So I tried to binge a show that I neglected to sink my streamin' teeth into for way too many years now and I think I can see now why I waited so long.
Caprica should have been a no-brainer for me, being not just a rabid fan as a kid of the original Battlestar Galactica and, yes, even the much-maligned Galactica 1980, but also someone who loved and binged not once but at least three times the redux RDM series of this century. Set in, of course, Caprica, the capital planet, and, Caprica City, the capital city of the Twelve Colonies of the BSG universe, some 58 years before the events that began the BSG series (namely the nuking of the Colonies by the Cylons), it should have been great backfill to our already ample load of lore provided to us in the previous show. And, for the most part, it did fit that bill. But at a cost.
Ronald D. Moore, the Executive Producer of both of these BSG shows, felt like he needed to explore a different approach with the story since the sci-fi route had so well been tread in BSG, so say he all. And so he said "let there be a bit o' Dallas." I kinda kid you not. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but he has said in an interview that he likened the format of Caprica to that of a 1980s prime-time soap opera like Dallas. With its emphasis on two main arcs following events surrounding the lives of two families intertwined in various intrigues throughout many episodes including love entanglements, blood feuds, family loyalties, corruption, murder and, of course, money, it definitely took on a distinct soap opera feel.
And though it predates the debut of a now iconic recurring skit on Saturday Night Live about the parody of cheesy soap operas (while making fun of caricatured Southern California peculiarities) every time I heard the notes of its scene transitioning piano score, every time I saw a character highlighted in a "previously on" recap, glaring in a 3/4 pose as if pimping in a mirror, every time there was a dramatic scene in a boardroom or museum or the virtual reality world city, I imagined the camera quickly zooming in for close-ups on each of the players as secrets were revealed, and, perhaps, them giving better directions to each other on which mag-lev train to take to get to the jump gate space port... "You take the Gemenon B to the West Virgon Level IV and get off on Platform Hera, unless it's rush hour, then it'll be jammed!"
Sadly, once my brain made the connection, I couldn't separate the two and I couldn't go on past the halfway mark. Plus it was much too dragged out anyway. So after episode ten of this one season series that only had eight more episodes anyway, I just read the synopsis of the rest of the storyline, called it a day, got off at the next off-ramp of that tragic yet oh-so-familiar bad sci-fi freeway and sang a little song to myself:
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)
I've been starin' for a while (I've been starin' for a while)
Into a Cylon's red eye (Into a Cylon's red eye)
I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm)
If I was in New Cap City (if I was in New Cap City)
Caprica dreamin' (Caprica dreamin')
By Your Command