io9 
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San Francisco, 2:59 AM
Wed Dec 16
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/14/09
I in fact recommend this as a writing excessive -- just write a character without pre-assigning a gender to them and see whether they turn out to be male or female. The results can be freakish/cool.
But back to the show, it's fine to have characters that have sexuality, but what's the point in forcing them to put it out there and let it all hang out when that isn't something they would be doing in a realistic situation? If SGU was realistic, somebody would have gotten raped by somebody by now. How's that for sexuality? Where are the abusive relationships, the psychotic mind-jobs and vindictive revenge-sex sessions? If we have to deal in extreme sexual situations, at least make it interesting. Don't just throw random naked people at us. It's crude.
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Lot's of scifi shows deal with sex on a regular basis, but in an adult manner. What you do is portray women as gun toting blow up dolls, complete with lingering nipple-level POV shots and steamy shower voyeur clips. That wasn't sexual, you say? O RLY? So, where was Eli's magical scrub session? Uh huh, that's what I thought.
"I don't think we over-use it; I directed the Kino episode."
I don't think my sh*t stinks, and I should know, as I'm the one who just shat it.
*rolls eyes* Whatever Cooper, keep blaming the fan base for your ineptitude.
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12/15/09
in any case, I totally agree!
12/15/09
12/14/09
SGU is not SciFi, it is SciWhine, or better CryFi.
The show's producers better listen to the wisdom of Conan "lamentation of women" only AFTER crushing enemies. Not as the core plot of an entire season.
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(What Would Mary Ratliff Say?)
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While the suits love the idea of injecting what is popular into every show, a scripted show needs to stay a scripted show.
One of the biggest things that made Virtuality a big fat fail to me (well that and blah characters that I didn't give a damn about) was its over reliance on the reality show gimmick.
I don't even like real reality shows, why the hell would I want to watch a fake one?
The creators of this show have already said they have used the kinos to provide character development to characters they otherwise haven't gotten around to yet.
It's a cheap shortcut and an unnecessary one when they had plenty of time that they wasted on the crisis of the week because they ran out of hand wringing, only to get that item in the nick of time, and then find something else they need.
The fact is, they are never going to get the audiences that American Idol and Dancing with the Stars have and no amount of kino cam confessionals will change that or lure those people in.
Instead they should focus on what they do have, what the strong points of the Stargate franchise are and how they can incorporate new dramatic elements into that are not gimmicks or shortcuts.
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12/14/09
Also, I suspect that if these first few episodes had focused on characters' backstories instead of how the hell they're managing to survive on a millenias-old derelict ship hurtling endlessly through deep space, people would instead complain about the show being unrealistic by taking the characters' survival for granted. It needs to establish a believable day-to-day reality before it can sell us believable characters. The early stories should depict the struggles they go through to maintain a livable situation aboard Destiny. The kino as a "shorthand-character-development" device is a legitimate, if imperfect, solution for the short term.
12/14/09
I thought the episode that used the time travelling kino with a mystery of everyone dying and then the crew had to try and figure out why and how to prevent that was interesting and good use of the device. However I also feel, like the interviewer in the above referenced article, that they've overused it in these early episodes and relied on it too much for quick fix character development. I'd rather see the characters interacting with other characters than talking into a camera.
On the idea of the resources and realism vs character development, I don't think it's an either or situation. I think there could have been a balance of both. Of course there should be some reference to trying to acquire resources, and again BSG did a good job of reminding of this without dwelling on it too much, but I also would have like to have seen more of a shift to the human interaction regarding these resources.
Instead of the repetitive crisis of the week where we of course knew they would get what they needed at the last second and be saved, they could have, for example, featured Camille Ray (Ming Na) more and had more debate and struggle over how the resources get distributed and who gets the bulk of them, what everyone's roles are etc.
Yes it would have made the show parallel early BSG with it's Adama/Roslin power struggle even more, but it worked there and was more compelling to watch than the generic resources crisis of the week.
It's just like how most people thought more positive of the mid season finale because it featured the main characters interacting and actually doing something instead of running around looking for X and hand wringing over whether they would get it in time when of course we all know they will.
12/14/09
IRT using the quest for resources as an opportunity for meaningful character interaction - I think they've honestly been trying to do this to some extent, particularly in "Air, Part 3" and "Water." In the former its was more of a character-goes-on-quest-and discovers-something-about-himself kind of thing, a la Lost, and in the latter it just kind of collapsed into a pit of cliche when Scott fell into that hole. And the "Eli has an awkward moment and makes a funny" trope has gotten kind of old. Yeah, I guess the writing has been a little lazy thus far.
