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I'm endlessly fascinated (and, dare I say, amused) by the myriad of views that result from a single show.
I was wandering, as I am wont to do and really need to stop doing, and came upon another rant over the incompetence of the SGA characters - how their stupidity and naivety is always getting them into trouble. How every bad thing that happens to them is their own fault. How everything they do is just plain idiocy.
And, of course, my response is - uh, are you sure it's SGA you're talking about?
This is why I like to use the term "eye of the beholder" so much, because the spectrum of personal views is immeasurable. When I watch SGA, I don't see screw-ups, I see happenstance. Yeah, in some cases, it is their fault when they go to investigate that Wraith signal or that weird hatch. But, well, it is an expedition full of scientists and military; curiosity and ensuring that the natives aren't uber hostile are going to happen, and of course it isn't going to end well. If it did end well, then we wouldn't have an episode ;) (which, for all we know, only one out of five missions actually go wrong). Then there are the incidents that are not their fault - telepathic whales giving people headaches because of killer solar flares, for example.
Then we have the Dues Ex Machina endings, such as in The Siege part three. But, again, let's go back to Echoes, in which John comes up with a plan to use the Daedalus' shields and the ZPM to deflect the solar flare. That isn't dues es machina, that's people solving a problem by using their heads.
But these are my personal views (and keep in mind, because I'm not science savvy, I'm completely ignoring all the science screw-ups ;)). To me, SGA isn't a show of lucky idiots, but of humans. Yes, there will be screw-ups and dues es machina solutions, but I feel SGA to be a plethora of lucky escapes, stupid mistakes, and saving the day with both brain and brawn. In other words, it's a show about people being, well, people: Imperfect but trying, prone to mistake but also intelligence and cleverness, and all around extremely lucky. Something I like to keep in mind when watching a show is to remember: they aren't us, we aren't them. Yeah, from where we're sitting comfortable on our couch, all situations - and their answers - are obvious to us. Yeah, the creation and handling of Micheal wasn't too bright, we saw that from the start. But the thing about us human beings is that all our ideas are awesome when those ideas are first born. Hindsight is, after all, 50/50. The expedition probably had a reason for doing what they did and the way they did it, but it was something the writers didn't feel like explaining to us, didn't have time to, or didn't know how.
Then again, I am pretty lenient and open-minded about a lot of what happens on a show. What a show doesn't show, or tell, or explain is like a blank I fill in for myself *shrugs*.
I was wandering, as I am wont to do and really need to stop doing, and came upon another rant over the incompetence of the SGA characters - how their stupidity and naivety is always getting them into trouble. How every bad thing that happens to them is their own fault. How everything they do is just plain idiocy.
And, of course, my response is - uh, are you sure it's SGA you're talking about?
This is why I like to use the term "eye of the beholder" so much, because the spectrum of personal views is immeasurable. When I watch SGA, I don't see screw-ups, I see happenstance. Yeah, in some cases, it is their fault when they go to investigate that Wraith signal or that weird hatch. But, well, it is an expedition full of scientists and military; curiosity and ensuring that the natives aren't uber hostile are going to happen, and of course it isn't going to end well. If it did end well, then we wouldn't have an episode ;) (which, for all we know, only one out of five missions actually go wrong). Then there are the incidents that are not their fault - telepathic whales giving people headaches because of killer solar flares, for example.
Then we have the Dues Ex Machina endings, such as in The Siege part three. But, again, let's go back to Echoes, in which John comes up with a plan to use the Daedalus' shields and the ZPM to deflect the solar flare. That isn't dues es machina, that's people solving a problem by using their heads.
But these are my personal views (and keep in mind, because I'm not science savvy, I'm completely ignoring all the science screw-ups ;)). To me, SGA isn't a show of lucky idiots, but of humans. Yes, there will be screw-ups and dues es machina solutions, but I feel SGA to be a plethora of lucky escapes, stupid mistakes, and saving the day with both brain and brawn. In other words, it's a show about people being, well, people: Imperfect but trying, prone to mistake but also intelligence and cleverness, and all around extremely lucky. Something I like to keep in mind when watching a show is to remember: they aren't us, we aren't them. Yeah, from where we're sitting comfortable on our couch, all situations - and their answers - are obvious to us. Yeah, the creation and handling of Micheal wasn't too bright, we saw that from the start. But the thing about us human beings is that all our ideas are awesome when those ideas are first born. Hindsight is, after all, 50/50. The expedition probably had a reason for doing what they did and the way they did it, but it was something the writers didn't feel like explaining to us, didn't have time to, or didn't know how.
Then again, I am pretty lenient and open-minded about a lot of what happens on a show. What a show doesn't show, or tell, or explain is like a blank I fill in for myself *shrugs*.
