A review of the "Caprica" mid-season finale coming up just as soon as I chop some veggies... "Now, I finally feel like things are getting on the right track." -DanielI was disenchanted with the last several episodes of "Caprica," but I had hopes that "End of the Line"(*) would pull the series out of its stupor. If there was one thing you could count on from Ron Moore and company on "Battlestar Galactica," it was that the cliffhanger episodes (either at mid-season or the end of seasons) tended to pack the strongest punch, even during stretches when the show overall was struggling. (Case in point: the visit to the algae planet after a really tedious string of episodes midway through season three.)
(*) The title has been alternately listed in some places as "End of Line," which was the Hybrid's catchphrase on "BSG," but my contact at Syfy insists that the official title adds the "the."
But "End of the Line" was just as uninspiring as the episodes leading up to it - if not moreso. After all, there were certain parts of recent episodes that might have proven interesting, depending on the payoff, like the identity of Joseph's mysterious guide through New Cap City. But when it turned out to be his lovestruck secretary, deliberately manipulating events to keep Joseph and Tamara's avatar apart and to drive Joseph into her loving arms, I rolled my eyes and mentally checked out on that corner of the series, forever. Wake me when Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz are going at it again, okay?
Other than Alessandra Torresani's work as Zoe, and the horrorshow scene where Zoe finally revealed herself to Philomon, then accidentally killed him in a moment of panic, there was very little to grab onto here in terms of compelling character or story moments. And the threat of Daniel erasing Zoe's personality from the chip made no sense. Even if Daniel has decided to take the dog-shooting test as proof that Zoe's not in there, he still knows that the anomalies are the only thing that make the chip work, given that the chip did not work for Vergis.
The whole hour felt like the writing staff needed to build to a series of cliffhangers and then worked backward to see how they could justify a lot of frantic explosions, shoot-outs and suicide attempts. And they didn't even have the courtesy to blow up Sister Clarice(**) when they had the chance to ditch a character who's not working.
(**) Though I would be very amused if Nestor were to somehow survive the car bombing, lose the use of his legs, and try out for the Caprica City wheelchair Pyramid team.
Ideally, a cliffhanger is supposed to make the viewer so invested in what happens next that they'll have trouble waiting for the next episode (either in a week or, in this case, several months). At the end of "End of the Line," though, I found myself not caring if Amanda managed to land in the river without breaking her neck, if Joseph will be able to kick his Amp addiction, who will win the war for the heart of STO, or any of the rest of it. That is not a good sign. I'll see how my mood is when the second half of the season begins, but right now I'm not sure "Caprica" is a show I need in my life.
What did everybody else think?
In all honesty, I feel very differently about the midseason finale. I think they did a good job here of tying off a number of problems with the show, and opening the door to something new. Several threads I was not a fan of: Clarice, Amanda, Lacey, were all either ended or at least drastically altered. I agree that the lab scene was sad and I'm not sure how they'll use Tamara going forward, but I think this could springboard the series into new and interesting places
ReplyDeleteTo me both Characters Zoe and Tamera explain the anger the Cylons have for Humanity, both have been let down by "Humans" and it took two more wars for them to realize that they are a part of the Human race as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat I still have yet to understand is the Cylon models, why none of them look like either of them in BSG, it will be interesting to see what happens and since Zoe could be immortal, is she? Does she still exist later?
To me there is a lot to still see.
Its complicated as it should be
Another disappointing episode, but I never really had high expectations for Caprica. The Zoe storyline is the only one that I find really interesting (especially after the Adama developments in the last two episodes), and I just don't care about Amanda's fate, either.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, wasn't that the actress who played SGT Hadrian—Galactica's master-at-arms—as the military procurement liaison? (I've been re-watching BSG lately.)
I felt that some of the character interaction was cut off to serve the action.
ReplyDeleteAlso, part of the finale was a clip show? Even when the first few minutes of the show are the characters of the show telling us what has been happening to them?
