CAPRICA - IN NO HURRY TO GO ANYWHERE

I wasn't going to watch this show but as I'm often up very very late I catch the 2am or 3am reruns and so I'm current to the episodes.

Daniel Graystone: Ineffectual and dull as dirt. Mrs. Graystone: Shrill, stupid and a bore. Adama by Esai: Hemmed in so far by bad scripts. Robot/Lolita: the cheerleader on Heroes is more interesting. Mobster Brother: Actor betrayed by bad writing. Schoolmarm: Only character I like or have any interest in (and that creepy robot/computer entity behind the "confessional" screen). Grannma Adama: backstory we don't need. Little William Adama: actor is good but he's pretty irrelevant to the story. Virtual Clubworld/Etc: Eh, seen it all before. Representation of Caprica and the other Colony worlds and people: Pretty terrible, almost no difference and more like Dark City than Ancient Greece. Production Design: the one truly bright spot - slick and nice-looking. The Plot: Drags on interminably when we know what needs to happen next and want to get the fuck there already without the side-steps and diversions. Longevity: Methinks this model will last but one year.

LOST FANS, WATCH OUT FOR ANGELS

I've caught bits and pieces here and there of the enigmatic show LOST and watched part of Season 4 and decided I'd watch all of Season 6 (the last year) as it airs, so I've just finished with the most recent 4th ep on Hulu and I think LOST just flashed me its junk.

I have a little bad news for die-hard fans, so stop reading now if you don't want your hopes dashed. It seems that LOST may well fall into the trap that Ron Moore's version of Battlestar Galactica suffered (for which this blog was created to originally celebrate before that show imploded and I became a critic) - the dreaded deus ex machina.

Below I have clues to the final eps, with each major character getting an episode built around them - leading up to the replacement for Jacob as the story's ultimate goal (Much like the reboot of The Prisoner [my review here] was about James Caviezel's young idealistic man taking over for the tired old man played by Ian McKellen).

In a nutshell, LOST is being reduced to a good-vs-evil story and they couldn't have made it any more literal.

Smoke Monster Locke picks up the white stone off of the scale in Jacob's secret cave and tosses it off the island into the ocean. Get it? Jacob was good, Smoke Monster bad (now in Locke's body) ... and the scale represented the balance that existed before Ben was manipulated into killing Jacob.

Smoke Monster Locke (we got to see from his smoke monster POV at one point in the ep) is seducing Sawyer so he will end up being the Judas character no doubt - a bad boy to the last. We got to see the characters' names and numbers so that will be explained at some point - the whole numbers game they've dangled again and again. So for the next few eps real-time on the island (whatever that means there) bad things will happen to bring it all to a head now that the scale is tipped in favor of evil. This good vs. evil theme was explored thoroughly in Lexx during its 3rd season. Expect several major LOST characters to die.

Here is the link to my source for info on the upcoming eps (there may be a better source out there): ep guides ... and here is what the next eps have to offer according to that source [my notes in this color]:

S6-Ep5 Lighthouse - Hurley must convince Jack to accompany him on a mission, and Jin comes across an old acquaintance [Claire reintroduced]
S6-Ep6 Sundown - Sayid faces a difficult decision, and Claire sends a warning to the temple inhabitants [Sayid dies I bet]
S6-Ep7 Dr. Linus - Ben-centric of course [insight into why he's such a weasel?]
S6-Ep8 Recon - A Sawyer-centric episode [probably about his betrayal and death]
S6-Ep9 Ab Aeterno - A Richard Alpert-centric episode [Richard was a candidate who didn't measure up I'm guessing, hence his long tenure on the island]
S6-Ep10 The Package - A Sun/Jin-centric episode [watch, the couple will live to get off the island]
S6-Ep11 Happily Ever After - A Desmond-centric episode [time-travel explained by the interloper with a touch of Faraday I bet]
S6-Ep12 Everybody Loves Hugo - no info [Hurley's turn in the spotlight]
S6-Ep13 The Last Recruit - no info [my guess is it will be Kate]
S6-Ep14 The Candidate - no info [Jack, of course]

So through deduction it appears that all of the terrific chill-inducing strangeness of the show and the fascinating time-travel elements are going to be reduced to some cosmic need to maintain a balance between good and evil. Now since Jacob has appeared to Hurley in a dream (or as a spirit, whatever) is he like Yoda and more powerful in death? Is the white Polar Bear a representation of Jacob? Will the white rock turn into the bear and swim back to shore?

Science fiction fans love atmospherics and ideas. All you have to do is show us light-beam weapon, call it a phaser and we get it. Tell us there is some number sequence at the root of nature and/or the power behind the island and we get it - but we expect some explanation and for it to be creative. I, like many fans, would love for the mystery to be richly textured and goose-bump inducing when it is finally revealed - but I won't get my hopes up. I truly hope JJ Abrams doesn't let us down as badly as Moore did with BSG.