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Best current American sci-fi/fantasy TV show?


NiGHTMARE

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There's some pretty darned good genre TV coming out of the US at the moment (even if a lot of it is blatantly Lost-inspired, especially Heroes), and I was just wondering which of the current/recent seasons of these shows you guys consider to be the best so far.

 

For me, it's a close run between Galactica and Heroes, but I'm going to have to go for the former. It's probably the most realistic sci-fi show ever made (I love the way virtually all their technology is barely more advanced than our own, with the obvious exceptions of faster-than-light travel and of course the Cylons), and the old "take current political and global events and put them in space" tradition is far darker than it's ever been before (so far we've had genocide, torture of prisoners, corrupt military officials, insurgents, suicide bombers, etc).

 

I'm also enjoying Jericho, though I have a feeling the whole "whodunnit" question behind the nukes is going to drag on even longer than the "WTF is it with the numbers?" mystery on Lost.

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I hate to admit it, but "Eureka" is pretty interesting. It is kind of the antithesis of Galactica; kind of a Sci-Fi version of "Northern Exposure" if that means anything to you. I am having trouble with Galactica right now; very, very bleak. I miss Firefly...

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Err, heh. This thread is about current series - i.e. the Galactica remake, not the original :).

 

Were non-current ones allowed I think there'd be a lot of votes for Firefly.

I almost did that before I noticed the word 'current'. *sigh*

 

That said, I gave up on Galactica after the four hour pilot. Maybe I missed the irony or whatever, but to me it mainly seemed to established two things: 1. 'Military is cool' and 2. 'Sex is evil'. Since I find both arguments rather unappealing, I didn't bother to continue viewing. I originally had very high expectations for it because I had heard that it was really good, even better than Firefly. A pity that it didn't live up anywhere near those expectations :)

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It's a shame you came away with that impression, because later episodes established that wasn't the producers' intent at all. Since then we've had military personnel who clearly weren't up to the job, panicking troops massacring unarmed civilians, prisoners being tortured and raped, several extremely poor strategic and tactical decisions, a military coup over the civilian government, chain-of-command issues, and military sponsored assasination attempts. In fact, the need for the civilian government to keep the miltiary in check (until the change of government at the end of season 2, I can think of only one incident where a civilian official made a major mistake), and for military officials to overcome their prejudice, mistrust and general stuborness are recurring themes on the show.

 

There have also been several successful sexual relationships over the past couple of years of the show, two such unions even resulting in a couple of sprogs :).

 

EDIT: actually, are you perhaps also talking about the original Galactica? "Miltary is cool" and "sex is evil" definitely seemed to be themes on that show. Actually, the latter ought to be "sex is evil unless you're Starbuck" :).

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EDIT: actually, are you perhaps also talking about the original Galactica? "Miltary is cool" and "sex is evil" definitely seemed to be themes on that show. Actually, the latter ought to be "sex is evil unless you're Starbuck" :).

 

No, I was talking about the new series. Based only on the pilot episode(s), though.

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EDIT: actually, are you perhaps also talking about the original Galactica? "Miltary is cool" and "sex is evil" definitely seemed to be themes on that show. Actually, the latter ought to be "sex is evil unless you're Starbuck" :).

 

No, I was talking about the new series. Based only on the pilot episode(s), though.

 

Weird, I never got that with the new series. I got a vibe of 'the military is fucked up' and didn't really get any kind of vibe on the sex. The characters seem to get it when they need it though.

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