{"id":608,"date":"2011-09-22T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=608"},"modified":"2011-09-18T00:11:17","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T07:11:17","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-webisodes-the-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/09\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-webisodes-the-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: Webisodes – The Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first web series of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, we are able to start piecing together what has happened since the occupation of New Caprica. As Tigh tries to lead a resistance force against the Cylons, multiple variables make this harder than expected. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[Note: I am not going to break these up by episode. This review will treat all ten webisodes as if they were simply one story.]<\/p>\n

You know, for a webisode series meant specifically to tease a season premiere, this was remarkably good for what it was. If the purpose of “The Resistance” was to get me excited for season three\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6jesus, y’all, I want to see the premiere now<\/em>. RIGHT NOW<\/strong>. The thought that I have to wait mere hours to watch it physically hurts my stomach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But I digress. “The Resistance” gives me a hint towards where season three is headed and, like the end of season two, we start off in the future, specifically 67 days since occupation by the Cylons. What I adored about the finale, and what I enjoy here, is that world-building is done in the process of pushing the plot forward. It’s weird to talk about world-building in the context of television. I’m used to bringing it up when I’m discussing books, since the written world has a much larger hurdle to jump for the person consuming the story. The details have to be shared in a much different way than the medium of film, since a lot can be conveyed through camera pans, close-ups, wide-shots, and wordless bits of the script that is impossible to do through literature.<\/p>\n

But Battlestar Galactica<\/em> has spent two years stuck mainly inside hunks of metal in space, and now they’ve got the chance to spread their characters over the grey, featureless landscape that is the New Caprica tent city. Through this, they give us what life has been like for sixty-seven days while under Cylon control. It’s clear now that the idea that the Cylons and the humans could get along for a single episode was possibly the most foolish prediction I have ever<\/em> given. Oh god, what a ludicrous<\/em> idea. Why did I even type that?<\/p>\n

New Caprica has turned into a tyranny of power. The Cylons attempts to co-exist with humans is a disaster, so much so that Colonel Tigh, working mostly with Tyrol, is building a resistance force to oppose the Cylons. And let me comment on that idea of co-existing<\/em>. It’s absurd here because it seems there wasn’t even the slightest attempt to do such a thing. The Cylons rule <\/em>here, make no mistake. It’s not a good sign that the first building built upon arriving was a detainment center. Visually, I couldn’t help but think of Guantanamo Bay, and I wonder if the show will make anymore parallels to that place.<\/p>\n

The culture that’s propped up in the city is even worse than what we saw when Baltar was in charge. Baltar’s Head Six seems to have been right: Judgment Day came for the humans, and now they live in perpetual fear of being arrested for any number of things. They have a curfew. They are not allowed weapons. They are forced to integrate. What’s the Cylon’s ultimate goal? What are they trying to accomplish?<\/p>\n

We truthfully don’t find out much about what the Cylons are up to that isn’t given to us through the resistance force. And this is what we start with: we know the Cylons have confiscated a large stash of weapons and executed the man who was hiding them, but Tigh and Tyrol were able to save some of them. Simultaneous to this, the humans learn that the Cylons are trying to recruit humans as a police force<\/em> to replace the Cylon Centurions, apparently as a gesture of good faith. Also HOLY FUCKED UP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While Tigh, Tyrol, and Cally are all featured heavily throughout this, the writers take time to develop some smaller characters, particularly Duck and Jammer, whose journeys start off disparate and varied, but slowly begin to eerily parallel one another. In this case, Jammer is already<\/em> part of the resistance, but Duck is reticent about the idea. He and his wife, Nora, are trying to have a child, and they don’t want to risk that by getting involved. Which infuriates<\/em> Tyrol, who already has<\/em> a child and a wife, and he’s still choosing to get involved. But this wouldn’t be Battlestar Galactica<\/em> without a whole lot of moral ambiguity, would it?<\/p>\n

