Terra Nova: season 1 thread - Page 3

I think it would have been better if it was hard hitting with more of an edge. Who really wants to watch another Family drama and set in Prehistoric times?
Why not something more dense with a wide variety of characters?
You can tell from the Pilot there was a mishmash of things thrown together. The tone shifted continually and it showed.
It's like they were trying to pick the biggest demographic that they could appeal too.

This is nowhere near as good as say, BSG or Firefly. It's not even good as Journeyman.

And the sad part is, they aren't even managing to hit the demographic that watched LOST. The teenage boy is too young to be interesting to anyone but "tween" viewers, and the husband and wife are too old to be interesting to everyone else. There's also a daughter but she's beyond bland. And the child daughter - who the hell cares about her? Not to mention, the husband and wife married so they're inherently boring. The pale girl who the boy likes is no Kate, that's for sure. So maybe on examination, the show is made for Tweens. Except then why even have the father and mother on the show? No Tween is going to care what the parents are up to.

Babysitting with Dinosaurs might be a better title for the show.

Or 'Life On Mars'.

Oh, if only it was as much fun as Lost In Space!

I was talking about the US version.  Never saw the UK version.  I thought the US version was okay.  Nothing special, but entertaining.  And better than Terra Nova.

Apparently, families like MattCR's :)

 

I'm not a huge fan of TN, but how many other Family dramas set in Prehistoric times are there (were there)?

 

As a guy without kids, my sense -- like with BSG -- is that there is a dearth of big, exciting shows that are family friendly. BSG did not strike me as a show I'd let my (hypothetical) 11 - 15 yr old son watch. Likewise, what tween has the patience for the slow-burn character drama of Journeyman (a show I loved)? Well - we see not even adults have the patience for that, since it's gone :)
 

 

The Flintstones ?
(OK, it was a Dramedy)

Exchange of the night:

Cmdr Taylor: Found his boots.

Dr. Shannon: He's wandering around out there barefoot?

Cmdr Taylor: Nah, the feet were still in them.


For all its problems, I really like this cast. Lang makes a great ex-military bad ass, with a character here who's more human than his Avatar role. I believe the marriage between O'Mara and Conn, which still has a little sexy to it and a little passion. Most importantly, I buy O'Mara as a father. He does that better than most TV fathers do. The relationship between Jim and Zoe is really well done, in small perfect doses. And I like that he's not the dad who sits the new boyfriend down for The Speech, he's the dad who inadvertently walks in and immediately slips out with an apology.

I'm totally confused by this show. I watch it, think it's really cheesy, wonder why I'm watching it, and tune in again the next week.

Unfortunately, here in Chicago, I didn't get to watch tonight's episode. I was DVR'ing the game so I could watch the Bears game. And the baseball game ran late. They started the episode at 55 minutes after the hour, so I could only watch 5 minutes worth. No repeat scheduled at this time.

David

I preferred the US version of Life on Mars -- except for the last episode of course. I think Life on Mars was mentioned because it is the same actor as the lead in both shows.

 

I forgot all about Megaforce, which has never been released to DVD (let alone Blu-ray)

 

 

Yeah, I forgot that the baseball games are on Fox now, which screwed up my recording of this and House. Since I record both, I was able to watch most of this broken up between two separate recordings.

It appears that Fox doesn't put stuff online until 8 days after airing too, which is kind of dumb.

Anyone able to tell what the guy said to Josh after mentioning getting a message to the future only with the next pilgrimmage? I rewound 3 or 4 times and just couldn't understand him.

I don't remember the exact exchange, but the gist of it is this: Everyone in Terra Nova is under the impression that their time can only communicate with Earth 2149 while the portal is open, the portal only opens to send through each successive pilgrimage. The bartender hinted that that is not the case. It's likely the Sixers have some means of communicating with 2149 at least somewhat routinely. Whether they have a means of communication that Taylor doesn't know about, or Taylor is also in communication with the future fairly regularly but is lying to everyone else about that fact, we don't know about yet.

Yeah, I figured that from the end, but just wasn't sure if I missed something by not being able to understand him there. Sounds like probably not.

Last night I discovered how to enhance the quality. Fast-forward through the teenagers storyline.

Shoot. I had hoped you'd come up with a fun Terra Nova drinking game.

The show’s edge is just far too soft. (Probably because of Spielberg’s influence.)

The teenage angst story lines are tiresome and should be dropped as soon as possible.

Another problem I’m having is how primitive the colony is after 7 years. This is supposedly humanity’s last chance so I would think they would be sending through much more in the way of technology and means of production then we have seen so far.

For this show we lost both Lie To Me and Chicago Code? Both were infinitely better. I'm done with it, it's off my DVR the first casualty of the season, I expect Fox will pull the Plug soon.

having adjusted my expectations, I'm enjoying more this junior high oriented star trek style adventure show. This latest episode especially felt like the second episode of a new show called "Star Trek:  Jurassic"

I wish they would discuss a little more about the portal. Can they open it whenever they want?....How long can they keep it open?....How big is the opening? Someone earlier brought up the lack of protection from flying dinos. I agree. They should have either underground bunkers or they should build a large building made of concrete (ie-Command center). Something that can protect the residents. Also, I know its not politically correct. But, the colonists should make it there business to kill every hostile dino within a few miles of the base.

I've bailed on the show, based on the belief that the showrunner(s) are unsure about what the central mystery or central purpose of the story is.

I'm OK with Terra Nova, but when you put it that way, I caught up with my DVR'd episodes (the whole series) of The Chicago Code over the summer, and I'd rather have that than Terra Nova.

 

Braga is copying himself now.

Reminds me of the F/X exec who said, "If I didn't cancel Terriers and Lights Out, I couldn't have brought you American Horror Story." Gee, thanks. I mean, the economics of that make sense, but those shows were both excellent, so don't expect any thanks and high fives from me.

Talking of The Chicago Code, "Liam" was just on Castle.

It's not a zero sum game, like on cable. "Chicago Code" failed to attract an audience and "Lie to Me" failed to hold onto its audience. Therefore, Fox canceled them. If there had been no "Terra Nova", Fox still would have canceled them. The ratings didn't justify the cost of production.

"Terra Nova" is better rated than both of those shows were. It's also considerably more expensive. We'll definitely see the whole first season, since its already in the can. I would guess the numbers will have to improve somewhat for there to be a season two.

Wow, what a crapfest this last episode was.  I would have loved to have been in the writers' room when the idea for this absurd episode got pitched.

 

"I found his boots."

 

"So he's barefoot?"

 

"No, his feet were in them."

 

You can't make this stuff up!  (Though I guess someone did...)

Jason O'Mara makes this show. He's acting the hell out of Jim Shannon. Watch the way he observes Taylor's investigation. He's clearly troubled by the tactics and the dictatorial nature of the system. He's terrific with both of the young girls. The blonde Mad Max reject runaway was a terrible little actress, but she lit up when ever she saw him. The girl who plays Zoe, while a better actress, is the same way. Usually soldier-type leading men are cold, distant badasses. Jim's a bad ass, but he's warm and emotionally healthy and a good father. It brings a different element to the table that I'm quite enjoying.