Must See TV

I LOVE great television dramas. Sometimes a rare gem does show up on TV to remind us that Reality TV hasn't totally conquered the landscape. [Reality TV: Making America dumber since 1999. Thank you DrunkenIrishMan for that quote!] The West Wing is kicking ass this season. E.R. has plenty of fans (not me though. I like it, but not must see TV for me). Lost seems to be a huge hit (haven't seen it). I think TV can use another quality drama and you can see a preview of one this Saturday night at 8pm E.S.T. Just saw the commercial on NBC and it makes sense to cross promote between networks owned by the same company.

How about a drama where the President was so far down the succession list she never thought to be a leader and she is battling terminal breast cancer? How about a son who blames his father for the death of the younger brother? How about a best friend who was the younger brother's lover and might have a thing for the older brother? How about an old military officer who was about to retire suddenly in the command position of his life? What about an alcoholic executive officer who suddenly must make life or death decisions? Want to see a scientific genius who helped cause the problems everyone now faces by sleeping with the enemy? How about an enemy that has only one mission: total genocide? [In the context of televised drama genocide really ups the pressure on the audience.]

Damn, is that a preview of next season's West Wing? Nope. Some new drama in the vein of Alias or 24? Nope. Is it an adaptation of a Tom Clancey novel? Nope. In fact you may have already heard of it as this new drama is an updating for more modern sophisticated audiences (a.k.a. reimagination) of the original cheesefest 1970's era of polyester show: Battlestar Galactica.

DO NOT let the name scare you off! Who would have thought a show named Buffy The Vampire Slayer had some of the richest drama, great writing, fantastic story telling of the past 10 years? If all you remember of BSG was watching it as a kid or the cheesy reruns of the 1970's original on Sci-Fi then forget about the original. The names are the same, the basic story is the same, but this is a modern version of the old story. The characters are very different, their personalities are flawed and that makes them very human instead of the cartoonish characatures of the original series.

If you didn't see the original miniseries in December 2003, then I recommend watching it on NBC. It will prime you for the series when it runs on Friday Jan. 14 at 9pm E.S.T. However, NBC is broadcasting a 4 hour miniseries in a 3 hour timeslot. I suspect major editing will be involved so many of the minor scenes will get chopped. What a shame as those were often the richest points of the story.

Still give it try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

EDIT: Of course you can only see if it the local NBC affiliate decides to show the movie and not some telethon! I hate it when commercials lie to me. Just another reason to go out to the bars I guess.