You're definitely right that they should be involving more characters by now, too. Especially Camille and Lt. James.
12/14/09
JJ Abrams with Lens Flares EVERYWHERE! In the New Star Trek, and FRINGE.
BSG had its shakey came style with the "Breathing" in the framing. Heck even the effects heavy shots from the pilot to the end of the show...but then again that was why i thought BSG was nigh unwatchable in the beginning. I don;t know enough about what the space dogfights were supposed to look like to deal with the "embedded reporter" style.
Heck even Star Wars Episode Two did the "Embedded reporter, Black Hawk Down" style snap zoom shakey cam thing.
We view our movies as we view out world, and wobbly cam is here to stay.
12/14/09
The Office
Paranormal
Quarantine/REC (the Spanish original)
Best in Show (et all)
District 9
...just to name a few off the top of my head. And this doesn't even consider the many single episodes of various TV shows that made use of the technique. ER is one show that had a "reality" episode.
And these are only examples that appear after the advent of so-called reality TV. Of course the scripted use of documentary style has been around a lot longer. I remember 2 great M*A*S*H episodes that used it.
BTW, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are competition shows more deserving of the moniker of variety television than reality tv.
12/14/09
Heck there are even some examples of 'reality television' in scripted stories that I liked, like The Running Man and The Truman Show, but those are almost more social commentaries on our fixation with being entertained at the expense of others and maybe that isn't such a good thing.
I think the 'documentary' style reality technique can be and is at times certainly used to a beneficial effect in a story.
I guess the technique being used in SGU that bugs me is the MTV Real World 'confessional' style with a bit of Blair Witch thrown in. I find it overdone and tired and I find myself wanting to get on with the story and would rather learn about the characters through the story than having them sit there as a talking had and spout out their background and feelings exposition style.
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12/14/09
Ming Na is the hottest woman on that show. I dislike her character since she is almost always a bitch. That isn't realistic for a political position.
They have an ensemble cast and need to share some day-in-the-life episodes to develop a deeper understanding for what everyone is doing.
Adding some practical jokes couldn't hurt either. Humans in stressful situations joke with each other. Kino as a ghost? OTOH, watching kino footage is like watching a tv show about watching golf on tv. Boring.
Out of curiosity, if you send a kino through, how does it get back without a human to dial the gate? Is there an auto-dialer with a delay, since you can't dial out with an active WH.
12/14/09
Hmm, gee I wonder if we will ever see him again.
12/14/09
I think it's been pretty clearly addressed that this is not the issue. And Cooper is well aware of it.
The issue is how they have used sex and sexuality. There were not complaints about the use of sex on BSG - because it was done intelligently. And contextually.
Cooper's response to the issues is pretty much the same as the other writers, just slicker. How do you respond to something without actually responding? Why just change the terms of the conversation...
First the other writers attack fans and critics and try to say they're "hurting the cast" even though they're the ones depicting them in demeaning ways. Manipulation 101. Then the boss says he's happy to talk about the issues and changes the discussion. Manipulation 201.
Basically, in order to write a character like Rush you have to be a little bit like Rush. Look at the way the writers respond to the criticism of the show and compare it to other shows' writers. These guys are kind of creepy. I hope Meredith is right, but based on my experience, they're not going to change what they're doing. They'll just try to convince people to look at it differently. Or divide the fanbase. Or convince people they're being prudish. And so on...
12/15/09
Yes, there were complaints about how the "re-imagined" BSG used sex and sexuality.
I sent an e-mail to SciFi telling them if they ever combined graphic sex and torture again and aired it before 10:00 PM, I would be filing a FCC complaint. I highly doubt my one lousy e-mail motivated them to move the rest of Season 3 to late night Sundays.
And I will never forget Ron Moore's creepy little giggle when he boasted how he got an extended rape scene into the DVDs of Season 2.
Given the amount of scenes that advanced the plot Moore edited out of episodes to get his "moments" in, the sex scenes were largely gratuitous and often boring. Quadrangle of Doom, anyone?
12/15/09
By and large, there were not complaints about BSG and sexuality.
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Because there are a few of us who hate that schmuck.
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And, yeah, these gaps are insanely long.
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I was just sayin' the other day while we were watching Sanctuary, Michael Shanks can't be dead because he is a Stargate actor. He'll be back.
12/14/09
The whole ship would have died by episode 3 without Rush. Not every genius in television can be warm and fuzzy.
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