I still like Caprica over all it to me is one of the most thought provoking shows on television (I don't watch Lost or have premium cable).
I could do without Caprica for a little while too. However, I'm still interested in where it's going.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with the show: an enthralling premise filled with characters I could care less about (except for Adamas not named Joseph). It's done an excellent job at world building but filled that world with crap. Compare that to Lost, which had no endgame in its first few seasons - and still seems to be making things up on the fly even though we know otherwise - yet has extremely compelling characters.
I found myself not caring if Amanda managed to land in the river without breaking her neck, if Joseph will be able to kick his Amp addiction, who will win the war for the heart of STO, or any of the rest of it
ReplyDeleteYep, exactly how I feel. Not sure if I'll continue watching when it returns.
I'll start by saying that when this show works, it really works, but its less than 25 percent of the time.
ReplyDeleteI believe, just as I always have when it comes to story, that you may not always need a detailed map, but you need a beginning, a middle (or 2) and an end. For Caprica, we pretty much know where the end will be: The First Cylon War (or the end of it; it'd be really interesting to see the Final Five find the first Hybrid and the Cylons). To me, all this show seems to have is an end. I can't see them building to some kind of middle because I don't know what the middle would be.
Dollhouse had a week first season and only came together at the end of the first season. LOST had a much more detailed map than most (and the writers have admitted that they didn't always have everything planned out). Galactica didn't have a complete map for all the things it did; RDM admitted he didn't know where to take Head Six and realized he wrote himself into a corner when he had Head Baltar show up in season 2.
To me, if the show wants to live, it needs to do two things; 1. Ditch whats not working, which I believe to be mostly V-World. and 2. Take a page from the Mad Men book of storytelling; hire better writers. I mean no insult to the writing team but a lot of what they're doing isn't that compelling OR suspenseful. If this show goes for the 3 or 4 seasons I expect it to, it needs to be good. Its not a "monster of the week" show, and it can't continue to be that. Everything needs to link to the bigger picture; how V-World and Amanda's hallucinations play out in this manner is beyond me. Sister Clarice at least has the religious connection and I'll be patient with the character, just as I will Amanda, because I can see her turning into somekind of storylinking device. We'll see.
I am not a writer of a show but my understanding is an outline is made at the beginning with different plot points the show wants to hit - the story arc.
ReplyDeleteThen you build to the top of the arc - midseason then amp up the story toward the climax - end of season.
And through all that one has to try and be true to the back story and past episodes.
Some times you can amaze yourself with how "arty" and clever your episodes are and lose sight of the story and telling the story.
I am profoundly disappointed that Clarice got out of the van.
ReplyDeleteThey have to make the V-World world work. It's absolutely critical to the show. I'm not mistaken it is how the Cylons do projection. Not only is it important from this perspective but it was a necessary stepping stone for the show. It's the brick the show was built upon. It provide relevancy to our world and reflect on our usage of the internet.
ReplyDeleteI like the show because it reflects why so much of the way BSG was the way it was and how it became that way. On that alone it works.
Joseph's journey into the V-World is but part of his total character arch. It reflects on how he's already abandoned his family and is setting up the pavement for his journey into his career. Do I feel an emotional connection? No, but I still find it interesting.
I'm shocked I'm defending the show. Does it need to be better? Yes, but I think this first season is far superior than the majority of Dollhouse.
I don't understand how you have Amanda Greystone attempt to kill herself and it have little to nothing directly to do with her daughter. Furthermore, the first half of this half season (that I liked) concentrated on the grief and aftermath of the train explosion. Why exactly did that plot line disappear for allot of stuff that was not only not interesting but didn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteWhile Adamas have not exactly been the most interesting characters on the show, Joe and Tamara's scene together were the best part of the episode. Tamara will no doubt continue to play a factor on the show given all her holoband ghost powers, but that Joe's been de-res'ed from V-World and he believes his daughter to truly be gone, I'm not exactly sure where this leaves Pops Adama. I hope that he will get more involved in Sam's criminal world since watching the guy grieve for the first part of this season did not make for the most compelling drama.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested, you can find more of my thoughts about this episode on my blog where I go into detail about the implications of Tamara's decision to shoot herself as well as why the STO storyline hasn't been as successful as BSG's terror-related stories. Click my username for the link.
