Caprica
Alright, I marathoned this show in about 3 days, so I thought I'd make a few notes (because being such a BSG fan, how could I not?).
I can see why Caprica was canceled. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't as good as BSG. For all the issues of BSG (the occasional super slow eps, the poor writing that sometimes slipped in), it was truly on a higher level than most TV. And the difference wasn't the actors, either. I actually thought the Caprica cast was excellent.
But I had trouble relating to them and their plot lines. The background of Joseph Adama was foreign. Which, both worked and didn't. I mean, I was interested often. But it was often inaccesable. Especially since characters kept waffling. There was no black or white; something I normally enjoy (hello, Nathan and HRG from Heroes, all of BSG). But here, it was absolute overkill to the point where I couldn't identify with any of them. The politics of the business world, while interesting to me, probably not the greatest draw for soap opera sci-fi fans.
And for me, the religion just got to be too much. That plot was often slow moving and while I understood the need for the background, it made me frustrated (also, where are the secularists? I always wondered why there was no one besides Bill Adama who ever said anything about there not being any God or gods).
Then there's Zoe. The main face of the show, if not the main character...WHAT A SPOILED BRAT. No, seriously. She was the hardest to identify with. Why did she dislike her mother so much? Why did avatar!Zoe keep insisting all her friends betrayed her instead of seeing that they were trying? Why did she keep trying to kill her parents? She threw that poor scientist against the wall, KILLING him. How can any 16 year old really be that convinced to turn away from sin and accept God as the best thing ever and become this rampant zealot?
Oh, and geez. Willie Adama? The whole time I was like...this guy grows up to be the most amazing human ever? I mean, I get that all kids are brats at 11, but no. I could NOT imagine him becoming Bill Adama. I'm glad they ended up clearing that up.lol
I can't quite explain it all specifically. Maybe my real issue with it is that it played less on politics and certainly dealt less with space; my two favorite sci-fi things. After all, I normally love convoluted, deep shows, such as BSG and Heroes. Or maybe it was the kid factor. I mean, seriously, half the cast were supposedly 16 year olds. The genius teenager trope bugs me after awhile. Plus, while it would have been interesting to examine why all the Soldiers of the One were kids, it just came across as a bunch of kids blowing people up. Not the greatest plot line. But at the end of the day, it seemed too slow-paced, to thick to really enjoy. It may grow on me, who knows. Point being, I can understand that it wasn't wholly accessible to an audience, especially when Syfy now aims for the lowest common denominator since the end of BSG. It's all vampire BS and ghosts "reality" TV and the dumbest creature flicks ever. The quality has gone WAY down, IMO. But, my rant on Syfy's rebranding would be a whole other post. But I think part of their problem is they create these shows that are a) space-related (what they wanted to get away from with this rebranding), b) spin offs of well-loved shows (BSG, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis), and c) they make them so dense, more "reality" driven (or depressing some would say), that I absolutely get why they're being canceled. If you're going to cater to one, you can't cater to the other...not under this rebranding.
Something I wonder. The last episode showed progression of what was to come. The cylons are attending masses about the one true God, Zoe gets a new body, presumably Graystone has created the resurrection program. But then why the heck did they need the Final Five to show them these things? I could see that Graystone could create the resurrection program, but didn't after Zoe relayed Clarice's intentions of a virtual Heaven. But the webisodes from BSG which showed Adama in the first war indicated that cylons were performing experiments in order to create human versions of themselves. And it involved people dying, which does not seem to be the case with Graystone creating Zoe's new body. Why did the cylons need the Final Five to create the skin jobs? Why were none of them Zoe (who already existed as one and was last seen hanging out with Clarice and the cylons)? After all, the hybrids were supposedly the first combination of cylon with human. What set them so far back when basically Graystone created everything the Final Five brought to the table, several years before?
