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So what exactly was wrong with this series?

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    So what exactly was wrong with this series?

    Haven't watched all of BSG yet. But I'm curious...Why did this series only last for 18 episodes? What exactly was wrong with it that it didn't draw the audience that BSG did?
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    #2
    There are a number of different reasons, many stemming from Syfylis' mismanagement of the show.


    In the first place, the series' pilot was announced and then sat on for the better part of a year. So any initial hype that had built up had almost completely dissipated by the time it aired/was released on DVD.

    Once it came time to begin the series, they chose again to do something stupid. Rather than treat the pilot movie as a miniseries--the way they'd done with BSG--the pilot was re-aired as the premiere episode of the series with just some minor VFX changes to justify. So anybody who was already interested and following the project was underwhelmed by the launch, because it was really just a repeat.

    Fast forward 10 weeks. The retarded monkeys running Syfy's scheduling department insist on their mid-season break in yet another serialized show, so the running narrative of the series is disrupted and you're more than likely to lose the casual viewers.

    Then we entered no man's land. Literally from March until nearly the end of September, Syfy had nothing to say about the series. No premiere date for the second half, no news, no nothing. All we had were rumours of impending cancellation, which they of course dismissed. And then with just a month of lead-time (which is the blink of an eye in terms of promotion; practically non-existent), they announced the back half return.

    So the second half starts to shockingly little fanfare and then is only allowed to air four episodes before they decide to cancel it and yank it from the schedule, and don't bother airing the final five episodes until a "burn-off" marathon three months later. Oh and by the way, it comes out around this time, they were stringing you along with hopes of renewal because the sets had actually been torn down prior to the second half premiere.


    This is not to say that the show itself is without blame. The first half of the season was run by the perennially-overrated Jane Espenson, who seems to get all sorts of praise from within the biz even though she can't write a decent episode to save her life (much less run a show). Consequently there were a number of episodes that just weren't very good, and turned a lot of viewers off early on in the show.

    The second half of the season, bearing little resemblance to the first half, was so much better it was like night and day. But by then, the damage was done.
    "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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      #3
      People, including me, were expecting ships flying through space and robots everywhere and when they didn't get that they left the show, unlike me.

      It was a good show but people are impatient and wanted all the information that they gave out over the season to be revealed in the pilot.

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        #4
        I'd say that DigiFluid and escyos have it right. People were expecting a lot of action like BSG had, and when they didn't get it they were disappointed. I really think that the scheduling had the most to do with it though. If I'm not mistaken, SyFy had planned on showing the first ten episodes in January and then finish the last ten the following January. I could be wrong about that though. Plus, after they decided to finally show the final episodes they threw it on Tuesdays where the competition was much harder on the show.

        That's all just my opinion though.
        "Goodbye Eli Wallace, you're a good man."
        - imlad, from http://www.readandfindout.com/

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          #5
          I don't buy the scheduling excuse as Caprica failed in the pilot episode
          Originally posted by aretood2
          Jelgate is right

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            #6
            Personally, I don't think anything was wrong with Caprica. IMO, it was becoming a very good show, and sadly got cut short.
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              #7
              Interesting...And thank you especially, Digifluid, for the very detailed explanation

              What are other peoples opinions?
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                #8
                Nothing was wrong with the show. I think I liked it even more than BSG.

                But like SGU, it's just not what the casual science fiction fan / average Syfy viewer is into (space battles, people shooting at eachother, superhero characters, a single antagonist etc.).

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Osiris View Post
                  Nothing was wrong with the show. I think I liked it even more than BSG.

                  But like SGU, it's just not what the casual science fiction fan / average Syfy viewer is into (space battles, people shooting at eachother, superhero characters, a single antagonist etc.).
                  So pretty much mostly interesting to people who are/were heavily interested in the back story?
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                    #10
                    I have to agree with DigiFluid, I remember waiting forever to see the show, then when it finally did air it didn't last long and then they took a long break. Also I think the storyline was very slow. I didn't expect flying ships and all but I did want to see how the Cylons got skin, that's all I was interested in and how the final five was born or created. I wanted to hear more about the Cylons in general, I thought that was what it was going to be about. I think they got lost in establishing the backstory and it just dragged on and on and on.
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                      #11
                      Originally posted by tmoore4261 View Post
                      I was interested in and how the final five was born or created.
                      Why would you expect that from a show about Caprica?
                      "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post
                        Why would you expect that from a show about Caprica?
                        Because that's what Caprica was about not only the two families but the Cylon backstory. And actually the other family not Adama was responsible for creating them that's what the daughter in the robot was all about ... partially.
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                          #13
                          Originally posted by tmoore4261 View Post
                          Because that's what Caprica was about not only the two families but the Cylon backstory. And actually the other family not Adama was responsible for creating them that's what the daughter in the robot was all about ... partially.
                          But the Final Five had nothing to do with Caprica, nor the creation of the Colonial (robot) Cylons.
                          "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                            #14
                            Yeah ... I'm probably going to have to do a BSG rewatch eventually, but I thought it all started in Caprica not just the Cylon robots but "the skinjobs" too. And I thought the "final five" were more their diety so to speak, so I thought there would be something about them ... remember ... it had all happened before?

                            The creation of the Colonial Cylons was in Caprica, that was definately in the beginning.
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                            "I am worth far more to you than you will admit."

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                              #15
                              Yeah you may want to

                              Spoilers for ALL of BSG
                              Spoiler:
                              Kobol
                              Thirteen tribes lived there. Twelve of Man, Thirteenth of Cylon. Unknown whether they were Centurion-style Cylons. Something happened that drove out the Thirteenth Tribe, who eventually ended up on Revelations Earth as humanoid. Twelve Tribes lasted another thousand years on Kobol till some mysterious cataclysm forced them out too and they took off to form the Colonies.

                              Earth 1
                              Human Cylons of 13th Tribe live and reproduce sexually. Decide they want machines, build Centurions and treat them as slaves. Final Five begin receiving visions of "angels" who warn them of impending disaster and to accelerate work on reviving the Resurrection process. Five have Resurrection Ship built in orbit of world. Centurions rise up and nuclear holocaust wipes out all life on Earth 1. Final Five download to their ship and decide to head back to warn the other 12 Tribes to treat their creations well, but have to do so at sublight speed.

                              Colonies
                              Settle and spread out, eventually building Centurions of their own. Treat Centurions badly, Centurions rise up.

                              War and Inter-war
                              Final Five arrive in Colonial Space to find the Colonies and their creations already at war. Final Five negotiate with Cylons--peace for the humans in exchange for organic bodies. Five create Cavil, who helps create the other seven models.

                              Cavil kills Number Seven and poisons his entire line out of jealousy, and then kills the Five. Then he reprograms the other six models never to think of the Five, while he keeps their backup bodies hidden. Eventually, he inserts false memories of their lives and deposits them in Colonial space.
                              "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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