Caprica reminds me of Ghost in the Shell; is Awesome, too

Starting from when I was little, modifying a simple tape player to record voice at different speeds and using it to make stupid skits with my friends, to learning how to type on my first computer - a Macintosh SE, to busting out my first webpage as a teen, the way we use technological advances to entertain and make our everyday lives better has always been a fascinating subject to me.

So when I came across Ghost in the Shell years ago and the subsequent series’ that followed and found it took the subjects of life and technology and smacked them together to explore life as technology, I was hooked.

Main character Motoko Kusanagi’s beautiful looks combined with her bad-ass nature are enough to draw in any anime fan based on fan service potential alone, but the fact her brain and a segment of her spinal cord were all that remained from her original existence - leaving her encased in a cybernetic body – revealed the genius of creator Shirow Masamune’s existentialist character study. Unlike HAL in '2001: A Space Odyssey' – a computer programmed to behave and react like a human being, the idea was twisted around in GitS; by putting a human brain inside a robotic body, it effectively amplified the audience’s awareness of Motoko’s struggles to cope with her identity while fighting crime in a future time.

Caprica, the offspring of acclaimed series Battlestar Galactica, is already showing interesting similarities to Ghost in the Shell even at only two episodes deep.

Warning: spoiler alert.

Without getting too deep into the plot for those unfamiliar with BSG history, a major storyline centers around Zoe, the teen-aged daughter of wealthy technologist Daniel Graystone, the man responsible for development of robots known as Cylons for purposes of armament and security – picture a cross between Robocop and The Terminator. He also created a Matrix-like virtual environment known as the Holoband, where Zoe finds a way to use as a means to upload a ‘copy’ of herself known as an Avatar.

Well, her dad finds out about this after a terrorist attack claims her life, downloads the avatar, and in a desperate attempt to bring his daughter back into the real world, uploads it into his 7-foot-tall, thousand-pound Cylon prototype. An error occurs, he thinks she’s gone, but we soon find out she’s now actually stuck inside this thing.

Much like Motoko’s character in GitS, Zoe is inside an artificial body, a fact not even her father has yet to realize. The second episode cuts between showing Zoe as a giant menacing robot and her true self, illustrating her imprisonment in a larger than life frame. It’s really well done as she attempts to walk a tightrope between staying hidden from those who might try to destroy her, and telling her best friend who may one of only a few voices of reason to help her.

It’s an awesome idea for how to approach a character, and when you package it inside a well-acted, visually stunning prequel to Battlestar, you’ve got the makings of one kickass show.

Although I’ve read the ratings so far haven’t been great early on, here’s hoping word gets out on how awesome Caprica is shaping up to be. If you like crime syndicate drama served with a side of sci fi, Caprica is a dish you’ll want to consume often… without any of the cheesiness of my food metaphors.

Caprica airs Fridays at 9 Eastern on SyFy in the US, and Thursdays at 8 in Canada on SPACE.

What to expect when Jay Leno Resumes The Tonight Show...

In light of the recent controversy surrounding The Tonight Show, here's what you can expect more of once Jay Leno reclaims his old 11:35 timeslot, courtesy a clip from The Dana Carvey Show(1996):

Jay Leno Sucks.

When Johnny Carson handed the reins of the Tonight Show over to Jay Leno in 1992, he did so with a great deal of reluctance. Johnny wanted to pass the torch to who many thought was the natural successor to the Tonight Show – David Letterman. A lot of backroom politics, hiding in closets, and corporate maneuvering kept that from happening. And the man responsible for those moves was Jay Leno.

The next time you’re sitting down with Netflix wondering what to stream, download The Late Shift for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

The kind of slimy moves Leno made to get himself The Tonight Show in ’92 are the same moves he’s making 18 years later to get right back to where he started.

Amazingly, some people actually thought Jay Leno was going to step down in favour of Conan keeping The Tonight Show to alleviate all the drama that’s taking place. Here’s why those people are wrong:

NBC wanted to push Jay Leno out of the Tonight Show, as idiotic as that was. Leno was getting good ratings as host at 11:30, mostly based on having strong lead-ins from prime time. NBC has made a lot of stupid moves, but that's beside the point. They wanted to mess with what worked and bring Conan up an hour. Conan jumped at the chance, and who wouldn't?

Much of what brings viewers into late night is having the 10-o’clock drama hour packed with strong shows like Law and Order, ER, and most recently cop drama Southland, a show with strong ratings after its debut. NBC dominated in that department for the longest time, which fed into Leno’s banal, non-edgy talk show. As pablum as it was, it was a formula that worked.

So instead of riding off into the sunset and passing the Tonight Show baton to Conan, Jay made it all about himself. When Jay’s 10:00 show was starting up, everyone was talking about it – because it got promoted far and above Conan’s move. Everywhere you looked, Leno was being advertised for his big move to 10.

Wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be about Conan's triumphant ascension into the late night throne? It became about Jay.

For a guy who announced he was leaving the Tonight Show back in 2004 – a guy who had a full 5 years to plan his next move, he wanted to do the same show at 10? He wasn't leaving? He was going to have people driving a green car? His biggest change was getting rid of his desk? Really? He was just going to do the same show but even more neutered?

That was it?

The ratings didn’t lie – “The Jay Leno Show” was a disaster, and had local affiliates threatening NBC to preempt it to stop the bleeding.

Meanwhile, who suffered? Conan O'Brien.

By having one of the weakest lead-ins in the history of television, there was hardly a person left to watch Conan on the Tonight Show at 11:30. Leno knew it and wanted it that way. It was his plan all along - he never wanted to leave in the first place.

As you may have heard, NBC offered to put Leno back at 11:35 while pushing Conan to just after midnight with The Tonight Show, which Coco summarily rejected – as he should have. You can’t have The Tonight Show be pushed around the dial after 60 years of tradition, merely because a guy who failed at 10pm wants his old slot back. Hell, it wouldn’t even BE the tonight show, it would be the TOMORROW show.

It’s no coincidence that pretty much everyone in late night is calling Jay out on the carpet for this. Dave Letterman has ripped into Leno the past few days. It's no coincidence that Jimmy Kimmel went as far as to slap on a fake chin, a whiny voice affect and proceeded to dedicate the entire hour of his show to lampooning Jay Leno, even during interviews. It's not by chance that Leno, on the other hand plays the innocent and hardly gives it a mention, instead taking a couple of softball jabs at NBC instead of acknolwedging that he's the one benefitting from all this.

So what happened today? Leno’s getting his old timeslot back, from 11:35-12:35.

Can you see why I'm not at all surprised? Because Jay Leno sucks.