Terra Nova

I am only here because I gave La Brea a try. I made it through 8 episodes and I started to think of Terra Nova while watching it. Terra Nova had its problems, mostly the teenage anger that had to be worked though. Both shows have the problem of overabundance in that regard. Enough about La Brea, I mention only to demonstrate how intangibles can make or break.

I watched this show some 11 years ago so my memory is not perfect. My kids were nearly 10 and 12 at the time. We could watch this as a family and we all enjoyed it. It could have done with better writers and it is a shame they didn't get them.

Yes the kid characters were a tad annoying. Teenagers just won't be constantly angry with their dad with dinosaurs around unless that dad commits a serious transgression. My kids got surly but never anything severe and they didn't have the danger or a dinosaur eating them.

The story line worked well (keeping in mind this is science fiction) and a interesting premise. There is what I expect is a glaring plot hole. We know it is amazingly expensive in terms of resources to send people from the future to the past and we have to assume it is similar going from that same past to the current day. It just won't be cost effective to send resources forward to the present. If it were a good option I suspect they would send a lot of modern heavy machinery back to make Terra Nova easier going.

I was disappointed this did not get 5 seasons. My wife was disappointed. Worst, my kids were disappointed and this kept it between the lines and we could enjoy it as a family. I think it would still be a good option for Netflix/Amazon/Any of them to pick it up and run with it but I don't think that will happen.

Oh, and La Brea gets dumber and dumber with every episode.

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?

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...

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.

For some reason then it took me five years to get around to watching "Terra Nova", despite the fact that a friend told me good things about it when it was showing back in 2011. But I happened to come across it in a second hand DVD store, and decided to give it a chance.

I must say that I have been missing out on something quite entertaining. Sure, while the concept idea is not original, and might actually be a rip off at certain stages, it still proved to be quite entertaining.

What worked for me here, was a myriad of things. Let's start with the concept idea of time traveling back to the prehistoric time and starting a colony, which was the focal point of the movie. That worked out quite well, and made for a good foundation for the series. Although there were some blanks here and there in the background of it all. And the storyline in the series was also quite good, lots of interesting things happening here, and the writers were good at including multiple people and families in the events that took place in and around the Terra Nova colony. And finally, the characters in the series. There was clearly a lot of thought being put into the characters, as they had good details and often an elaborate background story to be told as well.

The effects in "Terra Nova" were good, well most of the time anyway. There were some moments when the dinosaurs looked quite fake and it was painstakingly clear that it was CGI. But for most parts it was working out nicely, and the dinosaurs were well animated and looked realistic enough.

However, the driving force of "Terra Nova" was the cast. They had managed to put together a great ensemble of cast for this series. Especially Stephen Lang, he was shining in this role.

Normally I am not overly keen on Sci-Fi as per se, but creators Kelly Marcel and Craig Silverstein managed to put together something quite entertaining here with "Terra Nova".

If you haven't already seen the series, I can warmly recommend that you take the time to watch all thirteen episodes, as it is quite entertaining. I am rating "Terra Nova" a solid score of seven out of ten stars.