Sunday night's final episode of "Rome" was reasonably gripping. Or it was, until they threw in that appalling tag line! Titus Pullo and Caesarion are walking through a crowded street, and Caesarion, who thinks he's the son of Julius Caesar when in fact he's Pullo's son, says he intends to redeem his father's name, to which Pullo answers, "Listen, about your father..." Da dum dum, ch!

Oh, come on now, Heather! The whole plot thread about Caesarion was a joke. Didn't you see the episode when he was conceived? That's pretty much when the producers decided that they wouldn't stick to history with regard to the only begotten Son of Caesar.

The scene had the added benefit of wrapping the series up with a focus on one of the two fictional characters through whose eyes these historical events were seen. Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo were to Rome what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Granted, the analogy is not perfect, but it is close enough to support my point.

I enjoyed Rome thoroughly, up to and including the final scene. I didn't mind at all a note of lightness and hope at the end of a truly grim episode of television. Well done, I say.

I agree completely with Heather's review of "Battlestar Galactica." I'm a latecomer to the series--and only a sporadic viewer at that--but it seems that every time this show pulls me in with its complicated characters and provacative themes, they somehow manage to repel me by loading on the hokey, surrealistic dream sequences. What I find particularly disappointing is how quickly this pattern asserted itself in last night's episode. Not moments after being captivated by the conclusion of the Baltar trial, an amazing plot thread that had me actually rooting for Baltar against last season's "heroes," I found myself being bombarded with that clumsy ode to Dylan/Hendrix. And I'm even a fan of "All Along the Watchtower," having Dylan's and three other covers of it in my music collection. Heather hit the nail on the head; the spoken word Shatner-esque rendition by the cast of Battlestar was definitely something I'd expect from a high school stoner guy. I was so distracted by this musical anachronism that the episode's final plot twist had no impact on me.

Uhh, excuuuuuse me. Bono wrote "All Along the Watchtower" in 1987. Get your facts straight next time.

Also, he was probably drinking 100-proof Southern Comfort, not Bacardi 151.

Uhh, excuuuuuse me. Bono wrote "All Along the Watchtower" in 1987.

Please tell me you're joking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Along_the_Watchtower

OK, it's my fault. I've been singing that song a lot lately (just cause it sounds good on me), and that somehow leaked into this episode. Weird. A lot of times this s*it just astounds me. I gotta be more careful.

BTW, your ex is doing fine. But he sure does bogart them things...

That said, I gotta say, this intrusion seems to upset the integrity of the whole series. It is such a truly strange choice for the writers to make. Sure, I could see them hearing some strange song, in some ancient language, or verses from their religious texts, or weird Cylon-related images, sure. But Dylan? Too grounded in reality, very jolting. If they had just snuck in two lines, to make it a little in-joke, that would almost have been ok. But to make it a major plot point? Horribly, tragically wrong, I say!

And, do I have the timeline wrong or what? How can someone who's been in the fleet 40 years - and who has friends who remember him 40 years earlier - be a Cylon? Didn't the war just happen like 40 years ago, when they all had the robot-nightmare bodies? So my theory is they all just think they're Cylons. But that was a cool way to leave the season.

Of course, Starbuck *had* to come back. I'm just grateful that they didn't wait *too* long.

(while I'm at it, I sure hope there turns out to be a good reason for the fact that there are only 12 models of Cylon. Surely it can't be that they're not capable of growing different faces and body types, or that they don't have the budget for more)

Wow--There's no accounting for taste, huh? Everyone I know who watches the L Word (about 10 different viewers) has agreed that (unlike every other season, which we all agreed was pretty bad, but kept watching anyways) this was the first good season the show has ever seen. It was like they fired all the old writers and hired a new staff who knew how to pace a 50 minute episode, who believed in their heart of hearts that lesbians were capable of stability and happiness, and understood that Jenny is a despicable little troll who needs to be put down constantly by the other characters. Because really? She sucks, and it's time the characters and writers woke up to a reality the viewers have understood from the beginning. Slate agrees with us, too. :) You're entitled to your opinion, of course. I was just really surprised to see it.

I just had a few quick thoughts: This isn't the first time that we've heard 20th century music on the show. In the second season episode "Valley of Darkness", Kara listens to some Philip Glass that her father recorded on piano.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Darkness

On Bear McCreary's blog he talks about some of the inspiration for the version of "All Along the Watchtower" that appears in the show. He also seems to imply that somewhere in the BSG universe the exact same melody and lyrics were recorded by another musician who apparently had the same sort of inspiration. I'm not sure I completely buy that argument, but it's an interesting idea at least.

http://www.bearmccreary.com/html/blog/blogmain.htm

Well at least this way I know I'm going to get to see him next season. He was always sort of this peripheral character and without Starbuck there wasn't much reason for him to be around (although now I guess he's learning to fly a viper) so I was kind of bummed thinking they'd just write him out, and not only is he not being written out, there may be many many more models of him lying around!

Mmmm...!