Caprica must endure

Over the long weekend, I finally got around to watching the pilot of BSG spin-off Caprica. No, I don’t dilly dally in all this torrent guff, so I had to watch it on plain ol’ legal DVD, something that I didn’t regret when it came to enjoying all its lovely art direction and menu screens on my HD TV.

I was blown away. Caprica is exactly what I suspected it would be, but in a really good way – I was thrilled it matched my expectations. I think a grieving family drama is the perfect antidote to all the madness that ensued in Battlestar’s final moments, plus its overall tone, art direction and script reminded me of something closer to HBO in tone than any genre show I’ve seen recently. Or ever, in fact.

Sadly, despite being the best show I’ve seen in a long, long time (it’s good to watch a genre show that promises more than mediocrity over its ensuing episodes), there are doubts over whether it will continue past its first season or not, due to its ratings hovering around the 1 million mark.

Well, that’d be a crying shame, because Caprica – with its slight, rather than overstated sci-fi elements (the Holoband excluded) – has so much credibility as a character drama. If its lack of ratings is down to a lack of space battles or gunfights, that’s a fault of the audience, not the show.

I appreciate the slow-burning nature of Caprica and next to Battlestar, I much prefer its understated acting and much more consistent casting. The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s a long term idea at the centre of Caprica, and from the sheer effort that’s been invested in creating this world and these characters, a project this unique deserves the larger and more committed audience that its mother show had.