The first Caprica Season 1.5 DVD review showed up at IGN on Friday. Here are a couple of snippets:
The final episodes ramp up the Caprica story in a big way. The show, criticized early on for being too slow-paced and ponderous, ups the tension considerably, as Daniel (Eric Stoltz), Amanda (Paula Malcomson), Joseph (Esai Morales) and Sam (Sasha Roiz) all find their lives in danger – I especially loved a Panic Room type scenario that has two characters locked inside a room, with a group of people with murderous intent trying to get in - which is even more frightening because those in danger are in the VR world, and don't realize what is going on with their physical bodies. (..)
There are a few deleted scenes and video blogs exploring different aspects of the show. More interesting are the podcasts, which include different participants, including Magda Apanowicz, whose enthusiasm and love of the show are wonderful to hear. There also are some very candid comments from executive producer David Eick, as these were recorded while the first few episodes of "Season 1.5" were airing and the show was clearly in danger.
Best though are the commentaries from Kevin Murphy, particularly on the finale. -- Read the rest at IGN
Dorkshelf has a really great interview with Ryan Robbins, who wraps filming his new crime thriller, Cold Blooded, today. He mostly talks about Sanctuary and Riese (going international in January), but also (at 3:45) about Caprica, Battlestar, Ron Moore & David Eick, and where season two might have gone. There is another new video interview with him, just as fun, at Cast TV.
Chicago Now has an interview with Chris Heyerdahl, who is still filming Twilight: Breaking Dawn. It's mostly about Twilight and Sanctuary, but he briefly mentions Caprica too.
Final reminder: Alessandra Torresani is hosting Attack of the Show again tomorrow.
If you are in Vancouver, you can still catch Hiro Kanagawa's The Patron Saint of Stanley Park (trailer) this week.
And here is a behind-the-scenes clip from AMC's The Killing, which kicks off in March, with a few glimpses of Michelle Forbes, Richard Harmon and Kacey Rohl:
The Caprica Season 1.5 DVD is out this Tuesday (Dec. 21) and you can still pre-order it on Amazon. NBC has sent out copies for review and the first interesting bits about the commentary tracks come from IGN's Eric Goldman; one about plans to have James Callis and Tricia Helfer appear in the second half of season one, and another about one of the Final Five appearing in season two (if the show hadn't been pulled).
If you haven't seen the last five episodes, the general consensus is that they're the best part of the season. For better or worse, the show got a lot more prequelized and the hour that was cut last year can be felt, especially in the last two episodes, but the storylines, characters, dialogue and everything else stayed as frakking inspired as it always has been. Be warned, though. The finale wraps up the most prominent storylines of the second half of the season, but it leaves an even bigger continuity hole with Battlestar than the one it started with in more ways than one and may leave you with a sense of a beginning rather than ending. Which sucks, with the cancellation and all.
That said, on a more subjective note, with all the continuity issues between Caprica and Battlestar (and the way they 'fixed' one in particular toward the end of the season), I can't help but feel that Mark Stern et co. are being a little disingenuous about the possibility of Blood and Chrome ever going to series. With less ground to cover than Caprica, even more shackles in the story department, not to even mention character, and general insistence on more ties to the mother ship from the network (and hardcore BSG fans - most of them anyway), I am not really convinced that Syfy's plans to keep milking the franchise will extend beyond the movie. If anything, the news of Stargate's cancellation doesn't exactly spell faith in established franchises, or established fan bases for that matter.
Either way, you can catch the unaired episodes of Caprica on Syfy on January 4 or get them on DVD in a few days. I know there's been some resistance to buying the DVD, with people still not getting any less pissed off about the cancellation, but this isn't exactly a show that will get discovered by the masses as it should and, with Syfy keeping mum on all fronts, that's not gonna change any time soon. Not for anyone to profit from the show in any meaningful way anyway. Beyond that, unlike marketing and scheduling, the DVDs are the one thing they (NBC Universal, that is) actually do right. And besides, there are other ways to kick Syfy where it hurts.
UGO.com has an exclusive clip from the DVD, cleverly subtitled “Never before seen anywhere.” It includes a couple of scenes from "Blowback;" one with Magda Apanowicz and Ryan Kennedy travelling to Gemenon, and Chris Heyerdahl going batshit on the STO recruits, and the other with Brian Markinson and Tom McBeath in the GDD archives. The clip is embedded at the end of the post.