I reviewed the first half season on my blog.
ReplyDeleteIn short: Clarice, Joseph and Amanda are boring. Daniel, Sam and Zoe are great. Philomon will be missed and Tamara is criminally underused (as is Sam).
I hope the mid-season break allows them to re-tool some of the boring parts to make it work better.
It sure is easy to die if you are a minor character on TV.
ReplyDeleteAll someone has to do is give you a push and your head will run right into a pole, or a table edge (last week's Lost), or a screw sticking out of a wall (a season 2 episode of BSG).
(**) Though I would be very amused if Nestor were to somehow survive the car bombing, lose the use of his legs, and try out for the Caprica City wheelchair Pyramid team.
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahahahaha!
Thank you for that.
I didn't like that midseason finale = oooh, lots of possible deaths!, or that a lot of the threads came up a lot short of what could be something great.
We never really got enough of what the STO is to be invested in anything related to that line, and it's a shame we never saw more of Lacey's entrance to STO - it's one way of making that story exciting with a character that's much more likeable.
I actually don't mind Clarice as much as everyone else does (at least, not in this episode), and like with Barnabas I feel like if we know more about the actual workings of the organization, I'd feel more attached to these characters.
I wish they focused much more on Sam and Bill Adama and their relationship than Adama in his vworld adventures since it ended up so lame, and Adama is still a drag on the show for me. This needs a lot of fixing.
I wish Amanda never have the dead brother/crazy storyline, because she is the most interesting with Daniel as a power couple, and I'd be ok even if she was acting strange now (because of Zoe or Daniel's stuff), but not because she was actually crazy a while back.
Yet, I'm still invested in Zoe, Lacey, Daniel and Tamara to keep watching when the show comes back. I don't know what it is about this show - there's still something very appealing about it to me even though I have all these problems with it. I can't help it.
"The First Cylon War (or the end of it; it'd be really interesting to see the Final Five find the first Hybrid and the Cylons)."
ReplyDeleteHope I'm not sticking my foot in it here, but as I recall, the Final Five didn't show up until just before the second Cylon war. We probably won't be seeing them in "Caprica."
belinda said:
ReplyDeleteI wish Amanda never have the dead brother/crazy storyline, because she is the most interesting with Daniel as a power couple, and I'd be ok even if she was acting strange now (because of Zoe or Daniel's stuff), but not because she was actually crazy a while back.
Agreed.
Take a page from the Mad Men book of storytelling; hire better writers. I mean no insult to the writing team but a lot of what they're doing isn't that compelling OR suspenseful.
ReplyDeleteRaz: I've got to admit that's rather ironic from my POV, because my partner calls Mad Men "that show where nothing much happens to a pack of boring, hateful (but very well-dressed) d-bags very, very slowly." Don't agree, but I can see his point.
I enjoyed it, but I agree that i hope the next half of the season focuses on some other things. Zoe and Daniel are definitely the best parts of the show, and I love seeing Eric Stoltz and Torresani interact.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Amanda was interesting enough in her own right without having the psycho flashbacks.
I want to see more of Vergis--i like how that actor plays the character. I could totally see him try to steal emotionally broken Amanda from Daniel (you know she'll survive that jump!)
Really don't care about STO. I did like Marsters's crazy puffy Barnabas hair though.
As for the Adamas, I want to see how Joe Adama becomes a grief-stricken son of a b**** and just turns into pure meanness. I want to see the interworkings of Sam, the most interesting part of the Adama family, do his dirty work, and I want to watch as his son Bill turns into a mini thug Sam. And I'm not sure what I want to see from Tamara, except for her to become a serious power player in v-world.
...and I actually kind of liked that Joe's guide was his secretary. They have good chemistry.
