My opinion of what killed this show is the treatment they gave to 'Caprica' (the planet) as a whole.
While the show mostly focused on these 2 families, we could've learned more aout the planet, the culture, tie-ins to the lead stars, etc...
I was fascinated with the culture and was left hanging.
I find this curious. The show lost an episode to the Vancouver Olympics, with the production team citing that the show couldn't just be done on standing sets as it involved the world as a whole. Perhaps that's just dealing with the visual aesthetic, but they did seem to be fleshing everything out.
The characters were our conduits to the world at large, or at least that's how I saw it.
Jake Meridius Conhale, at your service!
"Old Man" of the BSG (RDM) boards.
You bring up an interesting point rusty but in my opinion the major thing that killed this show was that it simply took way too long to get going. I can admire Moore and Eick for wanting to do something different from BSG for artistic reasons but I think they swung the pendulum TOO far. Eick really wasn't kidding when he said that Caprica would be a sci-fi "Dynasty". Unfortunately, that turned out to be something that most BSG fans didn't want as evidenced by the ratings. Caprica failed on two fronts. It failed to draw in enough brand new viewers who had never watched BSG and it failed to keep enough of the established BSG fans.
share100 percent correct LondoMollari1 couldn't agree with you more.
http://codenamestone.blogspot.com/
Yep, even I have to agree with that.
shareHavent seen my first Caprica yet, but few people really adhere to the ST Next Generation or Voyager formula. It has to do with movie set claustrophobia. STNG and Voyager you were free. STNG free to go out explore, Voyager is not really a "trapped" far away. BUT Deep space was a trap pretending you could get away in a small ship, or that enough would comme to you. I was a Continuum fan and after about 5 episodes saw it trapped. Comes to Netflix, took a look at the last two episodes, said wow what closure, loved it, and merely did a skim and skip thru the long boring dragged out middle to see how it got the great ending. I was a BSG fan of the original and they were always trapped in their little convoy covered wagon train. It was obvious when they were trying to save the series by getting to Earth. Getting somewhere does matter. Few want Denver Dynasty drama. The personal lives of STNG and Vger were wrapped up per episode, and only came back to the facets of those lives, not-a-to-be-continued (leave you hanging). Nothing wrong with the come back and see more; but what if you miss it. Then you say forget this crap. Love CASTLE, but its like what month will the next episode be on?
Examples of total flops, how do you go back to Tera Earth and be controlled by one horrid character you didnt like in Avatar either. How do you put yourself under the Dome with all the interests of sci-fi getting in, getting out, weird science etc, and tolerate all the long-dragged out political crap and murders? The writers kill the show. They have crap for brains, and people really DO subconsciously catch stolen plots. Too many famous book writers and movie makers are thieves who think they cover up their own subconcious sources, thinking so high-ego of themselves like Thomas Edison they're in self-denial they stole from Tesla. I recognize so many stolen ideas. The bicycle flight of ET was stolen from Escape to Witch Mountain. People who invent new trick-movie effects then seek to repeat it all in new movies until youre bored... it is like the wore out Matrix karate, now let's do Charlies Angels karate. The putting into movies all the in-script commercial ads is way too obvious these days.
I prefer my sci-reality to today's sci-fi. The actual continental baptism of the real Flood in 2370bc and how it dates C-14 the 20,000 years and how the C-14 kills us but can be purged to live 900 years BUT the formula takes 30 years to have its first results. I like the sci-astral facts of the Nimrod Marduk calendar of 13-year Mars he started for the city Kish when building the Babel outpost in 2240bc, and how Ur started his own in 2127bc with their 2nd king Mes-King (of) Nanna, but that 20 years earlier Nahor-Elulu had already broken it down into 780-day Mars for the July 18 new year of his son Terah in 2148bc, or how Haran at 18 took it from Ur to Babel for 210-year old Nimrod to start Marduk Temple in 2060bc (April 7), so impressed he takes Haran at 20 to start walls of Asshur and name it Nineveh. Yet to conform the 780-day Mars to 2127bc Mes-King Serug then Haran at 29 starts his own city Harran Syria with the 780-day that cycles from 2126bc Mar 25 to 2049bc Feb 9, of which then the Asian forefathers who leave Ur in 2029bc after the mass suicide to heaven go build Mari Syria where after Hamurabi disrupts them they evnetually get to Copan America shifting everything 20 days in 1313bc. Sci-reality is better. Let's see you do the right thing with this asteroid, you wont, we will.
the story line was just way too slow in episodes 3-9.... the ratings plummeted, and by the time the plot got really going after episode 10, the bean counters had swung the axe.... it was a good show, but those slow episodes during the ratings judgement just killed it.... after the cancellation was announced, the episodes coming out from the can were great.. it's really disappointing, but the showrunners made it happen... after I saw the last 5 episodes I really was into it.... but its history now
sharePut simply, the show was just too good.
