Caprica, or How "Welcome to Vancouver!"

Watched Caprica (finally!) - the prequel series to my beloved Battlestar Galactica. My thoughts?:

Wow. Really, it's all I could muster. And then there's the whole "wtf" factor which had me hooked from the first scene where you're like "what the hell are these kids doing in this fucked up club?!" and which never really lets go (that scene where Adama sees his girl's 'avatar' works on the same level - it's at once creepy and creepily engaging). I do wonder where it's going to go and how well the whole 'I'm a human in a Cylon body' is going to work (especially if the CG is going to be on par with the only cringe-worthy scene of the show). That said, I do worry that it's very male-centered (sure BSG was all about the Adamas, but it was Roslin, Six and Starbuck that got me hooked) though I'm hoping the two teen girls and the accented headmistress get juicier roles as the show progresses.

That's a long way of saying: I'm intrigued and I really enjoyed it.

That said, the one thing that really made the show amazing for me is its use of Vancouver for locations. Sure, BSG had already shown us snippets of what the world in Caprica City was (both in the mini-series, in some flashbacks and in those last episodes of the show) but Caprica lives and breathes on par with the luscious Pacific Northwest scenery. Kind of makes me want to move back:

Vancouver 2010 Mascots, or How THIS is How First Nations Anime Looks Like

Meet the Mascots for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics!

As if the simplified (smiling and primary-coloured) Inukshuk that the Canadian/Olympic authorities branded as the Vancouver 2010 symbol hadn't sparked enough 'is this Politically-correct?' conversations - most of them directed at the potentially misappropriation of what is so obviously a First Nations symbol to denote "Canadianness" to the (albeit touristy) world Olympic watcher/audience; the Winter Olympic Mascots were unveiled earlier this week.

Let's meet them:
[the following descriptions were taken from the official website]

Miga: Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino, British Columbia. Sea bears are part killer whale and part bear. Miga is part Kermode bear, a rare white bear that only lives in British Columbia.

Sumi: Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia. Like many Canadians, Sumi's background is drawn from many places. He wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.

Quatchi: Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from mysterious forests of Canada. Quatchi is shy, but loves to explore new places and meet new friends. Although Quatchi loves all winter sports, he’s especially fond of hockey. He dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie.

One need not be a doctoral candidate to see the ways in which National symbols lend themselves easily to be analysed and explored as cultural artifacts that instead of creating a sense of National Unity more often than not show us the process through which 'Nation' is a cultural construct...
But before I get carried away in academic discourse I want to just isolate a couple of things in a more direct manner:
- Each mascot tries to evoke 'Canadiana' (Hockey? Check! First Nations totemic art? Check! West Coast mythology? Check! Totemic iconography? Check! - Seriously it's as if they just walked by Granville Island and Gastown and pre-packaged what we portray to tourists what the 'West Coast' is all about, I'm actually surprised Salmons didn't garner any mention...)
- Just as with the Inukshuk, First Nations (if only commodified for the rest of the world) are represented mainly in Sumi (Token FN mascot) who functions as a totem-mascot, who 'just like many Canadians' comes from many places and is a mish-mash of West Coast First Nations iconography - mainly the Haida art in his 'killer whale hat' and his Thunderbird wings.
- The artwork (or cartoon-work) is anime in style: an acknowledgment of the increasingly Asian community in the West Coast? an appeal to 'younger, hipper, manga-reading' audiences?

They are quite adorable, and I'm just sad I don't get to see the media reactions out West which I'm sure will range from 'Where's the political correctness?!' to 'OMG! So Canadian!'
And yet with all their (albeit artificially constructed) 'Canadianness' they manage to epitomize what Vancouver was for me: can't you just see these mascots plastic wrapped in Hello Kitty stores in Metrotown as well as in T-shirts sold at the Bay for them Robson-loving tourists?

Bionic Vancouver, or How Katee Sackhoff is the shit

Wednesday

8:00 Back to You (FOX)
Did I watch Frasier for Kelsey Grammer? No.
Did I watch Everybody Loves Raymond for Pat Heaton? No.
Why did I watch Back to You? Cause it was on FOX when I got home and I had half an hour to wait til Bionic was on. What I got was a great early 1990's sitcom. It was good for what it's worth, and though I do believe Ms Heaton will shine more in this than she ever did playing Ray Romano's wife (god how I hate that show...) it will take a while (and a certain type of audience) for this comedy to catch on. It feels dated somehow - I mean, how many multi-camera, 'filmed in front of a live audience' sitcoms do we have on right now? How many are successful? Back to You, though filled with great actors, and an impeccable production team, seems to tell us that it's because it's heyday has passed, and I am quite okay with that. I mean the punchline included a dead fish..? Dr Crane can surely do better than that, and I hope in weeks to come, he will.

Favourite Part of the Show: ... that forgettable, I guess.

9:00 Bionic Woman (NBC)
As if the impeccable production, the interesting (re)created concept of the Bionic Woman and the good looks of Michelle Ryan weren't enough of a draw for me, NBC added some Vancouver shots and the electric performance by Katee Sackhoff to win me over completely. But I have to admit, all those other things got me hooked as well (what else was I expecting when the amazing David Eick, of BSG fame was involved?). If we all didn't know the mythology before, I think NBC has done a good job of making the story behind 'bionic woman' well-known with an aggressive marketing push that goes back to Comic-con in San Diego (where that pic from Katee Sackhoff comes from): woman gets 'bionic-ized' (new legs, arm, ear and eye) after an accident leaves her almost dead. This reimagining of Bionic owes much to several strong female-centered shows that came before it: Buffy, Dark Angel and even BSG. Jamie Summers joins a select group of empowered females that battle evil - she's in good company, but she can also stand on her own. That last cat-fight with Katee is by far the best one we've seen since Katee herself battled an arrow-wielding Tricia Helfer, and before that we hadn't seen that girl-on-girl fighting action since Sarah and Eliza were duking it out for Slayer-of-the-year.
My favourite lines were by far those of the evil 'rogue' Bionic Woman - when have we seen such a good way to Time Out of a fight than light a cigarette in order to advance the exposition during a fight? Exactly. Plus, any woman who can wear that much lipstick and not look like a hooker is a pleasure to see (who knew Starbuck could be so evil?) This show is of course a fanboy's wetdream and all I have to say to that is that we are lacking in the hot boys department (if after the episode ended Will indeed died) - because I mean, if all I have to look at for eye candy is Isaiah Washington (don't even get me started on that baffling casting choice)... My point exactly.

Favourite Part of the Show: The self-aware scene with the girl in the car, who, after seeing Jamie running really fast says to her mom: "I just thought it was cool that a girl could do that." So do we, random girl, so do we...

Second Favourite Part of the Show: Seeing Vancouver. Everywhere. I can't even remember what city they're making it pass for, but it made me miss Koerner Library and even Buchannan Tower when I saw it in the background like 10mins into the show...Sigh