I still look forward to the show, but it is interesting since so much of it I'm ambivalent about, but maybe the rest of it is so compelling that i'm willing to overlook it. I'll be sticking with it until the end of line (or just the season!)
"As for the Adamas, I want to see how Joe Adama becomes a grief-stricken son of a b**** and just turns into pure meanness."
ReplyDeleteI selfishly longed for the day when Joe would break out of his stupor. The New Cap City scenes seemed to fit the bill. It added a whole new layer to his emotions and now that he will never see Tamara again it looks like he could really hit the wall.
Can't wait to see what happens next so will be tuning in.
I keep watching but this show is a mess.
ReplyDeleteWhile each particular subplot may have its own point of interest and relevance to the overall mythology, none of them are executed well enough that I care. If I don't care about the suplot, why do I care about the larger arc?
So far I'm just picking scabs that still haven't healed from the BSG finale.
Eldritch, forgive me for "nerding out" for a moment here. The Final Five showed up during the first cylon war and made a deal with the cylons to end the war by giving them all their higher tech and organic bodies and such.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Med Men comment, I can't defend the show against someone's dislike of it, but yes, I understand his point of view.
If you listen to David Eick's podcasts, you know that they had a hell of a time figuring out just what they wanted to do with the story. The pilot started them off on a strong foot, but over time it seems as if entropy got the best of them, sending the story off in myriad directions.
ReplyDeleteI think Jane Espenson was likely way over her head as a showrunner, and she never figured out tone or material. I also think the show suffers because David Eick is not nearly as strong an EP as Ronald Moore was. So whereas RM had a strong vision for BSG that he kept hammering away on, DE is a lot less definitive in his approach. Look what he did to BIONIC WOMAN.
Why didn't the secretary just change her avatar to look like Tamara and nip the whole thing in the bud from the very beginning?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Zoe escape the law by driving off the bridge into the water? The planes couldn't follow her if she was just walking on the bottom, and it would be an incredible oversight to not make the thing airtight.
Why didn't Lacey just tell Clarice what was going down? Tell Clarice that she needed something from Barnabus, and that in exchange he was making her plant the fob on Clarice's keychain. Clarice could figure out what was going down, while allowing Lacey to get what she needs. Lacey has no real loyalty to Barnabus, and obviously has some affection for Clarice.
WHY DO ALL THE DOCTORS ON RDM'S SHOWS SMOKE?! IT'S NOT EDGY AND IT DOESN'T REVEAL ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR CHARACTERS! IT'S JUST STUPID!
Why would Tamara go along with the plan to kick her Dad out of V World? She holds ALL the cards. Kill the secretary bitch, and keep her Dad in V World with her. That is what a scared, selfish teenager would do, at least at first, and especially when she's as all-powerful, self-loathing, and emotionally damaged as Tamara.
It's frustrating because there's so much potential here. There are just too many balls in the air, and not one of them is paying off like it should. Maybe in 30 years we'll get a Caprica reboot that lives up to that potential.
This is unfortunately a really awfull serious. Without even attempting to compare to battlestar, i think its obvious that this awful soap opera with a sci fi background is an apparent attempt at "twillight" teen age girls, because that is all the writing amasses to. Even as a soap opera this is real poor! Hey i too want to get more woman interested in sci fi. But hey didnt firefly just do that much better!
ReplyDeleteThis season finale was a little hit-or-miss for me, though far less "miss" than for Alan.
ReplyDeleteI rather agree with the Joseph/Tamara storyline. The reveal of Emmanuelle was rather groan-inducing, particularly since I was not very surprised by it. I did think the scene where Tamara "shoots" her dad, though, was tragic -- but could have been much more so had she made the choice "alone", using some other storyline rather than this standard soap convention.
