Now we come to the halfway point of Caprica's first (and only) season. And of course, its title is a reference to Battlestar Galactica.
Synopsis: Lacy has joined Barnabas' cell in the Soldiers of the One to gain his help shipping Zoe-bot to Gemenon. He enlists her to plant something on Sister Clarice, which she does. She thinks it's just a tracker, but of course it's a bomb detonator (of course it is, Lacy, you idiot). Adama's search for Tamara finally comes to an end as he finds her, only to have her shoot him out of the game for good. Graystone is on the verge of losing his company's contract to Vergis. In desperation, he orders a clean wipe of the aberrant (read: Zoe) bits in the MCP so they can start fresh and copy it from there. Well, that puts a time crunch on Zoe, who now must leave or die. She reveals to Philomon that she is Rachel and really Zoe and needs his help. He plays along, only to call for security. She flips out, kills him, and escapes in a truck. Amanda's insanity has made her suicidal and she goes up to a bridge to jump off. As the episode ends, Lacy is forced to set off the bomb in Clarice's car (which she does), but Clarice has luckily stepped out to look at the suicide attempt of Amanda jumping off a bridge, and Zoe tries to drive through a road block, flipping the truck and leaving everyone's fate in question.
Hey, this episode was directed by Star Trek: Voyager's Roxann Dawson! She does a lot of TV directing now.
I love that I complained in my last post about how nobody every swears by specific gods, and then in this episode it happens twice! Now that's more like it. Graystone says, "Sweet Aphrodite!" at one point.
I'm really tired of the whole New Cap City thing at this point. I don't understand why Tamara stays there. And what a giant waste of time this whole plot thread was! It was dragged out over four episodes, just so she could shoot him and get rid of him. Uh, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO ASKED FOR HIM, TAMARA!! You specifically sent Heracles into the real world to tell your dad where you were, and then you avoid him for days and when he finally finds you, you kill him. I do not understand this at all. What a waste of time. This is exactly the kind of crap I expect from the writers of BSG.
Turns out Emmanuel was actually none other than Adama's personal assistant lady! She's been stringing him along this whole time. In the real world, Adama's lying at home essentially comatose hooked up to his holoband incessantly. Can't have that, so "Emmanuel" goes to Tamara and creates a set-up for him to get him back. This was all her idea. But why does Tamara go along with it? Part of the reasoning is that Adama is becoming an "amp head". Well, 1) he only did it to find you, Tamara, so why were you avoiding him?? and 2) YOU GAVE HIM THE AMP, EMMANUEL! and now you're all "stop using that stuff!" Why do they write women as so insanely inconsistent? Adama can't ever see his fake daughter again because the woman who said she was there to help him find her got him hooked on drugs and permanently separated from her, while the woman he wants to find -- who herself was responsible for his learning she was still around -- doesn't want to see him and just gets rid of him. Adama had moved on before you sent Heracles after him! If he's a holo-addicted amp head, it's your fault, ladies! WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ANY OF THIS?
The theme of girls killing their pursuers continues with Zoe killing Philo. She really was just using him anyway, so in a way he's better off. But why does the good-natured socially awkward nerd have to be exploited by women and then killed and discarded? What kind of a horrible message is that? "I love you, as long as you do what I say." Sure, Zoe's a teenager, but that doesn't excuse the series.
As I mentioned above, Lacy is completely stupid to not think there is obviously a bomb in Sister Clarice's car. That's what Barnabas does: he blows stuff up. And we know how he dislikes Clarice. But why does Barnabas keep blowing things up? What's his objective? Yes, he's a monotheist, but how do random bombings promote your cause? The show is again trying to show its "relevance", but in the real world there is always some sort of objective, even if it's a stupid one. You bomb a target or you "take out the infidel" or something. Killing Clarice actually makes a bit of sense, but I don't understand the train bombing or the other bombings throughout Caprica. I'm also tired of the series painting all monotheistic religion with a broad brush, as if to say "and of course they use suicide bombings because they're religious!"
Amanda is now suicidal. I just don't get her character at all. I don't know why they write her the way they do. Apparently, the story was originally that she was being driven insane on purpose by Vergis. He had hired a guy who looked like her brother to show up random places and "Gaslight" her. Bizarre as that is, I think I would have preferred it. Amanda is now just randomly hallucinating, and it's making her unstable, and then she jumps off a bridge. Even telling me she has a history of mental illness doesn't make this any more believable for me. She's spent the entire season in bizarre extremes of emotion. I never feel like she's actually a character; just a function of plot and set pieces.
In a broader way, it feels like the series is essentially saying all women are stupid or insane. And that's a dangerous subtext to promote, even unconsciously. I'm sure they don't intend that to be the message, but just about every storyline here hinges on the female characters being insane or naive or violent or inconsistent. Yes, Graystone is responsible for Zoe's breakout. But it's still an episode full of women doing violent, irrational things. So every story does sort of culminate in this explosive ending, but for what? Will the second half of the series be any better? If this is the direction it's going, I doubt it.