Alessandra Torresani is on TWoP's list of TV's Most Valuable Performers. And she'll be hosting Attack of the Show again this Monday.
Yes, Stargate Universe has been cancelled halfway into its second season. The news came yesterday via Deadline and, in another good stroke of good judgement, Syfy had forgotten to inform the cast beforehand and took the opportunity to use the news as a springboard to promote its upcoming shows. Other than the Tuesday death slot, SGU shared writer/producer Remi Aubuchon and the occasional cast member (Mike Dopud, Anna Galvin, Zak Santiago, Ryan Kennedy) with Caprica. The remaining episodes of season two will air in the spring. More details at GateWorld.net.
Things are looking brighter for Sanctuary, which is still in negotiations for season four. Spacecast has a new video interview with Ryan Robbins and Chicago Now recently talked to Chris Heyerdahl. Polly Walker guest stars in the mid-season finale tonight (Friday) at 10 pm.
Sundance.org has posted the screening schedules for all the films premiering at the festival in January, including Gun Hill Road with Esai Morales and Vampire with Ryan Robbins. You can find them here: Gun Hill Road, Vampire.
The Battle of the Bulbs, with Teryl Rothery, premieres tomorrow (Saturday) at 8 pm on the Hallmark Channel. You can find several behind-the-scenes clips on YouTube: clip 1, clip 2, clip 3, clip 4.
Luciana Carro has landed a leading role in The Icarus II Project, an independent web series which will premiere at the San Diego Comic Con next summer. They start shooting in February. Michael Taylor is credited as script consultant on the official site. You can find more details about the project at LucianaCarroFans.com.
CSI: Miami 9x10, "Match Made in Hell," with Peter Wingfield guest starring, has been pushed back to Sunday, January 2.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, with Alex Arsenault (Philo) and Philip Granger (Tanner Willow), still has no release date for the U.S. but it has been released in Russia earlier this month. For updates on release dates elsewhere in the world, go to the movie’s Facebook page.
Patton Oswalt's book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, is out on January 4. AICN has a review.
The Chicago Sun-Times has a short interview with Malcolm MacIver, who worked as a science consultant on TRON: Legacy, which opens this weekend.
Spoiler TV has posted the returning dates for all network shows. Here is a round-up:
V returns on Tuesday, January 4. Alison Araya guest stars in the season two premiere, "Red Rain."
Private Practice is back on Thursday, January 6. The first new episode should be the one directed by Eric Stoltz.
The Cape, scored by Bear McCreary, kicks off on Sunday, January 9 on NBC.
Lie to Me returns on Monday, January 10. Paula Malcomson is probably appearing on the show that day.
The Good Wife, with Scott Porter, is back on Tuesday, January 11. Spoiler TV has the synopsis for the next episode and a 2011 promo.
House is back on Monday, January 17. Still no word in which episode Sasha Roiz guest stars, but keep an eye on his new official Facebook page for updates.
Fairly Legal, starring Sarah Shahi and BSG’s Michael Trucco, kicks off on Thursday, January 20 on USA. Philip Granger and Ryan Kennedy will both appear on the show at some point.
Hellcats returns on Tuesday, January 25, or possibly sooner. Heather Hemmens (Hellcat Alice) tweeted that the show will be back on January 4.
Alessandra Torresani starts shooting a new pilot this week, called Circling the Drain. It's a single-camera comedy about a reporter who gets demoted from the style section to the obits desk at a newspaper. You can read a message from Alessandra about the project on her blog.
Deadline writes, "The Circling the Drain presentation will be completed by Jan.1, giving the project a jump start on the broadcast pilot season where production usually starts in February. While the project was originally envisioned as a cable show, the producers are now looking to cast a wider net for it."
Esai Morales has wrapped filming the webseries Los Americans. The first photos from his new movie, Gun Hill Road, which premieres at Sundance in January, showed up this week at Daemon's Movies. There is also an interesting article about the film at Eclectique 916.
Polly Walker will make her first appearance on Sanctuary next Friday in episode 3x10, "The Hollow Men." Spoiler TV has the teaser (with Polly) and a sneak peek with Ryan Robbins and Christopher Heyerdahl.
