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Battlestar Galactica Meets Planet of The Apes

True to form, the Battlestar Galactica mid-season finale last Friday was predictably morose and wearing. Dark, dark and more dark. Every time I dare to tune in, someone's getting blown out of an airlock or...something. It's mho that Executive Producer Ron Moore needs to lighten up a little.

As the season closes midway, the Colonial Fleet finally locates Earth, the promised land. But the joy is short-lived - Shangri-la has been nuked and, apparently, abandoned. Think: Planet of The Apes.

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The Best & Worst of '07: Bionic Woman Meets Riptide

Per Marshall Herskovitz's (Quarterlife, thirty-something) concerns about media consolidation and executive suite meddling in scripted series, Bionic Woman might be a case study. The series is one of the big, broadcast net meldowns of the '07 fall season.

“A butt-kicking new hit!” exclaimed TV Guide.

Bionic premiered with close to 14 million viewers but by the eighth episode the number had dwindled by more than half, to just under six million.

Because of the David Eick pedigree, Bionic was assumed to have potential because Eick (together with Ron Moore) successfully reconstituted another campy 70’s series, Battlestar Galactica.

Uneasy about Bionic's morose pilot, newly-minted NBC co-chair Ben Silverman decided to put the fun back in Bionic. (Silverman wasn't necessarily wrong in his assessment. The pilot was intense, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Rob Owen pointed out that audiences rejected dark last season.)

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