I think it is a little foolhardy, based on the previous comments, to think that Amanda's suicide attempt was not because of Zoe. The death of her daughter, the revelation that her husband is a murderer, the history of her "craziness" -- all seem to be working together here, which isn't surprising. Most people can't handle tragedy of this magnitude very well. I absolutely loved the image of her on the bridge from Clarice's point of view -- something I imagine will be interpreted as a "sign" for her in future episodes -- especially since she appeared to be out of the vehicle at a critical moment.
What I think is working best the decline of Zoe and Tamara in worlds that they cannot control. Zoe's panic show in the lab was very effective, and Tamara will have to live with eliminating her father in V-world forever. I can imagine this will contribute to the birth of Cylon revolt quite quickly.
Yes, this show has problems -- particularly in the clarity of particular character motivations, but I think this episode was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, we won't know if it was until much later this year -- but I like the possibilities. For now, I'm sticking with it.
This episode felt like cliffhanger overload--there were just too many of them and all felt contrived. Daniel caring more about his company over his daughter, indeed does not make sense. A few weeks back he was ready to cut off his company's main source of revenue. Last week he didn't shoot or have anybody else shoot the dog, which he claimed he loved less than his child. Now he wants to effectively kill her so he can save his company? Even admitting Graystone is turning into a monster, he can't be that cruel and despicable, otherwise where is the tragedy? It takes a good man to fall that far; if he's already there there's no resonance--he becomes Jack Torrance at the beginning of the film of The Shining: already mad and monstrous. He has to have a place to go and it has to be a believable character arc, not a contrived stunt.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope they don't kill off Amanda. The dead brother subplot was and is lame; as somebody else noted above, why wouldn't she kill herself over her child?
Zoe's killing of Philomon was an accident, a case of "I didn't know my own strength. He should have played along until he was out of harms way before sounding the alarm.
ReplyDeleteWhen his wife, Amanda Graystone, asked about the theft and murder instead of saying, "It's complicated" Greystone should have just told his wife what happened. He didn't murder anyone but his wife thinks that he did. He must have known how she would react and what she is capable of doing. She went way overboard when she called her daughter a terrorist and suicide bomber.
Was Daniel erasing Zoe's personality from the chip was being done out of anger and frustration? Perhaps it was the final test to see if Zoe was really in there.
Emanuelle being Joseph Adama's secretary was a surprize.
Yes it is true that the STO isn't mentioned in BSG but the Cylons are monotheistic. Zoe is the first sentient Cylon and she is a monotheist. We can see where the Cylon religion comes from. I think that Zoe survived the crash.
Caprica is appointment TV for me. I don't mind the pacing. There are lots of things going on and the quiet moments give you time to get to know that characters and worlds better.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched BSG and don't plan to until after Caprica.
People don't like the Amanda and Joseph storylines but they make sense to me. They've lost dearly loved family members and that would make people lose their minds. Some people subsume their grief into work (Daniel), some turn it inwards -- Amanda into her own crazy past, Joseph into V-world.
Heck, I'm under a lot less stress than them and there are days when I would rather stay in bed and escape to a virtual world. Oh, wait, I already do that. It's called DVD marathons on the couch.
I like that Emmanuelle was Evelyn. Joseph told her to look up Heracles/Tad, so she did. He didn't tell her why, but it makes sense that once she found Tad, she'd ask him what's up. Then Joseph got Heracles kicked out of NCC so Evelyn stepped in to help Joseph. And believe me, if I had a chance to look like Emmanuelle and act like a hardened gangster, I would.
Another plus is Daniel's descent in his own way to madness. It looked like he has his act together but clearly he doesn't.
He lost Zoe, he decided to steal tech from a competitor, that theft's come to light. He's losing his company, his team, as well as his family, and soon, probably his mind too. In the preview for the next half we see Daniel unshaven on the couch, even as in this ep we see that Joseph finally gets off the couch.
Everyone has hard choices to make and has behaved in shades of grey. I like that about this show.
