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I decided to give this new series a chance. Why not? It had dinosaurs, a falling apart Earth, time travel and Jason O’Mara(but that’s another story). Cue the pilot episode and subsequent disappointment.
To be fair, the plot of the show has quite a lot of promise – humanity has basically destroyed itself through years of pollution and thoughtless exploitation of Earth’s resources. People now live in small apartments with no windows, there are no trees in sight and everything is scarce or toxic, most important in the latter category – the very air they breathe.
Rules have been enforce to control everything, including birth rate. All in all it’s not a pretty picture. Jim (Jason O’Mara) and Elisabeth Shannon (Shelly Con) have broken this rule and are living in constant fear of discovery. Can you guess where I’m going? After being discovered, Jim ends up in jail and Elisabeth gets invited (some three years later, mind you) to join the Terra Nova project.
This is where logic got a little wonky, admittedly it is a tv show, but still. Scientists have discovered a rift in time, a bit like a pocket, completely isolated from the regular time stream, where dinosaurs still munch merrily on tree leaves or each other. In order to save humanity, the best, the brightest and those that manage to run through the ring that takes you to the past, are selected to go there and build a new world. Get it? Terra Nova.
They do make a point of explaining this bit of the plot through the oldest daughter of the Shannons who fits the bill of awkward genius. Apparently that particular time stream is not connected to their own pasts or futures, thus their living in it won’t affect the events that lead to their departure in the first place. Of course, since it’s an unexplored time stream with extinct dinosaurs that is recognizably the past they can’t be sure what caused the dinosaurs to go extinct won’t happen again. And if they had the resources to build a portal to the past couldn’t they have used them to plant some trees in their present? (But that’s just me, the nitpicker)
The premise of the show is good, however some aspects of it – ignore the semi-scientific babble from above and move on to the more mundane things -such as the acting and the script really kill off some of the excitement related to the first episode.
It seemed at some point that the show had been written for a half by one person, then someone else started from the middle and didn’t really pay attention to what was going on up until then. The Shannon’s seemed like a tight-knit family, right up until they all ended up in the alterna-past. That’s when the teenage son decided to turn into a complete and utter moron that I wanted to slap right through my screen. And it wasn’t good writing that made him that unlikable! That after having spent all the time before travelling through the portal whining that his dad wasn’t there. 
He was a walking cliche – angry, self-absorbed and completely clueless. Perhaps whoever wrote that bit of the show was watching Jersey Shore or whatever that’s called and found inspiration there. I found myself praying for him to be devoured by some savage beasts which apparently inhabit the new world. But his dad saves him, now if that doesn’t improve their relationship I will kick the writers.
Of course he meets a beautiful, smart girl, Skye – Allison Miller – who knows everything and leads them to almost certain death to make…moonshine. Yeah, that was really smart, Skye! She also fit the bill for so many cliches I wanted to fast-forward through her scenes. Mostly cause she shared so many of them with Josh Shannon (Landon Liboiron) – the angry teen.
The artificial conflict between two groups with loyalties to unknown forces is also something that’s been overused in the past, present 
and possibly the future as well. Our guys must be the good guys since we have the heroes there. They have to be the bad guys cause we can see they look a little on the unwashed side. Hm…Yeah, not sure I approve.
And with rampaging dinosaurs do we really need two factions who seem equally flawed? Relying on something other than war seems to be something of a stretch in today’s Television. But it was only the pilot, perhaps it will get better? Maybe? I hope so.
Not going to touch on the special effects too much- let’s just say they are bad, really, really bad. Like a dinosaur bending down to eat a branch that isn’t there and chewing on it…Invisible trees?
But I will touch a bit on the acting. For the most part it was ok. I enjoyed Jason O’Mara’s interactions with Shelley Conn, the strain that seemed to be there after being apart for so long. They did quite well in their individual scenes as well. Jim Shannon was built as the hero – noticing everything and discovering evil-doers at all times, which played out nicely on screen and Elisabeth is no less of a tough cookie when her past is revealed. I do admit I have a soft spot for the both of them, but they did well. I just wish they had better material to work with.
Christine Adams was barely on screen as Myra, but she had more presence than half of the cast who was there for the whole pilot. Kudos to you Miss Adams. Can’t say that about Stephen Lang, who just looked pained through the whole episode, but he too had some shining moments of awesome. Except they were few and far between. I’ll just blame the script since I know most of the actors in the show are quite great when given something to work with.
Stop recycling plots people! Do something original! I can’t believe I’m pimping Steven Moffat here, but at least he knows how to shock and keep people in so much tension that they might break until the next episode. With Terra Nova it’s more like…Hm…Should I watch that again or make predictions about the plot and see how right I am after reading some summaries.
Ok, mark for Terra Nova? 2 and a half out of 5. I feel generous because I like the premise and it had some exciting moments. If it improves I’ll change my grade. But until then they are stuck here.
In the meanwhile – check out the trailer here and the pilot as well, perhaps you’ll love it and let me know what I missed?
Tags: Fox, Jason O'Mara, review, Shelley Conn, Stephen Lang, terra nova