(Which, is another thing. They already had an Adama at that age who I thought did very well. Why, when casting Blood and Chrome (the newest BSG spin-off about Adama during the first war), did they hire some random new guy? Makes no sense, but whatever. Also why they're doing another prequel so close to when BSG is set...I DON'T GET IT. Geez, show me Kobol or something. The very first creation of cylons. Not a history we basically know.)
And seriously, whatever happened with Daniel (the 7)? Why was he named Daniel? Why was he so special? Why was Kara's dad's name Daniel? And how did she know to place the song that activated the cylons that was also the key to Earth? (Sorry, mini-BSG rant there. That's the most frustrating unanswered question about BSG to me.)
Another thought. So, Caprica happens 58 years before the start of BSG. Caprica takes less than a year. Bill Adama is born within a very short time after. So, even if we assume he is 57 (the oldest he could be based on 9 month pregnancy and assuming there was absolutely no delay between Willie dying and Bill being conceived) at the start of BSG, the pilot also states cylons haven't been heard from in almost 40 years. So, he was fighting cylons at 16 to maybe 20? That's the only way the time line fits. I mean, I guess but, that still seems to be cutting it close.
And did anyone else notice the curse of the Adama men? Joseph and Samuel's mother was killed, then their father. Joseph loses wife, daughter, and eventually son. He has another kid. Later, Bill Adama loses his wife (I don't actually recall how this occurred). Then he loses a son (Zach). Eventually, he loses a (surrogate) daughter, Kara. Lee Adama loses his mother (as did Bill, as did Joseph, as actually, so did Joseph's parents, his grandparents - they mention they died fighting for Tauron). Then, he loses his-not-actual-wife-but-sort-of-love-of-his-life Kara. And then he actually loses his wife (Dee) when she kills herself. And then he loses Kara all over again (angel!Kara). Seriously, it's a curse.
I did enjoy that Zoe (original and avatar) saw "angels". I knew when they showed the grown up her talking to her younger self, it was like, ICWHATUDIDTHUR. I admit, that's one thing I would have liked to have seen more as head!6 always was my favorite. And they're always so un-angel like (yeah, all of us who wish Dean and Cas would get it on? Gaius and angel!6 did, lol).
I also liked that we got to see where these ideas stemmed from. I mean, Zoe was a monotheist and got downloaded into the robot. And even after she left, the robots still recognized Lacy, which to me means that in copying the chip, there was a little bit of Zoe in each one. So it makes sense that they would all believe in one God. But here's a thought. The Final Five espoused one God, too. So if it came from them, but the cylons already had it, did the cylons convince the Final Five? Or did the trend of monotheism actually begin on Kobol? According to Caprica it originated on Gemenon, but then I don't quite see why the Final Five were such strong believers (or at least Ellen was).
Building off of that, I'm curious how some things got passed along while HUGE concepts did not. So the human cylons were called skin jobs. Zoe creates that word. That somehow becomes the first term for them in BSG when they didn't even know skin jobs existed until they come across Leoben in the arms vault! Then there was monotheism itself. On BSG, the sole people to speak of one God were the cylons until they conscripted Gaius who then built the cult. Uhh, if there were all these terrorists groups and such, why does no one remember them even vaguely? Then there's the phrase "so say we all". The only people saying it on Caprica were the monotheists. How did the concept of monotheism not stick around, but a monotheist phrase suddenly became the rallying cry of 12 colonies?
Other things I liked, found interesting:
Over all, decent, if not perfect to this total BSG stan. I would liked to have seen in a sense how they would have progressed things if they'd been renewed, but in general, I think the last 10 minutes of tying up (especially my...but William can't be dead! thoughts, even though I figured by then it had to be a different son) did better than giving them a whole other season or more.
I can see why Caprica was canceled. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't as good as BSG. For all the issues of BSG (the occasional super slow eps, the poor writing that sometimes slipped in), it was truly on a higher level than most TV. And the difference wasn't the actors, either. I actually thought the Caprica cast was excellent.
