Caprica

Rounding out my cinematic weekend was Caprica, a pilot movie for the series that will hopefully carry on the Battlestar Galactica franchise in January '10. As much as I enjoy BSG, I was pretty worried about this one. The previews left me dubious: a squirrely, mincing scientist, a trainwreck(?) and *shudder* a gaggle of jailbait highschool girls. Sounded like classic SciFi pandering to me.

We dove in anyway and wow - really, wow. Though it started off with a few (oft recycled) scenes of topless ladies and general dionysian debauchery, it quickly went somewhere deeper. While BSG for the most part kept their show "earth with a dash of future" (ie while there are sensible advanced robots, spaceships, and an inexplicably abundant source of space liquor, there is a noticeable lack of hoverboards, flying trains, and other fantastical elements), Caprica takes a more "future with a dash of the familiar" approach.

It's a futuristic society that retains normal conventions like school, the subway, and tennis, but incorporates smarthouses, robot butlers, and virtual reality in a way that is not at all cheesy or ridiculous - a tough task. The show examines creationism and virtual morality, while yielding tender glimpses at the muddled beginnings of some very bad ideas.

It was also very fun to connect the catalysts of Caprica to their fruition in BSG. It was an upgrade on BSG, which I thought was pretty much as good as it gets. Like BSG minus the gratuitous and yawn inducing fight scenes *gasp*! Major plus: Attia from Rome as the secretly subversive schoolmarm! It left me wanting more -SciFi as it should be! I hope the series is as solid a presentation...