Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 [Blu-ray]

Battlestar Galactica has, over the last four years, proven to be a new milestone for the very idea of sci-fi television and, outside of "genre" standards, has still shown itself to be one of the strongest shows on television through consistently powerful acting, writing, and directing. Over the seasons, the show has always pushed the envelope when it came to reaching beyond the limitations placed on it by the network and the high level of quality it continued to place on itself. The third season faltered slightly due to all of this growing pressure, as the network forced the show to turn to a story format that didn't suit the overarching plot at all, conflicting with the show's natural evolution. Fortunately, the network took the blame, and for the first time since the show's conception, the writers had full creative control. And how they embraced it. In turn, the show's fourth season is the perfect realization of Battlestar's miraculously coherent half-planned, half-winging-it plotting style. The ten episodes shown so far are the first large group of episodes since the beginning of the show's second season that can be seen working as a whole, each episode contributing to the core plot, slowly implementing important movements for the main players. The difference here though is that back in the second season, the writers still had to pair each major development with a weekly plot, making easily discernible story chunks. But now, finally at the end, the show has moved far past that phase, ambitiously linking episode to episode by bringing what were previously undercurrents to the foreground, creating the sense of a visual novel with no distractions or fluff. Each moment is even more necessary than ever, as the show has truly become aware of the power of its main narrative, shedding off the structure that other shows have settled on after great ambition. Battlestar dared to go past what was proven to work and has reached its ideal state. As one might realize, if a show were condensed to its most relevant materials and its excess removed, the viewer is left with very concentrated bursts of development. Luckily, Battlestar's entire cast and crew seem to have been trained for this season through the show's progression, and each episode not only works to hold together the whole, but is a gem of television in its own right. An episode such as "Escape Velocity" shines for handling character growth perfectly through masterful writing and direction, while "Faith" will shine for immaculate performances and gorgeous, revelatory writing most of all. Even an episode like "Sine Qua Non," the only noticeable hiccup this season, still shines for the episode it is, its incongruity tempered by its importance to the full season. Any viewer of the show can acknowledge the odd notion that, for such a beacon of hope, Battlestar is a dark, challenging, and at times outright depressing show. Season 4 continues dark and heavy, but with a new and refined perception towards the sense of each character, has shown palpable thematic brilliance, each emotional trench, realistically heart-breaking, each rare moment of hope, poignantly uplifting. Just as the characters of the show are flawed and are perfect for all of their faults, so is this fantastic season, in this once-in-a-lifetime show, worth watching unfold.

After the dark and occasionally wandering season 3, season 4 is the most unpredictable and breathless season yet! MINOR SPOILERS: It kicks off with the return of a beloved character thought dead - and the many questions surrounding her appearance. There a lot of questions like this in season 4 that never really get satisfactory answers - how did the Final 5 survive thousands of years after apparently dying in the cylon apocalyse? Why does Baltar have a cult, and is he actually more sane than we thought? Why were the cylons motivated to completely wipe out humans? Is Starbuck an angel? what's the deal with that song everyone keeps hearing and how did it get into Galactica? And what the heck is up with Romo Lampkins (possibly imaginary) cat?? Don't bother pondering these questions - they won't get answered. In some ways, this season is the most imaginative and gripping yet. The search for Earth will make you question if Starbuck's lost her mind. The episode where they find Earth is the most emotionally wrenching moment of the series- truly a nihilistic and dark turn of events. The new villian, Cavill, is surprisingly believable in his contempt for humanity based on his desire to become a flawless machine. The final episodes, in which the dying Galatica takes on the entire Cylon civilization just to rescue one child, seem like the ship and her a crew are on a suicide mission. Then there's the amped-up mysticism surrounding Baltar's cult, juxtaposed strikingly with Roslin's crisis of faith. The theme of this season is things coming to an end and being reborn. Roslin is dying for real this time. Galactica is well past her prime, and the ship is obsolete and broken, and will soon be uninhabitable. Adama is no longer the stoic, unshakable commander of the previous 3 seasons - he's worn down too, and seeing both Roslin and his beloved Galatica dying is more than he can handle. Pretty much every other episode includes a tantrum, drunken binge, crying fit, or some combination of the 3. At the same time, it makes him so much more relatable and real. Adama continues to lead, barely hanging on by his fingernails, because he's surrounded by people who keep propping him up just one more day. Meanwhile, Lee gets a new job and is finally coming into his own - and is no longer trying to follow in his father footsteps, but making his own path. The Cylons are no longer one monolithic enemy, but are fragmented into factions - some friendly - and individual Cylons develop unique personalities. All of this adds up to some of the best TV ever - still character-driven and human (or Cylon) in scale but epic in proportion. The conclusion will blow you away!

