/dev/null/kevin

Consider this my second scorecard on the things I was looking forward to.

I'm sad to say that Stargate SG1 has jumped the shark. Technically, it jumped the shark when Michael Shanks left, since that was the moment we all knew the show would never be the same again (the definition of JTS). However, the show's quality didn't really suffer and that season's finale, "Full Circle" was an awesome episode that could have served as a great series finale. Even with the return of Michael Shanks, the series couldn't return to form due to the reduced shooting schedules of Richard Dean Anderson. Not having all four priciples in each story lead to lots of "individual focus" episodes. Again, the quality of shows was usually good, but the show was different. That trend has continued into this season with mixed resules. The death of a major character was one of the best episodes ever, but of course, changed the show yet again.

Sadly, since the return of Stargate SG1 this year, the quality of the last few shows has been poor. Perhaps the series has played out, perhaps the good writing staff is focusing on Stargate Atlantis, who knows. For example, one thing that I've always liked about the show is that everyone is smart. The plots haven't required that someone just be stupid and ignore the obvious for the story to continue. However, in the recent episode "Gemini," the smartest person on the show (Sam) just acted like a complete fool. That's unlike the character and lessened both her and the show. Strangely, Stargate SG1 has been renewed for yet another season (ninth!) and will cast Farscape's Ben Browder as a new team member. Will this make things better? Who knows, but things will definitely change again.

Update (31 Jan 2004): I forgot that not all countries get shows at the same time. I'm in the US and we're midway in Stargate's 8th season now. The "Full Circle" episode was from the 6th season. The "death" episode (entitled "Heroes") was from the 7th season. Ben Browder will join the cast in the 9th season. If you get Atlantis, it should be shown concurrently with SG1's 8th season. Sorry if anyone got confused.

In better news, Stargate Atlantis is still a good show with promise. Like I said, I think it's getting the attention of the "A List" staffers. Keep it up!

In other scorecard news, I'm happy to say that Battlestar Galactica is turning into a really good show. Every character is growing on me and the writers seem to be smart enough to recognize which characters are really interesting and which aren't. Captain Apollo is no longer the main character, as in the old series, and that's good. The stories have all been well told and engaging so far, and the seeds for the long story arcs show lots of promise.

Also scoring high is the return of 24. This season seems even better than previous seasons. I'm detecting much less filler this season, mainly due to the absense of Kim Bauer. Sure, she was hot, but hot and boring is still boring. I also know that there are Arabs who are upset that this storyline features Arabs as terrorists. To be honest, there are Arab terrorists and this show is about a counter terrorist unit. They can't keep avoiding the issue forever.

And to round out the scorecard: Alias is still entertaining, but nothing special. I'll bet this is the last season.
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January 30, 2005 10:10 AM PST Permalink | Comments [5] |