Made of Fire

I was hoping for something a bit bigger than what ‘Ghost in a Machine’ delivered. Some storylines are still stuck. There are to many storylines that are on hold, but I expect that the brief revisit of Amanda and Clarice, and the meet in V-World of Zoe and Lacey were just put in place to remind us that these plots are still there, waiting for our and the writers’ attention. If nothing else, this episode puts most of its characters in their place, setting the stage for what is to come. We should be in for a treat next week at the mid season finale. I sure hope they deliver, as the series is in grave danger to be cancelled.

This morning SyFy’s Craig Engler started a tweet-line on twitter to promote the show, generate new audiences, and briefly talk about live and DVR viewing. If the show cannot pick up an audience over the 1Mio it has currently, the future of Caprica is bleak, for us that is, because it may not have one.

The writer’s openly admitted in NY this week that they may have been too ambitious, too may storylines were introduced too quickly. And the show suffers by making it hard for new audiences to jump in even now, where the first season is not even at its mid point. But this richness of text also promises something big, something that may blow BSG out of the water, if, and only if, a real rhythm can be established within the show.

All this being said, the two main narratives followed in this week’s episodes were simply fantastic. The slow and steadily rising tension in Zoe as her father tries to manipulate her, so that she will give away that she does reside within the robot body, was, like everything in theBSG universe to the point and 100% relatable. While I believe to have earlier written about the mute Zoe, it here becomes more obvious then ever that there is but a child in the young woman, one that throws temper tantrums, and one that is now made of metal. This is not a teenager in love, or manipulatively so, as she was shown in the last episode. This Zoe is full of hate for her parents and full of regret. Graystone’s need to communicate with his daughter, have proof, even if this means he’ll torture his little girl, deepens the gap between him and his child. His attempts at reason and showing his love de facto push her in a corner even more. But, who takes parenting 101? The question is whether she will strike out; use the power her robot body has? Is Graystone not only the master of the machine, but also the reason for its madness and loathing?

Adama’s daughter is not unwilling to talk to him, rather, she called for him and now cannot be found. Her signs on the wall are obvious markers of her existence, he knows for sure she is there, but yet he is equally unable to talk to Tammy. He is in a world he does not understand, and her signs may reflect her maturing in this world, no longer daddy’s little girl that may need protection. Meanwhile he begins to adapt and ‘train’ for something possibly unwanted at this point. I was sad to not get a glimpse of Tammy this week or last, for her character is the most fascinating for me. She is thrown into this unwillingly, unknowingly and struggles to understand, use her powers, be herself, alone in the ‘verse. She also stands for all that is/was good and now is being corrupted, or at least she has her eyes opened to depravity. This may be part of her ancestry, but clearly she and her brother were kept far away from Tauron customs and way of life. What will innocence do when faced with the abyss of human immorality? Why was she not followed at all for two continuous weeks if she had just “awoken”?

Zoe, as Daniel Graystone pointed out, has partaken in the murder of hundreds of innocent people. Her character is that of a juvenile wanna-be-hero. Her reasons sound valid, but her reasons, as so much we see in both BSG and Caprica are fueled by fear and anger, and at the very very last by actual reason. She is a teenager. Fear and anger are overtaking all women in this serial: Grandma Adama, Amanda Graystone, Zoe, Tammy, and maybe Lacy. When you look at these women and toss in Clarice with her ambition, semi-power (as a woman of the cloth), and addiction to both opiates and religious power (she believes she can lead the movement)…

I wonder sometimes… but I believe this is the first female-centric, female-driven narrative Sci-Fi show there is…BG

Caprica - the uphill battle

Promises lie ahead. The next two episodes of Caprica are bound to be fast, explosive and leave us with a mid season cliff hanger that hurts us in all the right ways.
I think the attached blog nailed it.
The multiple layers were actually what alienated me in the first episode of the actual serial run (and the story-in-itself-opening-credits). The memories of a show that began so slowly and so contained as BSG did, were fresh in my mind and not to compare was hard.
BUT, Caprica is easily one of the best shows on air. It tackles all basic narratives known to mankind and the V-World is the manifestation of all the bad there is. A wonderful concept, the oldest concept, show us what we need to see but hide in something fantastical.
To paraphrase the show on what V-World is, it is: "a place where you can blow someone's head off", and yet you hurt no one. Or to take the other route, it is where everyone can build their own, private, man-made-heaven. (The concept of sharing does not, however occur to the fanatics crated for the show ;-) That heaven, however, BSG fans know, is more like the tower of Babel. This knowledge allows you to interact deeper with the show. Yes, you kind of know where the bid scheme of things is going, but it is how you get there...
That being said, it has some major problems, as I did point out in my last blog on Caprica.
If it doesn't begin to take it's audience more serious, a second season may be in danger. No Quality TV audience of around just a million has made cable networks happy, not with that price tag attached anyways.

And, writing that allows for such subtleties as the first episode's sexual orientation side by the most masculine man ever, and that doesn't heavily linger on the trinity speech, and guides us into a world so fantastically crafted, shouldn't have to talk about Viagra so blatantly, that it rips you out of the story entirely. It is like they address all the important issues in the best possible manner, by not attracting attention to those things truly trivial in a bigger scheme of things, and then they need to draw a hit-you-in-the-face with-it line between Caprica and our reality.

