What I’m Watching: Caprica (Midseason Premiere)

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 10 “Unvanquished” (C-)

What is there to say about this show? The first thing would have to be that I don’t think I’ll be sticking around, at least not to review it, considering there are three legitimately good shows on in the same insanely crowded time slot. This show got off to a sluggish start last year, and the finale showed decent promise for the way everything came to a head. Unfortunately, this premiere is pretty much a disaster, for many reasons. Everything exploded in the midseason finale, and now nothing is back together, and I can’t imagine it ever will be. The emphasis on this religious terrorist group has always been problematic for this show, and having Sister Clarice go around cavorting with religious fanatics at one end of the spectrum against fanatics at another end is pretty muddling and isn’t all that engaging. The most interesting character on the show – Zoe – didn’t even appear until the final scene, where she’s still engaged in all that unnecessary combat staging that Tamara was doing last season. I’m not interested in Daniel’s petty feud with Tomas Vergis. And I would much rather Amanda have been revealed as dead instead of just chilling on the couch debating whether to video-chat with Daniel. It was set up to be a big shock that she’s still alive given the way that Daniel was talking about her, and honestly, it’s not much of a relief to see her still breathing considering she was last season’s worst character. I don’t see much hope for the future of this show.

What I’m Watching: Caprica (Season Finale)

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 9 “End of Line” (B-)

This is the way to end a season. Even if the episode wasn’t completely terrific, the manner in which the closing episode signs off is exactly how a finale should be done. Among the events that have either occurred or been set in motion are a failed assassination attempt, someone who thinks they’ve killed someone else, someone who knows they’ve just nearly been killed, someone who might have committed suicide, and someone else who has made a huge move that will change their life and situation forever. It’s ever clearer now how the Cylons will become disconnected from human society, with Zoe charging headfirst into a police barrier and Tamara telling her father that he needs to let her go before forever dispelling him from New Cap City. Zoe finally saying something and revealing herself was an awesome moment, and it makes sense that the first Cylon kill would be an accident, as a result of unnecessary force. I’m unsure of how Daniel will react now that Zoe has escaped from the lab, but I’ll be very interested to see that when the show returns in the fall. Amanda trying to commit suicide ensures that she’ll be treated differently if she does in fact survive when the show returns, and her presence shouldn’t be nearly as annoying as it has been thus far. Sister Clarice nearly being taken out is another major event that proves the Barnabas is a formidable enemy. The way he says “do you want to be a terrorist? How about some terror?” is intense, and the power struggle is sure to heat up from here. This first half-season (the show returns in the fall for the back ten episodes of its initial 19-episode order) has been uneven at best, but I think this closer suggests that the next set of episodes might be considerably stronger.

Season grade: B-
Season MVP: Alessandra Torresani

What I’m Watching: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 8 “Ghosts in the Machine” (C-)

This feels like a waste on an episode for multiple reasons. Firstly, I don’t understand why Zoe feels the need to hide that she’s in the Cylon body from her father. It might help if she explained to him that she wasn’t the one who blew up the train, but resisting all of his tests is just dumb. The fact that he’s testing her so vigorously and relentlessly is a bit much, considering she’s his daughter and presumably he cares about her and isn’t obsessed with humiliating her, but what’s worse is that there’s no reason for the tests. No matter what, he’s going to believe she’s in there, and if she doesn’t respond, he’s just going to think that she’s changed. Who wins in that scenario? Certainly not anyone who watches this episode and has to suffer through these countless absurd trials. In New Cap City, Joseph is completely out of his element, and I can’t believe that he would take drugs to enhance his ability to react and gain control of the situation. Also, it’s not like he’s a Cylon, and all of these cheats in the game make it so that he could be almost as godlike and superhuman as Tamara. In any case, it’s not interesting, and having Amanda to fall back on as the third plotline isn’t much comfort. I don’t think having her brother be still alive would do much to enhance the show, and Amanda is no Gaius Baltar, therefore she needs to stop seeing people who aren’t there. It would be nice to have some human-human contact in the real world, wouldn’t it? It seems like we’re very much lacking in that these days.

What I’m Watching: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 7 “The Imperfections of Memory” (C+)

Up until the final moment of this episode, it hardly seems like we’re getting anywhere. Joseph wandering around the virtual world in search of New Cap City is hopelessly frustrating since he’s so bumbling and clumsy. The notion that you can so easily be booted from the game by getting shot at a random moment is a nice catch-all that serves to strand Joseph all by himself there, but it doesn’t make too much sense. Heracles getting shot while Joseph survives is also a bit of a mismatched situation since Heracles has clearly done this many times before and should be more skilled than to catch a stray bullet. Joseph’s new guide also seems like she’ll be a whole lot more distracting than helpful, and I’m sure Tamara will have become much more detached from her former human self by the time Joseph eventually locates her. Amanda continues to annoy me, but I’m just not sure why visions of her brother are coming up now. Incorporating the phrase “this has all happened before and will all happen again” is a decent reference to “Battlestar Galactica,” but I was under the impression it wasn’t some saying but a Cylon concept (I'll admit that the timeline always confused me a little regarding the final five). A good moment in this episode, however, was Sister Clarice’s spirited sermon about putting faith in God, to which a clueless Amanda responded, “which one?” I’m becoming more impressed with Alessandra Toressani, who plays Zoe, as an actress after her performance following the simulated flight. Now, on to more exciting things – the end of the episode was fantastic, with Daniel finally putting the pieces together and walking up to the Cylon body and saying Zoe’s name. We’re getting somewhere now, and this is where things could get awesome.