The masses have poor taste, so it's only natural for an ultra high quality drama such as this one to get poor ratings.
Please see Friday Night Lights for another great example of this phenomenon.
I suspect Christians (most of America) couldn't stomach the religious and cultural themes in this show.
shareNope, definitely and absolutely wrong with that overgeneralized and ignorant comment. The show failed because it simply wasn't what most BSG fans wanted and it failed to attract enough new viewers who were unfamiliar with the BSG universe.
sharepeople suck this was actually good
shareI agree. I'm a big fan of the show and I was really disappointed when it was cancelled even though I saw the writing on the wall well before. The show simply took too long to get going and to make the connections with BSG.
sharePeople are saying the same thing about AGENT'S OF SHIELD, which is a DAMN GOOD SHOW....
I TRULY MISS STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN!
I dont watch Agents of Shield but I'm sure its brand recognition (Marvel, Avengers) helps it tremendously. Plus it's airing on the network which is owned by the same company that owns the Avengers franchise.
shareNo he's right the themes of terrorist attacks and zealous religion really
turned off a lot of American viewers and that's sad because we should be
able to have shows that explore these themes without repercussion.
Cause I ride like Kelly Bundy, Yo I keep that *beep* nasty~ (Spank Rock)
I have to agree. While fans go nuts about tripe like Continuum, good sci fi series like this go right past them
shareI agree, it was just as good if not better than BSG and people just hate smart TV.
Cause I ride like Kelly Bundy, Yo I keep that *beep* nasty~ (Spank Rock)
I've been rewatching "Caprica" again recently and something else came to my mind.
I think the teenage Millenial "angst" of the show may have turned off a lot of viewers. Sure, Caprica was very much a serious drama but I wonder if having so many young adult key characters was a mistake? There were several scenes between Lacey, Zoe, Tamara and their other school friends that sometimes made it feel like a Disney Family Channel show.
Just my 2 cents of course. :-)
I agree, to a point. I've on occasion wondered into what turned out to be a "young adult" drama. Most of the time I don't even bother to finish an episode. The few times I did, I rarely come back. In spite leaning more heavily on its younger cast in the early episodes, I'm sticking with Caprica. Unlike the others, Caprica offers a lot outside of the typical wayward teen plotlines, and its characters and narrative weren't overly simplistic. While the "bad" buys are almost irredeemably bad, the "good" guys aren't particularly "good".
Overall, I like the show and think the concepts and plot are interesting. The main problems I have is that producers don't seem to have a clear sense of what they wanted it to be or who their core audience was. Was it a young adult drama? A drama about religion, terrorism, the mafia, or corporate politics? Based on other comments here, it might be best described as a sci-fi "soap opera". Even the intro, with its cast montage and melodramatic theme, is fairly typical of contemporary soaps. The problem is that soaps can be a mixed bag plot-wise. Caprica at least does a decent job of tying the various plotlines together. Even then, soaps usually have some sense of who they're selling to. Caprica skewed young in the beginning, but shifted a bit toward older (women?) later on.
For better or worse, Caprica was a decent show, it was just a horrible fit for SyFy's target demographic at the time. I don't know if Moore was stuck under contract with SyFy, but it would have fared far better on something like CW. They skew towards sci-fi and fantasy, and a bit younger audience. I've never watched it, but I doubt "The 100" is better than Caprica, and yet has been running for a few years now.
What killed this show (that I just started watching tonight and am halfway through) is the boring characters (especially the kids), poor casting (again, the younger people are just not very good at all), phoned-in performances, and plodding, dull plot lines. It's basically like they took the bad things they learned from BSG and decided to build a show (on an already shaky premise) around those things. Sci-fi "Dynasty"? Not even close. Dynasty wasn't this uninspired.
Combine those problems with the (perfectly valid) taking of time, and it was a recipe for cancellation. If it had only been one or the other, I bet it would not have been cancelled when it was (unless it was also an expensive program to make)
"(unless it was also an expensive program to make)"
Based on what I've read, the show was pretty expensive to produce at least by SyFy Channel standards. It was more expensive to produce than almost all of their other shows at the time.
