***SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the end of Caprica, including the series finale.***
When SyFy's critically beloved Battlestar Galactica went off the air after only four seasons, I was depressed. It was one of the best TV shows ever made, in my opinion, combining religion and politics with morality and space battles. When a prequel series was announced, called Caprica, I was elated. Set 58 years prior, it also took a lot of those same elements (except space battles), and leaned heavily on family and terrorism. It was brilliant, a worthy addition to the Galactica universe, but also its own thing entirely. Then came news of its cancellation, and depression has set in again.
Why was it canceled? The popular opinion is that it was too cerebral. People missed the space battles. AMC, you want to pick this one up? I promise you, I will watch, and so will many other people. I can't guarantee you any solid numbers, but the show would probably fit better with AMC's lineup than SyFy's.
Last night marked the premiere on SyFy of the final five (Ha! Final Five!) episodes of Caprica. They were already released on DVD. Expecting unanswered cliffhangers and incomplete arcs, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case at all. Every single one of the plots begun in the two-hour pilot last year concluded naturally, and while I would have liked to see more development on some fronts, it was a full story. A look at future scenes capped the final episode, providing some idea of where the show would have gone, but more importantly, some events that came out of this year's plots. Despite only one season, Caprica joins my list of Best Shows Ever, made even better by no cliffhangers.
I will miss the Graystones the most: Daniel (Eric Stoltz), Amanda (Paula Malcomson), and Zoe (Alessandra Torresani). They were the heart of Caprica, and often the characters with the most screen time. They were not in Galactica, and likely will not be in any other incarnation of the universe, as their story was concluded. Two grieving parents fought for the life of their daughter, who lived on in a virtual world. Their struggle was what birthed the greatest threat to humanity ever seen, and how the Cylons came to be what they were. It was the ultimate prequel, a fantastic and unexpected setup to what the original series featured. The rising of the "skinjob" Zoe
out of the bath in the future scenes was the ending of their journey, but the effects they had on the rest of the world will live on for far longer.
Article comments
1 - Kate
I give you a lot of credit. I couldn't get through the series although I gave it a gallant try, being the BSG obsessive that I am.
2 - alan
I also think it was a great ending for a far to short lived show, but Im I the only one that saw she came out of the bath as a robot that morphed to image of her human looking self, she was not a true skin job but we may have saw her as she always saw herself or it was an holographic image put over the robot that first came up for air. Even the computer schematic showed her as a more human looking robot but a robot at the core. Skin jobs looked human in every way down to the microscopic level. She was a rough draft of the shape of things to come.
3 - Jerome Wetzel
Ah, good point, Alan! I honestly didn't think of that. In Galactica, we never saw a skinjob get made, just reawaken in a bath. You are probably onto something with your rough draft theory.
4 - Aanthony
yeah !!!!!!!!! FINALLY i have closure on how and why the Cylons came about
5 - Nick Zales
Caprica was not "too cerebral." It was incredibly slow moving, hard to understand and often just downright boring. It was hard to watch. I wanted to like it like BSG, but it was never in BSG's leauge until the last few episodes.
6 - joe
this was a crap review, spreed over 3 pages so you could get a few more ad impressions. this show never lived up to what it could have been. you failed to bring up anything about the hack writing and failed plot points. SyFy thought it was going to get "Law and Order in Space with robots" but it got something more akin to "homeboys in space" and that why they dumped it in the trash. in fact now that i think of if it this looks like a "review" to just suck up to SyFy. if you dont like what i have to say sorry.
7 - Jerome Wetzel
Actually, I don't choose to spread the review over several pages. If you go to my blog, you will see it all on one page. That is a site formatting decision, which I fully support because I think makes it easier for people to digest long articles.
As to your criticism of my review, I respectfully disagree. The writing was brilliant and tight, and I thought every bit of the plot worked. One of the best developed shows of the past few years. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but I would be interested in specifics of your claims, as having watched the whole show, I just don't see it.
8 - K
I found the Graystone family arc to be the least interesting and shoddiest written arc of the lot. It lacked the narrative depth that was visible in the Adama or the STO arcs. It is sad that they chose to discontinue the series. I would have loved to see more of the transition to a Cylon-dependent society and the Cylon church which was shown only in glimpses in the future scenes.
9 - Jake
If everything was summed up so well, maybe you can tell me wth happened to Tamara??
10 - Andrew
I enjoyed the series, felt it started slow but gained a lot of momentum, and was very sad to see it end just as it was finally becoming more epic.
Though I generally really liked the the wrap up, two things bothered my sensibilities.
1. How did Clarice get away? She was not being arrested after it was certainly known that she was responsible for the much of the terrorism.
2. Chloe was disgusted with Clarice at the end. Why was she sitting at her sermon smiling in consent? Clarice had effectively murdered her, her boyfriend and caused her family a lot of problems.
Other than that, I found the story to be compelling and are sorry not to see it develop further with a lot more epic cylon scenes.