Watch me and Roth’s review of Caprica, the series from Ronald Moore and David Eick, which takes place before Battlestar Galactica. Both of us found the pilot episode to be very good and shows a lot of promise. While the show touches upon similar themes as BSG, it does so in a different way and with different types of characters.
- Dennis
I really enjoyed the pilot. What I found the most interesting was the biases and interactions between the different colonies. Like you two, I to am really reserving judgment about the show. I loved the pilot but this week's episode I believe will tell us more about the actually show than the pilot. I am crossing my fingers the next few episodes are as interesting, insightful and deep as the pilot.
With Ronald Moore and David Eick not showrunning, I'm interested to see if it can keep up with the strong writing of the pilot. When Jane Espenson was annointed as showrunner I got worried but luckily she's no longer showrunning it. The next few episodes will let us know if this series will continue to be one to watch or another show that doesn't live up to its potential like FlashForward.
I also like the tension between the Capricans and the Taurons, and perhaps we will see other colonies in the mix as well.
- Dennis
I hadn't heard that Jane Espenson was no longer running the show. That does make me feel better about the future of the show.
Yeah she was showrunning for about a month or two, and then they wisely removed her from that role.
Dennis
Me too – just not sure at which point they made the switch. But I hope the show can maintain the momentum it had going!
I know dad used to tell me that if I didn't have anything nice to say then to ay nothing at all, but I just have to say. . ..
I absolutely hated this pilot/premier. I couldn't find anything redeeming about the show at all. I felt the acting was awful, particularly in the characters Zoe, her best friend that lived, and her mother. Joe Adama I also felt was weak, but not as bad as the first three mentioned.
Visual effects were no where near on par with BSG and I guess in my mind, if you're going to associate yourself with a product you should far sight harder to be on par with that product. The music wasn't good, the XF were worse, and only the settings were as good.
The story was weak weak weak. Teenage suicide bomber for the One True God of Love Healing and Filling the Void in their Soulds? WTF. It's a contradiction on such a basic level that it makes zero sense to me. But then, the moment I saw the CYLON prototype and Zoe was dead the entire story lost any sense of suspense or mystery or anything. To me they showed their hand way to early and at plot twists at this point going forward are just going to be twists for the sake of it without any real meaning.
Sorry for not reserving judgment until later in the series, and who knows, if I can be tied down to watch another episode later, or if the buzz around the show explodes like BSG did, I may end up eating these words, but a show based on this pilot? I won't be watching.
I really liked this pilot for Caprica. I think it's fascinating to see how a convergence of different technologies brings about the creation of the Cylons. Robotics, AI and the avatar tech that Zoe creates. I think that was the key because they already had some very basic AI, but combining it with the avatar stuff makes it into a truly sentient being. I don't quite get how the believers in a one true God become terrorists. It seems to me that a polytheistic society wouldn't really care what you believed in. Ancient Rome started out very liberal and cosmopolitan in comparison. Perhaps the soldiers of the one are the result of decades long persecution that we are not aware of at this point. It easy to use "crackpots" as a scapegoat. That way you can round them all up and persecute them. That's the direction Ancient Rome took with the Christians I guess. However, I agree that suicide bombing is a pretty big leap for the "religious minority" of Caprica. I mean, so far these monotheists don't seem to have it so bad. I guess we wait and see. It does quickly explain the confounding Cylon belief in a one true god during the future Battlestar Galactica years. When you think about it, Cylons never really had a choice in their beliefs. Their progenitor, Zoe (a brilliant teenager) just happened to be monotheistic because of issues with her parents, and her apparently decadent / empty privileged life. Apparently the Cylons we've come to know in BSG were "encoded" to be monotheistic– hardwired into that belief because of their "Cylon Eve". It will be interesting to see where they take all of this.
Yeah, they really are going to have to explain the intentions of the Soldiers Of One very well in order for us to buy their reasonings for being a terrorist organization. Right now we don't see any type of oppression of them or their beliefs. Plus it would take a lot to get a young boy to kill himself, his girlfriend and a few hundred other people.
Dennis