they take this idea of going back in time/alternate universe.... and then they turn it into a cliched family drama/power struggle story.

why have the dino's and whatnot if you're just going to concentrate on the whiny teenage son storyline, and the little kid storyline, etc etc.

Let me know when these guys show up...

Still watching it because dinosaurs. Not a lot of them apparently, but still....dinosaurs.

That Castle episode was pretty lousy though. This whole season is. Started going down hill last season with all that "dangerous conspiracy hitman!" crap. Same thing that made X-files suck. Give me the "case/monster of the week" ones any day.

terra nova is fun. I want to punch josh in the face every single time I see him, and I wouldn't mind if zoe was eaten by dinosaurs, but the settings are unbelievably beautiful and so are the rest of the characters. I like it.

I always read that as Terry Nova and it always makes me double-take the headline.

FYI: GIS for Terry Nova is very NSFW, but very safe for lovers of "huge tracts of land"

tlchwi02: they take this idea of going back in time/alternate universe.... and then they turn it into a cliched family drama/power struggle story.

why have the dino's and whatnot if you're just going to concentrate on the whiny teenage son storyline, and the little kid storyline, etc etc.

Cost per minute of filming teenage angst - thousands
Cost per minute of filming dinosaurs eating people - hundreds of thousands

Get used to 1-2 minutes of special effects insulated by 40 minutes of annoying banter on a weekly basis.

/I like my Sci-Fi on the Babylon 5 side

Was that a spoiler in the headline? Haven't watched past the first episode due to incredibly stupid acting by all the secondary characters. Makes sense though I guess. Something killed off all the dinoes and the reason they never found the probe was that it got all blown up. Meh. Bring back Farscape.

DarkJohnson: Yeah, one way time travel back to the age before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, to save the future of humanity was a such a flawless premise - who would have thunk you would need to write a decent story around it?

Bring Back Stargate Universe, biatches.

Yeah, see, I found it rather stupid that the future-folk decided to go to the wrong side of the K-T Boundary. Even if they've got thousands or millions of years, humanity is still screwed - probably more screwed because knowledge will be lost and/or be ignored.

They need to have the older daughter and the son's girlfriend do some carpet cleaning, if you know what I mean.

I can put up with a lot of plot holes in my sci fi, but this show has utterly failed to make me care about the characters one iota, which is a requirement for good TV. TV audiences keep coming back because they want to know what happens to the characters next. I've watched every episode thus far (and will probably watch until it gets cancelled because dinosaurs) but I STILL can't name one of the characters off the top of my head. There are actually some plot seeds I'd like to see bear fruit, but I sure as hell aint holding my breath. The writers just don't seem to know TV.

But if you think Terra Nova is bad, try watching the pilot for Grimm. I love the whole fantasy world hidden in the real world genre, and I'm pretty forgiving, but I just couldn't make it through it. Horrendous pacing issues, completely flat and uninteresting characters, I could go on. Simply awful. Its like NBC WANTS to go under.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Ah, yes, just like that wretched V remake. That, save for the blondes, was the worst scifi I've ever seen.

good point on that, they are very similar. you can still do those sorts of episodes as fillers, but you need to have the world actually work its way in somehow. If you're going to have the whiney teenager thing, at the very least make the world have some sort of impact on his whiney behavior. if you could pick up the same story and have it play out identically in one of half a dozen other shows without noticing the scenary change, you're doing it very wrong.

it also needs more comedy, imo. something to break up the dreariness- the few times they throw in some comedy it helps. You can do comedy in the veign of a han solo character and not have it three stooges the place up. A character that can pull off moments like when Han shoots the com unit in the death star allows you to bring some comedic moments to an action/drama setting without yanking the audience out of the central thrust of your plot and setting.

So it sounds like I won't be torrenting Terra Nova or Grimm then. Thanks for saving me the time everyone.

Terra Nova reminds me of Avatar. No need to pay attention to the poorly done plot/dialog, look at our amazing scenery!!

Unassuming Local Guy: I can put up with a lot of plot holes in my sci fi, but this show has utterly failed to make me care about the characters one iota, which is a requirement for good TV. TV audiences keep coming back because they want to know what happens to the characters next. I've watched every episode thus far (and will probably watch until it gets cancelled because dinosaurs) but I STILL can't name one of the characters off the top of my head. There are actually some plot seeds I'd like to see bear fruit, but I sure as hell aint holding my breath. The writers just don't seem to know TV.

