Terra Nova (2011)

Watchseries; I consider myself a movie buff, and I don't wander into the realm of TV very often. But when I herd about Terra Nova I was so interested I counted the days until it aired, and because I work full time and am a full time student, I subscribed to Hulu just to watch this one show. Once I saw the pilot I was hooked, have watched every episode at least twice. I love this show to me it has everything: its got some drama, some action, some mystery. OK so the CGI isn't top of the line, did you really expect it to be? I don't care what the budget is this is a show on cable! The Dinosaurs look great! maybe not perfect but great. You may say the acting is horrible or that the characters would be more intelligent, look at the world they come from, Humans in 2149 have given up, the Earth is depleted, the atmosphere is unbreathable. As the time goes by the characters almost seem to wake up, its almost like they were just husks in 2149 and Terra Nova forces them to sort of flesh out. As the plot continues the show its self fleshes out, This is a big show with a big idea, you can't expect it all to come together in the pilot. In my opinion this show got better every episode and WHEN the second season comes out it will continue to get better and better. The more I learn about Terra Nova the more I want to learn to me this show was like a drug and if that isn't the goal of a TV show tell me what is, if you don't like it thats fine go and watch something else.

I consider myself a movie buff, and I don't wander into the realm of TV very often. But when I herd about Terra Nova I was so interested I counted the days until it aired, and because I work full time and am a full time student, I subscribed to Hulu just to watch this one show. Once I saw the pilot I was hooked, have watched every episode at least twice. I love this show to me it has everything: its got some drama, some action, some mystery. OK so the CGI isn't top of the line, did you really expect it to be? I don't care what the budget is this is a show on cable! The Dinosaurs look great! maybe not perfect but great. You may say the acting is horrible or that the characters would be more intelligent, look at the world they come from, Humans in 2149 have given up, the Earth is depleted, the atmosphere is unbreathable. As the time goes by the characters almost seem to wake up, its almost like they were just husks in 2149 and Terra Nova forces them to sort of flesh out. As the plot continues the show its self fleshes out, This is a big show with a big idea, you can't expect it all to come together in the pilot. In my opinion this show got better every episode and WHEN the second season comes out it will continue to get better and better. The more I learn about Terra Nova the more I want to learn to me this show was like a drug and if that isn't the goal of a TV show tell me what is, if you don't like it thats fine go and watch something else.

Terra Nova watchseries. When I heard Spielberg was exec producing a show about dinosaurs, I half expected Jurassic Park: The Series. All the makings are here. Same for LOST, the two things that this show will inevitably be compared to. It shoots for the mystery and stranded feel of LOST, while throwing in the dinosaurs and the family dynamic of Jurassic Park. Sadly, this is neither, but something in between just shy of the quality of both.

For those unaware of the story, we are taken to the future first, where Earth has become an overpopulated, uninhabitable mess. To solve this problem, for a reason yet to be explained, humanity decides to time warp back 85 million years ago, where they can live in peace and harmony with dinosaurs. Or, as the first episode would like us to believe, can run and scream in terror as carnivorous dinosaurs keep people penned in their little colony and out of the jungle. The focus of the show is the Shannon family, new pilgrims to the colony who quickly learn what's what around Terra Nova. Of course, the most entertaining and interesting character is Stephen Lang, who plays a friendlier version of his character from Avatar. After all, who can't get enough gruff, military commander Stephen Lang.

For the most part, Terra Nova is entertaining, interesting, yet wholly disposable television. It has the Spielbergian touches and is somewhat reminiscent of early 2000, late 90's sci-fi TV. Where those similar aspects in LOST were unfolded in a slow burn to let things sink in for the viewer, or where our introduction to the danger of the dino's in Jurassic Park was slowly brought forth, here it's thrown at you in force. Not for a while, as we have to get acquainted with our main characters, but dangerous thunder lizards are soon enough thrown our way. The carnage shown is a bit surprising considering it's basic TV, yet there are no known deaths, just a few strong, gory moments (depending on your definition of gory) here and there. The dinosaurs themselves are less than desirable. Whereas Jurassic Park, which essentially perfected dinosaurs with a mix of practical and cg effects, had pleasing dinosaurs, here they seem a bit awkward and out of place. Almost completely cg, these dinosaurs look about 5 or 6 years old in the cg department. It would appear that the budget for creating the dinosaurs was less than sufficient, which sadly translates into poorly animated dino's.

Now, it's not all bad. Again, Stephen Lang is entertaining here as the military commander of the colony. The show also presents an interesting plot which I suspect could become more interesting as the season goes on. And while a show like LOST should have ended at probably it's fourth season, Terra Nova has life in it. Sadly, if it doesn't get better than the pilot, than I can't say we will see a season 2. And FOX is quite famous for canceling shows. Maybe the power of Steven Spielberg will save the show. Who knows. I'll ride it for as long as I can, I suppose. But for a pilot, the show was disappointing. What should have been a titanic, impressive two hours turned into a lackluster event with a lack of dinosaur action (and what is up with those names? Slasher? really? We couldn't go with real dinosaurs like velociraptors, compy's, or T- rex's?), turns out to shoot for the moon but only get so far as our atmosphere.

I was pretty excited for this show when I first saw the previews/trailers/etc. I got it on iTunes today and I'm a bit disappointed.

