Yeah, the whole This Is Not My Beautiful Cake thing. (Shrift came up with it, IIRC.) I love BSG, but it took a while. I liked and admired it more than loved it at the beginning--it's a well-crafted show with interesting and complex themes--but the characters were not as easy to fall in love with as the gang at SG-1 and Atlantis, I found. I didn't really fall hard for it until S1 finale (consolidated by the episode last Friday), and when I fell, it was for the story and the aesthetics and the craft of it more than for the characters.

I think, because we converged here initially based on our shared tastes for media products that are a bit off the beaten track from the mainstream, it feels disconcerting to have the fellow Buffistas not love the objects of my/your current devotion with equal fervor. But tastes are odd things, numerous and varied, and hey, it's OK that some Buffistas love Firefly and others don't, and same goes for Wonderfalls, The Inside, Veronica Mars, Stargate or BSG.

I really like BSG. I mean, I'd love to have seen the flipping Miniseries first, but ma'alesh. I like the visuals, I like the acting, I'm intrigued by the plots and the themes they're exploring...I think it's damned fine stuff. But I do see what you mean about it not having the engaging lightness of touch that SG1 (and, I gather, SGA) possess. In many ways it's a substantially different genre, SciFi context not withstanding.

The TV show Cupid is being torrented as we speak. 6 GB.

i've been dling that sucker for days. hopefully it will be done when i get home today. i've only seen the pilot. i remember wanting to watch it back in the day, but i think it was up against something i was already watching. can't wait to see Rob Thomas' other work.

Fay -- I agree. I think that SG1 and SGA are fun adventure stories where there are more suspense/thriller aspects to BSG.

the engaging lightness of touch that SG1

And Fay hits the cricket ball out of the park. (Do they play cricket in parks?)

Right now, I'm desperately looking for fluff, for laughter. Firefly and Buffy and, to a lesser extent, Angel worked for me because there was comedy amidst the despair -- Joss can make me laugh while ripping my heart out. Farscape pushes some of the same buttons.

The world can be pretty dark; sometimes I need a good story, one in which virtue is sometimes rewarded.

the engaging lightness of touch that SG1

I really wish I could see this in it, because so many people on this board enjoy the show. But right now, Claudia Black's the only actor who I'm having fun watching. Everyone else seems very flat and boring.

SGA (which, admittedly, had help by beginning with an action sequence and not a half-hour of exposition) seems much more my speed.

Yeah, the whole This Is Not My Beautiful Cake thing. (Shrift came up with it, IIRC.)

I don't think I came up with the cake concept, although I know I ran with it. Which is something I do quite often. With scissors! Uphill both ways!

SG:A, I love, and I never saw it coming.

This happened to me with the new Dr. Who.

I am thrilled to have two such different types of entertainment that I adore so much as the Stargates and BSG. Thrilled, I tell you.

I resisted SG1 for years. Didn't need a new show addiction. Of course when I finally did watch, I was rather appalled by the simplistic writing...until the day I realized I had some affection for the characters, nevermind the "plots".

BSG, I watched part of the mini and it was just so dark. I resented female representations of characters I'd first met in male incarnations. Most of all, I resented that this show was on the air when Firefly got cancelled. I caught an episode of the first season almost by accident, and was intrigued enough to watch again, and by that time, I was ready to know the backstory, plus where the arc was going.

So, me? Accidentally pulled into the orbits of these shows, I guess. It's not Whedon or Minear quality writing, but I do enjoy the characters and their interaction. Which, in fairness, is what brought me back to Buffy, along with the quality of the writing. But even while I disregard or overlook the clunkiness of some of the SG1 and SGA writing, I keep coming back for the characters. And while BSG (or as Theo so aptly terms it, "Battlewagon Hysterica") is dark, it's the characters I keep coming back for.

The TV show Cupid is being torrented as we speak. 6 GB.

Awesome! Can't wait to hear what you think.

I've never seen the Stargate shows, but I am really liking BSG. Don't know whether I love it, but I'm hooked. It is very serious, with only small touches of lightness, but it handles its tone well enough for me. I'd rather it do what it does well then try to be funny and fail at it (I wasn't a big fan of "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down," though I loved "Six Degrees of Separation").