SO. LOTS OF UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS. We’ve got weapons to hide! Let’s put them in OUR ONLY SACRED TEMPLE. Jammer is simply not having it<\/em>. It’s a sacrilege! But there’s nowhere to put them! Jammer is overruled and Tigh wins! Tigh is like the most irritable pragmatist ever, isn’t he? Like, he starts off being right<\/em> and then you’re like you could be less annoying<\/em> and then you are just so full of conflicting feelings because you have a nice 0% experience in war and all of this is just so strange to you. And “The Resistance” does a hell of a job conveying this to us. To most of us, this is inconceivable. It is for me, at least. So I can’t put myself into anyone’s shoes at all, and that makes the moral fiber of these people so confusing<\/em> to me. (That’s a very strange way to compliment this episode, but that’s what I’m trying to do.)<\/p>\n

The actions of these characters makes sense when you look at it the right way, and that’s what makes Nora’s death so hard to accept. They needed <\/em>those weapons, and there truly was no better place to hide them than the temple. But Nora died because those weapons were there, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Even more heartbreaking\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6she’d invited her husband to temple that morning, and he refused. DAMN.)<\/p>\n

What’s fascinating to me is how the writing focuses on the parallel reactions of Duck and Jammer. Naturally, Duck is outraged that his wife dies over weapons. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it’s his wife. <\/em>But Jammer is upset a few days after the attack when Tigh reasons that the attack actually boosted the resistance force. Tigh is practical and, having experience in war, this is how he thinks. Jammer, on the other hand, is distressed by how casually Tigh equates Nora’s death with “success,” raging at Tigh for even insinuating such a thing. Who wasn’t surprised that Tigh called Jammer a crybaby? Yeah, no one was<\/em>. Ugh, Tigh, someone died. Give him five minutes to be sad before you start insulting him, okay? (Also, did anyone else notice Michael Hogan’s incredibly thick Canadian accent coming through on a few lines?)<\/p>\n

Yet when Jammer is taken by the Cylons and Five talks to him, those feelings of regret and terror are exploited. And that’s what the Cylons do, isn’t it? They manipulate humans, prey on their emotions, and exploit them for their own gain. Even this new order of Cylons hasn’t changed their techniques much. Sure, they’re not outright murdering humans on the spot, but how much worse is that than what they’re starting to do here? Jammer, however, doesn’t view things in this way. As Five tries to convince him that there has<\/em> been good done, he appeals to that confused, morally conflicted side that came out when he resisted Tigh’s own philosophy. If he stops the violent attacks from the resistance force from happening, then his conscience will be satisfied. He’ll save innocent lives.<\/p>\n

Of course, this whole dichotomy is a lie, but because Jammer is vulnerable, the idea creeps under his skin. The Cylons are demonstrating here that they have merely found a way to turn humans against themselves. But Jammer can’t see this.<\/p>\n

Duck, on the other hand, takes the death of his wife and sees this as a chance to get involved, once and for all. I think his wife’s death plays a large part in why Duck joins the resistance, but does so in a way that is dangerous and risky, since he has decided to infiltrate the New Caprica Police. What does he have to lose? How else can he avenge his wife’s death?<\/p>\n

And so these two men, deeply affected by the Cylon occupation, act out disparate ends to their rage and loss. Duck chooses to fight those who oppress him. Jammer, on the other hand, seems to have found his final straw: the plans to blow up a grain silo might harm patients at a hospital across the street, and Tigh has no reservations about collateral damage. We end with the implication that Jammer is headed back to the Detention Center with the keycard given to him by Five. For Jammer, it seems the only moral step. He can’t justify collateral damage, no matter the end goal. It’s too much for him. Duck, on the other hand, believes it’s the only way for him to find peace, and to bring peace back to humankind.<\/p>\n

So which one is right? “The Resistance” answers that by telling us it’s the wrong question to be asking.<\/p>\n

Oh god SEASON THREE PREMIERE TOMORROW!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"