Watch or the Toasters will get you!
Caprica has finally gone Free to Air here in Australia with 7Mate. Many of us were/are watching it straight from the States.
Some people had a bite and didn’t like it. When you ask the non-believers why they don’t like it you will hear a lot of “OMG IT IS SO BORING AND SLOW.” It has also been labelled as a Sci-Fi Soap Opera. Lame Sci-Fi as no viper fights!
But you should watch.
Here’s why.
First up – The pilot.
The pilot alone is must see TV.
The approach of this show, the whole take on the situation on Caprica, makes it the pilot required viewing. Do you remember that episode towards the back end of the final season of BSG when we saw how wrong Caprica was before the fall? If you can’t remember, does watching Adama vomit for 5 minutes help the recall? Well this show starts 50 years before BSG. Their priorities mirror ours in many ways: hedonism, materialism, a search for meaning in a meaningless world – only they don’t know what we all know – their days are numbered. A war, two wars, are coming.
Caprica tells the story of the Cylons, the people behind them, and why they are the way they are, and addresses, similarly to BSG, the questions of religion, terrorism, right and wrong, heaven and just what it is that makes you ‘human.’
Yes, Caprica is slow. But as I have said about this show in a previous review, as well as Rubicon, it is all about the ‘long con.’ You can’t the get payoff without the journey – the investment. There is a core group of disparate characters that are brought together by one event (an act of terrorism) – and everything that happens in the show is a direct result of this incident. Relationships, betrayals, crime, friendships – everything. That one point in time can change the face of the world, of a race, is a very powerful idea – and one that are often faced with or advised upon in our day to day lives.
One of the best subplots of this show is “New Cap City,” which is a game played via holoband – so a fully immersive gaming experience – in which you get one chance in New Cap City (like life) as if you die there, you can never get back into the game. The way all the scenes are shot/digitally altered is excellent – as are the characters/personas that Capricans play in their alternative reality. For me, the episode that really sold me on Caprica was New Cap City.
The greatest benefit of a long con show, is that when something happens it happens in spades. The midseason cliff-hanger was a long time coming but seeing the story lines and characters intersect through their choices was brilliant.
Caprica has just returned from its mid-season break with new twists and turns and power struggles – which, like Mad Men are the same challenges/situations/choices expressed across multiple characters yet approached and addressed differently. You can see my review of the latest episode a little down the page.
All these things makes Caprica a must watch for me, so stick with it if you are just joining the story on 7Mate, as the subplots more than make up for the lack of pace in the over all arc.
Oh and don’t forget: “All of this has happened before, and will happen again.”
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