The more television I watch with my wife, April, the more I am bound to find good television. Our latest find is SciFi’s Battlestar Galactica. This remake of the classic 1970’s science fiction epic is everything good TV is. The writing is top notch, the acting is superb, and the photography direction is just plain awesome.

The show focuses on a a group of forty thousand humans that survived the nuclear destruction of the human race by the Cylons. The Cylons are the robotic artificial intelligence that humans had created who also later rebelled, commenced a war with the humans and then disappeared. The Battlestar Galactica is a ship from this first Cylon war and is on the verge of being decommissioned when Cylons attack the 12 human settlements, known as the 12 Colonies. Commander Adama, is in charge of the Galactica and commences to go to war with the Cylons. But after discovering a fleet of ships of the last remnant of the human race, he along with newly appointed President Laura Roslin decide that running away and looking for the lost 13th colony on Earth is the better option for the human race.

Through out the course of two seasons there are various struggles. These struggles range from political, military, and to personal. Every character is brought vividly to life by the writing and the back stories associated with them. But what really stood out to me was the various political and religious statements made through out the show. There is a lot of talk about religion in Battlestar Galactica, at least of a science fiction show. And the politics of the first two seasons have very familiar tones to our own (United States) government at the time. It’s almost as if the writers were using this show as a soapbox for some of their political and religious views, but they do it in such a way that one, it does not effect the flow of the show, and two if you are not paying attention you’d never notice it was there.

Battlestar Galactica, runs its viewers through a ton of various emotions and all within a few episodes. April and I watched the first 2 seasons on DVD, and doing so got us through the story up to now much faster but it also allowed us to see complete story arcs. This really ran us through a bunch of emotions and I can even admit to shedding a tear during a few scenes. The writers really work to make you feel for these characters and they succeed beyond any preset expectations.

Battlestar Galactica is good television and should be enjoyed by everyone.

Season DVD sets can be purchased via Amazon.com:
Season 1
Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)
Season 2.5 (Episodes 11-20)

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