All the DVDs performed perfectly. For viewers who streamed Galactica on Amazon, there are some differences. To navigate the DVDs you will need a mouse and a keyboard. Also there is no "XRay" character description on the side that you might see on Amazon streamimg. In the Galactica 4.0 DVD box disc 4, there is a video named "The music of Battlestar Galactica." I was expecting a documentary about Bear McCreary's music. Although McCreary does appear in the video, most of it consists of Galactica cast and crew stating that Galactica has no music. Since Galactica has superb music, this claim is obviously a joke. However, maybe this is a sarcastic comment about the TV/film industry's scorn for music and musicians. Beethoven rebelled at the custom of treating musicians as servants. Many movies annd TV shows have a list of truck drivers in the credits but no mention of music used. The famous main theme of Lawrence of Arabia is from Bruckner's symphony #6 but his name is nowhere in the credits. Rick Berman allegedly fired composer Ron Jones for making his music "too noticable." I thought the music he wrote was one of the best things about the Data's Day episode in Star Trek TNG. In the video "The music of Battlestar Galactica," cast members (sacastically I think) say that the show should not have music, because music would detract from the actors' spoken lines. I believe Bear's music is one of the things that makes BSG a great show, In my opinion, The video named "Evolution of a Cue" in Season 4.5 disk 1 is better.

I grew up with the original BSG on television, when the last eposide aired, I did not know it had been canceled and kept looking for a new episode at the same time slot for several months until I finally gave up. BSG1980 was good, but it did not last long enough for a story arc to emerge. When I heard that BSG 2.0 was to be produced for cable, and that they had changed several characters - Boomer and Starbuck from guys to gals. I was apprehensive about the show. I've never had cable or satilite TV so I couldn't watch it anyway. This past year, my nephew gave me a BSG 2.0 season 1 DVD set for Christmas. I was still apprehensive, but I decided to give it a try. Once I got into it, I was blown away by the drama, and the sad situation the fleeing humans found themselves in. I really felt sorry for the characters. Outside of the mechanical cylon centurians, there are no aliens in the show. The story arcs are good and several are occuring at once. You really have to watch the episodes in sequence the first time through to understand how everything came about. Otherwise you won't understand some of what goes on. I ended up buying the other three seasons. By far the best episodes IMO are the first (Pilot) and the last (Finale). The basic events in the original series is repeated here, in a re-imagined and more relistic way. The attack on the colonies, the exedous, finding Kobol, being chased by cylons, joining forces with Pegusus for a while, the loss of Starbuck, and finding earth, along with many new stories. The series comes to a satisfactory and suprising end. In many ways the series ends way I thought the original series should have ended if you take out the cylon story arcs. All in all, I recommend this remake. Its not a children's syfy (Star Wars stlye) program any more. Its an adult show with adult themes for young adults and older.

Great product! Fast shipping!!

This updated look at Battlestar Galactica is virtually a complete refit of the original series. No longer its plodding, campy, predictable progenitor, now a fast paced, edgey, immersive tour de force. Were the original BG was driven almost solely by special effects capitalizing primarily on the resurgance of scifi's popularity with the release of Star Wars, the new version is given form by a proper trifecta of writing, acting, and storyline supported by special effects. Joss Whedon of Buffy, Angel and Firefly fame once commented that his favorite series was the new BG due in no small part to its writing and the fact that it followed the post-buffy vision of women as an equal part of society not just window dressing. Just two of the many stand out character shifts are: Starbuck--then Dirk Benedict's a cigar smoking smart ass cassanova kept out of the brig because he was the best fly by the seat of his pants pilot, to Katee Sackhoff's cigar smoking smart ass sexy take charge fly by the seat of her pants not sure she wants to live risk taker who evolves confidence and a lust for life, and Commander Adama--who went from Lorne Green's old always right regal father knows best role, to Edward James Olmos' new nitty gritty sometimes I'm wrong but I'll always keep fighting to be better persona. New too is a much more complete overall story arc that is not just fleeing from the cylon bad guys, but also an exploration of what it means to exist (as a human or cylon). And for those who crave action, sex, explosions, and special effects mastery, that is there too, it just has a reason for being this time out. So say we all.