I found the pilot pretty good overall, but the series has been an inconsistent jumble. Commentary tracks have suggested part of that was due to them not really knowing the tone of the show at first. They had planned it to be more of a prime-time soap, and to have more humor in it. Then they found it wasn't working. Well, obviously, because where was that stuff in the pilot? So many threads from the first 8 episodes start and then go nowhere. Sam grooming Willy for the underworld of the Ha'La'Tha went nowhere. Willy didn't even appear in the last few episodes. What about all that weird polygamous stuff with Sister Clarice? Irrelevant. So it was just for random shock value. There was that tease that she was grooming Lacy for it, or that one of the husbands was hitting on her, and then that went nowhere. Amanda was distraught, then believed Zoe a terrorist, then she didn't believe she was a terrorist, then she was normal, then distraught again, then hallucinating, then jumped off a bridge. They set up this tease of Tamara, and then string us along only to end it abruptly. We haven't seen anything of the GDD investigation for the past few episodes either. Vergis threatens to attack Graystone by taking away "what he loves the most". This was supposed to set up the Gaslight plot, but when that was cut the line just lies there meaning nothing. He makes a threat, then doesn't follow through. Sure, he buys the C-Bucs, but he was going to do that anyway before he made the threat. What about when Joseph Adama was a lawyer? We haven't seen him in court for four episodes. And what about that thread of the corrupt judge? That was dropped too. This series is proving once again that these writers don't know what they're doing. I'm starting to think that the sloppiness in BSG's early writing was less sloppy than this. And I thought this season started much stronger than BSG. How quickly it's dropped off. The production value is still good, and it's great to not suffer through so much zoomy shaky-cam as with BSG, but what is this show about? What is the point? Religion is bad? Religion is good? There's something about humanity bringing about destruction, but that's on the backburner. Apart from the questionable continuity problems with BSG, the show just on its own doesn't know what it wants to be. We'll see if they succeed in finding out in the remaining episodes, but I'm not hopeful.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Ghosts in the Machine
Synopsis: Adama's still tracking Tamara through New Cap City, which leads him to a cabaret where the crossdressing MC might have information on her whereabouts. Except that it ends up being a dead end and we basically waste another episode. But Adama learns to kill in the virtual world (after asking Sam the awkward question, "How do you kill people?"), and he starts seeing graffiti that suggests Tamara had been there. Graystone is driven to near madness with his obsession to discover if Zoe is truly inside the robot. He subjects her to several torturous experiments in hopes that she will reveal herself. As the episode ends, she's afraid of what she'll do to him if Lacy doesn't get her to Geminon soon.
Amanda is still kind of crazy and obsessing about her brother, and this still isn't really going anywhere. But Vergis showed up at the house and told her that her husband stole his MCP, which she has a hard time believing.
It's so frustrating to spend so much of an episode in New Cap City and still get nothing out of it. It was all basically a dead end. Yes, he learns that people think she's part of the game since she can't die, but we knew that already. And how rude of them to tantalize us with a riddle and not reveal the answer!
The stuff with Graystone and Zoe-bot is much more interesting. We learn more about the house they used to live in, which was mentioned in a previous episode. Apparently there was a fire and Zoe was trapped for a long period of time. It seems this has left her with a fear of fire. Graystone then goes forward with an insidious experiment to lure Zoe out: he'll set a fire around the robot, and expects Zoe to walk out of it. He's also ordered the robot to stay, so if it moves it's because of Zoe. This episode is essentially a game of chicken between Zoe and her father, as each stubbornly maintains their position. Alessandra does a lot with just silent facial expressions in these scenes; it's really nice.
One thing that bothers me is the final test with Zoe, when we see her she's got her hands on her hips. But the robot's hands are by its sides. Why is this different? It's just odd to me. Then comes the final test: shoot your beloved dog. I hate dogs, so I was kind of hoping it would die. Zoe-bot does indeed fire, but it seems Graystone is not that cruel and the gun was loaded with blanks. That would have been fine, but then we get a follow-up scene where Zoe tells Lacy about it. She says the robot could sense right away that they were blanks. That really bothered me because it effectively killed the tension of the scene. If she knew they were blanks, then it was no test at all. They try to save the scene by saying if they hadn't been blanks, Zoe might have shot her father instead. But I wish they had just left it alone.
Anyway, all this is the only thing interesting about this episode. The rest is a lot of people talking or de-resing but we still aren't getting anywhere narratively. I'm almost at the half-way point of this season and I hope something happens soon.
Amanda is still kind of crazy and obsessing about her brother, and this still isn't really going anywhere. But Vergis showed up at the house and told her that her husband stole his MCP, which she has a hard time believing.
It's so frustrating to spend so much of an episode in New Cap City and still get nothing out of it. It was all basically a dead end. Yes, he learns that people think she's part of the game since she can't die, but we knew that already. And how rude of them to tantalize us with a riddle and not reveal the answer!
