The Roslin/Adama ending always gets me. Even the small clip in this video had me starting to tear up. Such a great story.

Felix Gaeta and his character arc are still among my favorites. He was the BEST part of Season 4 for me, absolutely heartbreaking.

I wasn't disappointed with any of the seasons, and thought the whole show played along very well.

BSG is one of the finest shows ever.

I didn't have a problem with the ending. Considering all the mysticism and the way the prophecies had been coming true early in the series, it sort of fit to have things end like that. The organics had to hide somewhere from the relentless pursuit from the cylons. They'd found Earth II. The first one had been blown up. All this has happened before and will happen again. The cycle cannot be broken.

Edward J himself told the producers that if he saw an alien on set, he would faint on camera and be on a flight out of town before the director yelled cut.

The most underrated reason for season four's unevenness was the writer's strike midseason. Once the strike ended there was a rush to get the scripts in and resume filming. That strike also impacted Lost's final season as well.

Worst thing about the re imagined BSG is that it only lasted 4 seasons.

The boxing episode where Adama basically says "I'm your Commander, not your friend" is very overlooked. Shows the true grit of Adama and his cruel to be kind nature is there to help these people survive. Great show. Sad Caprica never saw its full run

For me, this is the most complete series. Sure they were winging it by the end of season 3, but that Finale was the best i ve seen in a sci fi show. Also the end of season 3 was the best cliffhanger i ve ever seen in Sci fi. Also leaving some things unexplained regarding the Angels and higher power was amazing. The story about mitochondrial Eve being the daughter of a human and a cylon was pure genius. The music is amazing, i often listen to the show's soundtrack especially "lords of kobol." It has its flaws, but overall it was the best drama and best sci fi show i ve ever watched. This is coming from a die hard Star Trek, Stargate, Farscape, Babylon 5 fan.

SO SAY WE ALL!

BSG jumps into atmosphere over New Caprica, free-falling like a burning brick, launches everything, then jumps away with bits falling off. Best move ever.

Actually, I thought NuBSG was PERFECT. Even the ending, where we find out that our ancient ancestors were these people, who are technically aliens.

What gets me about Adama and Roslin's final scene is that they've made it. They finally did it, after that entire ordeal, they made it to Earth and everyone left is safe. But despite this, there's still no happy ending for Bill Adama. Like everything else in his life, factors beyond his control stop him from ever enjoying the fruits of his labour, and he loses Laura. For Bill, they effectively went through all that hell for nothing. It's so bleak.

Quite simply the best sci-fi series ever. I originally hated the ending but have since grown to like it.

I 100% agree about Gaius Baltar character. Every single scene he is in stole that whole episode. When the show was getting a bit stale for me, i kept watching only for Baltar and the anticipation of his resolution (which was epic, his confrontation with Roslin, NOT the final episode of the series ;) )

I DO NOT understand how some folks think the ending was less than genius and satisfying. It did not feel contrived or made-up as they went along. I didn't get the "Lost" feeling AT ALL. BSG is the best story ever put to film, period.

Thanks to Corona I had time to remember "that Sci-fi show" I once saw ads for when I was younger. I just finished the 4 seasons. The questions I have are nothing compared to how I feel. The last 3 episodes are just magnificent. But that finale... it's been 30 minutes and If I think back I still tear up. I can't wait to bring the experience of this show to someone new. And feel it all over again. Humanity, Inhumanity and Otherness in Battlestar Galactica

I actually love it when the mystical elements remain unresolved

My favorite scifi series ever, and I adore and love Star Trek and other mainstream scifi :)

This deserves a longer updated retrospective!

Favorite scifi. I don't understand how people were confused or thrown off at end. *"All this has happened before and will happen again."* It's revealed to be a portent for US here on Earth. That wasn't enough for you? (Good vid.)

Yes! Please do a long form analysis of the show, please, please, please!

If i wanna cry on demand, i just watch the last episode of BSG. Sometimes the soundtrack alone can make my eyes wet.

Wait....you watched season 1 of the reboot as a teenager??? Damn I'm old.....maybe not 150,000 years, but close

A show constantly building up a great mystery can go one of two ways: Something fantastic if the answer is satisfying. What usually happens is something irritating that hampers rewatch value if it either becomes clear they made shit up as they went or if the answer to the mystery makes people go (ok that's it? That's literally all you had?)