Scott Porter is back on Friday Night Lights next Wednesday at 9 pm in episode 5x07, "Perfect Record." Spoiler TV has the teaser. Patrick Massett and John Zinman have been nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for their work on the show, which is now entering its final run of episodes on DirecTV.
Tomorrow's episode of CSI: Miami, with Peter Wingfield guest starring, might get delayed because of football. David Caruso has swooped down on YouTube to say he'll make sure you know when the episode airs in time.
Leah Gibson did an interview for Twilight: Eclipse recently. You can watch it here. You can also see the teaser for The Fence, a short film she did with Matt Hamilton that will be out next year, on YouTube.
Also, her fans tweet (and IMDb confirms) that Rise of the Apes, the prequel to the Planet of the Apes series, with James Franco, Brian Cox, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Tom Felton and Andy Serkis, will be released on June 24, 2011. Caprica's James Pizzinato is also in it.
Three Inches, the pilot James Marsters shot with Stephanie Jacobsen and Naoko Mori (Toshi from Torchwood, you'll see her in Private Practice 4x11) for Syfy a few months ago, didn't get a series order, but - hold onto your sanity - Mark Stern says it still might. Deadline has the gory details about the show possibly getting retooled and the actors' contracts getting extended. In the meantime, you can see James on Hawaii Five-0 this Monday at 10 pm on CBS. Spoiler TV has a new promo.
Carmen Moore (that's Fidelia if you've seen the last few episodes) has recently wrapped a film called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. You can see some stills on her Facebook page. She will also be a regular on Blackstone, a new show that kicks off early next year in Canada. (Hiro Kanagawa is credited as story editor.) For details and updates, hit Facebook.
Mike Dopudtweeted that he, too, is working on This Means War. Panou and Aleks Paunovic will also be in it. And Elisabeth Rosen, grandpa's foe from "The Dirteaters," will have a supporting role in his new movie, In the Name of the Father 2.
The campaigns to bring Caprica back for another season are still very much alive and kicking. The second round of apples will be shipped to Mark Stern this Thursday, and the letter campaign just got easier. If you want to send a letter to Syfy and NBC, head over to Caprica Times or the Battlestar Cafe for the addresses and info on the fastest way to do it.
Bear McCreary tweeted some great (unofficial) news about another Caprica CD, so keep an eye on him on Twitter for updates. These days, he is writing the score for Summer Glau's new show, The Cape, which kicks off on Sunday, January 9 at 9 pm on NBC. On other fronts, The Walking Dead season finale aired yesterday and Eureka is back with a holiday episode tomorrow night.
Caprica starts airing in Asia this week. The show will premiere on December 9 at 10 pm on AXN Beyond.
Cast updates:
Gun Hill Road, with Esai Morales, will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival (January 20 – 30). Here is the synopsis, from Sundance.org:
Gun Hill Road (Director and screenwriter: Rashaad Ernesto Green) — After three years in prison, Enrique is back in his beloved Bronx, back in the arms of an estranged wife and back in the life of his teenage son, who is stumbling towards a transformation that will put the bonds of their embattled family to the test. Cast: Esai Morales, Judy Reyes, Harmony Santana, Vanessa Aspillaga.
Esai also attended the Artivist Film Festival Awards at the Egyptian Theater this weekend. You can see some photos on his Facebook page.
From ABC’s December schedule, it looks like Private Practice 4x11, directed by Eric Stoltz, won’t air until January. Until then, ABC will be showing specials and re-runs on Thursdays.
The same thing goes for Lie to Me. No new episodes until Monday, January 10, when the show returns with two episodes airing back-to-back. "Funhouse," with Paula Malcomson, should be one of them. (Fox has been known to shuffle episodes, so this is still unconfirmed.)
Teryl Rothery has a new TV movie, Battle of the Bulbs, which airs Saturday, December 18 at 8 pm on Hallmark. You can watch the teaser on Hallmark's site.
AMC has started production on The Killing this week. Richard Harmon will have a recurring role and Kacey Rohl will also make an appearance on the show. Michelle Forbes is one of the leads.
Riese, with Ryan Robbins, Leah Gibson, Alessandro Juliani, Ben Cotton, and Richard Harmon will have its Canadian premiere early next year. You can find the details at Spacecast.com.
