Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Nurture Girl
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.20.2007
In fact, let's have a little sidebar, you and me. It's time to talk mission statement. I can't speak for the creators or writers of the show, but here's my deal. Why the fuck should the point of any television show be that "they" hate us and "they" can't be stopped and "they" are evil and not worth a moment's time? I'm sure your objections to the Basestar storyline are totally valid, and not necessarily hateful, but I can't imagine anything more boring, or short-sighted, or reactionary. You're worried about the Cylons getting less scary? I could stand to live in a world where that was at least possible, where most of the decisions being made by my government arise from that kind of superstitious, hateful nonsense. No matter how twisted by hate or religion -- and we've got more than enough on our side of both to balance the scales -- there's no such thing as "they." There are birth pains for civilization, there are seemingly impossible thought patterns and mores that contradict ours, there are interdependencies and long-term rivalries and hatreds, but...the show's been pretty open about turning itself into a dual-protagonist show. Cylons and Fleet at cross-purposes. That's a lot closer to the truth of the world around us than some silly unstoppable enemy chasing you across space until you get cancelled. I don't dismiss the evil the Cylons have done, but I don't see the point in indicting them for it. You can be lazy and point to the jihad and say it's evil and inhuman and stop there, or you can wonder why.
War is a joke. Take a drop of water, or mercury, and divide it: they're both made of the same stuff, come from the same places, love and worship the same God, and if you put them together, you'll never figure out where one starts and another begins. It's molecular, something you can't see. 9/11 : the attack on the Colonies : Gaius's presence on the Basestar :: a mistake, that changes everything for everybody. That kills innocence and introduces the possibility of (here it comes) grace. Our difference from the Cylons is as simple as thought process -- and he's breaking it down as quickly as we're learning to think like them. Athena is the first step in creating that raindrop; Three's complete schizout is the same thing, from the Cylon side. Jihads are made of people and they have reasons for what they do. It's slack and ignorant to leave it at that; all that does is contribute to the joke of war. "They" are very, very different from you and I in certain respects, and not going about things in ways I approve, of course, but "they" are people. Trying to figure it out. It's a difficult but I think necessary proposition to at least try on their shoes once in a while. Anybody or anything that you think is out-and-out evil deserves at least a second glance (see Three at the conclusion of this episode for the Cylon response; check out how similar it is to blowing off the show for asking these questions).
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20Next