Galact-oh-Who-boy-howdy!

For some reason, the definition of a "season" in television has become a warped and unpredictable thing. I think it was The Sopranos that proved to the suits that you can take a show, make it dissappear after a handfull of episodes for many many months (a year and a frackin' half in some cases), and still get an audience to return.

Battlestar Galactica just aired their "midseason finale", whatever the frack that's supposed to mean. In that they've basically dropped a huge cliffhanger on us and won't be back with the rest of the "season" until 2009.

They keep doing this! It's frustrating.

Okay, seriously, I don't really feel any outrage over it, because it's just one of those things. I got over it with The Sopran [delibrate dead air] and with the last time Glalact-oh-yeah pulled this. But what's going to happen is that months will go by and I'll have forgotten what happened and will have a tiny, tiny bit of "don't care" starting to take over.

...And if by some miricale the resumption occurs during a point in time that I actually manage to find a life, that "don't care" will likely mean that I won't be tuning in. Ah well. Like that's gonna happen...

I've got to admit though, that last bit of buildup to the bombshell they dropped was mighty entertaining. Heh.

Also mighty-entertaining is, of course, the only other live-action show I'm watching, Doctor Who. Here in the 'States, it looks like most everybody is only a couple of weeks behind via the SciFi Network for a change. But I still can't resist grabbing it from the 'nets the moment it's done airing over there.

This season is probably "more of the same" and all, but "the same" is a lot of fun. A little bit of cheese, a little bit of horror, and the riveting presence of David Tennant makes this both endearing and watchable despite the contrivances. It's silly stuff, but it's got these little hints of darkness and mystery that only Tennant's over-the-top expressions can truly engage you with.

As a comparison, thanks to Netflix, I've been occasionally watching some classic Tom Baker episodes from a long, long time ago. His presence was, at the time, considered quite engaging and riveting as well, and to an extent, it still is. But the whole thing is very, very dated and a little difficult to watch these days. Still quality work, but low-budget cheese is deep and thick, and the supporting cast's over-the-top BBC-Shakespearian stageplay-with-rubber-suits seems even more quaint when compared to this post-modern remix. Much the way the original Battlestar pales to the new.

Of course, even the BBC isn't immune to the extended inter-season delay syndrome -- after this season is done, there's going to be a changing of the guard (the writer of some of the best episodes is taking over) and there won't be any new episodes for quite a long time. A shame, but probably a well-deserved break.

Anyway, when it's done, I'll likely be done with live TV for quite a while. I suppose there's new Heroes episodes arriving someday, but I think I don't care anymore. Maybe, just maybe, I'll try and see if I missed anything when I skipped Lost. But beyond that, nothing's on the horizon for me.