Taking a page out of the Battlestar playbook, Caprica is executing its first season like BSG did its last — by splitting it into two halves. I found the final 0.5 season of BSG to be some of the most disappointing television I’ve ever seen, so one can only hope that Caprica will not befall the same fate.

Watching its first semi-season finale however, I can’t help but remain antsy about Caprica. At times the writing and acting can be superb. Often however, including this week’s bookend episode, the pacing seems off kilter, the stories seem arbitrary and the characters completely disinteresting.

It’s a halfway decent show, but not good enough that I’m willing to completely invest myself. Caprica just hasn’t done quite enough to draw me in yet, despite roughly 14 cliff hangers rammed into one pseudo-season closer.

Let’s get the plot points out of the way:

Amanda’s randomly manifested crazy is suddenly enough to drive her (back, apparently) to suicidal tendencies. She jumped off a bridge, but is she dead?

ZoeBot escaped the lab GTA: Vice City style in a desperate bid for freedom. Daniel was going to wipe her clean, so our cylon heroine terrorist avatar is in a corner to say the least. She drives into a military roadblock at high speed. But is she/it dead?

In related stories, if Daniel can’t get ZoeBot replicated, he stands to lose his contract, his pyramid team, his company and possibly his entire family. Was the phone call at the end about Amanda or Zoe? Neither?

Joseph finally found her daughter hanging out in V-World, but in a strangely anticlimactic turn of events, she simply says it’s probably a bad idea for him to be following her around online (she’s probably right) then proceeds to shoot him. But… technically, does this mean Tamara is immortal? Or is she dead?

Sister Clarice almost got IRA’d by Lacey and Barnabus. She is not dead. Lacey however is one hella traumatized school girl.

That basically sums up the main cliffhangers. The episode seemed rushed, but it did enough to pique my curiosity about what happens next. That alone will have me watching when Caprica comes back, but I can’t say I will be anticipating that premier with nearly as much verve as I did, say, the recent return of AMC’s Breaking Bad.

In general, I feel Caprica has simply leaned too far on the drama so far and less on the actual science fiction premises of the show. I understand that drama makes for interesting television, but when it comes down to a question of alienating your hardcore demographic or trying to widen your net, I think it’s a delicate balance that BSG pulled off better than Caprica — so far.

I want to explore philosophical issues more about robot sentience, individualism, virtual immortality, ownership of identity, what “living” can be defined as. Most importantly, I want to watch characters deal with the ethical struggles these topics demand in their life experiences.

Caprica really hasn’t delivered enough of that, choosing instead to ladle on the action/adventure with a few sprinkles of soap opera drama and thrills thrown in.

When this show delves deep into its characters and issues, it really shines. When it does what this finale falls prey too — and it happens often — the result is a show stretched too thin to have any depth.

I’m going to keep watching. I just hope to eventually be validated.

From what we’ve seen so far, Caprica is at its best when it focuses on just a few quality stories and tells them with meticulous fervour. This can often stand in stark contradiction to the ambitious, sprawling, ever expanding universe Caprica is simultaneously trying to craft.

Episodes like this weeks however, where we essentially only follow the show’s two best plot lines, redeem a lot of mediocrity and remind us why this show is worth keeping up with. By keeping everything grounded, this BSG-spin-off reveals the sky high potential of its pedigree.

As usual, spoilers after the jump.

Right away we are tossed into New Cap City this week as Joseph continues his search for Neo-Tamara. I definitely was intrigued by her whole bending the powers of v-world Matrix shtick, so I was a little disappointed they didn’t actually find her this episode if only to see if she’s learned to harness her powers and become an online Pol Pot. Still, it’s the cliffhanger kind of disappointment you enjoy so I thoroughly will live with that.

I thought the cabaret ringleader cum Pete Wentz impersonator was a bit silly, frankly, especially since he told riddles that had no real consequence to the story. It seems like they just wanted a strange transvestite who told riddles to be in their show because it sounds like a neat idea. In practice, not so much. He could have been replaced by an iPad.

Where are they going with this? To my virtual dictator awesomedom or some sort of more philosophical discourse?

On the other end of the spectrum (I want to say in the real world but that still seems vaguely incorrect in this context), Daniel spends the majority of this episode running tests on the U87 Cylon in order to trick Zoe into revealing herself. He knows she’s in there, but out of sheer stubbornness (which clearly is a genetic trait) he wants her to “come out of the closet,” on her own. Or, you know, because he surrounds her with a ring of fire knowing she has a deep seeded fear of flames. Whatevs.

