Customer Reviews

Battlestar Galactica - Season 4.0

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I would describe the first half of this season as occasionally mind-blowing, always gripping. It wasn't perfect, certainly, but it was pretty close. Each of this season's episodes was consistently good, compared to some of the weaker stand-alone episodes in the second half of seasons 2 and 3. BSG has made a successful and compelling transformation from a black/white, us vs. them SciFi/action series into a morality tale about peaceful coexistence, and every step of the way has been executed brilliantly. I'm eagerly awaiting the finale, though I would have welcomed additional seasons.

Also, I'm going to join the other reviewers asking people to stop posting 1-star reviews based on something completely unrelated to the quality of the show or something about the DVD set itself. Complain about the price, or the fact that it's split in half again (though the latter is due more to the writer's strike than anything), but don't come here to complain about problems downloading episodes. Over half of the 1-star reviews have nothing to do with the show or the DVDs.

Battlestar Galactica has, over the last four years, proven to be a new milestone for the very idea of sci-fi television and, outside of "genre" standards, has still shown itself to be one of the strongest shows on television through consistently powerful acting, writing, and directing. Over the seasons, the show has always pushed the envelope when it came to reaching beyond the limitations placed on it by the network and the high level of quality it continued to place on itself. The third season faltered slightly due to all of this growing pressure, as the network forced the show to turn to a story format that didn't suit the overarching plot at all, conflicting with the show's natural evolution. Fortunately, the network took the blame, and for the first time since the show's conception, the writers had full creative control. And how they embraced it.

In turn, the show's fourth season is the perfect realization of Battlestar's miraculously coherent half-planned, half-winging-it plotting style. The ten episodes shown so far are the first large group of episodes since the beginning of the show's second season that can be seen working as a whole, each episode contributing to the core plot, slowly implementing important movements for the main players. The difference here though is that back in the second season, the writers still had to pair each major development with a weekly plot, making easily discernible story chunks. But now, finally at the end, the show has moved far past that phase, ambitiously linking episode to episode by bringing what were previously undercurrents to the foreground, creating the sense of a visual novel with no distractions or fluff. Each moment is even more necessary than ever, as the show has truly become aware of the power of its main narrative, shedding off the structure that other shows have settled on after great ambition. Battlestar dared to go past what was proven to work and has reached its ideal state.

As one might realize, if a show were condensed to its most relevant materials and its excess removed, the viewer is left with very concentrated bursts of development. Luckily, Battlestar's entire cast and crew seem to have been trained for this season through the show's progression, and each episode not only works to hold together the whole, but is a gem of television in its own right. An episode such as "Escape Velocity" shines for handling character growth perfectly through masterful writing and direction, while "Faith" will shine for immaculate performances and gorgeous, revelatory writing most of all. Even an episode like "Sine Qua Non," the only noticeable hiccup this season, still shines for the episode it is, its incongruity tempered by its importance to the full season.

Any viewer of the show can acknowledge the odd notion that, for such a beacon of hope, Battlestar is a dark, challenging, and at times outright depressing show. Season 4 continues dark and heavy, but with a new and refined perception towards the sense of each character, has shown palpable thematic brilliance, each emotional trench, realistically heart-breaking, each rare moment of hope, poignantly uplifting. Just as the characters of the show are flawed and are perfect for all of their faults, so is this fantastic season, in this once-in-a-lifetime show, worth watching unfold.

Unlike most shows on television (cable, anyway), Battlestar Galactica is ambitious and unique. While most shows bow to studio demands and demographics, this show has no problem making its audience, at times, disgusted and queasy with the "good guys" and sympathize with the "bad guys". Each story is carefully planned out, with a purpose, and not just squeezed into season "arcs" that will keep eyeballs glued to the screen.

Season 4 was as surprising, entertaining, and thought-provoking as seasons 1-3. I've never met a TV show that I couldn't guess what would happen next before, or a TV show that seems to want to push the boundaries of what you should and should not do on TV (ex: New Caprica. Some of that stuff still freaks me out). My assumptions on how they would end this series have been completely thrown out the window and I honestly do not know what to expect next.

I have only one criticism of this Battlestar Galactica DVD release, and in a sense it is not really a criticism... The movie "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" is included in this set. That's great for this set, but if I had known that it would be included, I would not have purchased Razor on its original release. So, for those of you building your collection, I recommend either waiting for the inevitable complete series box set to come out or note that you do not need to buy Razor separately.

As for the content itself, what can I say? The show is brilliant and belongs to the pantheon of "all time best shows" along with The Sopranos, The Wire, The West Wing, and Homicide: Life on the Street (to name a few). As with the other seasons' box sets, there are fascinating commentaries and some good special features. But of course the main feature here is the episodes, and this season (or, rather, half-season) is no exception. It's great stuff, and I recommend it to television fans, whether you generally enjoy science fiction or not.

Season 4 starts with dealing with the fall-out from the S3 finale. Four regular characters discover they are Cylons, Starbuck has reappeared despite last being seen in a Viper exploding above a gas giant and the fleet, having undergone a mysterious power failure, is under attack by a colossal Cylon fleet. The opening episode gives us the most impressive space battle yet as the fleet sustains heavy losses as it tries to escape. It's not too much of a spoiler to reveal it does escape, but the victory is marred by discontent over Starbuck's return and her claim that she has been to Earth. Adama decides to trust her and gives her a ship and crew to see if they can locate the planet, but Starbuck's orders do not prove popular and soon she has a mutiny on her hands...

