Caprica Canned

[Mustitos]

I find myself firmly in the “meh” category. I watche dthe first season but was generally left cold. I recorded the first episode of the second season, forgot to record the second, and just deleted the first without ever watching it.

I knew I didn’t even like the show when I read an article about how the show had no likeable characters and I realized it was true. Who was I rooting for? Who had scenes I looked forward to? Was there a shining knight? A tormented hero? A ruthless but charismatic villain? Was there dramatic tension?

It was a weird amalgamatio of concepts that may ahve smoothed out over time, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t terirbly good.

SyFy also completely mishandled it. It should have aired the fall after BSG. The way it was doled out, both on DVD and after, was abominable.

I kind of feel the same way, Most of the 2nd season, I found disappointing, how many episodes can you do on grief or people lounging and drinking in depression. Don’t get me wrong there was some interesting developments.

• The brother of father Adama with the “cylon”
• Cylon Zoe in the fake world (but still we got like 3 min in 4 episodes)
• The development with Graystone company.

As for the characters

I like

• Cylon Zoe (more than Original Zoe)
• The adama clan (but his Cylon daughter kind of was messed up and out of character lately)
• Zoe’s friend but mostly because she played in Kyle XY

The fence

• Daniel Graystone (I really like him in some episodes in others nah)

Deceptions

• The wife (Graystone) for the most part.
• The crazy terrorist women (that I never bordered to learn her name)
• The sister boss of the one god. Wow this one was as charismatic as a half broken brick. It’s hard to believe people would follow that women.

But still I hoped the show would continue so we know how the first Cylon war was started. It’s kind of reading a average book because you want to know how its connected to one of the best show there ever was.

I loved the first seaon of Caprica, the second not so much.

I may be more of an action aficionado, a bit like in Sarah’s Connor chronicle they have Summer Glau doing a terminator and in season 2 they pass 3-4 episodes on dreams, dementia and nightmares of Sarah Connor with no developments or action (granted it’s her show but when the rating go down, don’t help them get lower). Plus terminator 2 already established the character. Guys! you have Summer Glau USE HER. But I digress.

At this point with the situation with the networks they should try to base their show like HBO or the others.

-12 episodes season (I use to hate that but now I appreciate it more)

• Packed with a lot of story development (not necessary action)
• No filler episodes

Example,

The sopranos
Dexter
Weeds
Spartacus, blood and sand.
Six feet under (still blown out on how the series finally was awesome)

I would be curious to see how a mainstream show would work with this format.

Sadly most people like reality tv and cop or forensic shows shows (not bashing just stating a point). One of the problem of being more of a niche audience. (An expression I always found a little weird since where I live the french word is more specific as a small house that you build for a dog)

I was about to change my signature but with the cancellation it will stay a bit longer.

[FireBreathingChicken]

I made up that one, but give it six months. They’ll do it.

Sigh. It sounds awesome though.

[fastcart]

Just found this thread… sad panda It’s gotten so much better the last two or three episodes!!

When you break down like that, it is really insane how they rolled it out.

I gotta say, I’m really kinda pleasantly surprised to see all the rage, anger, despair and frustration expressed in this thread in reaction to Caprica’s cancellation. I had assumed that the GWC community in general had gone “meh” regarding Caprica and that’s a perfectly valid feeling of course—not everyone can like the same thing.

But reading this thread, I’m glad to see that Caprica really made an impression on many of you.

I’d be more glad if they didn’t fraking cancel it, but such is life.

I’m not surprised by the rage, but when the airing is broken down, I find it harder to be surprised of the cancellation…

This is why I really don’t watch a show anymore until it has been on for several seasons. The way these networks cancel shows now…at least this one made it past the first few episodes unlike some shows lately.

I don’t know about you guys, but it’s getting harder and harder to get invested in new shows. There’s no trusting that you’ll get more than 5 episodes. I royally sucks.

This is called “The Firefly Effect.” http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFireflyEffect

I hate to imitate a random immature forumite, but “So this!!”

Except, I’m using/doing this with reverse psychology though. I’m watching shows like Undercovers, S(bleep) my Dad Says, The Ev3nt, etc. because I’m expecting these shows to only last 13 episodes.

I have a type an OCD that once I start a series (Heroes for example), I must watch it in it’s entirety. Really hard for me to stop unless I find it really crappy. So, this season is really hard on me and my DVR. d:

So, I watch stuff now and don’t get attached until I feel the series is secure…which I thought Caprica was!! For at least half a season…

[ThPrime]

They are trying to make money by making people buy the DVD set before it is aired on TV. Just like the Stargate movies. Just like The Plan.

