BSG: Season 2

Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica has started. I was a little skeptical about whether they could keep the story interesting with Commander Adama out of commission (recovering from being shot by a Cylon spy), but they've managed to pull it off.

We just saw episode 4, which had a major sequence of events leading to President Roslyn and Lee Adama staging their escape to become fugitives hiding in the fleet of ships. The Cylon spy (Boomer, who didn't even know she was a Cylon) was assassinated Jack Ruby style by one of Galactica's crew. Heelo and Starbuck meet up with a former Pyramid team (a popular sport kinda like basketball) who are now fighting for their own survival. And finally at the end of the episode, Adama finally returns to see the mess created in his absence.

I think what gives BSG it's power are the multiple storylines that branch out and occasionally reconnect with the main plot line of Human vs Cylon. Stories that rely on several main characters have much more depth and potential than ones based on just a few. This technique had been successful for X-Files and Alias. Unfortunately both of lost their edge when they neglected their ensemble cast and focused only on the few main characters. With less to work with, the stories became repetitive and boring.

Another technique well executed by BSG (and Alias & X-Files in their early years, and now extremely well done by Lost) is the deliberately slow feeding of details about major mysterious aspects of the story. We really don't know the whole history of Humans and Cylons, nor what plans the Cylons have in store for the future. There are also still questions about the loyalties of several characters like Baltar, Lee Adama and Boomer. In the '70s series, it was pretty obvious who was good and who was bad. This time, it's harder to figure out.

Can't wait for the next episode...