As the Colonies Turn

I watched the pilot for the Battlestar Galactica spinoff, Caprica, a little while ago and I was underwhelmed. Cylons started out as an over-privileged, under-supervised spoiled teenager who got suckered into a religious cult? No wonder everything went south for humanity. If that sounds more dismissive than is justified, I have to admit to some negativity about the series before going in. The way the creators were describing it, it sounded like a nighttime soap, with all the social drama and intrigue you'd expect. That is, pretty much the opposite of what I want out of my scifi. Well, first impressions aside, I thought I'd give it a couple more episodes before abandoning hope. If nothing else, Eric Stoltz (Daniel Greystone) is... persuasive. I think it was around episode three when I decided I'd totally watch him and Paula Malcomson, the woman who plays Amanda Greystone, gettin' jiggy with it. Incidentally, you might recognize Malcomson from Deadwood, on which she played Trixie. I enjoy her quite a bit, so I'm glad to see her as a regular on something again.

Well I'll be damned, probably quite literally. It occurs to me that one of the things I'd like to see more of in my scifi - hot people getting as nasty as network TV will allow - is a staple of soaps. I'll just let that observation sit.

So, I'm not impressed with the annoying people hoping to convert the world to the one true god. In fact, I couldn't care less about their plots and their bombs and their secret little cabals. I was ready for that bullshit to be over with well before the end of Battlestar Galactica. Some of the religion on BSG was handled pretty well and added something interesting to the story, but most of it was uninspired dren. Thus far, Caprica looks no more promising in that regard. Well, if it all happened before and it'll all happen again, I'm probably just cranky from seeing the same worn out bullshit.

On the plus side, Jane Espenson is an executive producer and writer for the show, which bodes well. She's written and acted as executive producer for several shows I'm a fan of, including Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, and Warehouse 13. Though a few of the episodes she's written might not be my favorites, I think she tends to be spot-on with characterization, and I count her involvement with Caprica as a plus.

Then this most recent episode did nothing to convince me things are looking better. In fact, I thought most of it was not very good. Rather than bitch about it, though, I'll point out something I liked a lot - during the scene in the boardroom, there's one moment when Zoe looks at her dad and her expression is almost sexual. That perked up my Electra complex and piqued my interest. And it's a shame that's not a direction this show would go. This might be a soap opera, but I don't think incest is a popular theme even on soaps. Besides, our shiny toaster girl already has a real life boyfriend, in the tech who talks so sweetly to her.

I'll wrap this up with a few miscellaneous thoughts, in no particular order --

I'm envious of Caprica's maglev trains. Everything should be maglev.

I wish the show had gone in a different direction with the title sequence, because I get the style they're going for but I think it was damned poorly executed.

I like that the "alternative" relationships in the show - Sister Clarice and her family of wives & husbands, and Sam Adama & his same-sex partner - are presented almost banally.

So, Admiral Adama came from a family of crooks, thugs and harridans; no wonder he was such a badass.

When Amanda Greystone outed her daughter at the memorial at the end of episode two, she reminded me of the dad in Heathers who loved his dead, gay son.

Finally, John Pyper-Ferguson (Pete Hutter on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., the Pegasus CAG for a couple episodes of BSG) will be showing up for a run of episodes, and it always makes me happy to see him. Here's hoping Caprica's pretty people make it worth sticking around!