I watched this when it first aired in the 2000s, having enjoyed the short-lived 70s original, in simpler times, and I have just binge watched it again. For me, it was better the second time around. Perhaps that says something about me, twenty years later, but this show is definitely a better watch without the weekly wait.
I remember being glad that it was done after four seasons and that it was time to end it, but that was not quite how I felt the second time around. I do think that this length for the show was about right, but I wasn't fed-up with it by the time it got there this time around.
Some of the episodes are a bit dull and the series generally is bleak (even if for good reason), which on a weekly basis can make that harder to go on with, and be entertained by (that is the point, right?), but being able to move straight on to the next episode can negate that sense of disappointment or dismay from dull or especially bleak episodes. The binge-watching, and the ability to move straight on to the next episode, improved the experience for me from the first time around.
There are still things that irk. Without giving too much away, the use of characters and places that existed only in someone's head, that no one else could see (with the odd exception), started with one character and then got spread to being (over)used for others.
For Cylons, the explanation that they had the ability to project such things inside their minds, as some advanced form of daydreaming, might have been acceptable in itself, but for the fact that this started and occurred regularly throughout the run, with a human. It was then used with other humans at certain points, and was relied upon way too much for storytelling.
The main character, that this (projecting) is regularly used with, could only have been insane for this to happen. It was surely a manifestation of their mental illness. Although this was to some degree left open to other more mystical explanations, I never accepted that this was down to anything other than their own insanity, even with the epilogue trying to tell me otherwise. To then have some other human character use this 'projection', if for different reasons, I didn't like nor buy into. It just became an overused way of telling the story that took away from why it was used in the first place - which was because of the monumental guilt of one character, over their actions, and their resulting mental instability. This was also to enable the regular appearance of another character who could not otherwise be physically present. On the plus side, it does occasionally give rise to some wry humour.
I did not buy into any of the mysticism of the show, nor that a major character died and then returned from the dead without any rational explanation, or really with any kind of explanation whatsoever. Some strange events here were NOT left open to interpretation as being something that could have had either a rational OR a mystical explanation, which you could then choose to believe whichever way you prefer. Given where the show ends up, I felt that this was a terrible, divisive choice, that clashes the mystical with reality. It was used to paper over the killing of a character and subsequently bringing them back alive (?) without any adequate level of explanation, of any kind. At least it didn't happen in a shower and mean disregarding some past episodes, so it wasn't quite that bad, but still...
This is essentially why I cannot give the show higher marks and I have been unsure of a 7 or 8 out of 10, but did decide on an 8 as more befitting than a 7.
This version took the 70s original, kept the titular ship and its "Vipers", some of the main characters, albeit changing some of their names to callsigns, upgraded them and the Cylons and, despite the reservations and misgivings above, made it more realistic in terms of storyline and its characters. It deliberately made it bleaker than the original, perhaps too much so at times, but that would have been more in keeping with the situation that the human race found itself in, than the somewhat unphased, upbeat 70s version and its fully episodic format.
The characters had flaws, made mistakes, sometimes monstrously big mistakes, and they were certainly more rounded than the original ones (who were too thin as characters by the time we got to 1980, let alone the 2020s). This time they had the character depth demanded by a 21st century audience, to be able to survive as a show at all and outlast the original.
And what to do with crimes and other mistakes by these characters, when you have such a limited number of survivors and people who were able to take over roles. This makes for interesting plot choices and levels of forgiveness.
It was also extremely well acted, from the top down, which also says a lot about the writing that enabled that.
I had been unsure as to whether I wanted to watch this again, given how I felt about it the first time, but I'm glad I did. It still stands up 20 years later in terms of SFX and storytelling and acting, and outshines all too many of the more recent sci-fi shows that have come in its wake.