Although at times these scenes were a bit heavy handed, I thought they were some of the best moments the show has had. Alessandra Torresani and Eric Stoltz really got to show off some acting chops here, with Zoe emoting an awful lot with mere body language and Stoltz going all Nicholson in A Few Good Men.

The relationship between daughter and father is really something else between these two characters, and that’s before even considering she isn’t really even his daughter. Or is she? I don’t know. That kind of defines the show though eh?

Every coin has two sides though — in this episode it was the continuing madness of Amanda Greystone and Sister Clarice. I don’t really know where this is going, nor do I find their strange relationship neither entertaining or believable. It’s like the one short of Elmira in an episode of Tiny Tunes; they don’t work, but the writers keep shoving it in there.

Still, I have a sinking feeling this is just another one of those BSG/Caprica writing scenarios where they have some great idea but only a mediocre journey to explain how we end up there.

You take the outside of the Oreo with the cream right? At least this episode had a hell of a lot of cream. Double stuff that biznatch.

Five episodes in, I can’t help but notice that every episode of Caprica starts with a recap of all the plot points that will be addressed in the upcoming hour. This is important to note, because I think the show realizes without these little summaries, people would quite easily lose track of what’s going on.

Let me reiterate: these recaps are not of what has been going on in the show as a whole. The show has SO MUCH SHIT going on, that it takes nearly 2 minutes just to recap which of the many, many, many plot points we are going to dive into in this particular episode.

Some might hate this, some might love it. Me? I applaud the effort, despite being somewhat skeptical of the result.

More thoughts (with spoilers) after the jump.

Fresh on the heels of last week’s spontaneous bombshell that Greystone Inc. is going to jettison it’s primary resource stream — holobands — in favour of a charitable trust fund, it’s no surprise Daniel’s board members are eager to dump him just as fast.

We finally find out where all this is going this week, as Daniel basically redirects his company from the holoband business headfirst into becoming Cylon Inc., painting the sentient robots as a world changing invention (the viewer knowledge of how prescient he is makes the scenes all the more interesting).

Adding to that emotional tone is the visual of Zoebot jumping between her human self and Cylon body as Daniel asks her to rip her arm off in front of the board. Throughout BSG, although they were clearly intelligent I don’t think viewers were ever led to think of the Toaster-type Cylons as anything remotely approaching human. The idea that they might have all been emoting individuals with personalities frankly puts an interesting spin on BSG canon, but I suppose that remains to be seen.

Most of this episode is spent on the Adama’s though, who have been going through tough times of their own. Joseph is still not over the loss of his wife and daughter, which clearly has affected his role as a father to Bill. As we’ve seen in recent episodes, Willie has been spending more time with Sam as a result, seeking the attention and paternal guidance he’s not getting from home. This comes to a boil this episode as Joseph finally attempts to get his act together only to find out Willie has zero intention of respecting or obeying him anymore — he’s lost his authority as a father, and it’s not going to return easily.

Meanwhile, Avatar-Tamara is running around virtual world trying desperately to get out. She enlists the help of some pseudo-hacker online badasses who vaguely remind me of Will Wheaton’s World of Warcraft clan from The Guild. But less funny.

This is only exacerbated by the fact they then enlist Tamara to help them complete a quest in “New Cap City,” a virtual and lawless replica of Caprica that seems part Grand Theft Auto, part Everquest and part Blade Runner. The deal is, if Tamara helps them steal some gold or something, they will help her “wake up,” and get out of v-world.

This whole storyline seemed kind of silly to me, up to the point where after completing her task Tamara is told nobody can wake her up — her virtual compadres have done some research and, surprise! — they inform Tamara she’s dead, listed among the victims of the maglev train bombing.

Tamara takes the news surprisingly well and basically goes all Neo-in-the-Matrix on their asses. In virtual world, where everyone wakes up when they die (essentially, it’s a game where you only get one life), she is a goddess since she has no physical body to wake up to.

By being a program herself, she clearly has some sort of super powers in coded  v-world and basically ends the episode by sending a dude to find her father IRL, informing him she’s going to be waiting for him in New Cap City, all badass in high heels, popping dudes with her semi-automatic handguns and shit. Whaaaat?

