1 But only just now?  Weird, from what I've heard of the series, its to the point where any new viewer would go "Why would I want to watch this, its too depressing."

( and the old viewers are mostly still in it for the chance Starbuck will die horribly. . . 8cough* )

2 Personally, I still watch Battleshark Galactica only for the bemused grins... because the writers  have jumped so many sharks, crashed so many trains, and killed so many dogs that I just can't take it seriously anymore.

Oddly, I would have expected shotgunning the series to exasperate these issues, not make them better.  There are far too many cases of people being of a certain mindset, and then acting like they were *totally different people all along* a few episodes later, just to advance whatever the newest dark subplot is (and I'm talking about the humans).  The characterization is hugely inconsistent, and key plot points that mattered at one point in the series (such as food and water) have miraculously disappeared the last couple of seasons, only to re-appear recently just because they were needed for yet another recycled plot.

The CG is outstanding, though, although instead of recycling clips, these days they just have fewer stories that require any scenes set outside the hull.

3

Oddly, I would have expected shotgunning the series to exasperate these issues, not make them better.

I think you meant "exacerbate", but I like "exasperate" better in that sentence! (I don't ordinarily pounce on spelling errors, but this one was particularly funny to me.)

4 Sigh... it seems that for me, at least, synonyms are going to be the first things to go--I have always prided myself on never needing a thesaurus, so it's particularly jarring to me.

It's... exacerbating.

5 Welcome to old age.