But if you think Terra Nova is bad, try watching the pilot for Grimm. I love the whole fantasy world hidden in the real world genre, and I'm pretty forgiving, but I just couldn't make it through it. Horrendous pacing issues, completely flat and uninteresting characters, I could go on. Simply awful. Its like NBC WANTS to go under.

Grimm gave me some nostalgia for the old World of Darkness - once the friendly wolfman started talking I said to my wife, "Oh look, a Child of Gaia - I bet he's got some nice weed hidden somewhere for when his Bone Gnawer buddy visits."

it did have a nice glabro form in it

madgonad: Cost per minute of filming teenage angst - thousands
Cost per minute of filming dinosaurs eating people - hundreds of thousands

i guess its more i feel like the storylines don't take into effect the wider setting. For example, battlestar galactica reboot, TNG, etc often didn't have big action scenes or anything, but they kept you squarely interested and engaged in their universe- even when they were essentially doing the "whatever" cliche plot episode.

terra nova i feel like the "whatever" cliche plot episodes don't connect particularly with the world they are in. you could pick up the actors, the dialogue and the plots and drop them into another show and the audience would barely even notice. try doing that with the crew of DS9 for example. it wouldn't work

Solon Isonomia: DarkJohnson: Yeah, one way time travel back to the age before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, to save the future of humanity was a such a flawless premise - who would have thunk you would need to write a decent story around it?

Bring Back Stargate Universe, biatches.

Yeah, see, I found it rather stupid that the future-folk decided to go to the wrong side of the K-T Boundary. Even if they've got thousands or millions of years, humanity is still screwed - probably more screwed because knowledge will be lost and/or be ignored.

I think the idea is that they have millions of years before the KT event or whatever. Given that length of time, I trust man could find a way to make it off this rock... I know, way too optimistic huh?

And yes, bring back Stargate Universe. It was starting to get good towards the end and I hated the ending that happened (WHAR ELI? WHAR?) I feel so sci-fi deficient these days TV wise. I am getting my fix by watching all the ST shows on Netflix.

squegeebooo: Terra Nova reminds me of Avatar. No need to pay attention to the poorly done plot/dialog, look at our amazing scenery!!


And they've both got that guy in them! You know, the one who played Pickett in Gettysburg.

"General Lee, I have no division".

Dude, it's on FOX. If it were a Joss Whedon show, it'd be cancelled by now.

tallguywithglasseson: That show... it's not good.

It doesn't even interest me enough to elaborate on what I don't like about it.

Oh well, too bad. They'll lose a lot of money, which will spook networks on doing another large-budget sci-fi/fantasy show.

Coming up next, season 132 of The Bachelor.

Your post made me laugh and cry.

Solon Isonomia: Yeah, see, I found it rather stupid that the future-folk decided to go to the wrong side of the K-T Boundary. Even if they've got thousands or millions of years, humanity is still screwed - probably more screwed because knowledge will be lost and/or be ignored.

Meh, thats a long time, humanity would likely either find a way off the rock, to deal with the event, or just manage to wipe ourselves out again before it became an issue.

error 303: So it sounds like I won't be torrenting Terra Nova or Grimm then. Thanks for saving me the time everyone.

Grimm is giving me a 'special unit 2' vibe, the first episode was weak, but shows real promise of interesting developments. I'd wait till week 3/4 then try them all at once, see what you think,

CalamitousCrasher: Solon Isonomia: DarkJohnson: Yeah, one way time travel back to the age before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, to save the future of humanity was a such a flawless premise - who would have thunk you would need to write a decent story around it?

Bring Back Stargate Universe, biatches.

Yeah, see, I found it rather stupid that the future-folk decided to go to the wrong side of the K-T Boundary. Even if they've got thousands or millions of years, humanity is still screwed - probably more screwed because knowledge will be lost and/or be ignored.

I think the idea is that they have millions of years before the KT event or whatever. Given that length of time, I trust man could find a way to make it off this rock... I know, way too optimistic huh?