Meanwhile, the kid she sends (who reminds me of what Justin Beiber may be in 10 years) happens to relay his message to Joseph…. oooohh, about 30 seconds after he has some Tauran funeral to finally say goodbye to his dead family for closure. He literally has to say “Goodbye Tamara,” as part of the ceremony. Great pacing since you know that Tamara is going to be in touch any. second. now.

I’m not going to lie, I had no idea Caprica was going to delve so deeply into this MMORPG, what-is-a-human type of existential stuff. I suppose part of me assumed that the reason for a BSG prequel spinoff was going to be simply to explain all the backstory for BSG.

What I’m slowly realizing though is that Caprica is really trying to be a completely different show, just using some BSG lore for interesting pillars of storytelling. I mean, despite all this Cylon business, really that was only what? Five whole minutes of this episode. It’s not fully there yet, but once I make that disconnect I think I’m going to appreciate this show even more than I currently do, accepting it as a separate entity.

Some people are calling this one of the better shows on tv. I don’t think it’s quite there yet, but it certainly has the ambition and potential to be. If you’re willing to sit through the build up for what might be a great, great blossoming, then now is certainly the time to hope on this train.

Week three of Caprica grounds us a little more in the strengths of this fledging show. After some Days of Our Lives level melodrama stretched multiple plot points a bit thin last episode, “Gravedancing” really does a good job of refocusing on a few stories and really giving them room to breath.

As usual, spoilers after the jump!

Starting off with a bang, we get a reminder that terrorism and those perpetrating it are still active characters in Caprica’s end game. Moreover, we discover 1) multiple marriage couples all sleep together slumberpartystyle in one bed 2) Sister Clarice gets tips from someone with insider knowledge of government and police strategies. I’m not sure frankly which one of these two revelations is more interesting to me.

The five-o raid the kids’ high school searching for more Soldiers of the One clues, but are foiled when Clarice gets her warning about the raid and passes it on to her students just in time to clear out their lockers of any incriminating evidence.

In this case, that evidence would appear to be a single tube of fake looking dynamite and several small pieces of plastic in Keon’s locker. Personally, if I found those items in a teens locker I would think “trouble maker” more than “international terrorist,” but we’ll let the show’s prop department slide on that one.

Still, we learn a bit more about Keon as well in this episode as he reveals he is a little more entrenched in STO than we might have realized, knowing a higher up named Barnabus who has final say in the cell. Still, Keon seems hesitant to help Lacey, perhaps wanting to shield her from getting to deep over her head into an organization he himself seems unsure of being party to. It’s clear him and Lacey are developing a relationship however, between bonding over lost friends and fixing broken dirt bikes. Also, being pinned to the ground by a girl tends to get a guy’s attention, but maybe that’s just me.

For the A-story this week, we get back to what makes Caprica a Ronald D. Moore show, and these characters by Jane Espenson so relatable: nuance.

Unraveling the awkward homicidal turn of Joseph Adama last week, we see Adama reacting to his impulsive decisions exactly as viewers did and would expect; with uncertainty and guilt. Watching brother Sam (who increasingly is becoming my favourite character on the show) stalk Amanda Greystone, Joseph is constantly on edge the whole episode, repeating with faux-bravado to his brother several times that he still wants the hit done rather unconvincingly. Naturally, he fools nobody and in the end caves and urgently tells Sam at the last possible minute not to do it.

“I knew you couldn’t go through with it,” says Sam after playing mind games with his frazzled brother. “A Caprican in a Tauran’s body”. Although this turn was fully expected, it still served to solidify the morals of a character we knew but hadn’t really seen. At this point, there is no doubt that Joseph is where his son, future Admiral Adama, gets his moral compass.

As for the Greystone’s themselves, I thoroughly enjoyed both their roles this week. Appearing on a late night talk show to do damage control after Amanda’s public meltdown, Daniel spends much of the episode being coached for an interview in order to spin the angle positively for his corporate interests. In the end however, the Greystone’s realize there is more to life than protecting the reputation of their holobands — which apparently represent sixty per cent of Daniel’s net profits.

Despite the Greystone’s spending much of the episode fretting about coming off as emotionless, in the end the empathy they are painted with has just the right tinge of doubt. After all, the pair go on the show and, instead of really defending Zoe or holobands, instead decide to play the good samaritan card. Thinking out loud, the idea of giving up all profits on holobands and funnelling them into a charity seems righteous, but also dangerously spontaneously and ill-thought out.

