I don’t often use the word “visionary,” but it applies to “Caprica” (Friday, 8 p.m.), a “Battlestar Galactica” prequel that imagines every detail of a futuristic society not quite like our own.
The pilot is disorienting at first. That makes sense, since we’re in a place – Caprica – that has its own technology, customs, slang and religion. Teenager Zoe (Allesandra Torresani) and her friends hack into a “holo-band” to visit a chaotic virtual nightclub where anything goes, from drugs to group sex to sacrificial killing. A computer genius, Zoe has created a virtual-reality double and endowed her with almost-human qualities.
Zoe is part of a monotheistic cult opposed to Caprica’s prevailing polytheism, and she dies in a terrorist bombing before the first commercial. This is the first of many stunning narrative gambits, and I wouldn’t dare reveal any more. Suffice it to say, Caprica’s music, effects, sets, acting and staging send you somewhere you’ve never been before. The trip is both exhilarating and scary, so don’t undertake it lightly.
“Spartacus: Blood and Sand”
Friday, 9 p.m. (Starz)
This Sam Raimi-produced series is set in ancient Rome, and you know what that means. Gladiators tussle in front of screaming mobs; evil senators in gray bangs drawl with effete British accents in torch-lit rooms; and barbarian hordes grunt through big beards. Before being sent into slavery, the series’ hero (Andy Whitfield) makes a head-scratching plea to his wife in Hollywood Roman-speak: “Keep me close to your thighs.”
The production tries to freshen up its ancient clichés with ultra-violence and cable-porn-style sex scenes. (Now we know what 1st century B.C. breast implants look like.) For all the blood hurtling toward the camera lens, however, “Spartacus” generates little heat. The artificial green-screen environments and the incessant use of slow motion (did nothing happen in real time before Christ’s birth?) have a distancing effect.
Sorry, Mr. Raimi, but I don’t think I’ll be keeping Spartacus close to my thighs.
“Screen Actors Guild Awards”
Saturday, 7 p.m. (TNT, TBS)
It will be difficult to gather around the TV and make snarky remarks about this year’s ceremony, because every single nominee is artistically solid. Luckily, jailbird Charlie Sheen is up for “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series,” so it won’t be impossible.
“Masterpiece Classic”
Sunday, 8 p.m. (PBS)
In 2009, Masterpiece Classic presented new versions of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion. Now it’s time for a new Emma, Austen’s tale of a young woman so obsessed with matchmaking that she’s blind to her own chance for love. The pace is lively, the tone is droll, and the actors are brilliant, particularly Romola Garai in the title role.
Garai has lustrous blond hair, adorable eyes and a 100-watt smile, and just watching her move across the TV screen might have passed the time quite pleasantly. But she proves to be more than just a pretty frame on which to hang Regency bonnets and dresses. She shows us the character’s depths – the painful self-doubt that appears beneath the sparkling surface. And she finds a way to make Emma likable in spite of her abundant failings.
I know it’s only been a year, but I suggest that Masterpiece Classic immediately remake Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion with Garai in the lead roles. An Austen heroine this good comes around once in a generation.
“American Experience”
Monday, 8 p.m. (PBS)
Wyatt Earp is our symbol of law and order in the Old West. He was the small-town marshal dedicated to stopping the bad guys – in other words, to civilizing the savage frontier so that schoolmarms could replace gambling dens and saloons.
According to “American Experience,” the real story isn’t that simple. Earp had been a thief, brothel bouncer and jail-breaker before trying his hand at law enforcement. He brought that outlaw ethos to the gunfight at Tombstone’s OK Corral, killing a couple of innocent people just because he thought trouble was brewing. He and his posse subsequently set off on a vengeful murder spree that sickened even Earp’s supporters in Arizona. “What a comment on the United States government that a band of so-called officials rove over the country murdering people in a spirit of revenge,” wrote a local newspaper.
In the 1920s, Earp tried to convince Hollywood to make a movie of his life but never lived to see it happen. When the movies finally got made, they turned Earp into the hero he never was. I’m surprised it took an American Experience documentary to tell the real story. Schoolmarms, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
