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Babylon 5 first time watching - specific viewing order?

1) Even with the knowledge of SiL being filmed in Season 4, it's still jarring to watch as the concluding episode of the series

2) TDoFS works as a Series Finale, at least for me, because it makes direct reference to events that happen in Season 5 and indirectly informs us about the fate of the station and our major characters

1) I don't think consensus here is that it's particularly jarring.
2) All it really tells us about the fate of anything is that the station and characters all eventually end up dead.
 
Anyone know if Amazon has any web front for just video service where I can pick from a recently watched list?

Searching ‘Babylon 5 season 1’ every time is annoying.
You should be able to set up a watchlist and then in the departments pull down select Prime Video and you'll get Your Watchlist as one of the options.
 
I use my TV to watch Amazon, but when I find something I like, like a season of a tv show, it says add to watchlist and then it's on my list and I don't have to search anymore.

And now on a different topic, SiL takes place 20 years later. If you can't adjust to things changing over the course of 20 years, then I suppose that would be jarring. Almost every other show, at least from that time period, you could watch a first episode and a last episode and the characters are very much in the same place and the same people. Anyone who knows Babylon 5 knows that is exactly NOT what happens with these characters. Who is in exactly the same place with no changes after 20 years in real life? And that's what JMS did with his characters, they aged, they changed and not always for the better. So to expect an episode that happens about 20 years later not show changes is illogical.
 
I don't remember having any problems with Sleeping in Light when I watched B5 for the first time a few years ago.
It takes place 20 years after the rest of the series, so it's pretty obvious it's not going to be a direct continuation of Season 5.
 
Anyone know if Amazon has any web front for just video service where I can pick from a recently watched list?

Searching ‘Babylon 5 season 1’ every time is annoying.

Are you talking like something similar to Prime Video service? I guess online they have it tabbed to where it should show your recently watched. Might take a few clicks.

I'm watching through a smart TV app so it's similar to Netflix interface.

Not sure if that's what you mean.
 
And now on a different topic, SiL takes place 20 years later. If you can't adjust to things changing over the course of 20 years, then I suppose that would be jarring. Almost every other show, at least from that time period, you could watch a first episode and a last episode and the characters are very much in the same place and the same people. Anyone who knows Babylon 5 knows that is exactly NOT what happens with these characters. Who is in exactly the same place with no changes after 20 years in real life? And that's what JMS did with his characters, they aged, they changed and not always for the better. So to expect an episode that happens about 20 years later not show changes is illogical.

As for the specific presence of one character and the specific absence of another, one of the things I like about B5 is that it was able to hold on to recurring characters across only a handful of episodes, even years apart. It helped with the scope. People like the Regent, Dr. Hobbs, and Ms. Connally (who only actually appeared in one episode, but was still name-dropped when there was an issue at the docks five years later). And doing that made it feel less odd when they had one-offs who were supposedly always in the background, like the Nightwatch security guard in season three, or the time Franklin had a meeting with, like, a half-dozen other doctors who he was in charge of.
 
I will fully admit that I really like Lochley and that the way Sleeping in Light ignores her completely (when it would've been real easy to film a pickup for SiL mentioning her) is my central issue with the episode and the reason that I don't think it works as a Series Finale, especially on a first-time viewing.

People can disagree with me on that, but it's how I feel.
 
I use my TV to watch Amazon, but when I find something I like, like a season of a tv show, it says add to watchlist and then it's on my list and I don't have to search anymore.

And now on a different topic, SiL takes place 20 years later. If you can't adjust to things changing over the course of 20 years, then I suppose that would be jarring. Almost every other show, at least from that time period, you could watch a first episode and a last episode and the characters are very much in the same place and the same people. Anyone who knows Babylon 5 knows that is exactly NOT what happens with these characters. Who is in exactly the same place with no changes after 20 years in real life? And that's what JMS did with his characters, they aged, they changed and not always for the better. So to expect an episode that happens about 20 years later not show changes is illogical.
Not to mention but in SITL JMS was concluding a bit of foreshadowing with having Londo dead and Vir as Emperor.
 
The Centauri Prime trilogy of novels span events from the time when Londo is implanted with his keeper through to a bit past the events shown in the future during "War Without End, Pt. II"/In the Beginning.
 
The Centauri Prime trilogy of novels span events from the time when Londo is implanted with his keeper through to a bit past the events shown in the future during "War Without End, Pt. II"/In the Beginning.


Too bad that the novels are ridiculous expensive
 
Is Garibaldi...reading a newspaper in this scene?

Amazing how hilariously wrong they got the future in the 1990s. Even if newspapers are still a thing, would they really have somebody courier physical papers all the way from Earth to Babylon 5?

Even if there is some local Babylon 5 paper printed on the station, would they really go to the cost of transporting huge amounts of paper to the station to print on? I thought this was a show that tried to portray a realistic economy where the cost of interplanetary transport was high.
 
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I will fully admit that I really like Lochley and that the way Sleeping in Light ignores her completely (when it would've been real easy to film a pickup for SiL mentioning her) is my central issue with the episode and the reason that I don't think it works as a Series Finale, especially on a first-time viewing.

People can disagree with me on that, but it's how I feel.

I too liked Lochley and wish she had a bigger role in crusade.
 
Is Garibaldi...reading a newspaper in this scene?

Amazing how hilariously wrong they got the future in the 1990s. Even if newspapers are still a thing, would they really have somebody courier physical papers all the way from Earth to Babylon 5?

Even if there is some local Babylon 5 paper printed on the station, would they really go to the cost of transporting huge amounts of paper to the station to print on? I thought this was a show that tried to portray a realistic economy where the cost of interplanetary transport was high.

There's a season two episode (Divided Loyalties) where you see exactly how it works. You turn in your old copy at the newspaper machine (I imagine there's some sort of deposit that gets paid forward if you don't just throw it away), and it's recycled and prints a fresh one on-demand, customized to your interests.
 
There's a season two episode (Divided Loyalties) where you see exactly how it works. You turn in your old copy at the newspaper machine (I imagine there's some sort of deposit that gets paid forward if you don't just throw it away), and it's recycled and prints a fresh one on-demand, customized to your interests.
Still an anachronism. Flexible e-paper updated via wifi was predictable in the 90s. In the 23rd century though, we might have a brain implant feeding us the news directly but neither that nor Babcom also wired directly to the cortex translate well to TV.
 
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