Caprica Review: “The Dirteaters”

Hey–we’re still watching the show and we’re still reviewing it. Pity SyFy has cancelled it and can’t figure out when to run the remaining episodes, because Caprica lately has been demonstrating why its parent network should have had a little more faith.

Title: “The Dirteaters”

Cast and Crew

Eric Stoltz as Daniel Graystone
Polly Walker as Clarice Willow
Allesandra Torresani as Zoë
Genevieve Buechner as Tamara Adams
Sasha Roiz as Sam Adama
Esai Morales as Joseph Adama
Paula Malcomson as Amanda Graystone
Alika Paunovic as William Adama Sr.
Alison Araya as Marie Adama
Jorge Montesi as the Guatrau
Sina Najafi as Bill Adama
Scott Porter as Nestor
Panou as Olaf Willow
Peter Windfield as Gara Singh

Additional cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

Several recent plots come together as Daniel Graystone barters for his life and becomes involved with the Tauron insurgency. Flashbacks give us the history of the Adama brothers.

Meanwhile, our virtual Avenging Angels become a pop-culture phenomenon on Caprica as they wreak havoc on New Cap City, and then decide to move on.

Sister Clarice continues to design the afterlife, while the investigation into her household encounters difficulties.

High Point

The pacing has improved overall, and this week did an excellent job of bringing together the disparate plot threads. Even the Avenging Angels and Clarisse’s plots intertwined, in incidental events and overall direction.

Low Point

1. The Avenging Angels receive short shrift. Further development would have made their plot seem less cheesy. Of course, it takes place in an enhanced videogame, and they really weren’t the focus of the episode.

2. How did someone as short-sighted as the Guatrau get to be so powerful?

The Scores:

Originality: 4/6. This week’s episode took the show in some new directions. It borrows heavily from a number of dramatic sources, but I found the results interesting.

Effects: 4/6. The virtual world always looks slightly askew and unreal. Caprica City looks less so, but times remain where it still looks like an effect.

Story: 5/6 The Adama’s personal history makes sense, and the show did a reasonable job of presenting a plot that could have been exploitive and histrionic.

Acting: 5/6 Sometimes I cannot tell whether the VR characters are being deliberately stilted and artificial, or the actors aren’t quite selling their characters. The more planetbound characters do an excellent job. I was especially impressed by the Adamic ancestors.

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 5/6 The mixtures of elements from our world and history does not consistently work, but I’m impressed generally with the ability to put together an alternate human society from the odds and ends of ones we know. It’s not perfect, but it serves its purpose.

Overall: 5/6

In total, the “The Dirteaters” receives 32/42

2 replies on “Caprica Review: “The Dirteaters””

  1. You guys are being way too forgiving. The show was lame out of the gate and didn’t have half the appeal of the BG remake.

    The VR plot resembles the ill fated 90s show VR5 in so many ways. There was a reason that thing got canceled too.

    • I agree it had its share of mediocre episodes– almost as many as Fringe— but I really feel it has grown into something worthwhile. Nothing to equal to early seasons of BSG, but good in its own right.

      It is all rather a moot point, however.

Comments are closed.