But I had trouble relating to them and their plot lines. The background of Joseph Adama was foreign. Which, both worked and didn't. I mean, I was interested often. But it was often inaccesable. Especially since characters kept waffling. There was no black or white; something I normally enjoy (hello, Nathan and HRG from Heroes, all of BSG). But here, it was absolute overkill to the point where I couldn't identify with any of them. The politics of the business world, while interesting to me, probably not the greatest draw for soap opera sci-fi fans.
And for me, the religion just got to be too much. That plot was often slow moving and while I understood the need for the background, it made me frustrated (also, where are the secularists? I always wondered why there was no one besides Bill Adama who ever said anything about there not being any God or gods).
Then there's Zoe. The main face of the show, if not the main character...WHAT A SPOILED BRAT. No, seriously. She was the hardest to identify with. Why did she dislike her mother so much? Why did avatar!Zoe keep insisting all her friends betrayed her instead of seeing that they were trying? Why did she keep trying to kill her parents? She threw that poor scientist against the wall, KILLING him. How can any 16 year old really be that convinced to turn away from sin and accept God as the best thing ever and become this rampant zealot?
Oh, and geez. Willie Adama? The whole time I was like...this guy grows up to be the most amazing human ever? I mean, I get that all kids are brats at 11, but no. I could NOT imagine him becoming Bill Adama. I'm glad they ended up clearing that up.lol
I can't quite explain it all specifically. Maybe my real issue with it is that it played less on politics and certainly dealt less with space; my two favorite sci-fi things. After all, I normally love convoluted, deep shows, such as BSG and Heroes. Or maybe it was the kid factor. I mean, seriously, half the cast were supposedly 16 year olds. The genius teenager trope bugs me after awhile. Plus, while it would have been interesting to examine why all the Soldiers of the One were kids, it just came across as a bunch of kids blowing people up. Not the greatest plot line. But at the end of the day, it seemed too slow-paced, to thick to really enjoy. It may grow on me, who knows. Point being, I can understand that it wasn't wholly accessible to an audience, especially when Syfy now aims for the lowest common denominator since the end of BSG. It's all vampire BS and ghosts "reality" TV and the dumbest creature flicks ever. The quality has gone WAY down, IMO. But, my rant on Syfy's rebranding would be a whole other post. But I think part of their problem is they create these shows that are a) space-related (what they wanted to get away from with this rebranding), b) spin offs of well-loved shows (BSG, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis), and c) they make them so dense, more "reality" driven (or depressing some would say), that I absolutely get why they're being canceled. If you're going to cater to one, you can't cater to the other...not under this rebranding.
Something I wonder. The last episode showed progression of what was to come. The cylons are attending masses about the one true God, Zoe gets a new body, presumably Graystone has created the resurrection program. But then why the heck did they need the Final Five to show them these things? I could see that Graystone could create the resurrection program, but didn't after Zoe relayed Clarice's intentions of a virtual Heaven. But the webisodes from BSG which showed Adama in the first war indicated that cylons were performing experiments in order to create human versions of themselves. And it involved people dying, which does not seem to be the case with Graystone creating Zoe's new body. Why did the cylons need the Final Five to create the skin jobs? Why were none of them Zoe (who already existed as one and was last seen hanging out with Clarice and the cylons)? After all, the hybrids were supposedly the first combination of cylon with human. What set them so far back when basically Graystone created everything the Final Five brought to the table, several years before?
(Which, is another thing. They already had an Adama at that age who I thought did very well. Why, when casting Blood and Chrome (the newest BSG spin-off about Adama during the first war), did they hire some random new guy? Makes no sense, but whatever. Also why they're doing another prequel so close to when BSG is set...I DON'T GET IT. Geez, show me Kobol or something. The very first creation of cylons. Not a history we basically know.)
