Here's what I love about this show so far, especially when compared to the other sci-fi show I used to watch faithfully (Star Trek: Next Generation):
-- THIS show is gritty, realistic, and NOT antiseptic. No polyester play-suits for the folks. The civilization isn't SO advanced that they don't have GREASE PENCILS any more. (I noticed the red grease pencil on the backlit map and thought, "Good for them. They didn't come up with some sort of fake new-fangled device for this when a common grease pencil would work just fine.") Same with the tape dispenser.
-- ANYONE could die. This is one of the good elements of any show like this (I'd include "Lost" and "24" in this assessment.) That is, it's realistic enough that once in a while even a major character might not make it -- so you never know! Realistic.
-- Enough ambivalence to keep you guessing. Not everyone is against every cylon. (Note Helo in particular, and Gaius, assuming he's not a cylon himself. *cough*) Not everyone likes 'em either.
-- YES, the fact that five centurions can wreak such havoc is realistic and was very well done. There wasn't some seamless plan of attack for this. It was fairly seat-of-the-pants and it had holes in it, and they had to adapt the plan of attack constantly. Nice.
-- Enough subplots to constantly keep the plot moving.
-- Even the characters I thought might end up as stereotypes while watching the miniseries (Starbuck, Tigh, Gaius, etc.) are turning out to be fascinating, multilayered characters.
-- Enough plot to keep it going well into the future. I just don't see HOW you could quickly wrap all this up, even if they bumped into Earth in the very next episode. I LOVE that about any good ensemble-cast show, "Lost" being another one. Some folks get frustrated that "Lost" will answer one question for ya and then ask two more in the same episode. But I LOVE that about it. BSG feels the same way: It feels like it's peeling the layers off an onion plot-wise and character-development-wise.
A seemingly ever-growing onion, to boot.
Addiction level? Feels a lot like how I felt/feel about "Lost." I think about "Lost" (which is on hiatus in midseason until early February) almost every day. Not for long, mind you -- but it crosses my mind, and I wonder fleetingly what will happen to this or that character when the show starts back up.
It's now that way with the characters of BSG: I think about them a lot, each day. And I am at the point where household chores are in serious danger of being thrown by the wayside so I can sit and watch a whole disc of episodes and indulge.
Hubby will be going out of town to visit his mom in Florida, starting Sunday, and will be away for 12 days. I'll miss him terribly (over the holidays too!), although I'm glad he'll get to see his mom over the holiday. Still, a small part of me thought, "Oooh, I can play all the episodes of BSG I can get my hands on while he's gone!! Any time of day or night!"
It will keep me from getting lonely, and yet not inconvenience him too. A perfect time to indulge and catch up, and fight off aloneness.
Suffice it to say I now ADORE this show. I was very skeptical while watching the miniseries -- I LOVED the plot ideas and how realistic they were, but I found the characters shallow. Well, duh -- I guess I just didn't know them yet. Not shallow. Just new.
So, although it has taken me longer to get into this show than it did "Lost" (anyone who's seen that very first episode of "Lost" knows what I mean), I think it feels far more addictive than "Lost."
A hint at my level of interest: We've been watching the SciFi miniseries, "The Lost Room," for the past few nights. Well, SciFi has this annoying habit of replaying the same commercials over and over. One is this apparently detailed commercial about BSG. The second it comes on, I stuff my fingers in my ears and do the "la la la, I'm not listening" thing. I really do -- no matter who's in the room. Hubby thinks I'm nuts and frowns at me from across the room, but I don't want to SPOIL anything from Season 3 by seeing it too early. So I "la la la" over any commercial about BSG.
In a nutshell: It's currently my very favorite show. Nothing else comes close.
THANK YOU, guys, for the prodding to get me to watch it.