Are You Watching Battlestar Galactica?

Because you should be.

Talk about an impressive piece of television.

Galactica is in its final half-season, which started last Friday. Picking up from where the previous half-season's cliffhanger ending left off, the show answered questions by raising new ones.

If you haven't been watching, do yourself a favor and start with the miniseries and just mainline the DVDs until you've caught up. Hulu.com has the most recent episodes available until the end of the month. Just don't start watching the latest episodes, you'll be completely lost and nothing will have resonance. You can't just skip to the end with this thing. Believe me, it's worth it. Seriously. Like any show, it has peaks and valleys, but there are very few throwaway episodes and A LOT of amazing television.

The characters alone are worth watching the show for. Heck, I'd watch every week just for Colonel Tigh. And there is very little connection between this new version and the old version, apart from the basic ideas and some names. For instance, you may have heard that Starbuck is a girl. She is, and she could probably beat Dirk Benedict to a pulp, too. There is no robot teddy bear thing, and Boxy doesn't make it past the miniseries. This is a show with a constantly escalating death toll and a chain-smoking doctor. Guys, sometimes Dean Stockwell even shows up for a guest appearance! It's pretty great.

I've never watched Lost. I'm waiting for the show to end so I can gauge fan reaction to see if the show is worth my time. I've tried to protect myself in this way ever since I got burned by The X-Files and their alien mythology that went absolutely nowhere. Still, I've found myself following shows like Heroes (Season 1 was great, but I lost interest completely about three episodes into Season 2) and 24 (those DVD sets are like crack, but don't even bother with Season 6).

I don't even remember how I got into Galactica, but I'm glad I did. The show's quality is consistently high, especially the acting. I don't even mind the fact that there's still a chance the show can screw up in the final half-season; if the last episode ever aired was last week's (which it could have been if the writer's strike had continued), I would have actually been okay with it. Maybe.

I can't say enough good things about the show so go watch it right now. FOR SERIOUS.

Editor's Note: Death By Pop usually waits until we've watched the entire run of a show before reviewing it; this isn't so much a review as it is fanboy frothing. The editorial staff have discussed it and, agreeing wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed, have allowed this rare bit of geek ranting in the hopes that people will check the show out. It really is as good as everyone says.