And seriously, whatever happened with Daniel (the 7)? Why was he named Daniel? Why was he so special? Why was Kara's dad's name Daniel? And how did she know to place the song that activated the cylons that was also the key to Earth? (Sorry, mini-BSG rant there. That's the most frustrating unanswered question about BSG to me.)
Another thought. So, Caprica happens 58 years before the start of BSG. Caprica takes less than a year. Bill Adama is born within a very short time after. So, even if we assume he is 57 (the oldest he could be based on 9 month pregnancy and assuming there was absolutely no delay between Willie dying and Bill being conceived) at the start of BSG, the pilot also states cylons haven't been heard from in almost 40 years. So, he was fighting cylons at 16 to maybe 20? That's the only way the time line fits. I mean, I guess but, that still seems to be cutting it close.
And did anyone else notice the curse of the Adama men? Joseph and Samuel's mother was killed, then their father. Joseph loses wife, daughter, and eventually son. He has another kid. Later, Bill Adama loses his wife (I don't actually recall how this occurred). Then he loses a son (Zach). Eventually, he loses a (surrogate) daughter, Kara. Lee Adama loses his mother (as did Bill, as did Joseph, as actually, so did Joseph's parents, his grandparents - they mention they died fighting for Tauron). Then, he loses his-not-actual-wife-but-sort-of-love-of-his-life Kara. And then he actually loses his wife (Dee) when she kills herself. And then he loses Kara all over again (angel!Kara). Seriously, it's a curse.
I did enjoy that Zoe (original and avatar) saw "angels". I knew when they showed the grown up her talking to her younger self, it was like, ICWHATUDIDTHUR. I admit, that's one thing I would have liked to have seen more as head!6 always was my favorite. And they're always so un-angel like (yeah, all of us who wish Dean and Cas would get it on? Gaius and angel!6 did, lol).
I also liked that we got to see where these ideas stemmed from. I mean, Zoe was a monotheist and got downloaded into the robot. And even after she left, the robots still recognized Lacy, which to me means that in copying the chip, there was a little bit of Zoe in each one. So it makes sense that they would all believe in one God. But here's a thought. The Final Five espoused one God, too. So if it came from them, but the cylons already had it, did the cylons convince the Final Five? Or did the trend of monotheism actually begin on Kobol? According to Caprica it originated on Gemenon, but then I don't quite see why the Final Five were such strong believers (or at least Ellen was).
Building off of that, I'm curious how some things got passed along while HUGE concepts did not. So the human cylons were called skin jobs. Zoe creates that word. That somehow becomes the first term for them in BSG when they didn't even know skin jobs existed until they come across Leoben in the arms vault! Then there was monotheism itself. On BSG, the sole people to speak of one God were the cylons until they conscripted Gaius who then built the cult. Uhh, if there were all these terrorists groups and such, why does no one remember them even vaguely? Then there's the phrase "so say we all". The only people saying it on Caprica were the monotheists. How did the concept of monotheism not stick around, but a monotheist phrase suddenly became the rallying cry of 12 colonies?
Other things I liked, found interesting:
- Haha, the Pyramid arena on Caprica? Looks eerily similar to the resurrection ships.
- The fact that Caprica had a greater range of sexuality and such than BSG. Right, on BSG, we see one lesbian couple and one gay couple...both in things that did not air on the actual show. Admiral Cain and Gina were in Razor (DVD only) and Gaeta and Hoshi were only in the webisodes. So I enjoyed the group marriage and Sam Adama's blatant relationship (even if we never got to know Larry and even if Samuel was more often than not a villain), and the ideas of bisexuality within the group marriage and between Clarice and Amanda Graystone.
Over all, decent, if not perfect to this total BSG stan. I would liked to have seen in a sense how they would have progressed things if they'd been renewed, but in general, I think the last 10 minutes of tying up (especially my...but William can't be dead! thoughts, even though I figured by then it had to be a different son) did better than giving them a whole other season or more.