Well of course, but “they” is Universal. Where is Universal at fault for SyFy not renewing Caprica and delaying broadcast of existing episodes?

Syfy bought Caprica for distribution on television. Consumers buy Caprica on DVD to watch at home. I’m not sure that Syfy sees any kind of return on Universal’s retail sales. Nor for MGM’s Stargate.

Anyone who buys the DVD is less likely to watch the broadcast, perhaps in January, or even later on in 2011. As a potential trend, that would depress Syfy’s eventual Nielsen ratings for Caprica. Nielsen families are a random sampling of the population. They buy DVDs too, reflecting methods of viewing of the population at large.

If you want to give Syfy the shaft, one answer is clear to me. Buy the DVD in 2010 so that Syfy has nothing to offer you on its channel in 2011.

Ordinarily, Universal would coincide their DVD release with the week of Caprica’s five episode return. This has become standard industry practice now after studios and networks have seen that sales and viewership tend to be higher when DVD releases and television premieres coincide.

Instead Universal announces a December 21st release on the same day of Syfy’s cancellation notice. You are essentially witnessing Universal giving the shaft to Syfy. The timing was a clear message sent from one corporation to another.

I’m mostly responding to Chuck’s comments about boycotting the DVD in the last podcast.

[Fenatic]

I’m mostly responding to Chuck’s comments about boycotting the DVD in the last podcast.

It’s a fair question, which gives Syfy the finger more, not buying the DVD, or not watching it on TV? I’m inclinded to agree with ThPrime, that Syfy does not make money off of the DVD of Caprica, so buying the DVD does not help them.

[Reg]

If you want to give Syfy the shaft, one answer is clear to me. Buy the DVD in 2010 so that Syfy has nothing to offer you on its channel in 2011.

This is what I will be doing! Thanks for the post, good info.

[Topgun]

Sasha Roiz is tweeting that SyFy in Canada will continue to air Caprica weekly, meaning they’ll be able to watch the remaining five episodes in the Great White North.

So, uh, Juan buddy! Any way you can set a video cam up by your TV for the next five weeks and Skype the show?

I didn’t think so. Damn.

[ThPrime]

Beat ya by a minute. I will still buy the DVD and send apples to the Big Apple.

It’s so ironic tonight’s episode is entitled Blowback.

[hansioux]

• The sister boss of the one god. Wow this one was as charismatic as a half broken brick. It’s hard to believe people would follow that women.

if they only have gotten Kai Winn, it’d be totally awesome.

[Topgun]

Beat ya by a minute. I will still buy the DVD and send apples to the Big Apple.

It’s so ironic tonight’s episode is entitled Blowback.

Just in case your thread gets missed: http://forum.galacticwatercooler.com/showthread.php?t=12144

Excellent !!

[DawnAZ]

I think the greater problem here is how networks (either broadcast or cable) are treating new shows. Caprica was flawed, but still very interesting and I am unhappy it’s cancelled and even more unhappy that they pulled the final episodes early.

Shows need to find an audience, build it and then have the time to retain it. I agree that HBO seems to be the leader in doing this successfully. I personally would like more that 12 episode seasons, but in between the seasons, they still broadcast episodes, which serves to draw new viewers in. After the writer’s strike a couple years ago, the fragmented season really seemed to catch on. I’m happy to see ABC stating now that V will air in the spring, at once, rather than in halves.

What we need to fight for is a better model, Caprica is dead. I wonder if they might consider taking it to comic book form. I’d love that. They could dig deeply into the stories we all want to see more that way. Who knows what the future holds.

[Jarathen]

I said this in the Halloween thread, and I do truly believe it. I think caprica already HAD an audience in BSG fans. If SyFy was smart this show would’ve hit last fall, instead of the long lag time between BSG’s finale and this show’s broadcast premiere. The DVD pilot was also a terrible approach, as it caused an even earlier initial spike, with a length wait to follow after. Beyond that, the show didn’t really seem to find its footing until near the end of the first half of the first season. All of these high-concept dramas, these slick and complicated shows, are successful when they SCREAM out of the gates. Deadwood. Breaking Bad. Mad Men. Sons of Anarchy. The Sopranos. Battlestar Galactica. The Shield. Rescue Me. These aren’t shows that had a hard time getting rolling, really. They all had their problems later on, but they started by putting their best foot forward. Caprica almost felt like Dollhouse, an idea that wasn’t yet fully grown, and when you’ve got an expensive show like that, you have to grab the audience. caprica’s audience wasn’t what SyFy had hoped for originally, and the second half of season 1 had numbers just falling through the floor.

