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« Roush Dispatch
Grading the Finales
So are we supposed to think Bob Dylan is the final Cylon? Wouldn’t surprise me a bit after Sunday’s mind-blowing season finale of Battlestar Galactica. I watched a rough cut of this episode several weeks ago, in order to be able to include it in a mid-season roundup, but it feels like a year has passed, I’ve been so anxious for it to get out there so more dedicated and obssessed fans than I could ever claim to be can start weighing in. I rarely have the luxury to watch anything twice, but I decided to watch Sunday’s episode in more or less real time, so I could savor it again in a more polished version and see if it would have the same impact the second time around.
Did it ever. As they say, holy frak, right?
Battlestar earns an A-plus with its jam-packed finale, the last we’ll get of the show until the next calendar year. (That’s the bad news. The good: There will be at least 22 more hours of Battlestar to kick around come 2008.) Not only was Baltar’s trial riveting to the end, with Lee more or less winning the defense case with a closing statement delivered from the witness box. It was provocative as well, in classic Battlestar fashion. “We’re not a civilization anymore,” Lee says, questioning the nature of justice in this fugitive society in space. He talks of the shared shame and guilt they're all dealing with in the wake of the New Caprica nightmare, and the argument even swayed his father (much to President Roslyn’s dismay). The bitter aftermath of this verdict (not guilty not being the same as innocent, don’tcha know) should haunt everyone for a while to come — once they get over the shock waves of the “Who’s a Cylon?” finale, that is.
Tori? Whatever. Anders? No way. Tyrol? Major spit take. Tigh? The head explodes. “We’re Cylons and we have been from the start.” What does this mean? How could it be? Does this not make us rethink everything we thought we knew about the way this universe operates? I may actually have to go to some message boards (my reluctance to go there is epic) to figure this thing out. The theories already flying around our newsroom (thanks, Ethan) just plain intimidate an amateur Battlestar follower like yours truly. At first I thought, “There’s too much confusion” (spoken by Tigh and later Anders) was just a metaphor for the episode itself. Then it dawned on me: It’s part of the freaking Dylan song. The times they are a-changing, indeed.
And then the return of Starbuck. Beautifully done. Earth appears to have agreed with our tormented pilot. She looked so Zen, grinning at Lee as she announced, “I’ve been to Earth. I know where it is. And I’m gonna take us there.” The Cylons and Toto, too?
2008 can’t come quick enough.
Meanwhile, Rome wrapped its second and final season Sunday night with a typically and extremely lurid finish. I give it a B-plus, more for the Pullo-Vorenus finish than for the hurried conclusion to Antony and Cleopatra’s demise. The fact that the pivotal battle of Actium occurred off camera (only the smoking ruins were seen as the episode started) was another reminder of how the show often lacked the financial resources to pull off its epic ambitions. The real heart of this yarn, which played fast and loose with history, was in the loving and ever-loyal friendship of Pullo (Ray Stevenson) and Vorenus (Kevin McKidd), war-worn soldiers, precursors to cowboys, which is why I flashed so frequently on Lonesome Dove in the final reel, as Vorenus suffered a mortal wound but Pullo refused to abandon him, staying at his side and taking him back to Rome for an uneasy reunion with Vorenus’ often-estranged children before cranky old Vorenus passed away. “Old friends are a rare commodity,” Octavian noted to Pullo, one of the few blokes that can make the cold-blooded boy emperor seem even remotely human. What a wonderful closing moment, as Pullo walks through the teeming streets with his son (by Cleopatra!) Caesarian (pronounced dead to spare his life), muttering “About your father.... ” With Rome, and this coming Sunday The Tudors on Showtime, the spirit of the classic TV miniseries thrives. It just looks different (a lot naughtier, to put it mildly) and is scheduled differently.
Finally, last and most definitely least, they crowned the winners on Grease! You’re the One That I Want. They could have named Laura the new Sandy weeks ago. She was a slam-dunk. She may actually have a career in musical theater beyond Grease. We can hope. As for the new Danny: that boat crashed when Derek, a true matinee idol (think of him as the “hunky Danny”), was ejected the week before, leaving us with the “pretty boy Danny” of Austin and the “goofy sidekick Danny” of crowd favorite and underdog Max. He was a good story; I’m just not convinced he’s a good leading man. (His little brother, though? Too bad Beauty and the Beast is about to leave Broadway. He’d be a perfect Chip. Or a terrific Gavroche to enliven the even-less-desired-than-Grease revival of Les Miz. Or imagine him as Winthrop in a new Music Man revival.) But I digress. Better that than remember any of the schlocky and suspense-free Grease finale. I give it a D-minus. And I’ve decided, upon watching the cast number that ended the show, that I’m saving my money for the new Legally Blonde musical (word from the West Coast is promising). As I once said when reviewing a regional production of Grease years and years ago starring Lorna Luft and Gary Sandy: Grease isn’t the word. More like crude oil.