The stuff with Graystone and Zoe-bot is much more interesting. We learn more about the house they used to live in, which was mentioned in a previous episode. Apparently there was a fire and Zoe was trapped for a long period of time. It seems this has left her with a fear of fire. Graystone then goes forward with an insidious experiment to lure Zoe out: he'll set a fire around the robot, and expects Zoe to walk out of it. He's also ordered the robot to stay, so if it moves it's because of Zoe. This episode is essentially a game of chicken between Zoe and her father, as each stubbornly maintains their position. Alessandra does a lot with just silent facial expressions in these scenes; it's really nice.
One thing that bothers me is the final test with Zoe, when we see her she's got her hands on her hips. But the robot's hands are by its sides. Why is this different? It's just odd to me. Then comes the final test: shoot your beloved dog. I hate dogs, so I was kind of hoping it would die. Zoe-bot does indeed fire, but it seems Graystone is not that cruel and the gun was loaded with blanks. That would have been fine, but then we get a follow-up scene where Zoe tells Lacy about it. She says the robot could sense right away that they were blanks. That really bothered me because it effectively killed the tension of the scene. If she knew they were blanks, then it was no test at all. They try to save the scene by saying if they hadn't been blanks, Zoe might have shot her father instead. But I wish they had just left it alone.
Anyway, all this is the only thing interesting about this episode. The rest is a lot of people talking or de-resing but we still aren't getting anywhere narratively. I'm almost at the half-way point of this season and I hope something happens soon.
The Imperfections of Memory
Synopsis: Amanda thinks she's going crazy because she's been seeing her brother -- a brother that died years ago in a car crash. Zoe goes on another date with Philo, trying to plant the idea of getting the robot outside the lab. Adama finds Heracles, the kid sent by Tamara, and is taken to New Cap City. However, Adama gets him killed in the game, leaving him to wander by himself until Heracles sends a new guide: a woman called Emmanuel. The episode ends with Graystone coming to the realization that Zoe is perhaps still in the robot.
In this episode, we learn that Amanda was institutionalized for a few years because she was crazy, seeing her dead brother after the crash. She's now seeing him again. Well, at least that sort of explains her wild shifts in mood episode to episode. She's just nuts!
As Zoe takes to Lacy about their plans, she says, "I have another date with cute lab boy." This line bugged me because at this point she knows his name. Why not just call him by his name? Was it for Lacy's benefit? Or is it one of those annoying instances of reminding the audience who he is? I wonder if "cute lab boy" was some message board moniker for him before they introduced his name.
Their date involves flying vipers, a little nod to BSG. Obviously these aren't space-faring vipers, but more like planetary fighter jets. Still, I guess it's an early design on the way to what we eventually see on BSG.
I continue to feel like the Tamara/New Cap City storyline is mostly useless to this show. We have enough threads to follow without this one. Yes, it does further the idea of immortality in virtual form which is part of the whole STO plan. But I just don't really care about it. Also, why doesn't Tamara just stay in one place? Didn't she say, "I'll be in New Cap City so you can find me"? So they come back to New Cap City and can't find you!
Sister Clarice is further trying to manipulate Amanda, taking her to her favorite drug den to cozy up to her. Amanda starts to spill her history of hallucinations. This culminates in Clarice suggesting they are from God and Amanda needs to open up to God. Amanda replies, "Which god?" So Clarice is slowly working her over to the STO's monotheism, but to what end? Amanda doesn't know anything about Zoe. I also find something very unsettling about casting monotheists as villains on this show.
Speaking of gods, it bothers me that characters always swear "by the gods" or "oh my gods!" If they serve many gods, and some more than others, why does know when curse by or pray to a specific god? No one goes, "By Athena, that's crazy!" or "Mars help me!" This makes the polytheism kind of less believable to me. There should be more specific god veneration.
Again, this is an episode that's all about dragging stories along and connecting more dots but by the end I'm no closer to anything then when the show started. Things sort of happen, but they also don't, and I'm getting tired of episodes like that.
I would like to briefly look at the semiotics of the show, and this episode seems a good place to talk about names. The original series used mythological names and Caprica is following. The kid in New Cap City is named Heracles, a heroic name of mythology that you probably know as Hercules. Perhaps significant because in the game is the only time he feels like a hero. He's torn between godhood and ordinary humanity, as it were. Adama's new guide is Emmanuel, which means "God with us." Not a bad name for a guide, though part of me wishes it had been Beatrice or a man named Virgil, just because a guide through the underworld having a name out of Dante would amuse me. Zoe is a name that suggests new life, which is exactly what her character represents. And what about Philomon? The name is Greek, seeming to perhaps include the root "phileo", suggesting brotherly love. There is also a Philemon (different spelling) in the New Testament. There's a brief letter sent by Paul to him. Philemon was a Christian likely from the group at Colosse. His slave Onesimus had come to Paul, and the text suggest he might have run away. In the letter, Paul sends him back, saying he wished Onesimus could stay with him but that it was up to Philemon. He suggests Philemon receive Onesimus back "no longer as a slave but more than a slave -- a beloved brother" (Philemon 16). Does any of this have anything to do with the character on Caprica? No idea. But I feel like they wouldn't have just plucked the name out for no reason.
