With Season Two of the Bravo network program entering its final phase, two semifinalists talk on video about their struggle with sexual orientation and self-disclosure.
For designer Daniel Vosovic, orientation is partly a numbers game: “80-20.” Designer Nick Verreos, who also dated women, might perform heterosexually again — if he were trapped on a deserted island with a woman and their survival required it. Verreos adds that his Catholic high school should have noticed that he was gay from his lifestyle: He dances well and dresses impeccably.
But so far there aren’t any on Battlestar Gallactica!!! Marring an otherwise perfect show!
I think BSG is going downhill fast — first President Roslin gets miracle-cured with a Cylon baby’s blood, taking all the tension and mortality out of her character; then a well-known fundamentalist Cylon takes up residence atop the progressive movement; then Baltar becomes an ordinary, one-dimensional, egotistical politician.
Meanwhile, a nuke that looks like a camera tripod gets smuggled by progressive peaceniks, unnoticed by any of the fleet’s detectors and un-missed by Adama, who should have been monitoring Baltar’s access to it. Meanwhile, much of the supporting cast has vanished. And the destination of the fleet has been forgotten.
The show is beginning to remind me of a soap opera gone adrift.
The Deus-Ex-Machina way they cured the president was lame, but Six isn’t “well known” outside of Dr. Baltar’s head. I wouldn’t characterize the nutball “let’s blow things up to convince the fleet we should make peace with the guys who just committed genocide” group as progressive, and since they don’t know who Six is, it’s likely she’s just using them. Baltar’s fundamentally a narcicist, so it makes sense that he would react the way he did when Roselyn made it clear she didn’t want him around anymore.
Baltar giving the nuke to the terrorist/Cylon group was weird, but I assume they’ll develop that better in time. Which supporting cast have dissappeared, except maybe for Tigh’s wife (who did at least get mentioned)?
The President’s cure was definitely a “jump-the-shark” moment. It makes me sad.
Project Runway, however, is totally addictive.
Six isn’t well-known, but Gina’s picture was (or should have been) circulated across the fleet after she killed Cain and escaped.
As for supporting cast… BSG seems to be sidelining Tyrol, Cally, and Billy, at least for the time being.
Mike, I think you’re being way too harsh on BSG. Sure, President Roslin was given a miracle cure, but at what cost? This plot development may appear on the surface to be a deux ex machina moment, but it really isn’t, since it raises a million more issues. (That’s the brilliance of this series.) How will this cure play into Roslin’s inflated sense of her own importance? How can she justify the killing of Cylons on an individual or massive scale when it is their very existence that saved her life? Will she move into the peacenik camp, therefore aligning her with Baltar and against Adama? Her flashbacks of Baltar and Six aren’t accidental, so what happens if and when she finds out Baltar’s involvement with the enemy? What level of control does Baltar have over her now that he basically singlehandedly saved her life? Once that word spreads to the rest of the fleet, he will be seen as a hero, and it will be hard for Roslin to control him, now that he’s growing a spine.
I can understand your frustration with BSG, as I, too, felt like the last two episodes played more like setup than payoff (and even creator Ronald Moore admitted that the black market episode was a disappointment). However, all these various plot threads are building to the two-part finale where the Cylons themselves make an official offer of peace (so says the official BSG website). So, I wouldn’t give up on BSG yet.
“Six isn’t well-known, but Gina’s picture was (or should have been) circulated across the fleet after she killed Cain and escaped.”
Oops, you’re right, the resistance group within the fleet probably do know that particular Six was the one who killed Caine, but they’d also know she’d been tortured on Caine’s orders so they’d want to welcome her as a victim and hide her.
“As for supporting cast… BSG seems to be sidelining Tyrol, Cally, and Billy, at least for the time being.”
It’s really a pretty big cast. Billy was in the black market episode.
“and even creator Ronald Moore admitted that the black market episode was a disappointment”
I liked that one. It was pretty creepy the way they were trading children and it played into the theme of just how much moral ambiguity they can tolerate in the name of survival.
Yet another truly bizarre Brokeback review:
https://www.rense.com/general69/prop.htm
Apparently, this movie is part of a plot to destroy Asian teenaged girls.
Not like rense.com is known for sensible, down-to-earth reportage on a variety of subjects.
My favorite bit is the reviewer’s apparent unfamiliarity with actual yaoi. From my experience, it rarely involves hard-core, explicit pr0n-style sex; we’re not talking tentacle hentai here.
Boo:
That is one nasty piece of work, that Rense review. I guess lying about the film you’re reviewing is OK, so long as it suits your point!
Yeesh!
I think it is funny that the way he describes the “propoganda” in the film would apply to all films. Those are film techniques pure and simple and are used in every good film (like the issues with lighting, etc.). Films manipulate the viewer. The question is if the film has a political goal. I don’t see that but some viewers may. Andrew Sullivan covers that (politics and Brokeback) on his website today.
Rense also says the film is boring, but frankly that would be poor propaganda then. Good propaganda is going to impart information to all the viewers and should connect with those viewers.
In my classes though, I make sure that students never use the term boring since it is too personal and subjective. I love Ikuru, but its pace might turn many viewers off. However, slow pacing is not inherently boring. Good reviewers stay away from that term.
BTW You want true propaganda–go to Agape News or Worldnetdaily.com or any site that presents that awkward news that is slanted but pretends to be legit. Rense should read the propaganda section of Wikipedia–might learn some interesting things.