Growing pains aside, if you read this and haven't watch it, you certainly should.
BG

Creationsim Caprica Style

Right off I will say that I don’t like it when love interests are unnecessarily introduced in any show, especially if there is no need for an additional point of conflict, as Adama has enough on his plate, no? BUT, I trust the writers and will either forgive or happily ingest what they supply.
Secondly I loath Tomas Vergis so much already that I know the writers and actor are doing it right, but I want the character to die… soon.
I think I am in love with this show… but hope to remain critical… if seemingly impossible re-reading my second sentence here.

“Know thy Enemy” made clear that the narratives are not a game to the characters. Christian style mortification, human vanity creating the afterlife to ensure death is not the end (you remember what happened to Babel, right?), Sister Clarice sharing her big moment of successful infiltration and avatar-program retrieval with opiates, Amanda alone, Graystone facing painful destruction and then there is Adama. Grounded, low-life, mob-attorney Adama, who is startled by V-World.

The only one beginning to enjoy herself, while mute in her body, is Zoe Graystone. Enjoying the early stages of flirtation, with a man she will never be equal to.

I'm Awake...

I certainly am now, after watching ‘There is Another Sky’. This episode demonstrates once again that Caprica is well thought through, rich in imagery and characters, and, for those of you feeling it is too slow, perfectly paced! The wealth of characters needs to be crafted carefully; else we’d have another ‘Lost’, where everyone leads NOWHERE (sorry fans of ‘Lost’, but we all know writers lost control of that one, more then once).
In last week’s episode, Tamara Adama realizes she exists only in V-World and takes ‘life’ in a stride; father Adama makes amends with his family, and Graystone presents a fruitful solution to the Holo-Band fiasco. V-World gets its own little entry (which is actually fantastic, as the plot is rich enough and visually stylized already), teenage Capricans show their privileged faces to us and really address the instability of the 12Worlds for the first time. Finally, the defense robots make a little more sense, although I am waiting for a clear narrative here still. Who wants to go to war with whom…? I wish there was a guide for the twelve worlds…
This episode allows us to figure out the game that is Caprica, as much as it allows the characters within the show to figure out their worlds anew. Everyone has been picked up and tossed where the story led them. Uprooted people that need to re-orient themselves (sexy-married Mob-Adama being the exception among regular cast members it seems). Adama’s family ceremony, Graystone’s move to the new –and oddly ignored- project, they all move forward. They are all awake, taking charge of their own lives. No standing still, no passivity, not even Amanda Graystone. Interestingly, the writers have decided that whilst talking about a robot, there is no need to cloud the ethics, work for diplomatic word choices when presenting the cylon… Always critiquing the world surrounding us, while subtly in BSG, is here more to the point, in your face... it is more urgent. But we still are watching entertainment, a show, one that passes many people by. The fine art of Sci-Fi fable is at work here, but it remains part of the machinery that it critiques. Granted, the critique comes from within, but participation is nevertheless required.
Caprica is humanity before its fall, before being humbled by its own mortality.
Nothing is simplified on Caprica: there was no child, but a child will be found.

And because that is, for all the geeks in you: did you see Kat from BSG was back as Pryah? Working for Graystone… Was she a cylon then? Or does this suggest that Daniel planted her Avator? But then how did she become a skin job? Or… is she the model that had to be ‘boxed’? Because she remembered being human? Have fun with that one. ☺

Missing Link

While I first was taken aback by the overflow of story-lines and subplots provided in Caprica - after all BSG had taken a little longer to introduce all players, questions, trajectories - I now, after only two episodes, am intrigued, fascinated, and 100% committed to the twelfth world. This is a place, a show, filled with all what makes humanity both good and bad, with all that has happened before, all that will happen again.

This society is advanced, in many ways. Students staying out after curfew occupy the time of cops, nothing bigger on their plates until this bomb that brought us here.

Homosexuality isn't argued about, but is so accepted that it is there but hard to catch in episode one. A friend had even to point out to me the subtle: "I would hit at a hot guy and your dad would leave with his sister", comment, so unimportant, it is something so trivial here, what better statement could the writers have made? Hooray for humanity that can see beyond something as laughable as a discussion of who someone else is allowed to enjoy live with. In this world, questions of right and wrong, and seemingly a full set of rules apply that tell your children thow to move about the day, or night. Rules, regulations...what else do we yet need to know about pre-cylon Caprica? Caprica before it's first hit in the stomach, its first loss of power?
What about the need to be part of this world? Adama,..., Adams, conformity, belonging. I am going to wait and discuss Adama-bad-ass in a later blog, so much yet to see.
Caprica

The show brings us law, order, science, family drama, teen drama, class clashes, religion (or religious insanity), and drugs/holo-bands that allow the cut from reality, polygamous life styles (not a problem for the old religion here again), and a teacher that weirds me out. It seems it all started because of the STO. The need to lay claim to a single god, to only one right answer, one way to reach the goal of higher moral existence that allows for whatever it is one seeks to find. Aaaah, we're back at the beginning. Once again. Arrogant human creature.
Now, as a good friend pointed out, we have a human avatar, knowing nothing of why, what, and where she is, surrounded by the very root of humanity's downfall. All that is within the seven mortal sins is lived in this space, that much we know from the pilot. It is the pit of human want. How will that make humanity look; a humanity that is far ahead of us, yet precedes the war?
There is much, we are not privy to as of yet. Why would they need all the robots if the worlds are at peace? How regulated are the worlds?
What happened to make Caprica what it is, brought together the 12 worlds? There is yet another missing link in all of this.

I am in.