What I would like to see/looking forward to finding out:
1. More Sam Adama, with or without his shirt. And what happened to his husband Larry?
2. More Tamara. How does she build a life in NCC? Can she get out? Does she and Zoe ever interact again?
3. More Lacy. She's killed people now. Even if Clarice survived, that bomb surely has killed other people. What does that do to her relationship with Keon and Barnabus? Does she go crazy too?
4. I hope Amanda survives, but how?
5. More Cyrus. More Tsattie. More Tauron life.
I don't mind giving a show time to find it's legs. The collateral material really interests me too: the podcasts with the frank discussions about budget, time, storytelling; and the composer's blog about how he creates the music which is another layer of the show.
It all adds up to win for me.
@Farragut Jones - Yup, it was the Sarge. She cleans up nice. Also you might have noted Allesandro Juliani's (sp?) song while Amanda was on the bridge...
ReplyDeleteI thought Caprica would be a serious, interesting show. It has become a farce. I still enjoy watching it, but not because it is good.
ReplyDelete"and Tamara will have to live with eliminating her father in V-world forever."
ReplyDeleteUm, why?
Tamara can rewrite her world on the fly -- killing the highest level security guards, opening vaults, killing people out of the game without a gun. Why can't she summon her dad back whenever she wants?
And why would she listen to a busybody who supposedly has Joseph's best interest at heart? What does she ask in return, for breaking her father's heart? The fact that none of this important connective tissue between daughter and father is dramatized means that the writers think as little of Tamara as anyone who sees her as a compilation of database data -- she's a tool and nothing more, as the materialized grief of Joseph.
One other clue about the willful laziness of the writing: Why didn't Joseph negotiate a safe place for he and Tamara to meet? Tamara can ward off any threat to her, so why force Joseph to search for her in the worst places in NCC? Why not ask about her brother? Why not see him? That lack of curiosity tells me that Tamara's not a whole character, no matter how the writers tried to get me to care about her. That's the pattern: Care shown at the beginning, but fascination with the SFX taking over rudimentary storytelling.
If they wanted a speculative fiction story, they had the resources to make it. If they wanted trashy soap opera, they could have at least had one sex scene per episode. Softcore porn's the fuel soap operas run on. Did anyone get lucky in the last three episodes? The past five? Sex and face slappings can sustain months of no plot movement, and if CAPRICA couldn't even manage that, then their production team really didn't know what they wanted to put on air.
They can come back, but they have to give a damn.
End of the line? That was the MCP in Tron! *g*
ReplyDeleteI thought Caprica would be a serious, interesting show. It has become a farce. I still enjoy watching it, but not because it is good.
ReplyDeleteOK, this is a serious question and not trolling for a fight. Why would anyone watching a show they think is utter crap? Seriously, after the raves from Alan and Mo Ryan I gave Tara a second chance, and while "really annoying" is an advance on "actively offensive on multiple levels" I'll still pass. There's plenty in life to snark on without wasting an hour of your evening.
"End of line" (no the) is the MCP quote, and back with BSG I always thought it was a homage to TRON...
ReplyDeleteThis show is nowhere as bad as some of your are presenting it to be.
ReplyDeleteWith that said Tamar is just digital data compiled to form a identity - it's more or less a NPC with full range of control. It is not the little girl that died. She's already knows what she thought she was, she is not. She full accepts she is something else - see her she embraces war.
Maybe some of you are hurt because it isn't as strong as BSG consistently was but the critiques I see have it as horrible. I can easily point out shows on tv that are sci-fi and worst than this.
I was disappointed that Philomon was killed off. Here was a character who could have had an interesting conflict of interest, helping Zoe escape, fearing his boss, struggling with feelings for a cylon, etc. They just wiped out a great character arc. Big mistake.
ReplyDeletePhilomon getting killed is Billy all over again. In a weird way, they certainly do like to kill off the 'geeky' types in these shows. :D
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeletePerhaps its a cautionary tale about on-line hook ups? You think a pervy old man pretending to be a hawt teenage chick is scary, just watch out for the seriously screwed up robots. :)
I admit I'm surprised by all the negative reactions to this episode here... after all the complaining about the slow pacing, I thought this was a refreshing adrenaline rush and the emotional payoffs were earned. Zoe's desperate situation was the best part for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm relieved Joseph is out of the New Cap City game. I didn't like that storyline.
