An interesting question asked by Leverage’s John Rogers in this blog post (which itself spins out of an io9 post): When should newbies stop watching Battlestar Galactica? Here are some of the answers he received.
https://gizmodo.com/beastie-boys-vs-battlestar-galactica-our-new-favorite-5490305
“One Year Later” (end of S2, don’t even finish the scene, just shut it off when you see those words).
[I]n the final episode, when they start discussing city planning. That leaves out most of the stupidity.
If I was giving the box set to a total virgin, I would suggest they stop watching right away and go get Season One of “Doctor Who” instead. And I’d keep the receipt.
[T]hey should stop about five minutes from the end of the finale, in the middle of Lee and Kara’s conversation. (But if they want to fast-forward through the love pick-a-polygon crap in season three and Kara’s crazy time in season four, that’s fine.)
Just to offer a somewhat different perspective, I’d advise somebody to watch it until the end, unless they started not enjoying it. I thought the first two seasons were stronger than the second two seasons, sure, but unlike (apparently) a lot of people I didn’t experience a precipitous drop-off where things got worse and worse. Just about every step along the way made sense to me as a creative choice, and played honestly with what came before.
As opposed to, e.g., Alias (which was obviously a very different, and incredibly less ambitious [and artful] show), where I tell people they should check out the first two seasons and then immediately stop. Sure, the first episodes of Season 3 seem acceptable, but the nuttiness and badness just start expanding at frightening speed.
It’s potential snark heresy, but I agree with the last of the comments; I know that the finale was nowhere near perfect, but I genuinely think there’s value in BSG all the way until the very end. Well, maybe not that montage at the very end, but still… I open the question to everyone here, though: When do you wish you’d stopped watching the show?