I think Caprica had promise, and I’m never happy when a show like this is canceled. I like sophisticated sci-fi, and we hardly ever get any. But I think that much like Dollhouse, Caprica was a case of too little, too late.

And SyFy pours the salt on by breaking it up into tiny little pieces.

I don’t know if someone has already said this, but the show debuted on April 21, 2009. The remainder of the show, in the US, will air sometime in 2011, currently promised as the first quarter. Which means that to air what is intended as ONE season of a NEW show, SyFy released/aired it over a period of 18-24 months. IF they follow through on THIS promise.

Unless it was the greatest show ever made , what show could possibly suceed like that?

[Wolfgeek]

Hey, me too! I love, love, love her accent on SoA (kind of an odd/a little underwhelming season so far, huh?)

Actually. I am really lovin’ this season. even more than season two.

My wife and I watch SoA and we were both pretty let down after the first several eps. .

wow. really? I am almost always the first to bail out on a non-sci/fi show when it starts to stray… but, I really think this seasn got better as an overall show. the first season and to a lessor extent the second season, was all wiz bang stuff… i think this season the writers have settled into actually telling us a story and letting it unfold over time. IMHO of course.

[Jarathen]

This is my first full season I’m on board with. I’ve only seen minutes of the first two seasons and just know the basics.

[Shooter]

If SyFy was smart this show would’ve hit last fall, instead of the long lag time between BSG’s finale and this show’s broadcast premiere. The DVD pilot was also a terrible approach, as it caused an even earlier initial spike, with a length wait to follow after. Beyond that, the show didn’t really seem to find its footing until near the end of the first half of the first season. All of these high-concept dramas, these slick and complicated shows, are successful when they SCREAM out of the gates. Deadwood. Breaking Bad. Mad Men. Sons of Anarchy. The Sopranos. Battlestar Galactica. The Shield. Rescue Me. These aren’t shows that had a hard time getting rolling, really. They all had their problems later on, but they started by putting their best foot forward. Caprica almost felt like Dollhouse, an idea that wasn’t yet fully grown, and when you’ve got an expensive show like that, you have to grab the audience. caprica’s audience wasn’t what SyFy had hoped for originally, and the second half of season 1 had numbers just falling through the floor.

I think Caprica had promise, and I’m never happy when a show like this is canceled. I like sophisticated sci-fi, and we hardly ever get any. But I think that much like Dollhouse, Caprica was a case of too little, too late.

And SyFy pours the salt on by breaking it up into tiny little pieces.

I don’t know if someone has already said this, but the show debuted on April 21, 2009. The remainder of the show, in the US, will air sometime in 2011, currently promised as the first quarter. Which means that to air what is intended as ONE season of a NEW show, SyFy released/aired it over a period of 18-24 months. IF they follow through on THIS promise.

Unless it was the greatest show ever made , what show could possibly suceed like that?

I’d have to agree with all of this. Well said.

One thing to remember, though, is that networks and production companies are still struggling over how to handle direct-to-DVD releases. The Caprica pilot was at the forefront of this wave along with the SG-1 movies and the Futurama movies. I hope that networks and production companies take notice that in order to succeed for a deep (and possibly dark) show you need to make the absolute most out of the momentum you have and get better with the whole direct-to-DVD and show hiatus timing.

Like I stated in my blog post, though, I’m not sure Caprica would have succeeded had SyFy aired it continually on a well-placed night. There were significant plot issues. We will never know the answer to that. Like you said in your post, even Dollhouse ran into problems as the show progressed. I attribute those issues with Dollhouse to its plot line. If Caprica was aired with 20-26 episodes in a row without significant breaks, it could have ended up just like Dollhouse. And if Caprica was indeed a great show with a storyline/plot that was “better,” I content that it would succeed no matter what the air schedule.

I look at it optimistically, though. SyFy can now take the mass amounts of money it was spending on Caprica and devote it to a show(s) that had promise of higher ratings, giving us all better SciFi shows. In the past shows like Flash Gordon were replaced by shows like Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven, and Sanctuary, while shows that ran their course like SG-1 were replaced by Stargate Atlantis and then Stargate Universe. I would argue that those trade offs were ones well made.

~Shooter Out

[Radio_Picon]

Like most other people, I’m disappointed but not too surprised. The show’s slow aspects (to me that was anything having to do with teenage girl drama) were something I had resolved to just deal with. You take the good with the bad. But it was really a pretty small part of the show. For others the STO stuff with Clarice was tiring. I sort of understood that, but I saw some germ of promise in that story line.

