Babylon 5...

Okay, I just finished watching season three of this series, and I want more! Unfortunately I am going to have to wait until I get paid again and have a little extra $ to order the next/final two seasons. And yeah, I did just find out that episodes are available on Hulu, but man, I am going to want to buy them, so I may as well just wait (and then not have to watch them on my laptop).

Sidebar: If you haven't checked out Hulu, by the way, it's pretty fraktastic. And it just went from being invitation only to all users welcome, so that's pretty sweet. To my point of view, it's a perfect place for catching up on missed episodes of series, getting caught up on a series you came into late, or just getting to watch some episodes of an old show you want to revisit but don't necessarily want to buy on DVD (like, in my case, Doogie Howser, M.D.).

Okay, where was I? Oh! Babylon 5! This show is incredible. It is set several hundred years in the future on the titular space station, which is a diplomatic gathering place for humans and other species we have encountered since venturing out into space. It focuses primarily on the exploits of the executive crew of the station and a few of the alien ambassadors, with a backdrop of imminent galactic war and extremely tense political situations.

In some ways it would be so easy to write this series off as cheesy sci-fi at its pinnacle. The dialog frequently reaches cringe-worthy levels of horrible. This show was made in the very early days of CG/green screen technology, so the effects are hardly spectacular, though they certainly could be worse for their time of origin. The make-up is hardly stellar--almost all of the aliens are pretty humanoid, and some are pretty ridiculous. I mean seriously, who came up with the Centauri hairstyles? Though I do have to say I find the Narn to be pretty cool, as far as the various alien "designs" go.

But oh my God, give it a few episodes and all of that is completely blown away by the show's two saving graces: the story and the acting. This series is a truly amazing example of a creative team approaching a show with a definite story arc in mind and then executing that arc with integrity. I know that the original story arc was planned for five seasons and had to be wrapped up after season four due to a short-lived cancellation, so I am really interested to see how seasons four and five turn out based on that, but from what I've seen so far, I kind of think they can't be that disappointing. I'll find out I guess.

Compelling doesn't even begin to describe the story laid out on this show. As events unfold and characters are introduced, given a chance to grow, or even make their exits, the viewer is left both quite satisfied and still wanting more. That takes some talent, in my book.

As far as the acting goes, this cast is just wonderful together. As I said before, the dialog leaves something to be desired, but these people take that and still make you manage to care about their characters and to be able to believe in the story and want to follow it to its conclusion.

So, that's my recommendation for the week. If you're looking for some fun sci-fi that's still extremely good despite a definite cheese-factor, head on over to Hulu and check it out.

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Other notes:

Bones is back! I am not looking forward to the rumors of the pending Zack injury, but I definitely enjoyed the first episode since the strike. The banter on this show almost makes me giddy. I think this week's episode is the one from last season that got yanked from the air due to the Virginia Tech tragedy. It will be interesting to see how it's been reworked to fit in with the current season.

Women's Murder Club and Grey's Anatomy are back on the air this week! More reasons to jump for joy.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I wish you all a happy and healthy week.

C

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