I'll be very disappointed if Amanda is dead. Paula Malcomson is such a great actress that it would be such a waste to not do more with her character. I also like Clarice, but I understand why people are frustrated with her. With her taking more action with Barnabas I think her character will become more interesting in the future. Basically, I see this episode as giving a jolt of energy to the show and trying to fix the elements that weren't really working. The world Caprica has built is fascinating and I still think it has a lot of potential.
Personally, I find Lost a much less consistent and much more frustrating show than Caprica (though I still watch it)... and I'm not looking to pick a fight, but that show is also very melodramatic and slowly paced. So I'm a little baffled that people seem to be responding so favorably to Lost yet have so little patience with Caprica.
The first few episodes were dull but it's become very compelling.
ReplyDeleteI know Amanda and Clarice get little love, but Amanda especially is one of the most interesting threads to me. Paula Malcomson's acting is phenomenal.
I'm shocked to find that Daniel has supporters. Yes, he grieved for his daughter and it's very sad, but he's also made it very clear (and said so) that he sees a very clear line between live Zoe and virtual/U87 Zoe. He tortured Zoe to use her, not for some idealised father/daughter reunion. He's also a man who believes that enslaving sentient beings is a good thing. While I feel for him as a grieving father, I cannot do much more than despise him at this point.
Yeah, I need to step back in here as well and show my support for Caprica. My wife and I really REALLY like this show and this cast, and I appreciate that the writers for trying something complicated and different, even when it doesn't *quite* click.
ReplyDeleteCompare this to another complicated genre show where we know what's going to happen in the future -- FlashForward -- and, well, there's no comparison. We are now completely invested in Caprica's characters and situations, something which utterly failed to happen on FF.
(Though admittedly, Caprica did stumble the last couple of episodes -- it seemed like it really should have taken off after the ep where Tamera took over V-World, ratcheting up the tension, story and action ... instead of the wandering about it did to save all the tension for the cliffhanger.)
Regardless, I must disagree with Alan and this thread -- the mid-term finale just floored us.
I agree with Alan. I am completely bored with this show other than the Zoe storyline. And to make this episode even worse for us, a commercial cut in on the Philomon scene--we saw the beginning of their interaction, then cut--and when it came back he was in a body bag. Not the shows fault, but since it is the only storyline I care about and they spent way to much time on soap opera crap I don't care about, I'm clocking out on Caprica.
ReplyDeleteI love it. In particular, anything with Zoe, but Tamera killing her dad so he can never return to New Cap city was pretty wrenching. I'd also like to see a lot more of Lacey and Barnabas. I mean, clearly any show benefits immensely from more James Marsters! His underutilization is the only thing that's killing me.
ReplyDeleteDaniel is SO evil; I can't wait to see more.
And generally speaking, the way the show lives in between our real world, and the world of Battlestar just endless fascinates me. I'm very interested in the tech of Caprica.
I was SO into this show for about 3-4 episodes (the first 3-4) but have grown disinterested and weary and can only hope the show's problems get fixed between now and whenever it next appears.
ReplyDelete--Jane Says
Caprica has to be the worst SciFi dross yet. Talk about wooden 'acting', it's like a new version of prozac for the masses, or some deranged take on Hollyoaks, featuring a cast of fogettable teens, forgettable adults, psuedo religious babble and the usual Yank pre-occupation with 'terrorists'. It sucks like a Dyson on full reverse. I didn;t even bother with the 'cliff hanger' end part, first time i've ever given up on BSG, well, apart from the rip off 'movie' (ie, out-takes) The Plan. That was even dumber. Axe the turkey now....
ReplyDelete[i]@tribalism "Joe's been de-res'ed from V-World"[/i]
ReplyDeleteHe's only been de-res'ed from the New Cap City game/world within V-World.
