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120 of 130 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent start for what promises to be an explosive conclusion, December 28, 2008
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.
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129 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Ideal State of Flawed Perfection, October 29, 2008
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.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique Television Experience, January 3, 2009
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.
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