Meanwhile, the Cylons are in turmoil with the revelation that the mysterious 'Final Five' models are in the human fleet, and it isn't long before the gulf between the models begun by events on New Caprica explodes into a fractious civil war. Back in the fleet the four Cylons try to work out what is going on whilst concealing their identities, and Apollo begins a new career in the fleet's political system. Baltar finds himself the leader of a new cult fascinated by the Cylon's belief in one true god, and Roslin, dealing with the return of her cancer, is confronted by the prospect of her own mortality.

Season 4 raises a lot of interesting issues and the story does move forward in an intriguing manner. However, the fact that what were supposed to be two full 20-episode seasons have been compressed into one is painfully obvious at times: Apollo's meteoric rise through the political ranks in just a few episodes and weeks of time in the series would have made more sense spread across a whole season and maybe a year of narrative time, and the Cylon Civil War happens mostly off-screen due to time and budgetary constraints. All of this really hits home in Episode 8, 'Sine Qua Non', which is possibly the most confused, bemusing and borderline nonsensical episode the series has ever done, moving characters into the positions they are needed in for plot purposes by having them behave totally out of character (Adama especially).

However, once that painful act is accomplished, the final two episodes of the half-season return the series to a form it hasn't enjoyed since early Season 3. The controversial alliance between the humans and one of the Cylon factions raises a number of very interesting questions about the nature of both humanity and the Cylons, whilst the attack on the Hub is nothing short of breathtaking. But it is the mid-season finale, 'Revelations', which impresses the most. The best episode since the 'Exodus' two-parter, it moves quickly but doesn't feel rushed and is packed with moments of stunning acting (Eddie Olmos as Adama and Michael Hogan as Tigh give us the most dramatically intense scene of the series to date, whilst Jamie Bamber delivers his best performance as Lee is put in a really difficult position). The final two minutes or so of the episode represent one of the most talked-about moments of television in the last year, and will ensure that everyone comes back for the second half of the season, regardless of how much they charge for it on DVD.

BSG: Season 4 is not the series at its best, but it does undertake a lot of necessary plot movements to set things up for the show's grand conclusion, and the episode 'Revelations' justifies the price of the set by itself. Recommended. Also remember that the final episodes of BSG begin airing on 16 Jan 2009 in the USA and 20 Jan 2009 in the UK.

I pre-ordered this at least a month before recieving so I had great expectations. Mostly those expectations were met-- especially in the writing, storylines and acting which are excellent. The plots are very dark which is what makes this show fairly unique for Prime Time (cable).

There are two main areas which I would improve:

1) Sound Quality is poor so that I had to replay scenes to figure out what people were saying. It seems like there were some lines overdubbed so this made it hard to understand the dialogue espcially when they were whispering. It was especially hard to hear Edward James Olmas (Admiral Adama) sometimes.

2) They should NOT have packaged Razor in with this set. Razor has been out for more than a year and can be bought for $5.00 used. Regurgitating Razor devalued the set and allowed them to get away with charging more than it was worth for just 10 episodes.

Recommended. You have to buy it because the series is so good and it will soon be over.

Awesome show! This box set includes Razor (including unedited version) so don't buy it separately like I did :(

Whoa, Nelly. What happened? Bottom line - Season four will be a big disappointment if you enjoyed the series stellar first two seasons, which capably balanced the sci-fi-religious-mystical elements with a gritty, hard edged military and political drama. However, the sudden drop in quality won't come as a total surprise to anyone who made it through season three. Not that Season Three was a waste - there were some extremely strong episodes there (especially at the start), but in its second half the writing began to veer too far into the melodramatic.

Unfortunately, this trend continues and reaches its nadir in season 4. This season, we get Dr. Baltar as a vapid messiah in an underwritten subplot that never really goes anywhere. We get an increasingly overheated and yet curiously static Final Five subplot that made me regret ever wondering about their identities. Characters behave out of character, and the acting has suddenly gone down the drain. And instead of a show that tempers melodrama with a hard spun, pragmatic view of life after genocide, we get a bunch of soapy drama and yelling. Even the cinematography and editing have changed for the worse. Ick.

Once the "Final Five" theme was introduced, this series fell toward the abyss.

I admired the first three seasons, and was hoping the decline would be reversed in 4.0. Not the case. The FF theme is a narrative killer. It allowed the writers to fill up copy books with writing that should have been nixed in writers' conferences. Excellent actors go through the motions dramatizing these five non entities.

All five characters are reduced to unconvincing cut outs. Their previous character development goes down the drain. You can have no interest in these hollowed out creatures, they show no convincing motivation.

Meaningless ending to a final season that should have been stellar.

I am well known in my family and circle of friends to not be a huge fan of remakes of series and films that I have loved previously. I will always give the first episode a reasonable chance. I am usually not surprised to be both disappointed and annoyed.
BSG grabbed me from the opening of episode one and has consistently delivered excellent acting and directing; a number of story lines that you really have to watch to keep them straight and not miss anything; occaisionally a weaker script that might have needed some cpr or defibrillation in parts; But 99% of the series has been tight, dramatic, well acted, well cast ( I confess to having been a bit worried at the thought of a female Starbuck ( he was always my favourite character)). Katee Sackoff delivered in spades. Love the show and here's to Season 5 ... hopefully.
As for split into two season halves .... suck it up and just enjoy.
Susan, Australia.