Great video. One of the view shows were I put up with the wierd plot arcs so I could see how it would end. The score and battle camera were also amazing. Completely unique at the time.

i have binged watched this show and it very satisfying to wach

I loved this show. The bit that always hits me right in the feels is after the exodus from New Caprica and all the survivors are spilling out onto Galactica’s flight deck. Adama goes to Tigh and says “you got your people home, Saul”. And Tigh, missing an eye and his wife says “not all of them”. Hogan’s delivery of that line, holding back tears, is amazing as he and Adama share a look of understanding and realisation. And then to twist the knife a bit more, it’s Adama who is carried off the hero. I also like how whenever they show something old, First Cylon War era basestars, Viper pilot uniforms etc, they’re clearly inspired by the designs of the original series. It’s a nice tie in and acknowledgement of the original. Honourable mention to the Felgerkarb toothpaste from Tauron. Tauron being named for Taurus the bull, felgerkarb being the original series word for shit, so yeh, they brush their teeth with bullshit. Love it! Oh and the Cylon plan was... to come up with a plan.

Thank you for making this. I needed this to remember why I loved the show and why I should rewatch it again.

Best TV show ever made - INCLUDING the ending.

I enjoyed the 4th season, however I can see where some of the stuff with Starbuck got a bit strange.

I just finished the entire series this week, I really liked it! I actually found Starbuck and Apollo to get worse over time, all the constant cheating especially made it hard for me to continue to like them. Anders for most of the show ended up being one of my favorite characters because he's set up to kind of the stereotypical jerk/jock character but ends up being an actually good moral dude. After watching the show, and "The Plan" I still don't really understand the plot of the show even though I just watched it haha. So like there were these final 5 cyclone, who were the survivors of a cyclone planet, that was a war with other cylons 2000 years ago? And for some reason they create the other cyclone models, who when put them into sleep mode, implant them with memories and put them throughout the human colonies, because they want to teach them a lesson that humanity is beyond redemption, and they like want the final 5 to agree with them to kill off humanity, because they need them to agree to that for some reason? It still makes no sense to me. So it was Gods plan to create this cycle of human cylon genocide for some reason? Until eventually break the cycle by having Baltar guided by sexy angel in a super convoluted scheme that eventually has him end up in a situation to convince the leader of the Cylons to make peace with the humans and give Hera back. For about 5 seconds that is until shooting breaks out in the control room anyway and the result would have been the exact same if instead of baltars speech they just shot all the cylons…. good plan God

This show is great when you watch them all back to back over a week and include the films. You obviously need to have no life like myself, but I would recommend.

I really enjoyed the final season.

One of the greatest sci shows of all time. Thanks for sharing your view on it. Always a great delight to listen your thoughts

Binge watching it right now. Loved it. Specially how humanity is portrayed the conflict within. May aspects fit so well for present circumstances.

I grew up with the original in the 70's and unlike other reboots, I really like the modern BSG. The recastings seemed natural and not an overt diversity box tick.

great job - spot on. thanks

This is the most spot on analysis of BSG I've ever seen, couldn't agree more.

My favorite Sci-Fi show by a mile.

Mother of all reboots!

Spot on analysis. Despite the flaws in season 4 it remains one of my favorite shows of all time.

I don't mind the mess of the mystery boxes, the end still touched me and I really loved Season 4 too. Kara's development in particular, with the vision she has of her father, is awesome. I also appreciated that Baltar got some kind of chance at redemption and took it. It doesn't always have to make entire sense. I think RDM even said towards the end that he realized how the show was always about the characters themselves, and therefore made the end accordingly.

I loved this show and is one of the few I can re-watch beginimg to end

Perfect wrap-up. You neither give too much weight to the weak points "the finale ruined the show etc etc", nor do you get lost in praise alone. Well done!

I'm surprises didn't come up, But even today the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous In this series!

A whole separate movie to explain The Plan. The Plan: We are freakin' winging it.

It was mesmerizing and compelling. I binged watched it years ago on Netflix, then bought the boxed blue ray set, because it was pulled from Netflix and I wanted to rewatch it with a friend. My non sci-fi friend loved it!

