Terra Nova - Television Review
Sep. 28th, 2011 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[ETA: It's probably worth mentioning that the only people who are going to enjoy this sort of tv show are people who enjoyed Jurassic Park or shows like Earth 2, Lost, and flicks like Swiss Family Robinson. If you hate stuff like that, this is NOT your show. Because it is basically Jurassic Park meets Earth 2. There's no getting around that.
I have an absurd weakness for these types of shows - considering I've ahem seen Jurassic Park five times, including all three sequels and read the book (the book is actually better in some respects), and
watched all of Earth 2, tried Outcasts, and liked LOST.]
Just finished watching the season premiere of Steven Spielberg's new mega series Terra Nova. Which reminds me a little bit of Outcasts and Earth 2 in both the set-up and problems, with a touch of Star Gate thrown in, although it's more serialized than Star Gate and they stay in one place, no jumping worlds. But the military aspect and mythology is reminiscent of Star Gate. It's a lot better than Outcasts - acting and production wise, although that isn't saying much.
Bit of back story - it's filmed in New Zealand. And it was supposed to be premiered last May, but got delayed due to production and writing problems. Also the show-runner, who was originally David Fury, got canned due to creative differences. Not sure if Tara Butters and Michelle F. (the female writing team behind "Reaper" and who also wrote for Dollhouse) are still on board or not. Fury did co-write the pilot with Braga. But he's gone now. No clue how much of his writing stayed in the pilot and how much was excised.
The critics said it had clunky writing, but I found it to be fairly entertaining all things considered. Was admittedly surprised, didn't expect much after Spielberg's last effort - the dark and somewhat grating Falling Skies. This was a lot better.
Far more entertaining than critical darlings - PAM AM, NEW GIRL and something else that I can't remember the name of. Making me wonder about these professional television critics. They've been highly unreliable this year - so far the only thing I've agreed with them on was Playboy Club (it sucks) and Charlies Angels (skippable).
The casting is great. First show I've seen this season that really makes solid use of a multi-racial/multi-ethnic cast. In short not everyone looks the same - I actually can tell the characters apart, and they aren't all white. We actually have three non-white female lead characters. Jason Mara (of the US version of Life on Mars) plays the male lead, an ex-vice cop who escapes from a maximum security prison to live in a new world with his family. His wife is portrayed by British Actress Shelly Conn.
Go here for a picture of the actress:
http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-66065/Shelley+Conn
Elizabeth is a physician and biological scientist. Her husband is put in prison for punching a guy and violating a population law - they had three children instead of just two. The series takes place in the distant future - where the Earth is polluted, and
population is strictly controlled.
A fracture in space-time has enabled humanity to travel to backwards 85 billion years to a different earth, in a different time stream. So no fear of affecting our Earth. Ray Bradbury's classic sci-fi tale "The Sound of Thunder" is referenced or the "Butterfly Effect". Humanity decides to send people on pilgrimmages through the fracture, but it is a one-way trip, you can't return. On Terra Nova - this new settlement, where humanity can start over, there are two major problems: 1) humanity hasn't changed all that much - there's a splinter group called the Sixers who is fighting the settlement of Terra Nova, we aren't quite sure why and 2) dinosaurs and the new world. (The Sixer's story thread reminds me a great deal of Outcasts which did a similar story thread. Basically this is Outcasts but without dinosaurs, better production value and better actors.)
Elizabeth decides to agree to go to Terra Nova, and helps her husband break out of prison, who in turn sneaks their third child Zoe out with them in a back pack. Apparently - Elizabeth is a major talent in the field of medicine and was recruited for this. Once in the new world - Jim Shannon, hubby, manages to talk his way out of a job in agriculture and into a job on the leader, Taylor, security team. The leader is played by Stephen Lang, of Avatar fame.
Of course the teenage son hooks up with a teen girl who talks him into going outside the fence, where they discover all sorts of weird rock paintings, which are apparently forbidden territory - and Taylor doesn't want anyone to know about. We learn what they are and who put them there at the very end of the episode. Unlike LOST, they aren't interested in teasing you too long about things.
(Apparently all tv series are afraid of doing this now - the promise is - don't worry, we'll answer the questions - you won't have to wait ten years and not get a good answer, like LOST!)
