I'm a passionate fan of this show (despite my profound frustration with Razor), so I mean this question less as a criticism and more as a reminder that the story the writers of the show have chosen to tell for the first half of this season is not the only direction they could have gone following the end of Season 3, and that as exciting as this season has been, as incredible as the performances have been (Aaron Douglas and Rekha Sharma have both blown me away) and as top-notch as the direction and editing has been, the writing itself demonstrates a failure of nerve, or an addiction to easy answers that this show has never demonstrated before.

The writers seem to have decided that the fallout from the trial of Baltar in the fleet as a whole wasn't interesting enough to compete with the mythological Starbuck/Final Five/Finding Earth storyline. But think of the political alternatives the fleet was presented with at that moment. Lee Adama argued before the entire fleet that the 40,000 or so human beings left alive in the Universe (so far as they know) no longer constitute a civilization, that they are (to use his word) a "gang"; and that therefore the rule of law regarding treason against the Colonial government should no longer hold, and that a kind of universal amnesty should be the premise of a new communal life together. The opposing political program, endorsed and practiced by President Roslin, is exactly the opposite--to maintain the image, the rituals and ceremonies of Colonial State power (a system that seems to combine elements of the UN with elements of US-style Constitutional democracy), while in secret encouraging despotic and totalitarian measures against Baltar and, indeed, all New Caprican collaborators that survived. We are encouraged to consider, never heavy-handedly (the writing last season was SUPERB, and gave fans a lot of material to think about on our own) that Laura's increasing attraction to totalitarian solutions was linked for her to the return of her cancer and the probability of her having to face her own mortality in the coming months; she is putting her house in order. And the fleet, symbolized by Baltar's judges, including Adama's father, sided with Lee, not with Roslin, however sympathetic her attitude might still be to viewers. Perhaps for the first time on American television, we had a thoroughly sympathetic despot, and on the other hand a champion of liberty who essentially advocated for a kind of proto-Christian anarchy.

These are not the typical American political alternatives. And is this decision in favor of Lee's program not extraordinary, based on what we know of human nature and especially twentieth century history? The massive, fleet-wide turn to faith this season, for most in the form of Baltar's sermons, but also in the form of the Admiral's acceptance of Kara Thrace's return, could be a fascinating fallout from this choice, but so far the writers have failed to link the two. They have relied on our interest in the fates of individual characters and our addiction to mythology, abandoning the main story this show set out to tell, the story that made it so pressing and relevant in the first three seasons: the fate of a persecuted human community in exile and on the run.

Now that the rule of law has been essentially voted out of existence, what kind of political community can be built by these people? Can the search for an adequate myth of origins and a story about God's love really be enough? Put the question another way: is a vote for the political ideology Lee's argument endorses a choice that is ever really available to us, in the US or globally? I'm not sure, but I think the question is terribly urgent, and had hoped that the writers had asked it because they wanted to find out too. Like I said, I'm sensing a lack of nerve.

My Dear Camilla,

I am afraid, my dear, that this column is far from your best work. You are old and myopic--and I should know! Try reading a new book or listening to a new piece of music. Nostalgia is sick-making.

Yours truly,

Bloom Brontosaurus

I keep hoping Bravo will give Top Critic a shot--right? A reality show in which an eclectic, ethnically diverse and competitive group of Americans of varying education levels are forced to compete in literature and criticism related challenges. The prize? A research grant or money to pay for grad school.

In all seriousness, though, I think that these days the best critics are usually also practitioners of the art form they criticize. It's not a universal truth by any means, but generally speaking it's a good rule, and I think it's more true today than it was in the era of Northrop Frye. Remember, James Wood is a novelist too.