And yes, bring back Stargate Universe. It was starting to get good towards the end and I hated the ending that happened (WHAR ELI? WHAR?) I feel so sci-fi deficient these days TV wise. I am getting my fix by watching all the ST shows on Netflix.

Well yeah, if they actually focus on building they could get off-world, but that seems so unrealistic considering the number of people they have and their limited resources blah blah... One could hope they could leave, Sagan was right about us needing to leave the planet.

I quit the show. Taylor is the only interesting character on it. The guy playing the cop tries his best with the material. His wife and family are dull as dishwater. Also I know I'm not supposed to wonder about their economy or government or why they went back to dinosaur times and don't have guns that can hurt dinosaurs. But I do. Maybe they've explained some of this stuff but once I saw the virus/amnesia episode blurb I checked out.

Look at the last show of Walking Dead; great zombie scenes AND riveting human drama. Terra Nova has neither of these things.

Unassuming Local Guy: But if you think Terra Nova is bad, try watching the pilot for Grimm. I love the whole fantasy world hidden in the real world genre, and I'm pretty forgiving, but I just couldn't make it through it. Horrendous pacing issues, completely flat and uninteresting characters, I could go on. Simply awful. Its like NBC WANTS to go under.

Yeah, Grimm left me pretty flat as well. I found it way too convenient that he's a cop who just happens to develop super powers. And how everything just felt reminiscent of other, better shows.

Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying Happily Ever After, though.

/Still clutching my man card
//For now, at least

IIRC, Earth 2 didn't start tanking like that until season 2. Nobody has an attention span these days.

brigid_fitch: This is what's happening in The Walking Dead. Budget was slashed practically in half for its second season and so far this year we've had people walking in the woods, walking around an abandoned highway littered with cars, prayers at a church--TWICE, hanging around a farmhouse that apparently only has 3 rooms, and occasional bursts of zombies with really bad makeup. But drama and angst? Plenty to go around! Ugh.

Because a show set in a zombie apocalypse should be upbeat....

Solon Isonomia: DarkJohnson: Yeah, one way time travel back to the age before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, to save the future of humanity was a such a flawless premise - who would have thunk you would need to write a decent story around it?

Bring Back Stargate Universe, biatches.

Yeah, see, I found it rather stupid that the future-folk decided to go to the wrong side of the K-T Boundary. Even if they've got thousands or millions of years, humanity is still screwed - probably more screwed because knowledge will be lost and/or be ignored.

IIRC, the space-time "rift" was discovered, not created. Also, they went back 85 million years, ca. 20 million years before the KT impact. I guess they figure that's plenty enough time to save the human race.

But yeah, the show is pretty bad nonetheless. I've watched three full episodes and I simply don't give a crap about any of the characters yet.

I hated it. I've seen all the episodes so far and just hate it. I had too high hopes i guess.

brigid_fitch: madgonad: tlchwi02: they take this idea of going back in time/alternate universe.... and then they turn it into a cliched family drama/power struggle story.

why have the dino's and whatnot if you're just going to concentrate on the whiny teenage son storyline, and the little kid storyline, etc etc.

Cost per minute of filming teenage angst - thousands
Cost per minute of filming dinosaurs eating people - hundreds of thousands

Get used to 1-2 minutes of special effects insulated by 40 minutes of annoying banter on a weekly basis.


This is what's happening in The Walking Dead. Budget was slashed practically in half for its second season and so far this year we've had people walking in the woods, walking around an abandoned highway littered with cars, prayers at a church--TWICE, hanging around a farmhouse that apparently only has 3 rooms, and occasional bursts of zombies with really bad makeup. But drama and angst? Plenty to go around! Ugh.



"WHY ARE WE STILL IN THIS HOUSE?!"

madgonad: tlchwi02: they take this idea of going back in time/alternate universe.... and then they turn it into a cliched family drama/power struggle story.

why have the dino's and whatnot if you're just going to concentrate on the whiny teenage son storyline, and the little kid storyline, etc etc.

Cost per minute of filming teenage angst - thousands
Cost per minute of filming dinosaurs eating people - hundreds of thousands

Get used to 1-2 minutes of special effects insulated by 40 minutes of annoying banter on a weekly basis.

/I like my Sci-Fi on the Babylon 5 side

Gilmore Girls in time...

