From "MASH" to "St. Elsewhere" to "The Sopranos" to "Seinfeld," all long-running television shows become myths at some point or another, reflecting, within the confines of their own universes, the disparate nature of human experience.
Yes, they're entertaining, but to keep an audience committed year after year, a show must offer enlightenment, even if it's just the recognition that the corruptible nature of power extends to the Soup Nazi.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, March 22, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
'Battlestar Galactica': A r eview of the series finale of "Battlestar Galactica" in Friday's Calendar section said that the Sci Fi Channel show was coming to an end after five seasons. It has run for four seasons.
"Battlestar Galactica," which comes to an end tonight after five seasons, was always upfront about its relationship to myth -- it's science fiction, for one thing, which of all the narrative genres is the most unapologetic about its use of symbolism and archetype, journey and transcendence.
In science fiction, anything is possible, which is in itself a metaphor for the human spirit. So it was natural, when watching the trials and triumphs of this scrappy band of humans attempting to survive in a world overtaken by their technology, to wonder if the residents of the Galactica were our past or our future.
Tonight, praise the gods, we have our answer. All this has happened before, and it will happen again, but it's hard to imagine a more visually and thematically satisfying finale.
Creators and executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick have always taken the nature of the show seriously, which is why all those "praise the gods," "frakkings," "so say we alls" and look-alike Cylons (the evil twin trope taken to the nth degree) played as legitimate extensions of an alternate universe rather than camp. (Although where, on this stripped-down survivors' vessel, all that booze came from, not to mention Laura Roslin's very stylish wig, we must agree to simply overlook.)
The writers' dedication never falters, and "Battlestar Galactica's" finale is everything a fan, of the show and of television, could hope for. It's difficult to write about without giving anything away, so suffice it to say that tissues (or shots) would not be inappropriate accouterment.
Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) never looked so tragically good together while Col. Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and his newly resurrected uber-Cylon wife, Ellen (Kate Vernon), are by turns frisky and resolute (though it is depressing to learn that pole dancing was so popular on Caprica).