While the series hardly requires much thought, the actors and characters are engaging, the dinosaurs and special effects are wickedly cool, and it's sort of fun. So far. And I'm not bored.It held my attention. Also, the characters appear to be complex. And there's a mystery at the center of it - you aren't quite sure what is up with Nathan Taylor, what happened to his son who he says disappeared several years ago, why the Sixer's broke off and who sent them, and what the agenda is - except that not everything is as it appears.
It's fun. But I don't know if it will stay that way. That pilot has a lot of potential, but will it go the way of Earth 2 and Outcasts or build and expand? Too early to tell. But not at all what I expected. It's less Swiss Family Robinson and more...Jurassic Park meets Earth 2.
Overall rating? B+
I have an absurd weakness for these types of shows - considering I've ahem seen Jurassic Park five times, including all three sequels and read the book (the book is actually better in some respects), and
watched all of Earth 2, tried Outcasts, and liked LOST.]
Just finished watching the season premiere of Steven Spielberg's new mega series Terra Nova. Which reminds me a little bit of Outcasts and Earth 2 in both the set-up and problems, with a touch of Star Gate thrown in, although it's more serialized than Star Gate and they stay in one place, no jumping worlds. But the military aspect and mythology is reminiscent of Star Gate. It's a lot better than Outcasts - acting and production wise, although that isn't saying much.
Bit of back story - it's filmed in New Zealand. And it was supposed to be premiered last May, but got delayed due to production and writing problems. Also the show-runner, who was originally David Fury, got canned due to creative differences. Not sure if Tara Butters and Michelle F. (the female writing team behind "Reaper" and who also wrote for Dollhouse) are still on board or not. Fury did co-write the pilot with Braga. But he's gone now. No clue how much of his writing stayed in the pilot and how much was excised.
The critics said it had clunky writing, but I found it to be fairly entertaining all things considered. Was admittedly surprised, didn't expect much after Spielberg's last effort - the dark and somewhat grating Falling Skies. This was a lot better.
Far more entertaining than critical darlings - PAM AM, NEW GIRL and something else that I can't remember the name of. Making me wonder about these professional television critics. They've been highly unreliable this year - so far the only thing I've agreed with them on was Playboy Club (it sucks) and Charlies Angels (skippable).
The casting is great. First show I've seen this season that really makes solid use of a multi-racial/multi-ethnic cast. In short not everyone looks the same - I actually can tell the characters apart, and they aren't all white. We actually have three non-white female lead characters. Jason Mara (of the US version of Life on Mars) plays the male lead, an ex-vice cop who escapes from a maximum security prison to live in a new world with his family. His wife is portrayed by British Actress Shelly Conn.
Go here for a picture of the actress:
http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-66065/Shelley+Conn
Elizabeth is a physician and biological scientist. Her husband is put in prison for punching a guy and violating a population law - they had three children instead of just two. The series takes place in the distant future - where the Earth is polluted, and
population is strictly controlled.
A fracture in space-time has enabled humanity to travel to backwards 85 billion years to a different earth, in a different time stream. So no fear of affecting our Earth. Ray Bradbury's classic sci-fi tale "The Sound of Thunder" is referenced or the "Butterfly Effect". Humanity decides to send people on pilgrimmages through the fracture, but it is a one-way trip, you can't return. On Terra Nova - this new settlement, where humanity can start over, there are two major problems: 1) humanity hasn't changed all that much - there's a splinter group called the Sixers who is fighting the settlement of Terra Nova, we aren't quite sure why and 2) dinosaurs and the new world. (The Sixer's story thread reminds me a great deal of Outcasts which did a similar story thread. Basically this is Outcasts but without dinosaurs, better production value and better actors.)
Elizabeth decides to agree to go to Terra Nova, and helps her husband break out of prison, who in turn sneaks their third child Zoe out with them in a back pack. Apparently - Elizabeth is a major talent in the field of medicine and was recruited for this. Once in the new world - Jim Shannon, hubby, manages to talk his way out of a job in agriculture and into a job on the leader, Taylor, security team. The leader is played by Stephen Lang, of Avatar fame.
Of course the teenage son hooks up with a teen girl who talks him into going outside the fence, where they discover all sorts of weird rock paintings, which are apparently forbidden territory - and Taylor doesn't want anyone to know about. We learn what they are and who put them there at the very end of the episode. Unlike LOST, they aren't interested in teasing you too long about things.