This show is really just your typical, clichéd family drama with some futuristic guns and a few dinosaurs. The acting is just decent and the story is actually pretty boring. The characters are all very one dimensional, boring, etc. The computer effects are sub par, which is a disappointment since they are used so often.

In short, it's just you're typical, PC Fox show. I don't know how many more of these they're going to make before they die away as a company.

Terra Nova is a great show! Fox should be commended for producing a truly family-friendly series, a brave thing to do these days. Terra Nova and The Middle are about the only family- friendly shows on TV right now. Everyone else puts in sexual scenes or incidents that degrade the characters, distract from the story and jar family viewers for no reason. As Bill Cosby said, "It's like someone put red pepper flakes in the Jell-O pudding." Terra Nova doesn't do that, but still packs enough excitement to keep jaded teens interested.

(Full disclosure: I joined IMDb just so I could post this review. I'm not a big network TV fan but was lured back to network TV to check out a fairy tale show on a different network, which promised to have a "Narnia" feel to it. Alas, it has been disappointing because it has extramarital sex in every episode (Hollywood promoting its favorite fairy tale: casual sex with no emotional damage, or venereal diseases, or pregnancies.) But that got me watching network TV again, and I'd heard about Terra Nova so I checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised - and hooked.)

Four reasons why I really enjoy the show:

1. It features a functional family who are civil with each other instead of snarky and sarcastic (rare on TV, since sarcasm is a cheap way to create conflict and laughs). The family members engage in no extramarital anything. It is extremely refreshing. My teen and 5th-grader can watch it and I don't have to hide their eyes (except for some dinosaur-on-human scenes early on). The father of the family and the Commander of the colony are strong father figures, even honorable. Admittedly, this means the writers have to resort to implausible situations (like all the blackmail) to generate conflict and interesting story lines, but that's better than having to endure another parade of atrocious role models just because that makes it easy for writers to generate conflict and drama. Give Terra Nova time to learn how to generate exciting story lines without all the tawdry, cliché techniques other shows employ. Bravo, Spielberg, et al!

2. The show portrays the Cretaceous period very realistically (speaking as a lifelong dinosaur fan and a geologist). The dinosaurs aren't an invincible scourge that bullets can't stop; they don't lurk behind every tree waiting to pounce; instead, the Cretaceous is like the Serengeti - both have big animals that are dangerous if you get too close, but they can be subdued or avoided with the right approach or hardware. I like it that big animals show up only now and then, as big animals really would. Big dinos should be rare, since it takes a lot of food to maintain the big ones. Someday that nearby Brachiosaurus herd can camp around the colony; that would bring in some dinos that really could snap their fence in two without trying, and the brachs would attract the really big predators that everyone wants to see.

3. The sets are detailed and lavish. Somebody had to BUILD this colony in Australia; it's not CG! That alone makes it a pleasure to watch - it's more believable than CG. Their futuristic technology is well-designed and plausible; it forms a natural and interesting backdrop to the story. They use it, but it doesn't get in the way. Refreshing (but probably expensive).

4. Scientists, doctors, and engineers have positive roles in every episode (along with the soldiers and cops). Science or medicine helps the colony in every episode; it's vital to Terra Nova's

At first, like most folks, I was excited about this show based on the trailer, concept etc. I watched the first few episodes and realized it's a rather conservative, formulaic show clearly designed to be a family drama that was safe enough for children to watch with their parents and of a topical arrangement tolerable for most modern parents.

However, the show has developed immensely in the final few episodes of the first season. The majority of the episodes were drab, capsulated pieces of neutral television programming. However, what has developed in the last few episodes leads me to believe that this show has tremendous potential. Main Characters die, big things happen, the plot twists and thickens and the action picks up quite a bit. I still can't call the plot original at all, it's Avatar/Jurassic Park/Earth 2/Lost/Stargate all the way but who cares? Firefly was just a show based on Han Solo, The Wire is just the Sopranos over again and Law & Order...well need I say more?

In just 3 or 4 episodes, this went from a show I caught on Hulu because I couldn't sleep to a show that's now at the top of my list. Too bad they waited until the very end of the season to make the show worth while, there's a whole lotta boring episodes to sit through to get to the good stuff, that could alienate a lot of potential viewers.

Time will tell.

Season premiere was pretty bad. Mind you the production values are quite decent with good FX and costumes and whatnot. However...

The Story? Boriiiiiing. It started very good, in a dystopian future, which seemed pretty interesting even if not the most original of settings... But it only declines from there. At the end of it all, we're in a "family drama", a very cliché one incidentally, with dinosaurs.... so yeah.

The plot is dumb. Typical dumb characters that do dumb things because there needs to happen something to fill the time of the show. The characters are dull, completely un-original, their dialogue is often cringe-inducing, and sadly, the actors that portray them don't seem to be very inspired.

It's fine to have laser guns and dinosaurs and retro-sci-fi stuff, but give us an intelligent story please. I don't want to watch another show about the estranged dad, the angsty son, the nerdy daughter, the innocent child, the worried mom, the hot girl-friend and the over-confident military guy... There seems to be only rehashed stereotype characters in this show... ugh! To be honest, this seems like a waste... it looks expensive enough, but I was expecting something less dumb. Seriously, I wanted to slap every last one of the characters silly. And then the writers...

Let's hope it picks up and quickly, but something tells me it's not going to. I'm already dreading the 'family drama of the week' pace, with a little bit of mystery to try and seem like an interesting show.

Oh well, at least we still have Fringe, we sci-fi buffs...