This show is the worst "Sci Fi" (if you can call it even that)i have ever seen. Its basically a soap opera dressed in Sci Fi clothing. Horrible acting, story and Setting (Future world/Mafia/Earth) sorry the last episode was just that My last episode, I watched all BSG, the first season was great, then it degraded into Soapy in space. A disrace to the original. Anyway i hope they pull this junk before it ruins BSG rep even more.
ReplyDeleteP.s. V World was the only part i liked (idea wise) still too mafia for me though.
I'm done with this show, unless Alan sees the upcoming episodes and announces that it's much better.
ReplyDeleteI love the premise, love the Zoe storyline, love Daniel Greystone. But I have grown bored with pretty much everything else.
The one interesting subplot -- young Will Adama being trained to be a gangster -- was abandoned.
And there's no pretense of internal consistency. What govt agency would demand 10,000 robots in a week, when none have been built yet? There isn't even an assembly line! This show's writers think we're morons. I'm not going to prove them right by continuing to watch.
I really like Caprica and I'm glad that David Eike acknowledges the teething problems the series has experienced in the first few episodes, but that these have been sorted out. If I was in charge of this show, I'd replace Alessandra Toressani. She's extremely limited as an actress in terms of emotion. She's too bubbly and superficial. Anger of the spoiled brat variety seems to be the only kind of emotion she can do. Perhaps if the writers focus on this she could become a character we love to hate.
ReplyDeleteFar more interesting to watch are Magda Apanowiz (Lacy) and Genevieve Buechner (Tamera), but the producers seem to have committed themselves to using Toressani...they need to show the same ballsyness they had in BSG, and kill characters when and if necessary, including the poster child Zoe.
V-World is amazing, and has huge potential. It's also important to the BSG mythos as the origin of cylon projection, but also because it would seem to me that its from V-world that the human avatars can be copied and implanted into the army of cylons. Moreover, it could be that thousands of years earlier on Kobol, the Head characters were the avatars of an original v-world, just as the 13th tribe were the original cylons. This leaves the big question of who or what were the gods, and God? Even more ancient forms of artificial intelligence? Alien artificial intelligences from another world altogether?
I'd really like to see Head characters in Caprica, and see them interact with Tamera and Zoe.
I'd also like to see humanoid cylons, perhaps a few members of the 13th tribe that didn't leave for first Earth, but stayed with the 12 tribes of humanity. How would anyone have known if they were human or cylon? It would be one explanation for the mysterious person / entity that Clarice Willow speaks to in the V-World confession booth. The stranger has a distinctly artificial sounding voice (doubtless the writers and producers have yet to decide on who this character is, and who will play it).
Another thing about the cylons. If their personalities are from the avatars of people in the V-World, then that would mean that the significant eight (Leoben, D'Anna, Simon etc) would have started off as humans living in the colonies. I mean, the cylon DNA came from the final five. But their personalities must have been inside centurion bodies before the deal between centurions and cylons was made. So if they were inside centurions, then it follows that before this, they were avatars, and if they were avatars, then they were real people, which means that potentially we would follow the lives of the human Leoben, D'Anna, Simon, Cavil, Dorrel, Boomer, Six, and Daniel. Obviously, when their avatars get stolen and enslaved inside the centurion body, any memory of once having been human is erased.
Excellent show - thought provoking in many ways with or without the BSG focus or knowledge. I think that the parts that appear to be muddled writing may spring from the fact that all of these characters are not exactly who they originally were - i.e., Tamara is only a partial copy of her original self.
ReplyDeleteEach one of these characters in the show appears to be holding onto some kind of grief, recognized or not. Some of them have been transformed to the core by their grief as well as poor decisions, both of which can derail someone off the path they thought were on.
I know - I've been there. And I am there now.
Grief can kill and transform you into someone you can't even recognize.
To me the unpredictability that results from the responses to grief are a huge part of the Caprica creation and fallout.