Note there are Battlestar Galactica spoilers below. From a reader:

Jonah,
I shared your appreciation of BSG, as well as the dorkiness of telling people who’ve never watched the show that I like ‘Battlestar Galactica’. But can I just vent at how absolutely horrid the season premiere was? What part of “Commander-in-Chief” does so-called President Roslin not understand!? If she wanted that Admiral removed from power, she could have just detained her when they had that meeting at Colonial One. Or at least Adama could have reminded her of that responsibility when she asked him to kill her in cold blood! I can understand suspension of disbelief, but this is just too much.

Me: I agree and disagree. I liked the premiere (though it was really the premiere of the second half of this season). And I thought of that point too: Why can’t the president just fire Michelle Forbes (the admiral)? One possible explanation is that the Admiral wouldn’t recognize her authority (even Adama declared martial law and threw the president in prison). Another is that the President is so sick she’s not thinking clearly. But ultimately, I think the reader’s right. Why didn’t the president just say to Adama that the admiral was fired. That would have given Adama all the “legal” authority he needed. It certainly would have gone over better than his current plan to have the admiral assasinated. I also thought the President could have volunteered to kill her. After all she’s only got a few weeks to live. If she thinks it’s the right thing to do, why not do it herself?