chicks on spaceships
Ok, I was a little intimidated by the 317 hours of SG-1 and SG-Atlantis I was going to have to watch to catch up to the current season, so I skipped right to the pilot episodes of SG-U. (I did read that entire Wikipedia article you linked to in your post, so I do feel somewhat educated on the franchise.) Now, I know that because I have been watching BSG a little longer, my loyalty might cause me to be slightly biased, but I think we need to discuss the role of women in both of these shows.
Carmen is discussing.
Carmen 4:16 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink
I think Battlestar Galactica is, hands down, the best show ever (except for Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia). One reason BSG has been the best is the depth of the character development. Another reason is that its not a typical show. They do things on that show that you will never see on a major network (I hope Syfy doesn’t get all butthurt that I said they weren’t a major network). They kill off major characters, they talk about abortion and racism, not to mention the entire human race is in danger of going completely extinct. And they have kickass females. Ok, I know they made a woman president in 24 but she wasn’t that impressive (and i only watched the first episode). I always found BSG president (Laura Roslin) to be surprising – in a good way. Like she made the decisions that even the men couldn’t stomach, she could detach herself from the emotion and do the right thing for the benefit of the greatest amount of people. You know, I could go on and on about each one of these ladies but the big difference between them and the SGU ladies (or most any other show with chicks on it) is the predictability. Whoever writes for the shows and decides what is acceptable has a very narrow spectrum of choices for their female characters. I think this is because people are scared to push the boundaries of these roles. If its been working this long then don’t fuck with it – thats their motto. BSG pushes those boundaries and opens it up for greater movement and creativity for their characters. I’m so tired of the same ol predictable characters. I can’t even watch romantic comedies anymore because I know exactly whats going to happen at every moment.
Speaking of a narrow spectrum of creativity – can you tell how SGU ripped off some ideas of BSG? I don’t care, I’ll still watch it. They suckered me in with the whole stargate/wormhole idea. You had me at wormhole! *tear*
Speaking of wormholes, have you seen Fringe yet? That is another really good show that has a fantastic leading character (a woman) who is not the typical lady. I’m always surprised when she wears her FBI uniform of traditional oxford button down and its NOT buttoned down so her boobs are hanging out (like CSI Miami – that show is a joke, a bad joke). AND it has parallel universes! Thats a winning combination.