For the most part, I have no regrets about the current practice at Polytropos HQ of watching TV shows that grab our interest on DVD, months or even years after they first air. No commercials, no VCR or Tivo. DVD extras. No wasting hours on a series that starts with promise but turns out to suck. Hard to go wrong.

But we just watched the new(ish) _Battlestar Galactica_ miniseries and I have no idea how I’m going to last until the first season comes out on DVD. Man, was it good. Hot hot stuff.

Stuff to like: A focus on character with both the acting and dialogue-writing chops to hold it up. Patient, at times even (for a sci-fi show) _slow_ pacing. Far from over-relying on special effects, the show seems to go out of its way to cover a plot point _without_ them unless it’s really necessary.

And those Cylons. Two changes from the original series — 1) humans created them, and 2) they can look like humans now — create a whole new axis for the story to turn on.

And Starbuck.

Stuff not to like: The fact that Adama’s closing speech, on which (presumably) so much of what lies ahead rests, was supposed to fool everyone and, by all accounts, shouldn’t have fooled anyone. And second, why oh why did it have to be Boomer?

Anyway, it’s good stuff. Highly recommended. At times I have felt vaguely out of the loop while segments of the blogsphere engaged in _BG_ chitchat without me, and that will continue, since I’ll perpetually be a season behind. But there’s a big upside: I still get to see the rest of it for the first time.