What I’m Watching: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 6 “Know Thy Enemy” (C+)

In the endlessly frustrating style of shows like “Lost,” this show has now adapted the format of focusing on one storyline for one entire episode and then not even acknowledging it in the subsequent installment. It’s far more inappropriate and noticeable here because there’s time to touch on all of the different story arcs, and therefore the absence of Tamara is somewhat inexcusable. Especially when Joseph is given a decent amount of screen time it seems strange that he doesn’t even think about her. At least Willie wasn’t in the episode. Daniel’s arch nemesis popping into town was intriguing and then seemed to be a bit too simplistic when he said he just wanted to purchase a sports team, but things got a whole lot more serious when he declared that his dream was to tear up Daniel's dream. Daniel just can’t catch a break, continually getting trashed and having his life threatened because of what his daughter did but didn’t actually do. It would be nice if someone finally leaked the fact that Zoe wasn’t the one who blew up the train so that her name could be cleared, especially since the Soldiers of the One are very much aware that she wasn’t responsible. Sister Clarice cloning the Graystone family computer’s data proved once again that Amanda is TV’s biggest floozy, easily swayed by a harmless visit from a local nun and the effects of some pretty crazy-looking green liquor. The weirdest scene of all was when Daniel walked in on that continuously annoying tech talking to Cylon Zoe and paused for a moment and then didn’t even seem phased by it.

What I’m Watching: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 5 “There Is Another Sky” (B-)

Just as this show was about to hit rock bottom, it rebounds in a major way by spotlighting one character for an entire episode who just happens to be the most interesting character this show has seen yet. Part of what makes her fascinating is that it’s clear how she will lead to the eventual Cylon, one who quickly picks up abilities that she shouldn’t have, like taking out all of the people around her in seconds with a gun, and executes them mercilessly. Tamara is someone we’ve barely seen until now, but her storyline is completely superior to anything else this show has been doing yet. The fact that she was smart enough to send her newfound friend out into the real world to tell her father what was going on was impressive, though it’s probably for the best that he ran away, fearful of the rage Joseph seems to possess. I’m very intrigued to see more of what happens with Tamara, and I think that’s what can keep this show decent for the rest of the season. In the real world, Daniel’s efforts to save his position at the company by introducing the Cylon to the board signal a considerable shift in the direction of the show from here on out, but it’s probably a good thing. I don’t know about him telling Zoe to rip her arm off as a display of how they are subservient, because anyone knows that when the machines become self-aware they are going to get revenge for things just like that. In any case, more Tamara, more Cylons, and less Willie skipping school are hopefully ahead in this show’s future.

What I’m Watching: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 4 “Gravedancing” (D+)

Most of the arcs on this show are getting less and less interesting as they become more and more preposterous, and the only one that still seems legitimately intriguing is given only a quick scene at the beginning and at the end of the episode. Sister Clarice’s involvement with the Soldiers of the One is that one somewhat bright plotline, but there’s nothing at this point about it to suggest it will be given any more emphasis, and the bumbling detectives will likely never stumble upon it because they’re too caught up with the Graystones. The writing on this show has now reached a point of being abysmal, and it’s really a problem. Amanda showing up and just parading out in front of the cameras to once again say something stupid is ridiculous. That woman, and her husband for that matter, needs to learn that admissions of guilt and personal conversations should not take place on live national television. Amanda is quickly becoming the worst character on this show who is so unbelievably annoying that she ranks, in my mind at least, higher than someone like Rita on “Dexter” as a character who needs to go ASAP. They had the chance to kill her, but of course Sam had to opt not to because he just wanted to “frak with” Joseph and prolong his agony. The mixture of tones does not work well at all, going from the comedy on the talk show one moment to the deathly serious drive with Sam and Amanda the next. The obnoxious tech guy taunting and dancing with the Cylon Zoe doesn’t make any sense either since he doesn’t know that she’s female, and the shots of Zoe dancing in her dress are comical rather than dramatically effective. The Adama matriarch did have a decent line, even though it was hardly in context with anything else: “you get the best things from enemies because they’re scared of you.” If only the show would try to focus on stuff like that instead of using cell phones for text messaging, a concept which has no place on this show or in the BSG universe.

