James Marsters

Look, we know you already are having trouble finding time to watch all of this fall’s new and returning shows. We also know that Caprica got off to a slow start earlier this year. But with that said, this SyFy series really hit its stride before it went on a midseason break, and now that’s it back earlier than expected to finish out its first (but hopefully not last) season, it’s worth clearing some space on your DVR for it. The first nine episodes were filled with provocative science-fiction concepts, innovative storytelling and mind-blowing and disturbing twists. The show definitely deserves a closer look, even if you don’t have a frakking clue about Battlestar Galactica. Here’s why:

10. William Adama Backstory

We stand by the fact that only a bare minimum of BSG knowledge is necessary to enjoy Caprica, but if you happen to be a BSG devotee, it is pretty interesting to see how the life of William Adama unfolded and led to the man who helped save the last of humankind. Here he’s just a kid being raised by his grief-stricken widower father and getting drawn into some questionable Tauron life choices by his shady uncle.

9. Plenty of Violence

There aren’t space dogfights like on BSG, but that doesn’t mean there’s no action. In fact, this show, which is more of a complicated family drama, still has its share of robot battles, shootouts and explosions. Something for everyone, you might say.

8. Fills the Battlestar Void (Mostly)

The plotting’s not quite as complicated as BSG, and there are certainly no human-looking Cylons at this point, but Caprica does still touch on a lot of the religious (polytheism vs. monotheism) issues that BSG explored and deals with a similar society... just a few decades earlier. It really has become the prequel that we’d originally hoped it would be.

7. New Cap City

It’s a dirty, disgusting virtual world where anything can, and does, happen. Not only are there more than your fair share of illicit sexual and drug behaviors going on, there’s also the messed-up fact that if you die in the real world, your avatar can live on forever and not be killed. Hmm... we always wondered what would happen to our Facebook profile after we died.

6. Robots

Did we mention there are robots? Well, Cylons, anyway. Robots who are being built to basically kill and do human dirty work? What’s not to like?

5. Daniel Graystone is Certifiably Insane

We never know what this unstable man is going to do next. Will he have people killed in order to save his company? Will he make a Cylon he thinks might be his daughter shoot their family dog? Will he set his daughter/robot on fire to prove a point? Who knows. He’s batshit crazy and will stop at nothing to stay rich, so we can’t wait to see what happens as his breakdown continues.

4. Orgies

All right, so technically it’s a group marriage, but this isn’t the Sister Wives type of situation where they all have their own separate portions of the house. We’re talking about a woman with lots of men and women she’s married to all sharing the same bed at the same time. You don’t see that on network TV much, do you?

3. James Marsters

Yes, we’re pandering to the Buffy legions out there by mentioning that he guest-stars as part of a religious terrorist organization. But if telling you that the former Spike is playing a baddie named Barnabas will bring in new viewers to Caprica, we’re not above pandering.

2. You Know It Won’t End Well

Even if you aren’t a BSG fan, you probably have a hunch that if you give robots brains and free will... things are never going to turn out okay. In watching the creation of the very first Cylon, any BSG fan can’t help but envision the start of that seminal series that kicked off with a Cylon-induced human genocide. And that wasn’t the first time the humans and the robots they created were at war. Just ask little Willie Adama in a few years.

1. Zoe Graystone

She’s one of the few teens on TV that we can actually stand to watch, and that’s got a lot to do with Alessandra Torresani’s performance and with the compelling way they film this character. Sometimes we see her as a Cylon; sometimes we see her as a confused little girl, sometimes she’s a computer genius; other times she’s a cold-hearted killer. But most often she’s a rebellious girl with serious daddy issues. Whoever she is, she’s wildly complicated, and we love her for that.