Well Spent?

[cbertsch]

On the one hand, the last two hours of commercial television were some of the most compelling I've seen in a long time. On the other hand, their extreme darkness has radically amplified my already well-developed sense of despair. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to keep watching the show without going totally mad.

Comments

[masoo.livejournal.com]

I wish I could tell you it was going to get better. I even think that it will. At the very least, Admiral Adama will give an inspiring speech.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

It was pretty great. Are the first two seasons that cinematic?

[masoo.livejournal.com]

Yes. And while I haven't seen many episodes this way (we don't get Universal HD), they look glorious in hi-def. On the other hand, a lot of what seems "cinematic" may stem from the relatively low budget of the show. They are forced to get creative.

But the various "looks" of the various settings are always well done. The planet of Caprica, which is the post-apocalypse place we saw the most, was always shot with filters to make it look, well, post-apocalyptic. New Caprica, as you saw, has a grimy look, not just in the sets but in the actual filtering of the image. They take a lot of care with everything.

One way to get to know more about the making of the show: Ron Moore, the creator, usually does a podcast, works like a DVD commentary, that gets posted to the official website, sometimes even before the episode airs so you can watch it and listen to him. They're pretty entertaining (I'm not often a fan of such commentaries). While BSG comes across as having huge ambitions, his commentaries are v.down to earth ... he records a lot of them in his study at home, his wife'll walk in, stuff like that.