The new Babylon 5 movie is out and, since it’s not readily on any of the streaming services I subscribe to, my thrift will delay me seeing it soon. At the same time, when I do see it, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it immensely.
Right in time for its release, Tor.com has re-published a wonderfully truthful article by Jennifer Giesbrecht from 2019 that goes into how Babylon 5 is great even as it is not that great, a quantum sentiment possibly best summed up by the first sentence:
Babylon 5 is one of the best science fiction shows ever made. It also kind of sucks, and that’s okay.
-Jennifer Giesbrecht
Here’s one of the reasons I enjoy this article so much. For one, I am fully on board with Dave Grohl’s stance, “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you fucking like something, like it.” You don’t need to love every iota of some creative work to like it. I can’t think of a single series I love where that bar can be met.
For another point, Giesbrecht goes waaay more in-depth about all the promise and payoff of Babylon 5 than I did for my viewing guide, so if my succinct list of points didn’t sway you, but you’re thinking you might want to check out B5, give her more thorough recommendation a read.