“You’re saying this now,” says interviewer Baxter Sarno, “but will you be saying this on Monday?”

“You can hold me to this, Caprica,” replies Daniel with a grin.

After weeks of being hated, and finding out perhaps their daughter might have hated them too, was this simply an attempt by the Greystone’s to buy some love? This is further questioned when the pair cuddle in bed essentially praising themselves. I have a feeling this decision is going to haunt them big time, perhaps as soon as Daniel has to face his business partners.

No cliffhanger ending tonight, only the subtle sounds of gears being turned and characters being pushed gently forward. Just the way this show excels.

• Grandma Adama: badass or scary psycho? Both?
• Daniel reveals his creation of Avatar Zoe for the first time, and it’s in public. Ramifications to come, surely
• Zoeboy has some Lady and the Tramp moments with her lab tech. I can see how she might find it charming, but if she remembered she’s a giant robot, perhaps she’d find his affection a little… uh, messed up?

The third episode of Caprica revealed even more of the twisted web it will weave. It does so efficiently, spreading bread crumbs and widening the scope of last weeks events. Lost amid the shuffle however is any sort of further character development or nuance, both key qualities that separate this show (and its predecessor) from the chaff. Also, no scenes of people hugging robots? Booooooo.

More after the jump. And of course: spoilers ahead!

This week starts out with the Greystone’s dealing with the ramifications of Amanda’s impulsive decision last week, outing her daughter as a terrorist during a rally for victims of terrorism. As a result, Amanda is forced to quit her job as a doctor, Daniel gets beat up by the Adama brothers and Greystone Inc. sees its stock plummet after people find out their roomba was invented by somebody who’s daughter grew up to be a suicide bomber. I still don’t find the level of public outrage about this plot line sensical (would you throw a bottle at the Unibombers mom?) but I’ll continue to give the show some time to get it legs.

The Adama’s meanwhile seem to collectively be delving deeper into their Goodfella genetics. “Once you start in a direction, it’s best to just keep going,” Sam advises young Bill. I believe in storytelling that’s called ‘foreshadowing‘ as the kid seems to increasingly be hanging out with his Tauren gangster ilk and skipping school to learn the ropes from his tatted out uncle.

This whole episode kind of flipped the table actually, making Sam seem downright paternal at times, cooking dinner for William and housesitting with his gay partner. This of course is in stark contrast with Joseph, who after realizing Tamara’s avatar is gone forever, decides beating Daniel Greystone up in an alley just isn’t retribution enough. “Greystone lost his daughter, but I lost my daughter and my wife,” he explains to Sam. “Let’s even it up”.

I can see how a traumatic loss can affect logical people to make completely irrational decisions. Frankly, the whole episode seemed to focus on the power of emotions to overcome logic, be it spinning a PR angle, doing something for the memory of a friend, believing in your religious zeal or… uh, asking for somebody’s wife to be murdered.

Even with that caveat however, this episode was disjointed, and I’m not entirely sure it was in the way the show intended. The irrational (emotional?) paths our cast of characters is taking seem not just to be crazy, but often constantly in a state of flux.

Why for example are the Greystone’s so willing to admit Zoe is a terrorist? I can understand Amanda jumping to that conclusion after being handed an infinity broach at that rally, but after some reflection, why aren’t they curious about who the hell this Boyfriend Bomber Ben is and his role in their daughter’s decisions? Was she manipulated by love? Misguided?

As for ZoeBot, she has somehow managed to hack her way back onto the grid, finding her way back to their sim hangout club and plotting to continue original Zoe’s plan from the grave. Unexpectedly however, Zoe and Lacey run into Tamara’s avatar online. Why was Tamara just sitting in the dark while the first voices she’s heard in ages walked around her? I don’t know. How is Tamara’s dress so clean? Why doesn’t Serge notice the giant robot sneaking around the house when the Greystone’s are out? Don’t ask.

I won’t even go into the push about the greater story arc, where we are introduced to a mystery boss by Sister Clarice, who managed to be successful at nothing this week but being super, super creepy. Zoe’s reference to herself as a “trinity” last week was harped on again here, where Clarice espouses her belief in Zoe’s programming being an apotheosis.

Summing up the episode, basically, we are left with a steep frack load of difficult questions after a relatively gentle slope last week. Of all the character, only Lacey seemed even mildly confused about what decisions to make and why — when she wasn’t busy tackling boys twice her age and fake pinning them down in public places, that is.