Best TV show ever, bar none. Nothing comes close. And I felt the finale more than adequately answered the questions while leaving enough mystery to keep us wishing for more. With a show a deep as BSG we weren't all going to be happy with the ending (just as not everyone is happy with the end of LotR), but I feel they more than did justice to the series. And, honestly, the original BSG dealt with some crazy spiritual mumbo jumbo too. BSG has *always* pushed the boundaries.

Excellent review. Spot on.

Nice round up of a great show. In the end, it was the people that made the show. Amazing writers, make-up artists, musicians , and most of all the actors, so magnificently cast. who carried us through this bizarre world of man and machines and the eternal questions that have been asked before and will be asked again. Oh yeah, and why did there always seem to be ample supplies of liquor no matter how desperately ill-supplied Galactica was??

the "All Along the Watchtower" subplot was this show's jumping-the-shark moment

I didn't mind the last season. The spiritual thing is something I bought into over the seasons. Best sci fi show ever, imo

Fantastic analysis

This was an almost perfect review 👌🏼

I think the comparison to LOST is completely on point. Those were my two favorite shows while they were airing and I could never get over how alike they were. I honestly believe without 9/11, we don't get either of those shows. or at least, we don't get them as they exist today. Small group of survivors have to create a new society, secretive and unknown enemy who is othered (I mean Lost literally calls them Others), mysterious religious overtones, the conflict of the spiritual vs logical, overreliance on mystery-box storytelling, divisive final seasons, but at the end, compelling character drama, fantastic cinematography and action, and interesting twists and turns always kept us coming back for more.

For me the problem was summed up when they said, "We had a plan, humanity goes boom. That was the plan" all that build up and they had nothing to pay it off in the end.

Not going to reiterate or expand further because you were spot on about the points you mentioned. I have to say this is one of my top scifi series of all time. It was a very smart and original reboot of a classic. You mentioned this show, but so far I have to say The Expanse has a lot of similar qualities as the BSG reboot. But, also a lot of cool and uniquely original concepts and story. Interested to see what happens next in Season 4.

I literally just finished watching BSG yesterday! , Wow what a rollercoaster!

This was the truest 8 minutes about BSG ever. My son and I used to wait with baited breath for every Friday night. When there was a year gap between season 2 and 3, I had to console myself with two packs of cinnamon roles. And yes, season 4 was a mess and it hurt getting through hoping for the big payoff. To this day, I've never watched an episode twice, knowing I can't experience it's relative genius the same way ever again.

*So Say We All* I have struggled to express what this video did. I always found BSG so moving and satisfying on such different levels. The story was not without flaw but was superb nonetheless, as were the acting and score and dazzling spectacle. _Thank you._

Great video!

As a huge fan of the original 70s series, I was expecting the reboot to be a trainwreck. Boy was I wrong, I absolutely loved it. I also enormously enjoyed the short lived caprica.

Very nice and honest retrospective. I really enjoyed it. So Say We All.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Edward James Olmos said he would only do the series if they promised there wouldn't be any aliens in it. I was glad they tried to make this series more "down to Earth", so to speak.

Couldn't have summed it up any better. This show has also given me endless excuses to write university papers about it in all kinds of disciplines. I always cringe a little when thinking about Season 4, but Seasons 1-3 offer, without a doubt, the best sci-fi and TV shows in general can achieve.

I've started this series a few times and didn't finish for one reason or another. Someday I truly intend to watch the whole thing. Someday.

I definitely agree about the way the last season comes across. It was a great space opera for a couple of seasons, but it very much does come across like they didn't adequately plan on where they were actually going by the final season.

This is awesome man!

This review while decent missed several key points. Battlestar Galactica is the most meaningful show of all time. Which show has dealt with subjects as diverse as torture (the infamous water-boarding technique), occupation, class warfare, religion, political corruption, madness just to name a few, in such a profound manner? And a sci-fi show at that. But the most important subject it addresses is the oneness of the human race especially if we see the Cylons as a reflection of humanity (which was the whole point). That hurting one another will ultimately achieve nothing. This is the only show I’ve ever seen that makes me want to be a better human being and to appreciate life more. This is the greatest show of all time.

WOW!! that was her first acting role?? Jesus, SLAM DUNK PERFORMANCES!!!

