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.

Baltar was, like, my favorite character!

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

I will keep that in mind!! I really try not to hate characters in any show, because my general assumption is that even if they are annoying/hateful/whatever, they are that way because they were written to be that way, and serve a purpose... so. I will try.

On an unrelated note, I meant to mention the other day that I was really happy to figure out that this thread title comes from Torchwood. I was like "Hey! That's the sci-fi thread name!"

I am easily entertained.

To be fair, Rygel was useful to the writers

Ah, see, I hate that. Meta reasons for someone to be around that I don't think are supported in universe--sits badly with me. Spike was more useful than Rygel.

Okay, that's stretching things. But he really shattered my suspension of disbelief.