Caprica TV Review

You'd have been hard-pressed to predict that the uber-cheesy Battlestar Galactica that kicked off pre-1980 would spawn not only a (relatively) big-budget remake, but eventually a prequel spin-off. Tough as that call might have been, lunch box sales and cute, robotic dog aside, Caprica is here, and it's taking itself pretty seriously.

It's some fifty years before the events of the first series, and we're witnessing the birth of the Cylons. Just as importantly, a group of monotheist terrorists are beginning to get a foothold on Caprica. The two points of history will, we presume, play out to the tune of fantastic drama.

We come into the play with young Zoe Graystone, a computer genius who is the daughter of tech/military reserach/whatever company mogul Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz). Zoe has managed to create an avatar copy of herself that exists only in the virtual-internet world. She can thus log onto certain semi-secret corners of the virtual world and hang out with herself.

While her father is trying to perfect the prototype Cylon, Zoe is not only creating "life," but is also planning to run away from home and start a new life on another planet, thus freeing her to practice her newfound, monotheistic religion. The Caprican norm is a polytheist religion based on Earth's own past which finds people praying to Ares, Athena, and so on.

But, just as we've gotten comfortable in our seats for the two-part, two-hour pilot, Zoe's own friend, and monotheist compatriot, blows up their train.

Father Daniel Graystone is now in a very different place, and finds himself connected to Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), whose wife and child also died in the bombing. Adama turns out to be a legal lackey for organized crime. But, the real kick comes when Zoe's avatar turns out to still be floating around the aether, and when Daniel finds out, he becomes very serious about trying to work out how he can get his daughter back into the real world. Conveniently, he's working on robotic lifeforms.

The show looks about as slick as can be, and wherever it hopes to go with this re-reboot, we knows it's not messing around. There are no cute kids and fluffy, robotic dogs here. Instead there are mob hits, virtual sex clubs, and gloves way off attacks on that screwball monotheism nonsense (I rather assume similar polytheism retorts are soon to follow... as well as more explosions).

It's a gutsy show, and it's potentially infinitely watchable, but it's hard to tell exactly where things are going at this point. Fifty years back is a long way, and when you talk about a whole new show, it really is, because it's so far back that the show might go anywhere. You can see certain aspects of the drama, and clearly theistic terrorism is going to play a big role in things, but there's no way to know how things are going to play out, and for how long the whole affair will keep your attention. So far, it looks to have the potential to be as big as Battlestar, but you probably want a couple of stabilizing episodes under your belt before you bet the farm.

Adding to the mix when trying to decide how things will play out is the outpouring of backlash against SyFy's other recent spin-off, Stargate Universe. Though that show has been picked up for a second season, it has alienated a vocal percentage of Stargate fans, largely due to its dramatic shift in tone and overall approach, things which could definitely be said of Caprica as compared to Battlestar.

The pilot certainly seems to have launched out of the gates, but when the first exposure to a show is all establishment, and the sort that leaves things wide open besides, it's hard to pin down a reaction. I'm sure we've all fallen into that trap before. Still, credit where credit is due, it's a winner so far. Besides which, it's kind of interesting to watch a show where people say "frak" every few minutes, and the censors don't care. I mean, you know what they mean.

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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