Letters to the Editor
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ambiguity = great drama
The writer mentioned the West Wing, a show that in hindsight pales in comparison to Ronald D. Moore and David Eick's Battlestar Galactica. The reason is that, for all of Aaron Sorkin's contrivances, the morality of Bartlett and his staff and cabinet are rarely in question; when they are, the "right answer" is often telegraphed to the audience so no one goes to bed feeling bad about assasinating the Kumari chief of security, or dishy Sam Seiborn bedding Doctor Cutty playing a high class but sexually liberated call-girl. Only near the end to we see people making decidedly wrong choices, like Toby Zeigler's leaking of information about a top secret military space shuttle program (a bizarre echo of real-world revelations about domestic spying programs, and a much tamer hypothetical than the real misdeeds of our current administration).
In the Battlestar Galatica universe, it is unclear what is or isn't a moral or even reasonable choice, and Ronald D. Moore and company are adept at keeping our heroes (and villains) in perpetual jeopardy, morally and situationally, for their lives and their souls. Saul Tigh, Kara Thrace and Felix Gaeta escape from New Caprica broken, wounded beasts who will not be the same. One of those three, Tigh, may never ever recover. Admiral Bill Adama faces tough choices relating to his former XO in the context of holding the fleet, and humanity itself, together. BSG is rife with these sorts of dilemnas, and it makes it difficult to take a show like "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" as seriously as I may have had it debuted prior to the arrival of shows like BSG and The Wire (which after last Sunday's episode is back in the lead in a neck-and-neck fight with BSG; besides, I prefer Simon/Burn's stylistic choices to avoid flashbacks, voice overs and unsourced soundtracking).
If you have time, I recommend in addition to watching the DVDs (mini-series, seasons 1 and 2) you also browse on over to Television Without Pity and check out the discussion forums (membership required to post but not to read), as read the recaps.