So, I only get 2 channels on my TV - The CW and Fox. So, I watched the 2 episodes of The Vampire Diaries that were on last night. I watched mostly because I know there is some love here, and my Buffy loving sister watches.

I do not get the appeal.

I think to the original group of escapees, the fact that he'd been on Moya the longest carried a lot of weight.

And he did occasionally add value. Not a lot, but frankly I found him easier to deal with than Rodney McKay sometimes, and much less hateful than Gaius Baltar. There is no reason for Baltar's survival to the end of BSG, none at all.

What frustrated me most about that trilogy was that it ended with

That was an unbelievably annoying part of the season.

I have Big! Important! Things! In Space! Followed by... Coup by Clam? Really?

[edit: Whoops, got my filler ep order mixed up. Twice Shy! Even more forgettable than CbC and not nearly as funny!]

What episodes were they? I am mostly unashamed about my love for that show, but I do admit that it took me quite a few episodes to get into. The Pilot episode, for instance, is kind of terrible.

It's one of my favorite shows that I'm watching right now, but it's definitely not ever going to into an all-time-favorite sort of slot. I just enjoy it a lot.

I don't remember episodes in enough detail to point to one, but it seemed to me that Rygel got them in more hot water than he got them out of, and it never seemed clear he wouldn't cheerfully do it again.

I absolutely agree about Baltar. For me, Jayne is about as close to that line as you can tread, and I think that worked because Mal was just meaner and crazier than he was, and worked that chain of command.

and much less hateful than Gaius Baltar

I've only seen like five episodes of BSG and I already hate Gaius. At least Rygel is a vaguely amusing puppet. From the five episodes I've seen, Gaius is just... terrible. (but I will someday watch the whole series and have a more well-formed opinion, I'm sure)

Aw, I feel bad for the Baltar-haters. BSG is a much more cheery show if you find him as hilarious as I do.

Oh, Jessica, "Twice Shy" made me grind my teeth. It was apparently candy to the John/Aeryn shippers, but I never felt that the show earned that reconciliation there. It was totally unsupported, because they never actually addressed all the issues between them in the wake of Aeryn's departure and return in Scorpius' company (and John taking the laka).

I am a romantic, but it has to be earned, and it just wasn't. But that's kind of par for the course in S4, where I felt the viewers were forced to handwave characterizations, as well as plot. The characters had always changed organically and mostly understandably in the past, but NSM in S4.

And Jayne was a good shot. That came in handy a couple times, since he was shooting in the right places, as directed.

To be fair, Rygel was useful to the writers. If you needed a morally-dubious action to drive the plot along, Rygel was good for that, without being so powerful as to pose a great risk to most of the rest of the cast (like Jayne). Also, he was a better conniver than any of the rest of them, even Chiana.

And then you have episodes like "Crackers Don't Matter", where you end up actually feeling a little sorry for Rygel.