'Terra Nova' on FOX HD - Page 39

Well TN is down to a 2.1 rating and 6.5 million viewers.

Did they ever order the backend episodes for season 1? I like TN enough to hope they at least have a full first season. And a second season would be nice too. But with as much as it costs, the ratings are nothing spectacular. So what happens is anyones guess.

I would be extremely disappointed if Terra Nova is canceled or not renewed. It is my favorite series . . . to make fun of.

This show sucks dinosaurs.

by the time I decided to quit, that was it's only redeeming quality for me

I agree with VisionOn's take, that it tried to be too many things at the same time. Successful shows tend to know "what" they are & what their target audience is. This one tried to appeal to everyone in all ages. That's really hard to pull off.

I've been following everyone's comments to see if maybe I was hasty & made a mistake in quitting, that it "improved" enough to warrant a 2nd chance. But based on comments, I don't think I've missed out That's a shame, 'cause it could have been far better than the 4 episodes I watched. With the money behind it, it should have been a home run.

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving
At least we'll all have a different "turkey" in our homes

It is a home run.

It's just that it's an inside the infield home run during a T-Ball game where it's OK to run to the wrong base or chase a butterfly in left field. Also, everyone gets a trophy for being special just the way they are.

Thanks a lot. You just made me spit coffee all over my monitor.

lol

It was only an initial order of 13 episodes. Still on the bubble to come back next fall although some think FOX will as the sets they built in Australia cost them a pretty penny and they might want to try to get some more return for the investment.
Isn't it funny how one person who quit watching weeks ago is the most active person in this thread?

Or...this show sucks dinosaur a$$...

Fox execs are scrambling to develop a new series that use the same sets as Terra Nova. One idea is called Once Upon a Grimm which is about a fairy tale character cursed and trapped in the days of the dinosaurs and the only hope is a magical dinosaur egg out of which emerges Spes, the dinosaur of hope who must find the trapped fairy tale character who, when riding on the dino's back, can be transported back to his own time and place. But Despero, the evil dinosaur, will use whatever means possible to stop Spes from saving the fairy tale character.

Still in developmental stages.

^^^^ you're killing me man! This is the second post in it seems as many days and I have to read them twice because when I laugh out loud, I can't read

But first you'd need some dinosaurs.

Haven't they shown at least one every episode?

Not unless you count Draggy, the spy dragonfly.

Yes I was counting that.

Although can a dragon Fly be a dinosaur? They supposedly were around long before dinosaurs were.

Sure, why not. In Terra Nova just about anything is possible.

Oh, no way on that last one. I think that’s some serious wishful thinking on your part.

I agree with you on the first two, but I see absolutely no evidence that Terra Nova aspires to be anything for adults beyond a dinosaur show they can actually sit through with their adolescent and pre-adolescent kids, because hey, at least the dinosaurs do NOT sing and they are NOT purple.

But the entire plot line is and has been completely and utterly simplistic from day one. It seems painfully obvious that all of the plot developments, including the “twists” and “surprises”, are meant to be fully comprehensible to anyone over the age of say, 7 or 8. So that not only can adults watch this show with their kids, but they can do it after a tough Monday at work without having to worry that the kids will ask them any challenging or discomforting questions.

Terra Nova is not even a multi-level show. I mean, honestly, there was more adult social commentary in Mary Poppins than there is in Terra Nova.

Terra Nova is a simple show, with a simple morality, that kids can rally around, and that, hopefully, will not offend any parents. The message is simple: bad people ruined our old world, now we’re starting over, let’s not let anybody ruin our new world. End of story. There might be some ambiguity about who’s on the good team and who’s on the bad team, but there’s no ambiguity about what the good team stands for.

This is NOT an adult show. (Unless, maybe, you just came through a wormhole from the 1950s and your idea of an adult show is Ozzie and Harriet. ) That does not mean adults cannot be entertained by it, in some degree or fashion, but that is not its primary purpose. This is a kids’ show, aka a “family” show. That’s all it is, and that’s all it ever will be.

And for my money, it’s not an especially good family show. But that’s an argument for another post...

Did you watch the first episode and it's dystopian urban hell? That wasn't for kids, that was to drag a pretense of actual adult drama into the show. That was before it jumped into The Others from Lost attacking the base camp, the arc hints at some big mysterious thing on the island and behind the scenes political machinations (complete with mole) and then some weak attempts to make the adults tougher, grizzled and more serious by dishing out frontier justice and attempting to make them darker. They even take that literally by shooting those scenes with the requisite overly dramatic lighting where shadows proliferate more than light sources should allow.

Then they segue abruptly into the brightly colored world of Teen Nova.

Graphic violence and profane language ruined Terra Nova for an acquaintance of mine. She said it was had levels of violence and language that were inappropriate for her twin 14-year-olds and her 12-year-old. She said the show is only appropriate for adults. But understand that I live in Utah.

