Terra Nova

JohnnyGottaKeyboard · Sep 26, 2011

Well that sucked.

Once again I allowed my expectations to soar (TV Guide, EW, even Ain't it Cool News, were all predicting a hit--I assumed they'd seen something of the show). I try not to judge a series by the pilot, but this thing will need to very nearly recreate itself to win me over after that horrendous spectacle. Bad pacing, bad acting. And the writing was atrocious. Did they grab The Big Book of Cliches and just go down through the index???

Argh! I'm so sad and disappointed.

Leah J. Utas · Sep 26, 2011

The first 18 or so minutes were pretty good. Part one was adequate. Part Two dropped off considerably.
I was disappointed in the chosen conflicts. I agree it was a clichefest. I might give it another chance.

rugcat · Sep 26, 2011

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:
Well that sucked.

Once again I allowed my expectations to soar (TV Guide, EW, even Ain't it Cool News, were all predicting a hit--I assumed they'd seen something of the show). . .

. . . Argh! I'm so sad and disappointed.

Funny.

I read a bunch of reviews from critics who are usually pretty right on and most of them were less than enthusiastic, so I expected to hate it.

But I actually rather liked it, although it's certainly not great. Maybe it's all about expectations.

DavidZahir · Sep 26, 2011

Another show full of pretty young people who look like models (despite coming from an overcrowded, disease-laden, toxic wasteland that makes Blade Runner look like Disneyland).

The situation is kinda interesting.

Not one character manages to accomplish that much.

JohnnyGottaKeyboard · Sep 27, 2011

Suirattigas said:
The first 18 or so minutes were pretty good.

Well, I certainly didn't lose hope completely until about 30 minutes in... But once they were in Jurassic Park and felt the need to start a new plot point every other minute I had to wonder why we wasted so much time on the "jail, escape, will he make it to the wayback machine???" (anyone who had seen a commercial knew Jason O'Mara was going to make it--and I hate to be diddled with).

Oh and did I mention how annoying I found dangergirl?

My favorite line (it was a hard choice because there were some doozies): "You didn't go anywhere near the falls, did you?" (Dunt-dunt-dunt...!)

Calla Lily · Sep 27, 2011

Well, poop. I was hoping this would be a good "turn off the brain and enjoy the shirtless men" series. But there's only so much bad writing I can take.

Flur · Sep 27, 2011

I tuned in right at the start of the second hour. I couldn't get into it at all and thought maybe it was because I'd missed the start, but that doesn't appear to be the case. What's the premise anyway?

KimJo · Sep 27, 2011

My 16-year-old wants to watch this show only because Landon Liboiron is on it, and he played one of her favorite characters on the Degrassi TV show. After reading these comments, even Landon may not be enough to persuade me to watch with her...

Renee Collins · Sep 27, 2011

DavidZahir said:
Another show full of pretty young people who look like models (despite coming from an overcrowded, disease-laden, toxic wasteland that makes Blade Runner look like Disneyland).

My feeling exactly. It was like an Abercrombie and Fitch ad or something. Give me a break.

I might have excused the "pretty people" world, if they hadn't all been stiff and dull and eye-rollingly cliche. If I hadn't been able to predict pretty much everything that happened.

Too bad. Like a lot of you guys, I had high hopes.

Manuel Royal · Sep 27, 2011

Sounds pretty bad. I'm just here to give my usual shout-out to Poul Anderson's 1958 story "Wildcat", which had exactly the same premise as Terra Nova.

Maryn · Sep 27, 2011

The fact that I picked up The Funny Times and read it while I watched tells you how much of my attention it commanded. As noted, cliche-fest, and so predictable I'd have paid to have a twist in any one of the plot lines.

Spoiler, sort of: Like when the doctor-mom pulls the giant leech off her patient's back, without knowing a thing about the creature? I'd have liked him to bleed out and for her to feel some serious guilt, or doubt her abilities, something.

/spoiler

Maryn, who had no expectations and may watch it one more time, if that

Pterofan · Sep 27, 2011

Was anyone else rooting for the dinosaurs?

