Link to original post: [drupal=3013]Caprica (Contains spoilers!)[/drupal]
As many of you know, I'm a huge and vocal fan of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica that ran on SyFy and concluded last year. My wife and I watched the entire series over the summer, and I thought it was really great.
Immediately after, I heard that there was going to be a prequel called "Caprica," which would take place about 60 years before The Fall and explain the origins of the Cylons. I watched the two hour pilot last summer as well. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I got would be an understatement.
Like BSG, Caprica starts with strong acting and characterization and builds from there. I could really feel the grief of the two main characters, Dr. Greystone and Joe Adama. Some people found Zoe's character whiny and annoying, but isn't that what teenagers are supposed to be? There really wasn't much plot in the pilot, but that's okay. They set up everything really well, and the payoff was with Zoe potentially being the first Cylon. That was pretty awesome.
Now the show is on every week, and I watched the second episode last Friday. Not too much more plot, mostly more setup. What I really liked was the decision to represent the Cylon as Zoe in some scenes; it's a really cool way to remind you that she's still there in that hulking metallic body, and it's interesting to watch her reaction to others and juxtapose it against their reaction to her (who of course see her as a giant robot). I'm also really interested to see what direction they take the teacher who's a member of the Soldiers of the One (her name escapes me right now; it'll be a few weeks before I can learn all of the character's names). And the main theme kicks ***.
I didn't really like the ending of the last episode, where Zoe's mother gives her little speech. It seemed forced, but hey, they've got to move the plot along somehow. I just hope that they don't make a habit of people making poorly motivated decisions for the sake of plot.
Overall, I give the first two episodes a B+. I'm looking forward to the show getting better as it goes along, as BSG did. At the same time, I also hope that the Caprica team learns from the mistakes of BSG and are more careful in their writing. The hinges kind of came off of BSG in Season 4, mostly because of the corner they wrote themselves into in the very first episode with 12 Cylon models. The characters remained strong (and Saul Tigh got even more awesome), but the plot did suffer, and I hope that Caprica plans out its future better than BSG did.
What did the rest of you think?
As many of you know, I'm a huge and vocal fan of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica that ran on SyFy and concluded last year. My wife and I watched the entire series over the summer, and I thought it was really great.
Immediately after, I heard that there was going to be a prequel called "Caprica," which would take place about 60 years before The Fall and explain the origins of the Cylons. I watched the two hour pilot last summer as well. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I got would be an understatement.
Like BSG, Caprica starts with strong acting and characterization and builds from there. I could really feel the grief of the two main characters, Dr. Greystone and Joe Adama. Some people found Zoe's character whiny and annoying, but isn't that what teenagers are supposed to be? There really wasn't much plot in the pilot, but that's okay. They set up everything really well, and the payoff was with Zoe potentially being the first Cylon. That was pretty awesome.
Now the show is on every week, and I watched the second episode last Friday. Not too much more plot, mostly more setup. What I really liked was the decision to represent the Cylon as Zoe in some scenes; it's a really cool way to remind you that she's still there in that hulking metallic body, and it's interesting to watch her reaction to others and juxtapose it against their reaction to her (who of course see her as a giant robot). I'm also really interested to see what direction they take the teacher who's a member of the Soldiers of the One (her name escapes me right now; it'll be a few weeks before I can learn all of the character's names). And the main theme kicks ***.
I didn't really like the ending of the last episode, where Zoe's mother gives her little speech. It seemed forced, but hey, they've got to move the plot along somehow. I just hope that they don't make a habit of people making poorly motivated decisions for the sake of plot.
Overall, I give the first two episodes a B+. I'm looking forward to the show getting better as it goes along, as BSG did. At the same time, I also hope that the Caprica team learns from the mistakes of BSG and are more careful in their writing. The hinges kind of came off of BSG in Season 4, mostly because of the corner they wrote themselves into in the very first episode with 12 Cylon models. The characters remained strong (and Saul Tigh got even more awesome), but the plot did suffer, and I hope that Caprica plans out its future better than BSG did.
What did the rest of you think?
