Good science fiction is hard to come by

It's true, the movie and television industry is inundated with bad, tasteless, and outright terrible science fiction. It is sometimes hard to pick through them all to find the good ones but anyone who considers themselves a sci-fi fan knows that when you find one of those gems it all becomes worth the effort (and wasted hours). For example, I recently discovered the series Firefly. I had never even heard of it before, but was soon completely engrossed in its amazing plot and well developed characters, even though there are only 14 episodes.

Getting to my point, I feel like I should mention Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is, in my mind, the epitome of everything that is good about science fiction. A meaningful and engaging story, an original idea, and interesting and diverse characters. It also has the best looking make-up jobs in any show I've seen. Anyone who considers themselves a scif-fi fan must, I'll repeat that, MUST!... watch this show. Although, if you are only in it for the action and the special effects, you may not want to bother. Not that there's anything wrong with that (Seinfeld reference intended), besides being shallow and what-not, good action sequences and special effects add a lot to the enjoyability of a TV show or movie, but it can also be used to distract an audience away from a terrible plot or completely uninteresting characters... *COUGH...Star Wars...COUGH*. If you are willing to deal with some cheesy graphics and maybe some not-so-fantastic acting then you open yourself up to a lot of otherwise great shows. I have to admit, it does take a little effort to get past the graphics in Babylon 5, especially in the first 2 seasons, but the story and characters are what make it shine. The dialogue and relationships between the characters are just brilliant. So, go to Hulu.com and in the science fiction category you'll find this little gem. Watch it and be amazed, or just be a douche, whatever. I'm just kidding about the whole shallow and douche thing, really. If you just like things because their shiny and optically stimulating then that's cool. It's totally up to you.

Picture from http://www.ign.com/