I loved the show so much that I was forgiving of the way they took the direction of it. It really defies what we know about life on this planet, but I'm pretty good at suspending disbelief when I have to. It's really hard to end a great show, but like someone else commented, I was too busy enjoying it to worry about it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the show encapsulated so well. I would add a shout-out to the often beautiful space scenes . And yes, season four was where the narrative went off the rails in a disturbing manner, but in its defence it was a collection of often wonderful scenes (albeit not a wonderful collection of scenes).

I went back and rewatched the original (of which I am also a fan) after I got through all of the reboot. I was surprised at some of the undercurrent of tension I had missed as a kid

BSG 2003 and The Expanse have to be some of the best TV Ive ever seen, scifi or otherwise

New sub here - binge-watching your great back catalogue !

I have been watching it on I player and it still stands up even 10 years after in finished and mostly it looks great still too

whole story way more sattisfying than got or lost. before got started bsg was my favorite show, got had its promises but it failes to deliver and bsg is still top one.

Series actually has my favourite ending of any show 😅

Maybe bc i slept on the first season, the following seasons seemed awesome to me. i remember watching the pilot like: "Naw: Too Dark". Then they won a Peabody(?) for SCI-FI, and i was like: "WOW! Wait! That's ST:NextGen's RON MOORE!". He gave an interview & said "..It IS a dark show. Hard to be cheerful when you're in space seeking a world." After THAT? Gave it another go, & was HOOKED!

I loved the spiritual aspects and the ending

Can you do a retrospective of Caprica, BSG: The Plan, and BSG: Blood and Chrome?

Peak Battlestar Galactica for me will always be the "mutiny arc".

One of my favourite shows

I'm 50, so I watched all those shows in rerun's, except the original Battle Star, I loved them all..

Perfect analysis.....now if only B5 and BSG could have a child

Great video. I would love for you do a series on lost.

You sir just got a new sub

The problem with RDM is he never plots anything out. Great at characterization, setting, mood, but he wings it. This worked fine when he worked on TNG, which was episodic. They would literally start a season with 4 episodes written and then write the rest against the clock. On DS9 you start to see the cracks in this approach, the literal deus ex machina of the prophets/wormhole-aliens swallowing up an entire invasion fleet. So yes, by New Caprica they were 100% making it up as they went along, often the weekend before filming. There was also a major writers strike in 2007-2008 that occurred halfway through (the same writers strike that basically killed Heros, and gave us Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.)

Discovery writing for characters can be some of the strongest out there. Sometimes the only questions worth asking are those with no answer.

Spot on

This show was excellent and i thought i would never watch anything as good as Babylon 5, Stargate SG1 and Farscape but i was wrong,great review.

Just going back and re-watching this video, and I wish I could give you another like. :)

I was a small kid when I saw the original show, which for me it was better than Star Wars. but then, the new version came in 2005. It was ground breaking. perfect from the beginning to end. I already re-watched 3 times since then. All the elements are incredible. Acting, soundtrack, effects, photography and story. the ending was good, especially comparing with other sci-fi seires. the only negative side was the 'angel thing' with Starbuck. but ok , we can live with that.. Top 10 shows ever.

Grace Park...as Athena Boomer....Wow....excellent!

The original series was my favorite show as a teenager. I was excited about the updated miniseries... shocked that Starbuck was a woman at first but quickly fell in love with her. For the first 3 seasons, I think Galactica was the best drama on television. They got lost somehow but by the end they did ok. I cannot imagine sending their on;y warship into the sun, but that's neither here nor there. It was a great show and remains the only complete tv series that I have ever bought on DVD.

Love they find centurions on other old destroyed planets and the cylon in the bathtub who’s tripping or meditating keeps blurting out. “This has happened before and will all happen again”

Gritty realism scifi space war drama. Before RDM’s BSG there was a show called Space Above and Beyond. It ended prematurely, and ever since i’d been on the lookout for a similar show. I became a huge fan of BSG because of it. BSG came at the right time and succeeded in reaching an enormous audience. But i wouldn’t call BSG’s gritty realism “truly groundbreaking”. No it was built on the dead ashes of many other shows that were too ahead of its times.

I am glad others had the same experience of BSG a I did. They didn't pay off very well, but we did have a good ride at the start. On the flip side, The Expanse is super solid yall, so good. If you aren't watching it, start!