Yes, “pretense” being the operative word, I’d say. I mean, they had to show something to establish the motivation to go to Terra Nova. But they didn’t linger long in that dystopia, did they?


And how has all that resolved thus far? Have the TN “Others” killed anybody yet? Have they imprisoned anybody in cages for multiple episodes? All I saw was Mira promising to get the kid’s GF from the future in exchange for future service and loyalty, a la The Godfather.

So, ok, sure, there were some allusions to Lost, just like there were allusions to The Godfather and Aliens, and probably lots of stuff I haven’t even recognized, because the writers seem to think that’s a clever substitute for originality.

But allusions are all they are. There’s no follow through, nor was there ever intended to be. Indeed, even when the allusions border on plagiarism, there’s no follow through.

Take the bird-o-saurs episode, for example. The Hitchcock film ends on a somber note, with the motivations and ultimate objectives of the bird masses left mysterious. It raises uncomfortable questions about humanity’s relationship to nature and so on. Great discussion fodder.

But not so the TN bird-o-saurs. They were shown in half an episode to be victims of pheromones run amuck, and a little bit of chemical synthesis and another half an episode later, they were mating happily ever after in their new home established by the Terra Novans.

So problem solved, no unanswered questions, no discussion necessary.


Yeah, and the murderous husband turned out to be making a noble sacrifice for his wife – seriously, did anybody not see that coming? – and then she turned out to really love him after all, and they all lived happily ever after. (Well, except the idiot who murdered over a gambling debt, but he’s a Bad Guy[tm], and that’s just what BGs do. )

And btw, what ever happened to that murderous imposter scientist? No frontier justice for him? Guess he just disappeared into the Terra Novan ether, the way all good red shirt villains are supposed to do, once they’ve served their purpose.


So they do some good cinematography. I think you’re allowed to do that in a family show if you want. No law against it I know of.

Bottom line: it’s a family show, with simple themes, and simple resolutions, allusions to more sophisticated entertainment notwithstanding.

Only because the writers are not capable of handling dramatic writing to a level that fulfills the expectations of adults. The aspirations of the writers are still the same, they just don't have the capability to pull it off convincingly.

Well, it's not a 1950s kids' show. So if your idea of adult programming is Ozzie and Harriet, as I said before, or maybe Donnie and Marie ...

Say, isn't SNL still on an off-net station out there? One that doesn't have full statewide translator distribution like the main channels?

Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I will grant you the writers may be trying to entertain adults more successfully than they are doing, but they certainly are not trying to produce another Lost. They are clearly trying to keep the plot developments simple enough to keep the kids entertained, and simple is a word that was never part of the Lost lexicon.

Didn't you just describe the vast amount of TV shows that have ever aired?

It's no different than most popular books being written at a 7th grade level.

Yeah, I have a cousin like that. Got all 'born again', and moved off to some comuune in the country where they only had special Christian stations off satelite. So of course the kid he tried to protect with those special Christian stations ended up being a total rebel hanging with drug dealers, then joined the Army to straighten himself out and also to get away from his oppresive upbringing. Tell your friend maybe its time to let her 14 year olds start growing up like normal kids, if she still wants to see them when they are 18 and free to leave home.

For Terra Nova, a family friendly show? And for 12 and 14 year olds? They must be extremely sheltered then or she treats them as if they are five year olds.

Tonight's show isn't on for another hour or so. I predict the mole will be identified by tonight and will likely be someone we've regularly seen. Like Taylor's second in command maybe, but probably not Skye (unless the writers are better than I thought).

I wonder if Alcatraz will take up this spot on Monday nights when it debuts in January.

Skye the spy . . . how cute. But she's doing it out of love for her living mother, so I guess that justifies it, right? She's really a "good" person being forced into a criminal life.

Boxer the ankylosaurus . . . looked really fake. And it's way too small. A full grown ankylosaurus was larger than an elephant. There's no way you would be able to cradle a baby one in your arms and carry it around like Kittie the kitten. They also lived about 20 million years later than the time period of Terra Nova.

Mr. Taylor needs to learn how to act. His facial expressions and growls are ridiculous. Everyone on set must be rolling with laughter when he films those scenes.



"Ahhhrr . . . Beat it, you coward!"

Well, I'll admit it is getting better. At least there's an on-going plot line developing.

And why can they just seem to walk around unarmed w/ these beastys nearby?

Ok no one mentioned they have the first solid clue/lead. And its left unguarded?

Hope they dont try and force the entire show into grey and not black vs white.

Mira im dealt a bad hand but i'm doing the best i can.
Skye. Mom's dying so i'll betray you all.

Makes me think who are we pulling for? The Dinos?