Also, the institution where crazy Amanda spent some time is at Delphi. In ancient Greece, there was a temple at Delphi where people would seek oracles from the gods. Modern archaeology suggests that it was built on vents of gas that would cause priests of Delphi to hallucinate, thus producing these oracles. So it's a little amusing that the person seeing hallucinations is brought to Delphi of all places.
That's about all for now, I guess. I hope things pick up.
In this episode, we learn that Amanda was institutionalized for a few years because she was crazy, seeing her dead brother after the crash. She's now seeing him again. Well, at least that sort of explains her wild shifts in mood episode to episode. She's just nuts!
As Zoe takes to Lacy about their plans, she says, "I have another date with cute lab boy." This line bugged me because at this point she knows his name. Why not just call him by his name? Was it for Lacy's benefit? Or is it one of those annoying instances of reminding the audience who he is? I wonder if "cute lab boy" was some message board moniker for him before they introduced his name.
Their date involves flying vipers, a little nod to BSG. Obviously these aren't space-faring vipers, but more like planetary fighter jets. Still, I guess it's an early design on the way to what we eventually see on BSG.
I continue to feel like the Tamara/New Cap City storyline is mostly useless to this show. We have enough threads to follow without this one. Yes, it does further the idea of immortality in virtual form which is part of the whole STO plan. But I just don't really care about it. Also, why doesn't Tamara just stay in one place? Didn't she say, "I'll be in New Cap City so you can find me"? So they come back to New Cap City and can't find you!
Sister Clarice is further trying to manipulate Amanda, taking her to her favorite drug den to cozy up to her. Amanda starts to spill her history of hallucinations. This culminates in Clarice suggesting they are from God and Amanda needs to open up to God. Amanda replies, "Which god?" So Clarice is slowly working her over to the STO's monotheism, but to what end? Amanda doesn't know anything about Zoe. I also find something very unsettling about casting monotheists as villains on this show.
Speaking of gods, it bothers me that characters always swear "by the gods" or "oh my gods!" If they serve many gods, and some more than others, why does know when curse by or pray to a specific god? No one goes, "By Athena, that's crazy!" or "Mars help me!" This makes the polytheism kind of less believable to me. There should be more specific god veneration.
Again, this is an episode that's all about dragging stories along and connecting more dots but by the end I'm no closer to anything then when the show started. Things sort of happen, but they also don't, and I'm getting tired of episodes like that.
I would like to briefly look at the semiotics of the show, and this episode seems a good place to talk about names. The original series used mythological names and Caprica is following. The kid in New Cap City is named Heracles, a heroic name of mythology that you probably know as Hercules. Perhaps significant because in the game is the only time he feels like a hero. He's torn between godhood and ordinary humanity, as it were. Adama's new guide is Emmanuel, which means "God with us." Not a bad name for a guide, though part of me wishes it had been Beatrice or a man named Virgil, just because a guide through the underworld having a name out of Dante would amuse me. Zoe is a name that suggests new life, which is exactly what her character represents. And what about Philomon? The name is Greek, seeming to perhaps include the root "phileo", suggesting brotherly love. There is also a Philemon (different spelling) in the New Testament. There's a brief letter sent by Paul to him. Philemon was a Christian likely from the group at Colosse. His slave Onesimus had come to Paul, and the text suggest he might have run away. In the letter, Paul sends him back, saying he wished Onesimus could stay with him but that it was up to Philemon. He suggests Philemon receive Onesimus back "no longer as a slave but more than a slave -- a beloved brother" (Philemon 16). Does any of this have anything to do with the character on Caprica? No idea. But I feel like they wouldn't have just plucked the name out for no reason.
Also, the institution where crazy Amanda spent some time is at Delphi. In ancient Greece, there was a temple at Delphi where people would seek oracles from the gods. Modern archaeology suggests that it was built on vents of gas that would cause priests of Delphi to hallucinate, thus producing these oracles. So it's a little amusing that the person seeing hallucinations is brought to Delphi of all places.
That's about all for now, I guess. I hope things pick up.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Know Thy Enemy
Syonpsis: Everyone's enemies start coming out of the woodwork this episode. Graystone's competitor, Tomas Vergis is convinced that Graystone was involved in the theft of the MCP device and the death of two men in the process. Though he strings him along for the episode, in the end he reveals he's Tauron through and through, and that means he wants blood for blood from Graystone. Sister Clarice's little cabal of monotheists have a small drive that can surreptitiously copy data from any computer. Hoping it will help them get the Zoe avatar, she goes to the Graystone residence and, after getting Amanda a little tipsy, gains access to the lab and downloads his computer contents. Whether or not this gives her access to Zoe, we don't yet know. Lacy's still trying to get help getting Zoe-bot to Geminon, and Zoe learns Philemon, the tech geek, is a lonely soul who can't get a match on his internet dating profile. So she posts a fake reply as "Rachel" and meets him in the V-Club in disguise -- a Clark Kent disguise that amounts to a pair of glasses and being clumsy. Seems like a sweet gesture, but I doubt Philo will see it that way when he learns the truth.
