In film and television - television especially - endings are more important than beginnings. Look at some of our favorite shows - we as a viewing audience are far more likely to forgive the inconsistencies of a show's debut season than to tolerate a less-than-stellar final go-round. After reading about Lost at Comic-Con, I've fanned my own fires of nervousness in regard to that show (even though it's not one of my favorites): Can they pull off an ending as strong as their beginning?

In Battlestar Galactica's final season, its scenarios are so rife with fascinating developments that its not until after one finishes devouring Season 4.5 (I don't use that word lightly - I blasted through it in two evenings) that any misgivings pop up, and I mean this as a compliment. As a viewer, this writer has always been of the mind that if a movie or show's suspension of disbelief can keep you in its web until end credits roll, then it has been an unequivocal success. Who cares if some of Season 4.5's story arcs don't quite gel or that some of its narrative (especially backstory) illuminations seem perhaps a bit forced? Until that last episode began, I was zapped by the show's innate, unavoidable tractor beam: I was with it, for better and for worse.

I won't do too much in the way of synopsizing here, simply because giving away a little would mean giving away a lot. Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) is here, as is Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), who fight the good fight against some vigilant rebels, Apollo (Jamie Bamber) and Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) have big personal and identity issues that get resolved, and President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) does what she can to keep her impending illness at bay. There are shocks, cliffhangers, twists/turns and all kind of dramatic surprises, so in an attempt to not hint or give away anything, I'll just say that there's a lot of emotional work done on this Blu-ray set: It's dramatically exhausting.

And that word - 'dramatically' - continues to be the reson the show is so beloved. Nowhere in this review have I mentioned effects or space chases or all-out war with the Cylons: Battlestar Galactica succeeds - up to the very last minute - because it is a wonderfully rich dramatic show that just so happens to take place in a sci-fi realm. As with sci-fi classics that came before it (Star Trek, even, to an extent, the original Galactica), just as it's easy to get lost in the technology and extraterrestrial pull of its fantastical worlds, the throbbing engine behind Battlestar Galactica are its heart and its ideas.

Bravo.