Take Three: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 3 “Reins of a Waterfall” (C)

Only three episodes in, this show has already become far too centralized, essentially dealing with only one story. The attempted offshoots – mishandling of the case in the police department and Sister Clarice’s involvement in the one-deity movement – don’t really work that well and aren’t anywhere near as interesting as the subject that is hardly broached in this installment: there’s a frakking human living in a Cylon body in her parents’ living room! What exactly does virtual Zoe do with her days? I doubt she stays put in the Cylon body, and her travails through her house would likely be more than apparent if her maker ever checked on her status. And while she was almost subject to the sight of her parents reconciling physically right in front of her, it ended up being only a semi-touching moment where the Graystones tried to come to grips with what they think happened. The fact that the discussion ends with Daniel pointing out that it’s hard to deal privately with this information after Amanda blabbed it to the whole world just serves as a reminder that there’s no going back from that, and this series may well be plagued by that announcement for a long time. Well, at least the Graystones are actively doing something, while Adama Senior spends most of his time concocting elaborate ways to intimidate Daniel and force him to show him his daughter again, who just happens to escape the virtual room only minutes before her father shows up. None of these threads are terribly interesting, I fear, and I’m not sure how the show will be able to sustain them going forward.

Round Two: Caprica

Caprica: Season 1, Episode 2 “Rebirth” (C)

After a somewhat promising pilot, this second installment isn’t nearly as hopeful. Its main problem is that its story simply isn’t very interesting. There aren’t enough characters in the ensemble to ensure that something engaging is always going on, and it doesn’t seem like the show has very far to go. It certainly seems like a one-season premise, if anything, and that’s not a good start. Showing Zoe in her human form while everyone else sees her as a Cylon is a bit too reminiscent of Gaius’ incessant visions of Six on “Battlestar Galactica.” The difference here is that it’s Zoe rather than other people who perceives herself as a human, and while there’s something intriguing about that, it doesn’t exactly work well because Zoe seems barely to be aware of her current situation. The writing is also extraordinarily poor. When Zoe severed that guy’s finger, he didn’t even seem to care and just seemed a tiny bit annoyed. The character of Amanda Graystone is particularly corny and unbearable. Her confession at the end of the episode was clearly a bad idea, and the fact that the overprotective Daniel just so easily let it happen without assigning any of his guards to ensure that she wouldn’t slip doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Sister Clarice and Lacy aren’t terribly interesting, and someone else really needs to find out that Zoe is actually alive in the body of the Cylon. Joseph Adama’s brother sticks out from the rest of the plot because he’s a gangster in an otherwise civilized and futuristic world, and it feels like the show is desperately trying to make itself seem like a period piece. I’m not so convinced.

Pilot Review: Caprica

Caprica (Syfy)
Premiered January 22 at 9pm

This prequel to the recently concluded reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” has one thing that’s going to haunt it for the entirety of its existence: its connection to that show. While that’s certainly something that recommends rather than condemns it, what it means is that the newer show will always need to try to achieve the glory and excellence of the older one, and that its story can never go anywhere other than what is written in BSG. It’s not like “Smallville” where Clark Kent and Lex Luthor can be best friends from the first moment they meet and the story can diverge from that of comic book folklore. The future is set in this universe, and while that means the creation and activation of the Cylons is on the horizon, there shan’t likely be many surprises in store. Viewers don’t know the fate of these specific characters, but what’s going to happen to the human race is devastatingly clear and foretold. Additionally, the need for constant references to BSG through visions of far-too-advanced Cylon models and the incorporation of the Adama family into the central storyline seem like a mistake because they will put too much emphasis on reliance on that which we already know (line from the preview for next week: this has happened before and it will happen again. We’ve heard that one before). That said, this show isn’t half bad. It certainly looks great, and the plot seems interesting enough. Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales are good personalities to play off of each other, and their dynamic should be the driving force of this show. Zoe’s virtual world is an intriguing one, though it might have been nice if her father had spent more time in it before jumping the technology right to his already-advanced Cylon prototype. The subway bombing sequence was pretty powerful, and as far as pilots go, this is a fairly decent one. In addition to the fact that this show might be like the “Star Wars” prequels, where technology has to be dumbed down so that it doesn’t seem more sophisticated than that of the known future, this show mainly will rise or fall depending on whether it can emerge from the shadow of the legendary phenomenon that was BSG. So far, not so good on that point.

How will it work as a series? This pilot obviously offers a much clearly launching pad for the show that doesn’t really indicate what’s ahead, but the same was true for the BSG miniseries. Having two different families intricately involved in the show should be a strong factor, and they could very much create a compelling man of science/man of faith structure for the show. The problem remains the idea of the future and the knowledge of what’s coming, and this show may rush things to try and satisfy audience expectations.
How long will it last? No way to tell quite yet, other than to note that BSG lasted four seasons and recently “Sanctuary” has been doing quite well for the network. It’s exactly BSG’s audience that this show is trying to attract, as well as anyone who never got into the show but wants something new to obsess about, and that should work well for the series. I think it will have a season two renewal coming up soon.

Pilot grade: B