Let's deal with that story first. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Zoe tried something like that with him, since there's really on other way they can keep flirting when she's a robot. It's also a bit depressing that guys like him can't get girls unless someone overhears his private moments and pities him. I credit Philo for immediately saying that "Rachel" looks just like Zoe Graystone. Zoe bluffs it off by saying she thought having an avatar that looked like Zoe would keep the perverts away (but it only incited them). But why doesn't Zoe just create an entirely different avatar image? Or steal one from some other girl? Then again, I guess that would amount to holoband catfishing.
Should Philo be on a holoband date when he's working?
The episode opens with a visit to Vergis Industries in Tauron City. But I'm left confused as to whether Tauron City is on Tauron or is just a city of Tauron people on Caprica. I would love it if we could see or hear of another city on Caprica to break up the homogenous nature of this planet.
The next scene is set in a museum and is the worst scene of the episode for me due to the location chosen. I know they are shooting this in Vancouver, and there's a lot they can get away with by fudging things and visual effects to make it Caprica. But this "museum" was just a museum full of what appeared to be Tlingit art; totem poles and native pieces celebrating the Raven. This immediately takes me out of the world of Caprica because I start questioning who the people are that made these things. I shouldn't be thinking about indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest, but I am. Are we to believe there is some similar culture on Caprica? Raven veneration and other sorts of native paganism and animal worship seem very different from the Greco-Roman polytheism of the rest of the populace. Did the ancient Capricans make these things? Are they from some other colony? Or are we meant to believe that these are the works of the original natives of that world before the Capricans came and colonized it? We have no context for any of it and it felt very bizarre to see such things so prominently displayed. I couldn't pay any attention to the scene between Vergis and Graystone. It was distracting.
While we're on the subject of religion, let's look at the Cylons and the one God. It seems the series is setting up that the reason the Cylons were monotheistic is that Zoe was monotheistic and that was imparted to them. But on BSG there WAS a god of some sort because we saw his angelic emissaries. So is this real god the god of the STO? Is he okay with the bombings in his name? It all just seems to go weirdly in circles. How did this monotheistic movement start? Was it by divine revelation?
Adama buys a holoband in hopes of getting in touch with Tamara. But he can't access the V Club because that's an illegal hack. We see instead the "welcome screen" for first-time users. I thought that was a nice touch. He now needs to find the kid who told him about Tamara.
Not much more to say about this one. Stuff happened, but it more just a series of stepping stones to move the story forward.
Let's deal with that story first. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Zoe tried something like that with him, since there's really on other way they can keep flirting when she's a robot. It's also a bit depressing that guys like him can't get girls unless someone overhears his private moments and pities him. I credit Philo for immediately saying that "Rachel" looks just like Zoe Graystone. Zoe bluffs it off by saying she thought having an avatar that looked like Zoe would keep the perverts away (but it only incited them). But why doesn't Zoe just create an entirely different avatar image? Or steal one from some other girl? Then again, I guess that would amount to holoband catfishing.
Should Philo be on a holoband date when he's working?
The episode opens with a visit to Vergis Industries in Tauron City. But I'm left confused as to whether Tauron City is on Tauron or is just a city of Tauron people on Caprica. I would love it if we could see or hear of another city on Caprica to break up the homogenous nature of this planet.
The next scene is set in a museum and is the worst scene of the episode for me due to the location chosen. I know they are shooting this in Vancouver, and there's a lot they can get away with by fudging things and visual effects to make it Caprica. But this "museum" was just a museum full of what appeared to be Tlingit art; totem poles and native pieces celebrating the Raven. This immediately takes me out of the world of Caprica because I start questioning who the people are that made these things. I shouldn't be thinking about indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest, but I am. Are we to believe there is some similar culture on Caprica? Raven veneration and other sorts of native paganism and animal worship seem very different from the Greco-Roman polytheism of the rest of the populace. Did the ancient Capricans make these things? Are they from some other colony? Or are we meant to believe that these are the works of the original natives of that world before the Capricans came and colonized it? We have no context for any of it and it felt very bizarre to see such things so prominently displayed. I couldn't pay any attention to the scene between Vergis and Graystone. It was distracting.
While we're on the subject of religion, let's look at the Cylons and the one God. It seems the series is setting up that the reason the Cylons were monotheistic is that Zoe was monotheistic and that was imparted to them. But on BSG there WAS a god of some sort because we saw his angelic emissaries. So is this real god the god of the STO? Is he okay with the bombings in his name? It all just seems to go weirdly in circles. How did this monotheistic movement start? Was it by divine revelation?
Adama buys a holoband in hopes of getting in touch with Tamara. But he can't access the V Club because that's an illegal hack. We see instead the "welcome screen" for first-time users. I thought that was a nice touch. He now needs to find the kid who told him about Tamara.
