Worth Watching?: Caprica and FlashForward

[stj]

The main creator of FlashForward is David S. Goyer. The flaws with the show are the same as with such things as Dark Knight Returns, namely, sacrificing logic to sensationalism, cheap tripe about terrorists, pointless interpersonal conflict. It's present in the pilot and since ABC revamped the show with still more show runners, it's become ever more shamelessly silly-sensational. By now, even supposedly mundane events, like murders, are extravagant displays of nonsense.

Although FlashForward's sf premise doesn't follow real world logic, it takes diagrams to really show this. Caprica seems to believe that artificial intelligence requires, basically, a soul. This makes no sense. It is aggressively stupid.

In the end what matters is that the the pilot, the episodes The Gift and Believe, and the occasional odd scenes (for instance, children on a playground, believe it or not,) are much, much superior to any episode of Caprica. That is, if you can muster any human empathy for the more or less ordinary people on FlashForward. The characters on Caprica are by and large extraordinary, colorful creatures not to be found on the surface of this planet. (I think this is what is meant by saying the Caprica characters are more interesting.)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Well, based on all the replies I think I'm just going to delete both shows from the DVR, maybe catch them on Hulu at some point if I'm bored at work :-) Neither one seems to inspire great viewer loyalty.

There's very little on TV that is really worthwhile. I find myself watching a lot of just-good-enough shows or else there would be very little to watch at all. FlashForward to see how deep a hole they dig themselves into. Caprica for its genuine sci fi content. V just because hey, everyone loves a good alien-invasion yarn (especially if the amp up the gross-out stuff).

Caprica seems to believe that artificial intelligence requires, basically, a soul. This makes no sense. It is aggressively stupid.

I think you got that backwards or maybe sideways. It's "does artificial intelligence preclude a soul?" Not at all a stupid question unless you think Asimov was stupid.

 

[JD]

Wow, I didn't realize both of these shows were so disliked. I've watched both of them since they started, and I've really liked them.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I'm sorry but everytime I read someone using the argument that people like myself are impatient because plot revelations aren't immediately forthcoming I simply have to laugh because it is so absurd.

No, not people like yourself, you said so yourself. People like my sister, and some co-workers, and others that I constantly read about online giving up early on shows like Lost and Fringe because "Nothing is explained, I just want to know what's so special about the island, they didn't explain it, so I stopped watching."

That's obviously not someone like you.

Some people have legitimate reasons for not liking a show. No problems there, everyone has different tastes.

Others are whiney impatient babies. You all know who you are.

 

[stj]

The only intelligent Cylon is the one with the Zoe who was formed by biofeedback in real time. The Cylons without a Zoe are not intelligent. QED.

Amusingly enough, in real biofeedback, a person is given measurements of his or her brainwaves etc. to guide them in controlling their thoughts. The writers of Caprica seemed instead to mean that the flesh and blood Zoe's brainwaves etc. were fed directly into the Zoe program, which isn't feedback at all. The show never gets any smarter.

Fortunately, Caprica does not get a critical examination. Fans will get ecstatic when it achieves mediocrity and will praise everything, no matter how bad. For instance, the CGI of Caprica City is deeply admired for giving life to the city. But Caprica City, despite being the great metropolis of a polytheistic society, has no temples!

 

[JD]

How do you know they don't? We haven't seen every single building in the entire city, and even if we have, just because we haven't seen anything that obviously looks like a temple doesn't mean that we haven't seen one.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Can't speak on Flashforward, but Caprica is a very sedate show with no life or energy of its own that also suffers from being a bit too heavyhanded and cliche with its science fiction and noir tropes. Too bad because it has three very strong male actors and two equally strong female actors that the show underutilizes in pointless scenes and storylines that fizzle out. Oh, and it suffers from having some bland actors and actresses play the "teenagers" of the story.

 

[Gojira]

Flash Forward would have been an excellent premise for a feature film. But as a series I found it just dragging on and on and then I lost interest. As a movie it would have been good but dragging it out into a series it seems to have lost its way.