Fox's Terra Nova sends Earth-dwellers back in time (I think it was) 85 million years into the past in order to try again. OK, honestly no one would write a description better than Fox's publicity department so I'll let them bore you with flowery details:
The Shannon family joins the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first colony established in this beautiful yet foreboding land. Jim Shannon, a devoted father with a checkered past, guides his family through this new world of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. Upon the Shannons' arrival, they are introduced to Cmdr. Nathaniel Taylor, the charismatic and heroic first pioneer and leader of the settlement. Taylor warns the travelers that while Terra Nova is a place of new opportunities and fresh beginnings, all is not as idyllic as it initially appears. Along with blue skies, towering waterfalls and lush vegetation, the surrounding terrain is teeming with danger - and not just of the man-eating dinosaur variety. There is also a splinter colony of renegades led by the battle-hardened Mira, who is vehemently opposed to Taylor and his leadership.
Got it? Good. This is one of those shows for which I had high expectations. I mean, why wouldn't I with Spielberg and some pretty big TV folks behind it. It was good. Not great, but good. The green screen (or blue, I can't remember which is the preferred) was pretty obvious at times. The acting, especially by perpetual hard-ass Steven Lang, was pretty course. And honestly this was the most relaxed and easy-going I've ever seen him. He posed a lot in his overly tight t-shirts that don't belong on a man born before 1970 and I found that to be pretty annoying. This guys almost always plays a bad guy so he's worked on this cocky, my way or the highway, military-type attitude that has worked but has not helped him develop any sort of range.
The rest of the cast is fine. I like the husband and wife, played by Jason O'Mara and Shelley Conn respectively. The rest of the cast did a fine job with some of the cheesy dialogue they were given and should do a fine job on the show.
There is potential here and I'm going to stick it out to see where it goes. There's always opportunity to bring in lots of guest stars and the core group has room to develop. Plus they've set up some interesting story lines and the pacing was great. They moved right along, explained stuff, and gave us more to ponder.
I haven't watched it yet, although I have it in my hulu cue. My fear is that I will get hooked and then it will follow the usual course of sci fi shows on Fox. Get continually moved around to different nights and times so nobody knows where to find it, continually preempted (like Firefly and Dollhouse) and then banished to Friday nights where it will die a slow death (like Fringe...)
ReplyDeleteAlso...why the hell are networks even relying on Nielsen data anymore? Nielsen measures only the people who actually sit down and watch a show at the exact moment it's on (i.e., old people...)
ReplyDeleteThey really need to put more weight on online viewing to determine the popularity of a show. But that's a separate rant.