Not much more to say about this one. Stuff happened, but it more just a series of stepping stones to move the story forward.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
There Is Another Sky
Synopsis: This episode ignores most of our other leads to pick up the thread of avatar-Tamara running around free. She wants desperately to get home, so she hooks up with some folks in the V Club who say they'll help her if she helps them first. This involves a quest through the online game New Caprica City. Meanwhile, Joseph Adama learns his son has been skipping school and they hold a Tauron memorial service for their dead. Dr. Graystone is about to be thrown out of the company over the holoband thing, but he placates the board by revealing Cylon Zoe (not as Zoe of course) and unveiling his plan for the company's future: a Cylon slave race. Because THAT always works out...
This episode is odd for having no scenes at all of Lacy or Sister Clarice and very little Zoe. Speaking of Zoe, I neglected to ask in my prior review, how is it she can change clothes now? For the first few episodes, her avatar image remained stuck in that party dress from the pilot. That made sense to me. But then "Gravedancing" opened with her in the V Club in a different outfit. I thought, okay maybe she can change virtual clothes inside the virtual world somehow. But she's wearing something different this time too. Why? Does it just make her feel more "normal" to change clothes every day?
Tamara is still stuck on her own, which makes sense since there is no "her" outside anymore. But what I don't understand is why back in "Reins of a Waterfall" Zoe just let her go the way she did. Zoe KNOWS she's pure code, and assumes that her father put her there. So saying "Those doors lead outside" won't help Tamara since she's not real. For a computer genius, Zoe's kind of stupid. If it had played out that Tamara was like, "Thanks, bye!" against Zoe's objection, that would have worked. But it makes no sense to me for Zoe to just let her go when it's reasonable to assume she has nowhere to go.
Tamara seeks help from this woman who runs a russian roulette game. Only in this version, it's a bunch of pistols on an actual spinning roulette wheel. I just find it kind of silly, and it reminds me of an old Lost in Space episode where something similar happened, only it was laser guns.
The action moves to Caprica's version of an MMORPG, New Caprica City. It's like Grand Theft Auto meets Gotham City meets World of Warcraft or something. Nobody knows the point of playing, or how you win, but they all keep playing. Tamara is special because she can't die in the game, so they use her to help them rob some fat cat. This is all very obvious commentary on modern video games. The kid Tamara's with says this place is real to him because here he can be somebody, and she says, "Maybe if you weren't here in the holoband all day you could be somebody out there." And I think that's kind of unfair. It's a very simplistic, judgmental attitude to say "Oh well, maybe you wouldn't be such a loser if you stopped playing games and did something with your life." And just because I always need to point it out, this is yet another theme that Star Trek already did in "Hollow Pursuits".
This theme of hiding in fantasy worlds seems to resonate a bit with Willy Adama as well. He would rather spend time in the underworld of Little Tauron where he feels like somebody than out in Caprica where kids treat him like [he eats] dirt.
What is going on with Amanda Graystone? She seems to be totally coping now with Zoe's death. It feels like a complete 180 from the Amanda who was falling apart calling her daughter a terrorist. It doesn't seem natural to me.
At times I feel like they go too far making Caprica "just like us" where people where suits and fedoras, drive the same sorts of cars, carry cell phones, etc. Apart from the holobands (which have contemporary analogs -- it's just virtual reality mashed with the internet) and e-sheets and paper without corners, it's just normal. If some viewer hadn't seen BSG and tuned in to this, I don't know if they'd really get where this world is. If you told me this was supposed to be Earth in the not-too-distant future, I'd believe it because there's really very little about this show to tell me otherwise. Or at the very least, a parallel dimension. I would totally buy that it's a parallel dimension. Considering how the whole BSG thing ends it also makes it all feel a little silly.
The big thing about Tamara is that as pure avatar she cannot die. Anyone else who "dies" in the V Club will immediately de-res and disappear. ...But why then doesn't the virgin sacrifice victim in the pilot disappear once that knife goes in her head? Does she eventually and we don't see it? Or are the virgin sacrifices not real, just code so kids can fulfill these fantasies? If that's the case, it seems kind of a hollow sacrifice (no sacrifice at all really) and I can't see how Hecate would be pleased.
Graystone immediately suggesting the Cylons as a slave race seems incredibly stupid to me. For a world that's just like ours, don't they have science fiction about robots rising up against their makers? You can't give a machine "artificial sentience" and then expect it to just do your bidding!
Speaking of that scene, Graystone orders Zoe-bot to rip off her arm and eventually she does. I kept wishing for a shot of Alessandra with no arm, just out of morbid curiosity.
There's a nice touch in the memorial service scene where Bear McCreary does a little musical nod to "Wander, My Friends," the memorial theme from Battlestar.
As the episode ends, Tamara learns she is dead in the real world, and is using her new-found avatar powers to control New Caprica City. She's sent the other guy into the real world to tell her father about her. So now just as Adama's let her go, he learns she's not gone after all. It's a very odd episode since so much of it plays out inside a virtual world, and while it helps tie up whatever happened to Tamara, I feel like I kind of don't care. I wonder if it was a mistake for the show to introduce that thread, since we're really no closer to anything about the STO or the monotheists or Sister Clarice and her crazy bed full of people. We did get the next jump ahead in the creation of the Cylons, but as I said back in the pilot review, this whole story already feels contrary to canon. This episode is the first time Sam is somewhat likeable, and not just a hired thug. But I do find it interesting that every time Ron Moore thinks he's being progressive by including a gay couple, they are always villains, or at least bad people in some way. I also wonder what the very Mormon creator of BSG, Glen Larson thinks about all this. The original series was a very Mormon show littered with Mormon ideology. To see his creation proudly espousing homosexuality as normal I bet rubs him the wrong way.
