My hopes are getting dashed every week with this show. The premise of the pilot was great, but frankly, this insane focus on "complex, conflicted, characters" is taking away from the basic theme - a group of folks lost in space fighting for their survival.
Warning: may contain spoilers:
We have Rush, the sociopath. I had hoped the Rush character would be more of a "wow, this is cool" Daniel Jackson type. Instead, he is further up the sociopath scale than Rodney McKay, the "this is so hard and only I am smart enough to solve it" type. In addition, why the heck would you send such an extreme sociopath on an off-world mission in the first place? Heck, NASA does extremely rigorous psychiatric screens on astronauts (Lisa Kowak not with standing) for a short shuttle hop.
We have Young, the reluctant Colonel. How the heck did he make Colonel? He dreams of his wife, fraternizes with the troops, and hasn't made a single leadership decision or attempted to establish his command. When he goes to Earth, he talks a couple of minutes with the leadership and then heads off to shag his wife. You'd think he would be in an SG think-tank every time he goes back, but no, shagging is way more important than, say, bringing the troops home. In addition, every time he goes to Earth he switches with Telford, who tries to take over his command. You'd think he would learn, and stop going, or not switch with Telford.
We have Eli, supposed genius. So far, all he does is wander the corridors, spy on folks with his KenoCam, and pine after Chloe. Really, with his brain you'd think Nash, Young or Telford would insist on putting him to good use. Also, since they are all basically eating the same meager amounts of gruel, why the heck is he not losing weight? Then, he goes to earth while Telford is trying to use the gate to dial earth. Instead of using his so-called mathboy skills to say, help Carter calculate the risk to the ship, he eats cookies and then goes to a concert with Chloe.
We have Chloe, who we now know was a drifting party girl before Daddy offered her a job. She gets peeved at her ex-BFF for sleeping with her ex-BF, but at the same time she wasted no time in shagging Lt Scott, stealing him away from Lt James. Cheating hypocrite! She criticizes Eli for being shallow when he gets excited that for once a cute chick hit on him in Hot Scientist Body, when she herself ignores him purely on looks. Can't wait for the goa'uld to make a cameo and possess her to set her straight.
We have Lt Scott, who despite knocking up an underage girl, still managed to get a military commission and still hasn't learned his lesson about shagging around. He happily obeys Telford's orders because he "respects the chain of command", but ignores basic orders like "no fraternizing with other troops on duty" when he deserted his post to have a quickie with Lt James in the utility closet. Really? How has he NOT yet been through a court martial?
Then, we have the civilians. All of them, wandering round like sheep. Sure, they have an excuse - their shepherds (Rush, Young) are too busy with tantrums and dereliction of duty. But still - can't one or two of them take the initiative and say, "hey - let's get organized. How about next time we drop out of hyperspace we put on one of those space suits and go wash the grimy windows? Or send the senator's body into space for a burial at space? Or fix the window on the shuttle with the senator's body? Or let's put some more KenoCams on Eli's sled and add an engine so we can fly around, like a gateship / jumper on the next planet instead of wandering through the desert / ice for the entire stop?"
Argh. So frustrating. A basically good, dark premise ruined by the need for ridiculous gratuitous soap-opera lifestyles that are better suited to Days of our Lives or Jerry Springer.