Terra Nova

So the 2 hour premiere has a few scenes with the humans fighting dinosaurs. Apparently, the dinosaurs are bullet proof because they wouldn't take ANY damage! All you saw was a ricochet effect off them, and in some cases they were using a 50 caliber gun mounted on a transport vehicle. This wasn't a plot point or anything so it comes off as very lazy special effects. This then leaves the problem, if the guns don't hurt the dinosaurs, why would you take a weapon out to defend yourself from them if it doesn't work? I mean they had about 6 guys shooting one and it eventually turned and ran. I can see maybe they wanted to tone down the blood and death a bit in the pilot but it came off as a major flaw.

This show is one of my all time favourites. I've watched and rewatched it multiple times and I never get bored of it.

It'll be great if they could bring this show back, with all the original actors in the lead, of course, because they all did a fantastic job portraying their respective characters.

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...

The whole family thing has the wrong feel for the situation. It's like they just moved there from Orange County. The teens are petulant babies. I doubt that would be the case if they had really just left an overpopulated, dangerously polluted world run by a harshly militaristic government. Why can't there be some original thinking about how people might behave in such a precarious situation with an uncertain future, dinosaur threats, and a competing population. Maybe this is a world where teens use their capable brains in new and interesting ways, rather than as trite selfish brats who need babysitting. I doubt that teens would act like that if they were in this situation. Yes, it's good to have varying levels of behavior; not everyone has to be brilliant or saintly. But behavior is influenced by situation and it should bring unique fears, force some creativity, plus there is an obvious ability to have impact in such a small population. What are the relevant issues in this world and how do they impact the inhabitants?

It still saddens me to this day that this show was never picked up for a second season. While it's far from perfect, it had a genuinely interesting concept and some fun ideas, though the execution could have used some work. I would have loved to see them potentially work some of the issues out with a second season, but unfortunately it seems we'll probably never get one.