in the show, dismissing Helo’s concerns. The Admiral has acted under the influence of Sagitareans before, taking their concerns seriously, so it’s a little harder for me to believe that he totally dismisses Helo’s concerns out of hand.
Honestly, I spent the whole episode expecting a massive twist in the plot line. Adama wasn’t acting anything *like* Adama, with his whole “Are you going to stop making unbased allegations?” spiel. And why, why?? does Dualla hate Cottle so much?
(Although I did love Helo’s “Right, she’s one of the good ones…” parting shot.)
(Although I did love Helo’s “Right, she’s one of the good ones…” parting shot.)
It might have helped if they had expanded on the Sagitarron ‘racism’ issue; I know on the Podcast the Producer said that they were originally going to weave that in to previous story lines more; as it was it just felt like “Look! Everyone hates one of the colonies! Because they’re Christian Scientists and WEIRD! HA! But Helo is the last good man in the universe, so he’ll protect them…”
I kept expecting a twist where the Dr. wasn’t doing it but someone else was. Then it just ended. It was an okay episode (mostly because the acting is typically good), but nothing to write home about. At least it didn’t go back to the love quadrangle…
I just started BSG this season (after seeing the roundup show(s)), so I don’t know if they got into the human racism topic before, but I thought the premise was good in general. If there’s a fault humans (real ones here on Earth) have often displayed, it’s “group-ism”, and it seems to come up in all different situations. Humans are weak that way…
I didn’t hate it. It was a bit simplistically drawn, but it did move the character of Helo a bit forward, at least in his status with his superiors. It sets him up for other things in the future. Now, I like the character of Helo, so this is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I know there’s a fair segment of the BSG viewership who hate Helo. I like his character because I think he actually is representative of a real type of person. People who follow their moral convictions at any cost often are uncomfortable to be around, but I admire that quality.
I couldn’t think of any reason why Dee would hate Cottle so much either. I thought, for a split second, that it would turn out to be Cottle who was killing the Sagitarrons, but no. I’m not sure if that was just a red herring or will go somewhere in the future. I hope the latter. It’s an interesting plot twist.
Worse than Black Market for me. With Black Market I could watch Bill Duke be a badass, Bruce Davidson as racist? I’ll watch X-Men thank you.
And the people who’ve posted here know how I feel about Helo. And since this episode was all Helo I wanted to kick puppies.
Didn’t hate it, even liked some bits, but it was really pretty weird overall and didn’t really work. I suspect another episode has been lost to poor editing – how many more deleted or planned-but-not-filmed scenes were there?
Agreed that Adama was totally out of character. Everyone seemed to be extra-jerky, really, just to make Helo look better/have something to struggle against. “You’re important enough to do a very important job, but not enough to, oh, listen to even a little.”
And given that Roslin outlawed abortion so that the human race could survive, why is she okay with allowing people to refuse medication for religious reasons when they will die without it?
The bar scene was freaky – what was with everyone being all happy? Unnatural. Was Gaeta smoking to celebrate the fact that he apparently didn’t have to serve any prison time for stabbing someone in the neck?
Plus side, there was just about as much time devoted to the Foursome as there should be.
Helo still isn’t interesting. Yeah, whatever, you’re not all about being married to a Cylon – seriously, they couldn’t have had him say that to someone more appropriate than, you know, the Cylon he’s married to so it doesn’t sound all awkward and misplaced? I mean, I’m pretty sure she’s never accused him of being only about dating a Cylon.
And help with the laundry, you mopey jerk.
Tigh was funny. Helo needs to visit some of Chief’s anger management classes – look, if you’re all omg defending your honor and your wife’s honor, you punch a guy for calling your wife a whore or traitor. You don’t punch a guy for calling your wife a Cylon when your wife is a Cylon.
Has “frack” ever sounded sillier than it did in this episode? It’s fine when it’s casual, but when very angry people are yelling it for emphasis, it’s sillier than bleeping.
And dear god, the awkwardness of the title has stuck in my head for some time now, but yesterday someone over on TWOP suggested that February + “The Woman King” + an episode about tolerance =…
Am hoping it is just a poor title for other reasons. Maybe someone will explain at some point.
And plus it’s not racism, Helo, it’s like, anti-hippie-Christian-Scientists-ism.
And yet? ChipGaius made everything worthwhile. Ahhhhhhhh, ChipGaius. And Roslin and Tory watching Six? Even better.
nerdlet,
Nobody cares about plot points from season 2, not even the writers;).
Though I believe when Baltar ran against her using that issue to announce is candidacy he might have overturned her ruling while they were on New Caprica.
Aside from that you really do have a point, especially when it’s young fertile people dying.
Yeah, amen. Since BSG is usually so awesome about gender roles (or lack thereof), that was remarkably distracting.
Yeah, this came out of nowhere, just like “oh, by the way, there’s this weekly boxing match? That goes on?” Everyone (like me!) who expected the real villain to be Cottle has just been spoiled by decent television writing…no, it’s got to be the new character we’ve never met before, so we can restore the status quo by the closing credits and forget the whole thing ever happened. (Okay, I guess that last part’s a good thing.)
Honestly? I almost wish they’d do it more often. Except occasionally after episodes that don’t suck. At this point, I’m edging towards, “Well, that’s it. Humanity’s doomed.”
I’m gonna be the dissenting voice and say this was a decent episode. Especialy when compared to the last two.
And racism against the Sagitarrius has been hinted in previous episodes like Bastille Day.
Sure there’s some plot devices like the new actor who’s the bad guy. But a cliché on a good show is better than a cliché on a crap show.
And Halo probably tried to help Sharon with the laundry, but like everything else in the episode she just complained about the way he did it.
X-)
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