As I said amazon "unbox" (strange name) is not on trial here... AT ALL. And frankley I donot see what all the fuss is about. My picture and sound is awsome. At least 2.5 X's better than itunes. I don't have a tivo, and don't really know much about them. BUT I do know about downloaded(ing) and up-loading video, shows , movies what have you. SO LET GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY, AND END IT, SO WE CAN DISSCUSS MUCH MORE IMPORTANYT THINGS> Like when does the rest of season 4 start, and what is going to happen. It's all in the bit rate. for a short time last year BSG was available on iTunes. I have all of season 3 on a PC as well as CD. When ANY company offers video down loads they HAVE to decide on the bit rate. That determines the final size of the file, which affects how much work thier servers have to do, as well as the quality of the show.... Look at the size of a 44 minute show on iTunes and a 44 minute show from Amazon. The iTunes show has a total bit rate of about 1331, and a size of about 418.3 MB And a screen size of 640 x 360 and the complexity is "low". For those of you that don't realy know what that means... It means the quality is meant for an iPod. It is scatchy and fuzzed. A file from unbox is closer to 1GB! The bit rate is way high... IT IS as good as it can get and if you are having problems with it. YOU: a) installed the player wrong b) made a couple critical choices wrong as you set it up. c) your PC/Tivo is ubder the weather. Mine works fine.. great in fact, and I am DAMN glad that Amazon got this going... please do not complain about somthing you obviously know little about, as all that does is open up a possable negitive for us that do know what we are doing! THERE; I SAID IT--- LET THIS BE THE END OF HARDWARE DESCUSIONS, AND LETS KEEP TO BSG. Personally this is the best thing TV has seen in YEARS, sorry but HOUSE is a show about morons for morons. I can not wait until the next show ... I also am erked that they teased us like this... this show could have easily done a normal 7 seasons what ever. I have much more to say but I'm falling asleep so till next time. see ya on the otehr side/. JUMP!!!!

I'd like to state my HUGE satisfaction and my GRATITUDE, as I discover that, in their most recent reviews, people finally are rating what they think of the show ITSELF. Until recently, LOTS of people used to express their outrage - which I absolutely share - about the scandalous rip-off universal chose to put upon us, *coincidentally* dividing the FINAL season of a hugely popular show into two halves, the added cost of which have steadily remained about one third more expensive than the introducing price of season 3. (I admit I haven't actually verified this final claim - it reflects an emotional, rather than lucid assessment of the prices... I'm still pretty sure about the basic fact the two halves just DO cost more than one of the previous seasons... and still do, a year after they came out!) The thing is that I suspect that a majority of customers and fans, just like myself, take the RATINGS appearing in association with movies and tv-shows to be ABOUT THE VALUE OF THEIR CONTENT. If there was ANOTHER rating about packaging, price, value for money etc., I'd be GLAD to have it! Since there isn't, I've been really mad (and I've read enough comments to see I'm not the only one) to see people drastically modifying their rating of B.G.'s final season, which they thought to be "the greatest show of all time", to 2 and 1 star ratings because of the two halves thing. That is just absurd, as the rating won't specify WHY it is so low!!! So, this is to express my THANKS TO EVERYONE who overcame her/his frustration about packaging and marketing hold-ups and stuck to what they thought about the show itself. Cheers to all!

Sweet series love it

Great series but mistakenly ordered from the USA which is not compatible with Australia. My bad.

Fantastis storyline. Excellent picture quality. Many extras. It is the first half of the last season. The second part is found on another DVD.

What can I say, you either enjoy the Galactica series or you don't... If you are looking at buying season 4 you know what you are buying into. This was just a replacement as one of the discs in a box-set was damaged so had to buy to watch in order. Item arrived quickly so could carry on the series.

DVD was in perfect condition.