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Battlestar Galactica Season 3, Episodes 10-12 Review

11 Jun

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The Algae Planet Arc

EPISODES COVERED: “The Passage” (3×10), “The Eye of Jupiter” (3×11), “Rapture” (3×12)

This show is still entirely capable of crafting compelling, entertaining stories, but the foundation for those stories is oftentimes so flimsy that you can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Take “The Passage”‘, for example, which pulls an entire backstory for Kat out of thin air–not to mention the food shortage as well–just in time for her to die of radiation poisoning. It’s a “Hero” concept all over again, and that only happened two episodes ago.

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Battlestar Galactica “Unfinished Business” Review (3×09)

10 Jun

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Extended Version

“Unfinished Business” has the appearance of a bag of jumbled ideas, but when you reach in, you somehow pull out an affecting episode with moving performances and a narrative structure that serves the bottle episode feel quite well. To be honest, the show’s been more miss than hit when it attempts to play with structure, but the way this episode handles the location shifts is more effective than we’ve seen in the past.

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Battlestar Galactica “A Measure of Salvation”/ “Hero” Review (3×07/3×08)

10 Jun

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EPISODE 7: “A Measure of Salvation”

Battlestar Galactica is once again tackling a large moral question and using it to structure an episode, and what we see in “A Measure of Salvation” is a discussion about whether or not to carry out genocide of the Cylon race, whether you’re on one side or the other of the age-old Cylons-as-machines dilemma.

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Battlestar Galactica “Collaborators”/ “Torn” Review (3×05/3×06)

10 Jun

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EPISODES 5 and 6–“Collaborators” and “Torn”

There’s essentially been a reset of location, but there certainly hasn’t been a reset of characterization. “Torn” deals with the effects of the New Caprica occupation from different points of view: those on the ground like Tigh or Starbuck, and those who participated in the rescue mission from Galactica. These differing experiences are placed side by side until they inevitably clash, and we see damaged people lashing out at each other, looking for someone to take out their anger on, and the Admiral’s eventually forced to put Starbuck and Tigh in their places. Of course, as Tigh spits out at the end, the man Adama knew no longer exists; simply put, people have changed, and relationships that were going strong beforehand are no more.

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Friday Night Lights “Always” Review (5×13)

21 Apr

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*This was written several months ago, but I only just got around to posting it.

Take it all in. You’re on the largest field you’ve ever played on. You’re simultaneously in awe and living in the moment, and the crowd’s roaring as you dig your feet into the ground. You can smell the food and the sweat and the grass, and you’re ready to run. The ball’s set down and kicked, and it traces an arc in the air as you look up, seeing it spiral closer and closer and closer. Then, all background noise fades away, and it’s just you, the ball, and your team.

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Veronica Mars “A Trip to the Dentist” Review (1×21)

27 Mar

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One of the essential components of a good season-long mystery is a long-term memory. “A Trip to the Dentist” revolves around one of the main questions brought up by the pilot–who raped Veronica?–and it essentially takes us on a ride back through the season; we see people like Meg and Dick and Beaver and Casey and Carrie and Madison and Luke, all of whom appeared in at least one earlier episode, and the way Veronica hops around from one to another is a nice representation of her mindset as she tries to find out what happened on the night of Shelley’s party.

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Veronica Mars “Hot Dogs”/ “M.A.D.” Review (1×19/1×20)

8 Mar

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EPISODE 19: “Hot Dogs”

“You want people to leave you alone, Mandy? Or better yet, treat you with respect? Demand it. Make them.”

This idea is exactly what Veronica herself has been dealing with her whole life, and the episode expands upon that idea throughout its various subplots: you have Mandy, eventually tasering Hans at the end after she finds out he’s behind Chester’s disappearance, and you also have Aaron Echolls, eventually beating up Trina’s boyfriend at the end after finding out he hit her.

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Veronica Mars “Kanes and Abel’s”/ “Weapons of Class Destruction” Review (1×17/1×18)

2 Feb

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EPISODE 17: “Kanes and Abel’s”

As Veronica says, “life is unfair” seems to be the motto of the episode, especially when applied to the Sabrina-Hamilton Valedictorian case. Hamilton really doesn’t have control of the situation until the end, when he decides to acquiesce to Sabrina’s mother’s demands in return for not pressing charges; rather, this is all his father’s doing, and we see at the meeting that even Sabrina seems a bit uncomfortable with her own parent’s attitude. When all’s said and done, even though the odds were stacked against Hamilton from the start and even though he loses his Oxford scholarship, he still loves his father, and inequity doesn’t cause Hamilton to harbor resentment toward him.

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Veronica Mars “Ruskie Business”/ “Betty and Veronica” Review (1×15/1×16)

2 Feb

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Episode 15: “Ruskie Business”

The way this show’s developed Logan over the course of the season is truly fantastic. Recently, we’ve started to see a softer side to him, a side that begins to let Veronica in for a friendship not tied to the Lilly Kane case and the shaky history they share. At the beginning of the season, he was still caught up in Veronica’s betrayal, unable to shake the idea of her siding with her dad over her best friend–understandable, considering what we’ve seen of him and Aaron Echolls–but now, the dynamic’s a lot different. Now, Logan’s vulnerable in front of her, breaking down in her arms in the hotel lobby after Trina leaves.

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Veronica Mars “Lord of the Bling”/ “Mars vs. Mars” Review (1×13/1×14)

6 Dec

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Episode 13: “Lord of the Bling”

Whether it’s with Bone Hamilton or Aaron Echolls or even, to an extent, flashback Veronica, image plays a huge role in how they treat others and how they make their decisions. And, when they’re preoccupied with maintaining their street cred or their Hollywood status or their 09er-dom, others will inevitably be hurt. Bone (aka Antown Mitchell from The Shield), ends up pushing away both his son Bryce and his daughter Yolanda, and he ultimately isn’t able to settle things with either; his notions of masculinity and his feud with the Blooms are both tied to his image, and his son and daughter end up as the victims.

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