This episode is odd for having no scenes at all of Lacy or Sister Clarice and very little Zoe. Speaking of Zoe, I neglected to ask in my prior review, how is it she can change clothes now? For the first few episodes, her avatar image remained stuck in that party dress from the pilot. That made sense to me. But then "Gravedancing" opened with her in the V Club in a different outfit. I thought, okay maybe she can change virtual clothes inside the virtual world somehow. But she's wearing something different this time too. Why? Does it just make her feel more "normal" to change clothes every day?
Tamara is still stuck on her own, which makes sense since there is no "her" outside anymore. But what I don't understand is why back in "Reins of a Waterfall" Zoe just let her go the way she did. Zoe KNOWS she's pure code, and assumes that her father put her there. So saying "Those doors lead outside" won't help Tamara since she's not real. For a computer genius, Zoe's kind of stupid. If it had played out that Tamara was like, "Thanks, bye!" against Zoe's objection, that would have worked. But it makes no sense to me for Zoe to just let her go when it's reasonable to assume she has nowhere to go.
Tamara seeks help from this woman who runs a russian roulette game. Only in this version, it's a bunch of pistols on an actual spinning roulette wheel. I just find it kind of silly, and it reminds me of an old Lost in Space episode where something similar happened, only it was laser guns.
The action moves to Caprica's version of an MMORPG, New Caprica City. It's like Grand Theft Auto meets Gotham City meets World of Warcraft or something. Nobody knows the point of playing, or how you win, but they all keep playing. Tamara is special because she can't die in the game, so they use her to help them rob some fat cat. This is all very obvious commentary on modern video games. The kid Tamara's with says this place is real to him because here he can be somebody, and she says, "Maybe if you weren't here in the holoband all day you could be somebody out there." And I think that's kind of unfair. It's a very simplistic, judgmental attitude to say "Oh well, maybe you wouldn't be such a loser if you stopped playing games and did something with your life." And just because I always need to point it out, this is yet another theme that Star Trek already did in "Hollow Pursuits".
This theme of hiding in fantasy worlds seems to resonate a bit with Willy Adama as well. He would rather spend time in the underworld of Little Tauron where he feels like somebody than out in Caprica where kids treat him like [he eats] dirt.
What is going on with Amanda Graystone? She seems to be totally coping now with Zoe's death. It feels like a complete 180 from the Amanda who was falling apart calling her daughter a terrorist. It doesn't seem natural to me.
At times I feel like they go too far making Caprica "just like us" where people where suits and fedoras, drive the same sorts of cars, carry cell phones, etc. Apart from the holobands (which have contemporary analogs -- it's just virtual reality mashed with the internet) and e-sheets and paper without corners, it's just normal. If some viewer hadn't seen BSG and tuned in to this, I don't know if they'd really get where this world is. If you told me this was supposed to be Earth in the not-too-distant future, I'd believe it because there's really very little about this show to tell me otherwise. Or at the very least, a parallel dimension. I would totally buy that it's a parallel dimension. Considering how the whole BSG thing ends it also makes it all feel a little silly.
The big thing about Tamara is that as pure avatar she cannot die. Anyone else who "dies" in the V Club will immediately de-res and disappear. ...But why then doesn't the virgin sacrifice victim in the pilot disappear once that knife goes in her head? Does she eventually and we don't see it? Or are the virgin sacrifices not real, just code so kids can fulfill these fantasies? If that's the case, it seems kind of a hollow sacrifice (no sacrifice at all really) and I can't see how Hecate would be pleased.
Graystone immediately suggesting the Cylons as a slave race seems incredibly stupid to me. For a world that's just like ours, don't they have science fiction about robots rising up against their makers? You can't give a machine "artificial sentience" and then expect it to just do your bidding!
Speaking of that scene, Graystone orders Zoe-bot to rip off her arm and eventually she does. I kept wishing for a shot of Alessandra with no arm, just out of morbid curiosity.
There's a nice touch in the memorial service scene where Bear McCreary does a little musical nod to "Wander, My Friends," the memorial theme from Battlestar.
As the episode ends, Tamara learns she is dead in the real world, and is using her new-found avatar powers to control New Caprica City. She's sent the other guy into the real world to tell her father about her. So now just as Adama's let her go, he learns she's not gone after all. It's a very odd episode since so much of it plays out inside a virtual world, and while it helps tie up whatever happened to Tamara, I feel like I kind of don't care. I wonder if it was a mistake for the show to introduce that thread, since we're really no closer to anything about the STO or the monotheists or Sister Clarice and her crazy bed full of people. We did get the next jump ahead in the creation of the Cylons, but as I said back in the pilot review, this whole story already feels contrary to canon. This episode is the first time Sam is somewhat likeable, and not just a hired thug. But I do find it interesting that every time Ron Moore thinks he's being progressive by including a gay couple, they are always villains, or at least bad people in some way. I also wonder what the very Mormon creator of BSG, Glen Larson thinks about all this. The original series was a very Mormon show littered with Mormon ideology. To see his creation proudly espousing homosexuality as normal I bet rubs him the wrong way.