DavidZahir · Sep 27, 2011

Flur said:
What's the premise anyway?

Future is grim, polluted, doomed. A portal now exists to send people into the distant past, millions of years. Only it isn't our past, but that of a parallel timeline (liked that bit, actually). So waves of immigrants arrive--our characters are part of the tenth wave--into a verdant world complete with dinosaurs.

But things are not quite as they seem. That'd be okay if anything at all seemed interesting.

heyjude · Sep 27, 2011

I hate to say this but I loved it. Went in with exceedingly low expectations (except, you know, DINOS!) and wasn't disappointed. I agree, lots of cliches. But, you know, DINOS!

Yes, I'm rooting for the dinosaurs, too.

Maryn · Sep 27, 2011

Well, look who's outed herself as a dino-freak!

Maryn, nudging your ribs

Jamesaritchie · Sep 27, 2011

Needs impovement, but I liked it, and there's a lot of potential.

KentWatson · Sep 27, 2011

It's only TV

....as TV serials go, it wasn't bad. I'll watch it again to see if they find their way.

This wasn't HBO, you know!!

Broadway Empire, TrueBlood .... it's easy to judge the competition by what pops up on cable, but it's really a different medium with different rules and audience. It just ends up on the same screen.

As far as HBO's entries this past year,the combo of TrueBlood and Broadway Empire is the best I've seen on cable, since 7 years ago, when Rome and Deadwood were on!!

heyjude · Sep 27, 2011

Maryn said:
Well, look who's outed herself as a dino-freak!

Maryn, nudging your ribs

Unapologetically. :snoopy:

I'll watch Jurassic Park 1, 2, 3, through 16 or however many they make and love 'em all, no matter how bad.

Zelenka · Sep 27, 2011

I enjoyed it more than a lot of recent shows, and I was willing to forgive it a little as a lot of first episodes can be a bit slow or naff compared to the rest of the series, as they're setting everything up. And I was also sitting going 'Dinos!' like an overexcited child. (Hey, HJ, my local shopping mall has a Dinopark!)

I am slightly peeved at it though for being almost exactly the idea for a SF book I've been playing with, new colony, weird stuff happening, all that jazz. Hopefully mine is still suitably different to not look like a total rip off.

heyjude · Sep 27, 2011

Zelenka, I'm coming to visit you and that dinopark. Also, if your book has dinosaurs, I would like to beta read.

Esmeralda · Sep 27, 2011

One show was enough. Back to my book.

LOG · Sep 27, 2011

Can someone please tell me why they had to go back millions of years and couldn't go back say, a few thousand or so?

Smish · Sep 27, 2011

LOG said:
Can someone please tell me why they had to go back millions of years and couldn't go back say, a few thousand or so?

They didn't have a time machine. It was just a wormhole of some sort. They couldn't control when or where they ended up. That's what the discussion about the probe was all about (the thing the kid scratched her name on). It's also a different timeline, apparently (since they couldn't find the probe in their present world).

I was majorly disappointed, too. But the dinosaurs were kind of cool. I'll probably watch another episode or two, to see if it gets better.

thothguard51 · Sep 27, 2011

I only got to watch the first thirty minutes and then turned to MNF. As bad as that was to watch, it sounds like I chose wisely.

OK, so its a parallel world of Earth, does no one mention a time paradox in this series?

DavidZahir · Sep 27, 2011

thothguard51 said:
OK, so its a parallel world of Earth, does no one mention a time paradox in this series?

Yeah, they do. A teenage girl tries to explain to her brother why they could travel back only because it is a different timeline therefore there is no paradox (as far as they are concerned).

Terra Nova

Who let this guy in...?

Protecting Teddy with all my might.

Lost in the Fog

Malkavian Primogen

Who let this guy in...?

On hiatus

Outside the box, with the werewolves

Plotting . . .

Baaa!

Trust me, I'm a writer

Malkavian Primogen

Making my own sunshine

Baaa!

Making my own sunshine

Going home!

Making my own sunshine

Snowman...on the job

Lagrangian

Reads more than she writes.

A Gentleman of a refined age...

Malkavian Primogen