battlestar galactica

What was on TV? Fri, Jan 21, 2005

It's a prison riot on BSG! Plus Bernie Mac.

Grace MacLaine

21 Jan 2025 — 2 min read

20 years ago, the head honcho at Focus on the Family told everyone that Spongebob was gay, and he was turning kids gay. Let's see what was on TV!

8:00 The Bernie Mac Show on Fox

4x07 "Nerdy Mac"

Available on Hulu and Tubi

You can see how much this show got shuffled around this year, because this is a Halloween episode. In January.

This episode explores the topical issue of standardized testing, as Bernie discovers his daughter is not testing well and may need to be held back a grade, despite the fact that he sent her to a fancy Catholic school. And she might not be testing well, but she is smart, she's walking all over the teachers. Meanwhile, his son comes to terms with the fact that he is a nerd. So Bernie has one smart kid and one cool kid. Not to bad. You don't want siblings to be too similar.

10:00 Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi Channel

1x03 "Bastille Day" (record Monk on USA)

Available on Prime

Battlestar entered the cultural zeitgeist following the first season of Andor. Every "watch these shows after you finish Andor article inevitably mentioned Battlestar. And Battlestar is indeed a great show for Andor fans. Thorny politics, a seemingly hopeless fight against a terrifying enemy, moments of humor and emotion amidst all that, plus epic space battles. But this episode definitely suffers in the shadow of Andor. It's a prison riot episode, so comparisons to Andor's Narkina 5 arc are inevitable.

And well...this isn't as good as Andor. The show introduces a lot of interesting ideas about prison labor, democracy, and why sometimes negotiating with terrorists might be an okay idea. But on Andor, you really got to know Narkina 5 and the people trapped there. Here, the prison plotline is mostly a means to tease a future election plotline, introduce a character who will probably run in that election, and of course explore a lot of thorny political ideas. Ultimately, it's a pretty good episode (Cally bites a guy's ear off!). But it mostly made me want to watch the Narkina 5 episodes again.

Late Night

This was a good episode of Late Night! John Leguizamo was on, and he is an ideal talk show guest. He is hilarious and so, so charming. Stories about his squabbling parents, his "caveman" Spanish, and the majesty of Laurence Fishburne. Next up is Nicole Richie. Lots of talk show hosts were determined to prove themselves above the likes of Ms. Richie. But Conan actually talks to her, and she tells a bunch of stories about treating her friends and strangers poorly. So you still get the schadenfreude, but without the annoying condescension.