Gravedancing
Synopsis: Dr. Graystone is going on that Patton Oswald talk show to try to undo the damage his wife did. She doesn't want him to, accusing him of dancing on Zoe's grave as it were (hence the title). With the cameras rolling, he's unable to hit the talking points the company wants him to, and Amanda strolls out to object to some of the things being said about Zoe. Together they have a cogent discussion taking the onus off Zoe being a terrorist and suggesting that the V Clubs are harming society. Graystone admits that he knows Zoe didn't like them because he talked to an avatar of her after she died. He claims to have made the avatar himself. The Graystones announce the company will no longer profit from the holobands, and they will set up a foundation for the victims. Sister Clarice has been watching it all, very interested in the tidbit about the avatar. Meanwhile, Sam Adama is out to make good on last week's cliffhanger and kill Amanda to bring "balance". Throughout the episode he's foiled by other people being in the room. In the end, Joseph Adama can't go through with it and Sam just scares her. Oh, and that nerdy scientist kid is running some tests on the Zoe robot, and Zoe seems to be into him. The governement agents are no closer to uncovering anything about the Soldiers of the One, and this is making them very frustrated.
I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one, mostly for the drama and discussion on the TV show. I thought there were some cogent points made and it was nice to shift away from "Zoe is a terrorist!" What I don't understand is why Amanda now is backtracking on that statement. She now acts like she doesn't think Zoe's a terrorist. So what changed her mind? Maybe she should have thought of that before announcing it to the world.
Is Zoe developing a thing for robo-scientist? She does realize he thinks she's a robot, right? And does this kid have some creepy attachment to this robot that I should be unsettled by?
I'm very curious why the GDD (that is their name, right?) are pursuing the investigation so desperately. Raiding the school and the Graystones' home (but not the lab where the Zoe-bot is, ha ha) means they are grasping for any new leads. As Amanda asks, why do they care sooo much?
There was some passing suggestion that the STO kids were the product of some crazy Geminons coercing them into their cult. This still makes no sense to me. The Geminons are the keepers of the religion of the Twelve Colonies. They are the leading polytheists. I just don't see why THEY would be a haven for a cult of monotheists. Just because that's where "religion" comes from in this world? It really seems poorly thought out to me, and in opposition to what we saw on BSG.
I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one, mostly for the drama and discussion on the TV show. I thought there were some cogent points made and it was nice to shift away from "Zoe is a terrorist!" What I don't understand is why Amanda now is backtracking on that statement. She now acts like she doesn't think Zoe's a terrorist. So what changed her mind? Maybe she should have thought of that before announcing it to the world.
Is Zoe developing a thing for robo-scientist? She does realize he thinks she's a robot, right? And does this kid have some creepy attachment to this robot that I should be unsettled by?
I'm very curious why the GDD (that is their name, right?) are pursuing the investigation so desperately. Raiding the school and the Graystones' home (but not the lab where the Zoe-bot is, ha ha) means they are grasping for any new leads. As Amanda asks, why do they care sooo much?
There was some passing suggestion that the STO kids were the product of some crazy Geminons coercing them into their cult. This still makes no sense to me. The Geminons are the keepers of the religion of the Twelve Colonies. They are the leading polytheists. I just don't see why THEY would be a haven for a cult of monotheists. Just because that's where "religion" comes from in this world? It really seems poorly thought out to me, and in opposition to what we saw on BSG.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Back From the Ashes
Has it really been 4 years already?
In the years since my last post, Caprica has come and gone. A full season, and then cancellation. Eventually a second project, Blood and Chrome was created first teased as a series, then a web series, then who knows what, and eventually released as I guess a miniseries of some sort.
I never finished watching Caprica. And I was just talking about BSG the other day and figured I might as well this time. So I'm going to watch Caprica and post reflections for the remaining episodes. I'll probably follow that up with Blood and Chrome. After that, I do plan to do a BSG rewatch, though whether or not I'll blog anything about it I'm as yet unsure.
I just wanted to say to any out there who used to read these or who stumble upon them now, I'm back.
In the years since my last post, Caprica has come and gone. A full season, and then cancellation. Eventually a second project, Blood and Chrome was created first teased as a series, then a web series, then who knows what, and eventually released as I guess a miniseries of some sort.
I never finished watching Caprica. And I was just talking about BSG the other day and figured I might as well this time. So I'm going to watch Caprica and post reflections for the remaining episodes. I'll probably follow that up with Blood and Chrome. After that, I do plan to do a BSG rewatch, though whether or not I'll blog anything about it I'm as yet unsure.
I just wanted to say to any out there who used to read these or who stumble upon them now, I'm back.
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