Starz has set a tentative premiere date for Torchwood: The New World, with Jane Espenson on board this season. Movieweb reports that season four will start airing in July 2011.
And there are a few cast members you can catch on TV this week.
On Tuesday, Alessandra Torresaniwill hostAttack of the Show again.
Jorge Montesi guest stars on Human Target on Wednesday in episode 2x04, "The Return of Baptiste." The show airs at 8 pm on Fox.
On Thursday, Genevieve Buechner will be on Fringe in episode 3x09, "Marionette." That's 9 pm on Fox. Spoiler TV has a teaser.
Alison Araya is in the next episode of Supernatural, "Appointment in Samarra," which airs on Friday at 9 pm on the CW. She will also appear in the the season two premiere of the V series, "Red Rain," which airs on Tuesday, January 4 at 9 on ABC.
Ryan Robbins and Christopher Heyerdahl are still on Sanctuary (Fridays at 10). Spoiler TV has the teaser and a sneak peek from the next episode. A side note here, since Syfy isn't releasing guest star info in advance: Polly Walker should appear on the show around the mid-season point, so if you've been waiting for that, episode 3x09 is as good a place as any to tune in. James Pizzinato (Drew, the lab guy) is yet another Caprica actor who will make an appearance on the show, but that won't happen until episode 3x13.
Peter Wingfield will appear on CSI: Miami in episode 9x10, "Match Made in Hell," which airs on Sunday at 10 on CBS. He also showed up on Sanctuary last Friday and mentioned he would guest star on the Canadian show Endgame.
James Marsters is back on Hawaii Five-0 in episode "Hana 'a'a Makehewa" (Desperate Measures), which airs next Monday at 10 pm.
Caprica 1x18, "Apotheosis," airs tonight at 10 pm on Space in Canada. Here is the synopsis (spoilers):
Daniel (Eric Stoltz), Amanda (Paula Malcomson), and Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) race to stop Clarice's (Polly Walker) master plan and save thousands of lives before Caprica is changed forever.
The last episode of the season was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Jonas Pate.
This is the final episode of the series, and there will be surprisingly more closure than you’d expect for a series that didn’t get the life cycle we all hoped it would. The last bit of the episode has an amazing montage with a glimpse into the future and the ongoing mythology of the Caprica/BSG world.
And just so there is no confusion: "Apotheosis" was not written as a series finale. There was a detailed outline for season two before Syfy pulled the plug and this episode was not meant to conclude the story. Just something to keep in mind while watching.
A quick round of cast updates:
Richard Harmon will be on Tower Prep tonight at 8 pm on the Cartoon Network.
Magda Apanowicz makes her second appearance on Hellcats this Wednesday (Dec. 1) at 9 pm. The episode, "Think Twice Before You Go," was written by Matthew Roberts. You can also watch the second part of the Gemenon set tour clip with Magda (and Ryan Kennedy, and Stephen McNutt) on Hulu.
Mike Dopud (you'll see him in "Apotheosis" tonight -- or tomorrow, depending on which part of Canada you live in) will be on Human Target at 8 pm, also on Wednesday. You'll probably recognize him either from Battlestar or Stargate Universe, or both.
Luke Camilleri guest stars on Fringe on Thursday at 9 pm.
Sasha Roiztweeted that his episode of House will air in January.
Aleks Paunovic has been cast as one of the leads in Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King 2.
John Pyper-Ferguson also has a new movie listed under his name on IMDb, Born to Race. According to the official Facebook page, the film is already in post-production.
Leah Gibson and Christopher Heyerdahl have supporting parts in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which is out on DVD on December 4. Heyerdahl mentioned in an interview recently that he will also be in the third Twilight film, Breaking Dawn.
Hiro Kanagawa mentioned a few upcoming projects to The Vancouver Sun last week: the miniseries True Justice (aka Southern Justice), indie thriller Donovan's Echo, and TV show Blackstone (as story editor).
And if you've seen the trailer for Red Riding Hood this week (the one with the schizophrenic casting: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Michael Shanks and Julie Christie), you probably don't know that Kacey Rohl and Michael Hogan are in it but, according to the IMDb, they are.
Okay, that wraps it up for today. Hope your Tuesday is better than mine and see you after the finale. The season finale, that is.
