@almostjewish on Twitter says: “Caprica” is *totally* hot. Serious religious thinking + hard sci fi = Where have you been all my life?
Caprica is a spin-off of Battlestar Galactica set way before the Cylons, humanoid machines, attempt to anniliate all of humanity by causing a nuclear holocaust. In this Caprica, the first Cylon has just been created after a member of the Soldiers of the One (STO), a religious group that believes in one true G-d (most of the humans believe in multiple gods), is killed in a terrorist attack and a computer geek mega-mogul puts his dead daughter’s computer avatar into a sentient machine.
Now that I’m an observant Jew, I’m always fascinated by how religious people are portrayed on television. In Caprica, the mega-mogul’s daughter comes to religion after one too many forays into group sex, drugs and partying all accessible on demand via holobands, a user interface technology that allows for seemingly fully immersive virtual reality. In this virtual reality, she finds STO and signs up but doesn’t realize her boyfriend, who is also a member, has become fanatical until he blows himself up (and her, and hundreds of passengers) on a passenger train.
So far, in this world, religious people…
Blow themselves up
Run away from their parents (check)
Engage in polygamy way more complicated than ever seen on “Big Love”
Have conservative values (aka no killing people or partying in holoband world) (check)
Kinda fascinating if a bit eerie and utterly troubling?
Now I’ve got to figure out a whole different post on how Caprica deals with race and ethnicity which is also fascinating, eerie and utterly troubling.
Related:
Battlestar Galactica (Wikipedia)
“Caprica is a religious experience” (Wired Magazine)
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
hoping to watch it this weekend on Hulu. Tried watching it yesterday but Pixie was up and about.
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I'm very excited about this show- especially since in this universe the religious establishment is pantheist, which is something you don't see a whole lot of on television. Should be interesting! My only misgiving is that the monotheists (who I can't help but identify with, being a Jew and all) so far have a terrorist fanatic in their ranks. Oh well.
-Ilana
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