See how many hours I can keep watching Stargate: SG1

I previously blogged about Syfy's Sanctuary, which introduced me to the show's star and executive producer, Amanda Tapping. She gained a fairly large following as Samantha Carter in the storied Stargate franchise. When they added almost every Stargate-related piece of media to Hulu and Netflix Instant, I took it as a sign to start watching, and I'm pretty glad I did.

I love it as a classic sci-fi series. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and this show is a lot like that in terms of its structure. The show deals less with action and more with fun pseudo-science and philosophy 101 mixed in. It's generally upbeat and lighthearted, with a couple of episodes as notable exceptions. Above all, it's highly episodic, and there's pretty much always a status quo that might be broken at the beginning but returns by the end.

It's a nostalgic experience for me that I think maybe people in my age range and definitely teens and younger would not understand. All these kinds of shows on right now took the 24, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica formulae and are much less serialized. Stargate Universe, for example, is the Stargate version of BSG. That's the kind of show they make now. SG1 feels a bit cheesy in comparison. For instance, the action - shooting people with guns just makes sparks, if it even has any discernible effect on the enemies.

Currently I'm only about halfway through but I'm excited to catch the rest of it.