"Battlestar Galactica" Finale Resonates Culturally and Politically. There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here.

The most politically engaging, culturally relevant, socially entertaining and spiritually rewarding experience I had this past week was watching the two-hour finale of Battlestar Galactica, at a special press screening hosted by Sci Fi network, which announced yesterday it would soon be called Syfy. Without sharing any of the details about the two-hour conclusion to be aired this Friday, it ranks among the best - if not the best - of all series grand finales. With the loss this year of Battlestar, unquestionably one of the top ten one-hour drama series ever, along with ER and, next year, Lost, the age of great long-running television dramatic series is coming to an end.

My second favorite experience of the past week was the face off between CNBC's Jim Cramer and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. If this were Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Cramer would have been shot dead in a duel on the western shores of the Hudson River. Cramer and CNBC should be very grateful that today's TV society is suffering from a permanent and terminal case of attention deficit disorder. Stewart's bludgeoning of Cramer stands like a tower of integrity compared to John King's embarrassing CNN interview of former Vice President DICK Cheney. Where were the questions, the challenges, the intervention of truth?

I admit I am a Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow left-leaning member of the New York so-called intelligencia. I try to read and think and absorb and be open to all opinions. And I also view the world from the perspective of the media industry, which is struggling for its survival. I truly have to wonder what the future holds for an industry that simply cannot seem to connect the dots from the past eighty years to the next five. The themes in the finale of Battlestar Galactica have more to offer in the way of solutions for the challenges we face than all the news media, politicians, economists, op ed writers and pundits combined. It also had so much more to offer as a marketing partner, and while Sci Fi generated advertising premiums, NBC Universal in no way received the support it should have from marketing partners.

Asking the political questions raised by Battlestar, will the Obama team break the patterns and models of the past and lead us back to peace and prosperity? Or will the powers of the Republican Colony hold us in familiar patterns of conservatism? On MSNBC one of the commentators suggested last week we are in an economic war. If, he asked, the Democrats had constantly second guessed President Bush when he invaded Iraq, and publically hoped for the failure of our forces, would anyone have embraced the Democrats? Yet, that is what, suggested this pundit, the Republicans are doing as president Obama wages war against the economic recession, and loyal Republican supporters refuse to waver in their antipathy toward the new wave of politics. Whether you favor the Republican or Democrat points-of-view, you need to accept that those who hold onto traditional models in any business today are doomed to failure and defeat.

Battlestar Galactica dealt with anarchy, socialism, religious fractionalism, economic meltdown, war and many of the issues the world is confronting today. It's not a Hollywood publicity stunt that executive producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore and two stars of Battlestar Galactica (Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell) were invited to speak at the United Nations today. Fiction and life intersect. Both the fans and the talent of great TV are absorbed into it; it becomes part of our world. Its social, cultural, political and spiritual messages transcend the screen and become engrained in our reality. Battlestar Galactica, as its fans know, is about the soul and the need to transcend our every day existence in order to face the challenges of a transforming universe.

As we watch reality unfold in Washington, in the Middle East, at the G-20 Meetings, at the FCC, on Wall Street and at the upcoming network television Upfronts, it will serve us well to heed the lessons of Battlestar Galactica, of Jon Stewart and even of South Park. "There must be some kind of way out of here said the joker to the thief. There's too much confusion; I can't get no relief."