I really wanted to like the show. The writing and acting are pretty bad. I can't believe Speilberg would put his name on it.

I get it, every show can't be "The West Wing" or "Lost", but I just don't know what kind of audience Terra Nova is trying to attract because they are failing miserably at all of them.

I wanted to watch that show "Once upon a Time" - advice? brilliant remarks? worth an episode or two?

This is a late parrot:
I wanted to watch that show "Once upon a Time" - advice? brilliant remarks? worth an episode or two?

Pretty slow first episode, but did a good job of setting up for the rest of the season. Hopefully the writers were actually trying for a 'setup' episode, and the rest of the season will pick up speed.

metallion: madgonad: tlchwi02: they take this idea of going back in time/alternate universe.... and then they turn it into a cliched family drama/power struggle story.

why have the dino's and whatnot if you're just going to concentrate on the whiny teenage son storyline, and the little kid storyline, etc etc.

Cost per minute of filming teenage angst - thousands
Cost per minute of filming dinosaurs eating people - hundreds of thousands

Get used to 1-2 minutes of special effects insulated by 40 minutes of annoying banter on a weekly basis.

/I like my Sci-Fi on the Babylon 5 side

Gilmore Girls in time...

Having been forced to watch much too much Gilmore Girls by my girlfriend, at least the dialogue was fairly well written.

I think what bothers me most about network TV right now is the guy that's on "Raising Hope" that played the Cromatie/John Henry on Terminator:SCC. I keep expecting/wanting him to eat the baby.

/Lorelai is hot!

I guess my DVR s not smart enough because I set it up during the premier, then the show disappeared, then I guess it came back and I missed it, then it disappeared. Now, evidently its back and I am already past it. Regardless, my DVR ain't recording it.

Because it is completely unrealistic. You can go ahead and suspend belief on the whole time travel thing. Thats ok. But damn, you go back in time to a whole planet full of Eatyourassasauruses and your perimeter can be breached by just about anyone or anything. Aforementioned Eatyourassasauruses come in many sizes, speeds and strengths yet a majority of your transportation is open air and your structures can be breached by a flock of Carnivorous migratory Chickens. Entire packs of idiot kids can sneak thru your fence, get a hold of transportation and then go out drinking homemade hooch. What the hell.....

Spade: Still watching it because dinosaurs. Not a lot of them apparently, but still....dinosaurs.

That Castle episode was pretty lousy though. This whole season is. Started going down hill last season with all that "dangerous conspiracy hitman!" crap. Same thing that made X-files suck. Give me the "case/monster of the week" ones any day.

The dangerous conspiracy crap doesn't bother me as much as the 'sexual-tension between male/female leads that never gets resolved' gimmick they do on nearly every show now. That once Castle episode a few weeks ago with the chick thief who wasn't hot but they spent every moment talking about how hot she was just killed my ability to suspend disbelief anymore, and I used to be a wrestling fan.

Timmy the Tumor: I wonder if House, MD really SUCKING this season has anything to do with Terra Nova's faltering ratings?

House has sucked for the past few years, hell the newer ones are far better than the abysmal last couple seasons.


HoboCop: Eh... I definitely can see that they are working with a budget in mind.. but the opposite wouldn't be any better, imagine an endless Michael Bay type zombie fest with only the barest plot to it. I think it's a pretty well written show with some interesting character dynamics, and yeah there's a lot of drama, which network television seems to have completely forgotten how to do at all.

Yeah the people whining about there not being constant action are kind of missing the point. 2 hours of constant zombie action might work in a 90 minute movie but would get really old really quick - the point of this story is a drama with people trying to survive in a post apocalyptic hellhole. Internal drama and human antagonists are a big point, the zombies are just a setting.

I wonder if the TV is gonna be as pleasant to Frank as the comics were.

Biiirdmaaan!: Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying Happily Ever After, though.

/Still clutching my man card
//For now, at least

Ugh, I meant Once Upon a Time.

squegeebooo: This is a late parrot:
I wanted to watch that show "Once upon a Time" - advice? brilliant remarks? worth an episode or two?

Pretty slow first episode, but did a good job of setting up for the rest of the season. Hopefully the writers were actually trying for a 'setup' episode, and the rest of the season will pick up speed.

Second episode moved along pretty well. I'm interested in seeing where they go with it.