Caprica episode 1x17, "Here Be Dragons," airs tonight at 10 pm on Space. Here is the synopsis (spoilers):
The Graystones (Eric Stoltz, Paula Malcomson) find Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) with a vengeful Clarice (Polly Walker) closing in, while the Ha'La'Tha turns on the Adama brothers (Esai Morales, Sasha Roiz).
Like last week's episode, "Here Be Dragons" was directed by Michael Nankin. You can rate it below.
There is a new(ish) behind-the-scenes clip on Hulu. It's a tour of the STO camp with Magda Apanowicz, with Michael Nankin and Christopher Heyerdahl also making brief appearances. If you haven't seen any episodes since "False Labor," there are probably some minor spoilers for "Blowback" and "The Heavens Will Rise" in the video (embedded below).
The apple campaign continues this week. You can find an update on the Save Caprica blog.
From the description on Amazon, the European Caprica 1.0 DVD (out on January 3, 2011) will have the same extras as the region 1 release. Too bad that it's too late for international sales to count.
Cast updates:
Alessandra Torresani and Sasha Roiz filmed a hilarious short video against gay bullying. You can see it on YouTube.
The last two episodes of Riese have been posted at syfy.com/riese.
The Arts Club blog has a really great interview with Hiro Kanagawa about his play, The Patron Saint of Stanley Park, which opens later this week in Vancouver. (Geek alert: it's science fiction.) For the entire media kit, go here.
Panoutweeted a few days ago that he is in rehearsals for a staged reading of a play called Ruined, written by Lynn Nottage.
You can listen to She Stoops to Conquer, with James Marsters, on L.A. Theater Works' site: part 1, part 2.
Marsters will be back on Hawaii Five-0 on Monday, December 13. The press release is here.
Genevieve Buechner will guest star on Fringe in episode 3x09, "Marionette," which airs on Thursday, December 9 at 9 pm.
Jorge Montesi will make an appearance on Human Target as "Don Miguel Cervantes" in episode 2x04, "The Return of Baptiste." The episode airs on Wednesday, December 8 at 8 pm.
Tonight's episode of Stargate Universe, "Visitation," was written by Remi Aubuchon.
And I leave you with the weekly poll and the Gemenon clip:
Syfy posted a brief update on Facebook saying that the last five episodes of Caprica will air back-to-back on January 4th.
We've just confirmed the schedule for Caprica's final five episodes and, as promised, it’s posted here first. They’ll air back-to-back on Tuesday, January 4th from 6p to 11p on Syfy.
Just the last in a long line of insults to both the show and the viewers. Not only will the best part of the season not be discovered by anyone who doesn't already know when and where to look for it, but also by dumping the episodes in a single day, Syfy execs have proven once and for all that the only remaining thoughts they have about the show is how to best make people forget it ever existed. Why? Because apparently things have gone so wrong and there is something just too frakking basic missing at Syfy Programming (hello, Mark Stern) that giving the story an ending is somehow not even an option anymore.
Well, it should be. Doing the right thing (or, hey, just learning basic communication skills) just shouldn't be that hard.
As long as the franchise is still getting milked with another spin-off, concluding Caprica's story in a miniseries is the only acceptable option. And yet somehow, in the last few weeks, Syfy's silence (except in cases where there is demoralizing news to deliver, like props being auctioned and such) has made it clear that, as far as Caprica is concerned, they are only out to discourage fan efforts and sweep the show under the rug entirely.
I haven't addressed my frakking open letter after the show got cancelled to anyone in particular, but it sure would be nice to hear from someone at Comcast or NBC Universal who can explain why they are even keeping a channel run by people whose only recent contributions to the genre (the serious shows, anyway) they're supposedly marketing boil down to pissing off (or at the very least alienating) the existing fanbase and simultaneously failing to draw new audiences for their only franchises with any name recognition. It happened with Stargate Atlantis/Stargate Universe, it happened with Battlestar and Caprica, it's happening with Caprica and the Spartacus makeover for BSG, and, from the teaser for what looks like a new teeny dramedy with a bunch of vampires trying to be funny, I can see how it might just happen with Being Human too. (Haven't seen the teaser? Sign up for NBC's consumer panel at ContemporaryConsumer.com. They really do need all the help they can get.)
The Caprica Season 1.5 DVD is out this Tuesday (Dec. 21) and you can still 
