Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0/Battlestar Galactic: Season 2.5 (DVD, 2007, 6-Disc Set; Side By Side)

Buying all of this incredible series on DVD is a more confusing undertaking than it ought to be. Grouping both halves of Season Two into this single package definitely simplifies things somewhat. The set also comes with a friendlier price than when each half was sold separately.

Careful when you open this, or you'll immediately lose a couple of days to a Battlestar Galactica marathon. I'm a moderate sci fi fan, more into foreign movies, and I don't like soaps at all. So why is this sci fi soap opera so addictive? For me it's not the gung ho military tone, which isn't my thing. Or even the fact that the cylons are a mix of scruffy men and ridiculously bodacious women--that's sort of an embarassment. What, are women not subject to being seduced by sexy spies? It's all very oriented to adolescent boys, this mix of guns and soft-core guy-oriented porn. I was one of those boys--30 years ago--and it wasn't pretty.

I think what I like most about Galactica is that the humans are hopelessly outgunned and almost deserve to go extinct, they're so foolish and small minded. And throughout the show they inch closer to losing it. There's some honesty here that rarely sneaks out of Hollywood. I mean, what's at stake when a daytime soap character screws up? They land in the hospital? Here you've got nukes going off.

The other thing I really like about this show is Olmos. He was wonderful in Bladerunner (another great piece of dark, existential sci fi to which Galactica owes much of it's style), and he's wonderful here. Gnarly, dogged, getting the short end of the stick, staying the course. A perfect anchor for the rolling catastrophe that the humans face in a nasty cylon universe.

So set aside a ridiculous number of hours, and keep some aspirin handy unless you manage to fast forward through all the "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" sequences with that electronic music that goes straight to a spot between your eyes. And enjoy.