"Based on what I've read, the show was pretty expensive to produce at least by SyFy Channel standards."
Which translates to just about anything over $0.50 to judge by the vast majority of what I've seen SyFy offer.... LOL
I will say I really liked the one season, I just watched it on Netflix. However as a prequel I did not like it. I mean using the Adamas the way they were, and having the Graystones basically build what the Cylons said they couldn't without the help of the original 5.
I think it would have been better served with two simple changes. Turn the Adamas into any other family name. Keep their story line, and as a a way to see other Colony's. Instead of having a daughter, look the way she is, maybe have her look like Boomer, Caprica 6, or any other cylon skin job. Use that as the tie-in.
Caprica is an interesting anomaly for me. When I was watching the show, I really found it enjoyable and felt it was very high quality. But when I think of it now, I don't really remember it all that fondly and not many moments stand out. I know its a good show, but it doesn't feel that way.
Early on the pacing was even but too slow, later on it felt like a show that knew it was canceled. Maybe that made it hard for people to get into, maybe there just wasn't a hook that grabbed them, some say SyFy botched it... maybe all that's true. Its hard to say what the main factors were.
"Don't move! Or I'll fill you full of . . . little yellow bolts of light!"
For me and I think for a lot of BSG fans the "hook" of the show was an opportunity to see how the cylons were created and why they rebelled. The main failure of the show in my opinion is that it simply took too long to get to those two aspects.
shareThat's the way I saw it too. Good show, but to much buildup with no payoff. Also, to many threads and story lines going at once. I know they were going to tie them in together, but the showrunners could have left something to focus on the second season. Just give hints and tidbits of the one or two of the storylines and focus on the production of the Cylons. You could always worked the game angle and parts of the religous aspects in the second season.
At least we did get a look at Cylons in action in the finale.
It's a tough concept to put across. Is this an anime theme?...Ghost in the Machine. I don't know.
But, it's an amazing show, endlessly fascinating, well acted, etc.
It's a major departure from BSG, but I found that refreshing. I love the non space sci fi thing they do so well here.
Maybe the religious themes turned off the PTB. Was there any backlash to the series from anyone based on religion?
----------------- Church | State .
I'm watching it now (for my job, I'm a professional TV watcher believe it or not, hehe), and the religious themes do turn me off a bit, but it wasn't why I didn't watch the show.
I was a BSG fan, but Caprica was too much of a departure. I think that's why BSG fans didn't tune in in sufficient numbers to keep it alive.
This looks like an expensive show. You need big numbers to support an expensive show. They needed BSG fans on board, and by the time this show premiered, I wasn't even interested.
Completely agree with your post Alarmed.
Both Ron Moore and David Eick said in interviews that they wanted to do a different approach with "Caprica" and and not just do more of the same (referring to BSG). Like you mentioned in your post though, the departure from BSG was just too much and a lot of BSG fans tuned out.
From a purely artistic/creative perspective I can appreciate Moore and Eick wanting to do something very different with Caprica but it simply turned out to not be what most fans wanted.
SyFy's management killed it. If it was on another network that didn't give up on it before it started it would have had a decent run.
shareExactly my thoughts too Wagon1680. If AMC or Fox would have taken the series, since they have a knack of turning out hit series' and get some better writers with the current ones, it could have been huge. I had sort of mixed feelings about the show until I saw the previews of the second season. Making the "skin" recreation of Zoe was yet to come and the explanation/creation of the Original 13 Cylon humanoids would have been answered as it was sort of a cliffhanger why those Original 13 Cylon humanoids individuals were ever chosen in the first place. Surely each one was a copy of a human that had died resulting in their survivors to hire Daniel Graystone to have replicas built.
Having watched every episode of BSG and then watching this prequel, I was so looking forward to season 2 of Caprica.
Oh, and the big open marriage weird family led by Clarice Willow was very interesting. She had husbands and wives.....
I wouldn't trust Fox with continuing Caprica. They are just as notorious as Syfy about cancelling awesome shows before their time. Caprica could possibly survived on AMC.
If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)
Has AMC ever aired any sci-fi shows that weren't re-runs? I doubt they would have picked it up. AMC doesn't seem interested in the sci-fi genre and NO I don't consider zombies to be really sci-fi. :-)
shareI don't consider zombies to be really sci-fi as well. They're mainly part of the horror genre.
If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)