Hopefully the show provides some more texture as the weeks roll on, focusing more on building the universe and developing characters we care about. Otherwise, I forsee people starting to look away if the melodrama gets poured on too thick too unexplainably fast — kind of like a Cylon/Teenage-Girl trying desperately to look away from its parents fracking right in front of it.

For many shows, the second episode after the pilot is usually the best indicator of what to expect on a weekly basis. Subscribing to that philosophy, I believe fans of Battlestar Galactica are really, really going to like Caprica.

Faux intimacy via cinema-vérité? Check. Original (and catchy) BSG vernacular, BSG universe continuity, attention to character and setting minutiae, no fear of tackling heavy issues, octagonal paper products? Check, check, check, check annnnnd check. The Ronald D. Moore cylon saga doesn’t miss a step during the jump to prequel form and sci-fi fans from any planet will surely feel right at home.

Instead of recapping, I’m just going to share my thoughts about the episode. I don’t think anyone is going to come to this blog to catch up on missing episodes. Really, we all know you’re here to see me make a fool of myself. On that note:

**** SPOILERS AHEAD ****

• I understand the humanizing of Zoe/cylon is necessary to make her an empathetic character. The cross-shots where the CGI robot is sliced with her allegorical avatar are simple but effective, but it certainly leaves me to wonder about cylon evolution. From BSG we know that the metallic type of cylons are generally silent and… well, robotic. If the original cylon was essentially a human trapped in a robot body, with emotions and all, then where does that diverge into the two types of toasters we are accustomed to? I assume the show will explain this in due time, but certainly this is one of the mysteries I was kind of stuck on.
• Still, I am thoroughly interested in what the hell original Zoe and Ben were trying to do. Why does avatar Zoe exist? What is she going to do once people find out she’s inside the cylon, and what good is it telling your 15 year old school girl friend? Are her parents going to accept her? Will her parents ever find out?
• The Greystone’s also have a (non-sentient?) robot who essentially acts as a housekeeper, and the concept of a robot army is realistic in the realm of the Caprica timeline. Does that make you wonder why robots aren’t more prevalent in everyday society? Fixing cars, doing construction, helping small children cross streets? Moreover, shouldn’t robots be even more prevalent by the time we get to the BSG era? Ok, I’m going to stop picking on cross-series continuity issues about the universe now. Non-sequiter apologies!
• I must admit although the strange pseudo-mormon family that cultist/teacher Sister Clarice invites Lacey to visit was confusing, the scene basically guaranteed I’d enjoy the episode by having Scott Porter play boy-toy Nestor. Any show that employs Friday Night Light’s alum is totally cool with me. Also, this episode did little to expand on this Sister Clarice and her motivations or character. All we know is she’s up to… something. And that she seems to like illicit drugs that can be bought from under the counter of a bar. Nobody ever looks under the counter!
• It’s interesting watching Little Admiral Adama and wondering if he’s ever going to cry, smash a toy boat then drool all over himself if anything really sad happens.
• Why is Little Tauren full of Asian people? Can you tell they shot this show in Vancouver?
• The entire storyline where the Greystone’s finally realize that their daughter was probably a terrorist who blew up a local subway full of innocent people is pretty hard hitting stuff from the show’s writers. Caprica is billed as “the beginning of the end of humanity,” but three hours in I’m still not completely sure what the series’ main thematic tones will be. Like BSG, which delved deeply into theology and the ethics/politics of war, Caprica clearly seems to be reaching deeper than discussing Asimov’s robotic laws. The final scene was pure BSG melodrama (wouldn’t a crowd be sympathetic to someone who just learned her daughter was a terrorist?) but I understand angry mobs are better TV. Moreover, the revelation was still effective in prodding the larger narrative along. I’m definitely curious where things are headed in that over lying arc. I also thought the show did a good job in exploring the ramifications of teen suicide, where parents wonder how well they did (or really did not) even know their child.
• Rebirth is definitely an appropriate name for this episode, referring naturally to Virtua-Zoe but also to the wonderful BSG world that many of us have loved and cherished. This was a great hour of television that gets the juices (and multiple twisty story lines going), and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I’ll be following Caprica every week throwing these random talking points up here, so… somebody, please join me, or I’m just going to seem really sad.
• Bonus point: if Zoe eventually ends up being an angel, I’m going to murder someone.