The Battlestar Galactica Finale... (spoilers)

...was overwrought and sentimental and self-indulgent and overly-long and racist (that tribal African bullshit) and maybe ideologically questionable in other ways as well.

but I still walked away satisfied. enough. I think.

Interestingly, nearly every single one of the beats that actually worked for me involved Baltar and Six (except for that last one with the heavy-handed, preachy fast-forward, but that's a whole different issue), most especially their final scene (as themselves, not subliminals), when Baltar starts crying and says, "I know things about farming," and then Six caresses his cheek and says, "I know you do." I think if every one of the character interactions had felt this authentic and nuanced, I would have forgiven more of the sentimentality.

And I didn't mind what I interpreted as the deliberate silliness of their mutual acknowledgment of the subliminal (angel?) versions of themselves. I feel like this show has earned the right to poke a bit of fun at its own mythology.

I also became really engaged as the opera house vision played out in real time in the CIC.

I thought the speed with which the Chief's vengeance derailed the tenuous cease-fire with Cavill was classic Battlestar (a giant mess perpetuated by basic human fuckwittery), altho I felt like Moore as a writer was far too much of an apologist for the Chief's action. As many feminist bloggers have pointed out, the dude has some serious misogyny issues, yet I feel like he's been continually positioned as a primary subject of identification for the viewers. The Xander Harris effect. I also thought sweeping the entire Cylon Civil War and conflict with the Cavills, Dorvals and Black-cylon-who-still-has-not-been-given-a-name-or-number-s under the rug with a single explosion was a cop-out.

Ditto their pathetic way of addressing possible Fleet resistance to the settlement-sans-technology plan.

I think my single biggest complaint was that the finale was largely one-dimensional, way way way too conclusive and lacked any of the complexity and nuance that have made the series special.

If this was a manuscript for a novel or a collection of stories or something and I was a publisher, I think I would probably reject it. Even tho it's still one of my favorite television series of all time.