The Daniel/Adama/Amanda/Halatha storylines I actually enjoyed. And I loved seeing the sudden progression of Cylons to actual soldiers.

This show was the ONLY thing on Syfy that was smart and made you think as far as I’m concerned. And now we’re losing it. Yeah, yeah I watch SGU but c’mon it’s predictable and often dull. The hokey, cliche-ridden original SG-1 was enjoyable only because I liked the characters enough.

In the past shows like Flash Gordon were replaced by shows like Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven, and Sanctuary, while shows that ran their course like SG-1 were replaced by Stargate Atlantis and then Stargate Universe. I would argue that those trade offs were ones well made.

Ok for Atlantis and SGU, but I can’t really get into the others you mentioned. It’s like Syfy had one stand out signal (BSG and Caprica) and everything else is and has been background noise.

[ThPrime]

I look at it optimistically, though. SyFy can now take the mass amounts of money it was spending on Caprica and devote it to a show(s) that had promise of higher ratings, giving us all better SciFi shows. In the past shows like Flash Gordon were replaced by shows like Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven, and Sanctuary, while shows that ran their course like SG-1 were replaced by Stargate Atlantis and then Stargate Universe. I would argue that those trade offs were ones well made.

WWE Smackdown cost $30 million. Is that more or less than Caprica cost?

Essentially Smackdown was moved from Tuesdays to avoid the damaging Tuesday night competition that destroyed Caprica and SGU’s Live ratings. I do say “moved” since Smackdown replaces the canceled Tuesday night WWE NXT. Syfy never released Caprica’s Live+7 data since it returned from hiatus. One obvious answer is that is where all of Caprica’s viewership was, and if that were public knowledge it would make Caprica’s cancellation look ridiculous.

It’s going to take the cancellation of Stargate Universe before long time Syfy viewers wake up and realize the rebranding involved more than changing the name from Scifi to Syfy.

Syfy has already invested in its 2011 line up. There will be no SciFi shows on Syfy next year. That is, if you consider Eureka and WH13 to be dramedies and Haven and Sanctuary as fantasy genre. Syfy’s new 2011 scripted hours feature superheroes, monsters, more dramedies, more fantasy. I don’t know yet but Being Human might be the only straight drama next year… starring a ghost, a werewolf, and a vampire. It will depend on how it is re-imagined from the BBC original which was a dramedy first before turning to a more straight drama and higher critical acclaim.

I’d have to count hours with the 2011 schedule in hand. But I’m guessing over half the 2011 lineup is reality programming. A first in Syfy’s history. Right now Syfy only has two scripted hours on air, SGU and Sanctuary. That might be down to one before November is out.

[aLostCoyoti]

I never liked Caprica anyways. I think the story trite and predicable. Further, I could never connect with the characters:

1. Zoe Graystone - Whiny, spoiled, rich teenie who gets herself killed trying to skip off-planet with a psychotic boyfriend, who just happended to be carrying a bomb. I suppose it would have been nice if he could have clued her in on this.

2. Daniel Graystone - Just don’t like him, period. His daughter’s dead and his big obsession is with his precious Buccaneers.

3. Amanda Graystone - What a terrible mother. She convinces herself that her daughter Zoe is the one that was a terrorist? Geesh, did she hate her daughter so much that she wanted everyone to think that of her? And, she was wrong.

4. Joseph Adama - Yea, OK, I kind of liked him. Plays the good guy lawyer and bad guy mob lawyer. Kind of makes sense of the references to him in BSG during the trial of Baltar.

5. Clarice Willow - Barely passable. I will say this for her, she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.

I love BSG and have re-watched the series 3 times. But, just because a new series is linked to it doesn’t mean that I will automatically like it. So, anyways, I didn’t really like Caprica and am not disappointed that it is being axed.

[Wolfgeek]

Had caprica started with WAR between the colonies, and robotic soldiers being used, and we got to see the misuse of and abuse of robots to see the begining of the cylons rebellion when it was just isolated events that are dismissed by the humans as bad programming.
the BSG fan base would have embraced it completly.

blood and sand (oh, sorry chrome) - premise is already flawed as we have seen the bill adama’s first mission was the last mission of the first cylon war.

IMHO…

[dxf]

blood and sand (oh, sorry chrome) - premise is already flawed as we have seen the bill adama’s first mission was the last mission of the first cylon war.

IMHO…

EXACTLY. And didn’t the Razor-sodes setup seem to contradict the previous accounts from the series, which said Adama and Tigh were buds 'cuz they were all deep in the sh*t together during the Cylon war?