(Apparently all tv series are afraid of doing this now - the promise is - don't worry, we'll answer the questions - you won't have to wait ten years and not get a good answer, like LOST!)
While the series hardly requires much thought, the actors and characters are engaging, the dinosaurs and special effects are wickedly cool, and it's sort of fun. So far. And I'm not bored.It held my attention. Also, the characters appear to be complex. And there's a mystery at the center of it - you aren't quite sure what is up with Nathan Taylor, what happened to his son who he says disappeared several years ago, why the Sixer's broke off and who sent them, and what the agenda is - except that not everything is as it appears.
It's fun. But I don't know if it will stay that way. That pilot has a lot of potential, but will it go the way of Earth 2 and Outcasts or build and expand? Too early to tell. But not at all what I expected. It's less Swiss Family Robinson and more...Jurassic Park meets Earth 2.
Overall rating? B+
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 02:02 am (UTC)I don't think Terra Nova is going to keep me in my chair - or awake if I watch it in bed. Someone really hot would have to keep their shirt off all the time and keep me laughing. Plus, I don't really care about dinosaurs.....
no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 12:15 pm (UTC)Sort of like your issue with Terra Nova, don't really care to watch serial killers. ;-)
Idris Elba just isn't enough to pull my interest.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 02:02 am (UTC)http://twitter.com/#!/Dfury/status/118343098093944832
Whether you enjoy or not, I had nothing to do with 2nite's TERRA NOVA, credits notwithstanding. But I hop you found Fringe to your liking.
so I'm guessing that 'creative differences' was an understatement (LOL)
I myself only watched about ten minutes of Terra Nova, and I got tired of the whiney teen agers (maybe that was just bad luck that the ten minutes I watched was ALL whiney teen agers).
no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 12:24 pm (UTC)Glee? Now that show is what I would describe as having whiny teens, and whiny adults. If it weren't for the musical numbers...I'd stop watching. Maybe we have different definitions of whine?
Terra Nova got really interesting at the end of it.
But the set-up isn't for everyone.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 01:34 pm (UTC)Assuming that Terra Nova is not a comedy I just found the behavior annoying (I would have expected some spirit of adventure in some of them). But as I said, I didn't give the show a fair try (I don't think it is for me... I'm one of those rare people who didn't like Jurassic Park at all).
no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 01:59 pm (UTC)I told the Momster that last night - she hates those types of shows, where it's about survival and there's these weird creatures or dinosaurs.
She hated Lost.
I, on the other hand, have an absurd weakness for them. Loved Earth 2, tried Outcasts (really bad, unfortunately), huge fan of BSG, even liked Mysterious Island...and I adored Jurassic Park - even read the book, saw all three films (my favorite may be the much underrated third film with Sam Neil, William H. Macy, and Tea Leonie), and watch it every time it pops up on tv. I think I've seen it five times. LOL!
So, mileage varies.;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 03:41 am (UTC)For me the music was too present, especially the first half. Like it was announcing, "This is a Touching Moment!" for me. I do think Terra Nova has potential, but I'm hoping they'll tone down a bit some of the heavy-handedness in general.
I'm sure we'll get more info, but I'm really curious about maintaining links to the future. How is it done?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 04:23 pm (UTC)Odd. I didn't notice it. Although it admittedly has to be REALLY REALLY bad for me to notice and well, I do watch "Grey's Anatomy". Grey's musical score/sound editing is so poorly done that it is often impossible to hear the dialogue. They have been known to put on the musical score, the dialogue and a voice over all at the same time - I tried closed captioning and it was still impossible to figure out what was what, because the closed captioning was struggling to choose - which to pick? The dialogue? The song? Or the voice over?
Sort of hard to print out all three at once.
The best? The Wire. That show knew how to do music and score.
I'm sure we'll get more info, but I'm really curious about maintaining links to the future. How is it done?
That admittedly was the bit that both surprised and intrigued me. So they aren't completely stranded in the past? There's actually communication with the Future? And the whole bit at the end - "whoever controls the past controls the future?" So did they create a new time stream with the fracture? And are they in contact with the future in that timestream or in the other one?
I think I'm more intrigued by that then the characters. Also like you, I apparently like post-apocaplytic stories (except for Jericho and Outcasts, I've no idea why I didn't like Jericho and Outcasts. Terra Nova may go down that road too...who knows. I can be admittedly fickle when it comes to tv shows. )