Am I the only one who loves SGU?

[bullethead]

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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Some have said that the first season plays much better if you can watch the episodes back to back.

That's probably why people like it now more than when it was on the air. The style of serialization the writers used in S1 was absolute shit for a weekly showing because there's little resolution and the story threads are stretched out over weeks, but it works if you marathon it all because you can see how the parts fit together. Something like DS9's serialization, where the plots of each episode resolve, but move an overarching story along, works a lot better in the weekly format.

[Skywalker]

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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I've been reading other boards and it looks like a lot of people didn't like the show at first but are warming up to it now when they rewatch it.

Yeah, it definitely seems that way. Too little, too late, unfortunately. It'd be neat if Syfy would fund like a two- or three-part miniseries to wrap up the story, but obviously that's not going to happen. And the show finished on a somewhat decent, if open-ended, note.

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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Some have said that the first season plays much better if you can watch the episodes back to back.

I definitely agree with this. When I watched the first few eps when they first aired week-by-week, it felt like such a long and boring slog, but when I rewatched them I found it all so much more entertaining and flew through the same amount of eps in just one day! I've found that the marathon approach helps with a lot of serialized shows.

[poundpuppy29]

I enjoyed SGU too I finally got all the DVDs so I can see it all

[Captain Picard.]

I watched the first 5 episodes did not interest me at all. To much of the same for me.

[Sindatur]

Captain Picard. wrote:

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I watched the first 5 episodes did not interest me at all. To much of the same for me.

Really? That's rather strange? One of the biggest things right about SG1 and SGA is the Characters are essy to like. For me, that was the most difficult about liking SGU in the beginning, was that I disliked all the characters, and wanted to see everyone of them shoved out an airlock, there was nothing to hold onto, they were all arseholes, none of them in a fun way, just annoying and weighing the show down. In S2, this started to change for me, as the writers started to find the characters. I don't mind an unlikable character being used for the sake of drama, or a character like Kai Winn or Mayborne who is fun to hate, but, that's not what early SGU ws like for me.

[AJ86]

Captain Picard. wrote:

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I watched the first 5 episodes did not interest me at all. To much of the same for me.

I struggle to believe that you watched even 10 minutes of the series if your major complaint is that it was too similar to what came before it.

[teacake]

I remember when they finally made some alien contact and we got an episode that was nice and stargatey, how happy I was

Really wasn't more of the same.

As to unlikable, I found so many of them irritating and dull at first. Rush was so repulsive to look at it really put me off, had some visceral reaction to him. Young was a bigger idiot than Archer with the embarrassment that some of his idiocy was supposed to be character development. Matthew Scott and Chloe Armstrong were just huge nothing characters, couldn't care less about them. Camille Wray was vile and I had trouble believing anyone in that situation with that level of career would be so stubbornly holding onto pedantic protocols. Actually I think a lot of that could be blamed on the use of the stones not allowing these characters to exist as isolated and lost to their old lives.

I think season 3 could have been excellent especially if they were cut off from earth completely. It was definitely giving up on being some gritty drama (which it failed at big time I think) and embracing being a science fiction show first.

[The Wormhole]

One of my bigger problems in the first season was that they were trying too hard to make it seem like Rush was a shady bastard with a hidden agend when really, there wasn't enough evidence he did. It's especially bad at the end of Darkness or Light or where they suggest Rush knew all along the sun would recharge Destiny rather than destroy it, even though we see he was genuinely surprised when the ship wasn't destroyed. I wouldn't mind that he was such an unlikeable jerk if they had made that his flaw and developed the character from there as opposed to the "he has an agenda and could be working against us" thing they tried to shove on us which in the end just got a bit too silly.

Yes, the characters wouldn't/shouldn't trust him and that's fine. But there was no need to make the audience think he was untrustworthy while showing us blatant evidence that he was indeed working in everyone's best interests.

[AJ86]

I don't think it's ever been shown conclusively that he's working in everyone's best interests. His motives are portrayed as ambiguous because they are. He often works to save the lives of the crew, but that is likely because he needs them as much as anything else. I don't think he knew that Destiny would recharge in a star either, but I don't think he was all that surprised when they didn't die either. I think he suspected that they wouldn't, and knew he couldn't control it either way. That's why he was relatively calm about it all, and suggested Greer take TJ's place on the shuttle, who at the time he fucking hated.

Ultimately we still don't know what Rush's true motives are. He talks about uncovering a cosmic mystery to rouse the crew, yet at the same time lets slip language about gaining power to "right the wrongs". I would not be surprised if he was looking for a way to ascend and/or bring Gloria back.

[MacLeod]

bullethead wrote:

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That's probably why people like it now more than when it was on the air. The style of serialization the writers used in S1 was absolute shit for a weekly showing because there's little resolution and the story threads are stretched out over weeks, but it works if you marathon it all because you can see how the parts fit together. Something like DS9's serialization, where the plots of each episode resolve, but move an overarching story along, works a lot better in the weekly format.

I disagree, I was fully able to keep up with the style of serilisation used by SG:U in it's first season, despite it airing weekly.

[Star Wolf]

I agree but on a marathon watch you can fast forward