"How do you know the chosen ones? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions. Not for glory. Not for fame. For one person. In the dark. Where no one will ever know ... or see.
I did not notice this on my own, for all the times I rewatched the "And the Rock Cried Out" scene, but someone on the B5 message boards back in the 90s pointed out that there's one moment in the gospel song where Jesus is mentioned, and the in the next second it cuts to a close-up of G'Kar's face. It's not synchronized and I guess subtle enough as a result that I didn't find it anvilicious, but I do think it's intentional. (Not that anything is a one to one parallel, of course, it's a much better show than that. But still, I found that interesting once pointed out.)
but Kosh channeling Sheridan's dad to say goodbye was a really neat moment;
Yeah, I was also surprised by how affecting I found it, both on first watch and rewatch, considering I didn't much care for Kosh. It's a neat trick, since Kosh has been such an enigma, and not necessarily always a benevolent-seeming one, either.
as well as Londo's classical-tragedy life choices, really made me aware this season of how operatic this show feels; it's grand, it's big, it's rolling towards something grand and tragic and memorable.
"Operatic" is a really good word for it! And I think you're right that you couldn't get the same epic effect with the shorter modern seasons. A friend and I were talking about how we miss the "breathing room" that the classic 20+ episode seasons used to give the shows we loved growing up, and B5 came up as an example of a show where the story would really not have the same effect compressed into just the arc-bearing episodes. (Even though I also agree with you that season 3, where the arc is SO big and important, what's happening with everyone on the periphery of the arc plot doesn't feel as memorable.)
- I also, at times, genuinely can't believe that this show was written during the Clinton years. It's a show that could easily feel like a fictional reaction to a lot of what came after (the Bush years, 9/11, the current era) more than it feels like a reaction to what came before.
This was actually my biggest takeaway when I rewatched in the early 2010s (so, before the recent US elections but after 9/11). It was actually quite sad, because I remember watching the EarthGov storyline (as well as some of the alien storylines, but they're aliens, so, OK) in the mid-90s and finding it unbelievable that an entire planet could be duped by such obviously shady characters with some blatant propaganda -- and IIRC, JMS actually received a lot of similar criticism at the time, fans complaining how implausible these things were and how transparent the propaganda was -- with him responding that a lot of the propaganda words were direct quotes from actual 20th century dictatorial regimes. Anyway, it was disappointing to discover that JMS had been right and the optimism of the 90s, not so much... :/
(But yes, I think you're right about the timeless feel of it because he wasn't trying to copy or comment on any one specific event.)
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"How do you know the chosen ones? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions. Not for glory. Not for fame. For one person. In the dark. Where no one will ever know ... or see.
I did not notice this on my own, for all the times I rewatched the "And the Rock Cried Out" scene, but someone on the B5 message boards back in the 90s pointed out that there's one moment in the gospel song where Jesus is mentioned, and the in the next second it cuts to a close-up of G'Kar's face. It's not synchronized and I guess subtle enough as a result that I didn't find it anvilicious, but I do think it's intentional. (Not that anything is a one to one parallel, of course, it's a much better show than that. But still, I found that interesting once pointed out.)
but Kosh channeling Sheridan's dad to say goodbye was a really neat moment;
Yeah, I was also surprised by how affecting I found it, both on first watch and rewatch, considering I didn't much care for Kosh. It's a neat trick, since Kosh has been such an enigma, and not necessarily always a benevolent-seeming one, either.
as well as Londo's classical-tragedy life choices, really made me aware this season of how operatic this show feels; it's grand, it's big, it's rolling towards something grand and tragic and memorable.
"Operatic" is a really good word for it! And I think you're right that you couldn't get the same epic effect with the shorter modern seasons. A friend and I were talking about how we miss the "breathing room" that the classic 20+ episode seasons used to give the shows we loved growing up, and B5 came up as an example of a show where the story would really not have the same effect compressed into just the arc-bearing episodes. (Even though I also agree with you that season 3, where the arc is SO big and important, what's happening with everyone on the periphery of the arc plot doesn't feel as memorable.)
- I also, at times, genuinely can't believe that this show was written during the Clinton years. It's a show that could easily feel like a fictional reaction to a lot of what came after (the Bush years, 9/11, the current era) more than it feels like a reaction to what came before.
This was actually my biggest takeaway when I rewatched in the early 2010s (so, before the recent US elections but after 9/11). It was actually quite sad, because I remember watching the EarthGov storyline (as well as some of the alien storylines, but they're aliens, so, OK) in the mid-90s and finding it unbelievable that an entire planet could be duped by such obviously shady characters with some blatant propaganda -- and IIRC, JMS actually received a lot of similar criticism at the time, fans complaining how implausible these things were and how transparent the propaganda was -- with him responding that a lot of the propaganda words were direct quotes from actual 20th century dictatorial regimes. Anyway, it was disappointing to discover that JMS had been right and the optimism of the 90s, not so much... :/
(But yes, I think you're right about the timeless feel of it because he wasn't trying to copy or comment on any one specific event.)