fetboy

Admittedly I am was a big fan of BSG, but Caprica is pretty damn awesome in so many ways. The big praise goes out to the cast which is nothing short of miraculous in that it actually managed to top BSG's. Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Polly Walker, Sasha Roiz, Brian Markinson, Jorge Montesi, and Hiro Kanagawa are an amazing blend of talent, personalities, and chemistry that works in every scene. At the core is Stoltz and Morales who are polar opposites, but find common ground in mutual grief. Stoltz and Malcomson play the picture perfect couple that keeps deep secrets from one another. Morales and Rois play close orphaned (immigrant) brothers who are on opposite sides of the law, (or are they?). And Walker and Markinson play antagonists to each other on socio-religious ideology. Montesi plays a godfather character better than De Niro or Al Pacino did, and his character is sure to come between the Adama brothers. Kanagawa plays the unscrupulous business partner/co-scientist of Stoltz, and his role in the development of the cylons is sure to wrap it altogether, or tear it all apart. How did it all happen, who was to blame, who were the saviors, who is right, and who is wrong? A lot of story arch(es), a lot of possibilities, and great a cast to make it all interesting as the story of the greatest futuristic/prehistoric tragedy unfolds. The cast and story lines aren't the only things to praise about Caprica. The sets, most of which are reused from BSG, are dazzling to the eyes, and the production makes common structures such as a convent, an old bank, modern and 60s styled buildings, and narrow catwalks to beautifully setup every scene with the perfect atmosphere. The natural majestic landscape of Vancouver is spellbinding, and somehow the uses of regular street scenes compliments both the futuristic and exotically exciting nature of the show. The use of "the light" lighting and music scoring are carried over from BSG, and are used as spectacularly in Caprica as they were in BSG. I ordered Caprica through netflix, watched it twice, then had to watch it with the commentary, and then had to buy it so that it will always be in my collection. The final cut of the Caprica's pilot did well with all the editing, as it introduced the characters and started the story arches and sub plots without giving anything away, but leaves you hungry for more, and they had better give it.

Sleeper Cell attempts to swim both sides of the pool (terrorism/patriotic Muslim Americans), and it does neither very well.

I had put off watching this show for a very long time, because I had a feeling it would be too predictable, but after a year in my netflix queue, I finally moved it up to the front.

The show is about an undercover Muslim man working for the FBI in an attempt to infiltrate a terrorist cell operating in the United States. The undercover agent in the show actually is a Muslim, so we see his conflict/resolution between his Patriotism and his Religious beliefs. Personally I would have rather watched a drama about a Muslin American family living in the United States, but it is doubtful that an America TV channel (cable or network) will ever produce anything that shows Muslims in a flattering light.

I am not a Muslim, but I have a lot of Muslim American Friends, and I can honestly say that none of them are terrorists and they all love America.

Sleeper Cell comes close to busting stereotypes of Muslims, but it also focuses on the worse Muslim stereotypes. In the first episode we see an "honor killing," which is a very poor portrayal of Islam, but in the 3rd episode we see a very respected moderate Muslim scholar teaching the viewer that the real Jihad is actually a personal struggle that is not meant to incite violence towards others.

If only the Moderate Muslim scholar had been the main character of the show.

Americans need to learn a lot more about Islam, Sleeper Cell helps a little bit, but it comes up far short of giving the America audience what it really needs to knows.

That said, the acting in this show is superb, and the drama is extremely engrossing. If only they had made this show about Islam in America without the terrorism, it would have been first rate.

Hello everybody. I am American and I have fully funded, US government run health care. How is that possible you ask? I am an active duty US servicemen! My deductibles are nothing, I pay nothing, I can go to the government run hospitals anytime I want, and none of my requests for special medical services and procedures will ever be denied or declined. In fact, I literally have the same health care plan that the Gitmo detainees have. However the current politicians in office have decided to deny that health care system to reservist, national guardsmen, and veterans (but they give the health care coverage I have to themselves). So don't tell me that a government run, government funded, non-profit health care system won't work for Americans, because it is working for millions of Americans.

Since I am writing here I might as well address some of the BS arguments against universal health care.

BS argument #1; it's too expensive. Well, according to CNN.COM's fact check on "Sicko", France, which has a health care system that is ranked in the top 10 (where as America is ranked 37th) only spend 11% of their GDP on health care, where as America spend over 15% (much of which goes to help make the CEOs of Aetna, CIGNA, Kaiser Permanente, Humana, Wellpoint, HealthPartners, Allina and all the other HMOs billionaires, as Michael Moore pointed out). Also according the CIA world fact book, American's have a GDP per-capita of $44,000, where as France's GDP per-capita is only $31,100, so in fact if America had an identical system to France, it would only cost about 8% of our GPD.

BS Argument #2; it would cost the tax payers a lot of money. True, but let's think about this rationally; would you rather pay a $1,000 a year in taxes to fund a health care system that will give you universal health care no matter who you are, or do you prefer to pay $1,900 a year out of your pocket to a heath care system that works to maximize it's profits by denying as many claims as it possibly can? Where would you rather have your hard earned money go to; to the national treasury, or to the bank accounts of the billionaire HMO CEOs? The national treasury we can control with our votes, but we have no control over the HMO CEOs, most of whom keep their money in accounts and investments outside of the USA.

BS argument #3; citizens of nations with universal health care systems have to wait longer to get operations. True, but not by much, and at least they get their operations. In a universal health care system claims are not denied because of preexisting conditions, and cancer survivors are not denied coverage because they once had cancer.

BS argument #4; Fraud cases are costly. However the people who say that fail to mention that the fraud cases are present in the existing American privatized system, but that under a Government run system fraud cases would be easier to spot, because the government would have more sources (such as law enforcement) to look into cases that were fraudulent. The US government is lass likely to get ripped off by individuals than private HMOs are. In any case it does not seem likely that the amount of fraudulent claims would increase under a universal Health care system (more than likely the amount would decrease).

Personally I know a lot of young, very patriotic US servicemen, servicewomen, and dependents who have survived cancer through the health care they received from the US Military, and are terrified of getting out of the service, because they know American HMOs will not want to offer them coverage.

We are a very sad country if we cannot take care of our heroes.