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Mar 26, 2007 9:08 AM
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Matt,
I've never watched any of these shows, but I do enjoy reading your reviews.
Also, I think you meant "Legally Blonde," not "Totally Blonde."
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Mar 26, 2007 11:52 AM
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Matt, I am confident that Max can make it as Danny but I agree with your assessment of the absolutely awful finale 100%. I suspect Max will jump from Grease to a sitcom. He'd do well on TV.
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Mar 26, 2007 12:01 PM
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Oops. Fixed the Totally/Legally Blonde error.
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Mar 26, 2007 12:05 PM
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The sad thing isn't the TV show, it's that they are doing ANOTHER revival of Grease. I understand trying to bring in mass audiences, but if there was so much demand for Grease, why did the last revival close? They should give it another decade at least. Same with Les Miserables and A Chorus Line. Try reviving great shows of the past that haven't been revived yet (or at least, not within the last 10 years), or, even more revolutionary, how about doing NEW SHOWS?
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Mar 26, 2007 1:57 PM
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BSG: Is it possible that they were all abducted and replaced with Cylon copies? Maybe they are not the final 4 (5 if you think Starbuck is one too), but something completely new. (The SciFi survey they took during the show asking where the strange music came from offered the answers: Cylons, humans, or "some other new unrevealed source".) Does the fact that they all know a Dylan/Hendrix song mean they are picking up radio signals from Earth? Too many questions. I hope by "2008" they mean January. Only 8 months left.
Rome: Sorry to see Vorenus pass. Did Atia become sympathetic in the end? Did Octavian deserve what came to him? The biggest problem I ever had with Rome was it zoomed by so fast, I felt like characters came and went in a blur.
Not sure I loved the way this one went out. HBO shows are like that. (see Carnivale, Deadwood)
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Mar 26, 2007 5:45 PM
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I'm a casual BSG watcher, but I wasn't blown away by the finale. (Maybe because I'm TOO casual, and not totally familiar with or invested in the mythology.) But about Tigh possibly being a cylon.... what about the "age" thing? Weren't the human-form cylons created in his lifetime, so that he would already have been born when they were created??
Anyway, as a finale, it was somewhat interesting. But unlike some others, it isn't leaving me on the edge of my seat for the next season.
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Mar 26, 2007 6:57 PM
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At the end of the season finale of BSG, all I could think was...2008. 2008. 2008!?!
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Mar 27, 2007 12:36 AM
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I've thought long and hard about the BSG finale -- having now watched twice.... Just because they think they are Cylons doesn't mean they are! The Cylons play with the colonialists' heads -- why not now? Perhaps all five have been captured (we know that at least three of them have) -- who's to say they haven't been implanted with devices in their brains. If there is one thing I've learned in Sci Fi and that is nothing is what it seems! This maxim is applicable in life -- just because someone says it is true does not make it true.
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Mar 27, 2007 3:50 PM
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The final five ARE something completely new. In an interview, Ron Moore confirmed that our four friends are indeed the 'final five' Cylons, but "fundamentally different" Cylons than we've seen before. And they would explain all this (including how it's possible that Tigh can be a Cylon) next season, along with who the fifth is. My theory is that it has something to do with the Lords of Kobol and the true origin of the Cylons. And Earth. And time travel. And Bob Dylan, apparently.
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Mar 27, 2007 8:52 PM
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Does anyone know the Neilsen numbers from the awesome BSG finale? thanks!
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Mar 28, 2007 2:22 AM
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You were dead on regarding Grease. I checked out when Derek lost.
The one good thing from this experience is that I now realize that it's really a waste of time to invest in any shows that leave it to the audience - whether it be Dancing or Idol or even Nashville Star (to a lesser degree though), the audience vote is less about talent and more about popularity.
The only place it would have merit would be a beauty pageant since talent is not a big factor. Perhaps they should consider that to revive Miss America again to a more mass audience.
Oh how I have digressed.....
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Apr 2, 2007 3:03 PM
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