Steven Spielberg's Sci-Fi show "Terra Nova."

[Morris Schæffer]

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=28906

[Winston*]

Was that Taken miniseries any good?

[Morris Schæffer]

This also started. Is anyone gonna give it a chance? Pilot was good supposedly.

[Ezee E]

Was thinking of checking this out. Heard it could be good.

[Henry Gale]

A big problem I've had this season is that I went out of my way to watch a lot of the extended, thorough trailers the networks released for their new shows over the last several months. So whether it's a half-hour comedy pilot squeezed into four or five minutes or a show like Terra Nova, I feel like I've gotten a pretty good sense of everything that happens in the first episodes before they've ever aired.

I still hope the show is good and that the premiere still manages to surprise me, but I'll look forward to the rest of the season a little bit more.

[Henry Gale]

Alright, that wasn't anything special.

This premiere just throws us into two completely foreign worlds in the first half hour with little attempt at easing us into them in an interesting way. The first one, the severly polluted and Blade Runner-y future, instantly asks us to sympathize with this family breaking a law that's barely established. Then all of those polluted-future storyline conflicts like him being an escape fugitive (including never seeing said escape) get cleaned up within a handful of scenes of talking to big boss Stephen Lang in prehistoric Terra Nova world, leaving no sort of tension or mystery between the characters, leaving all the emphasis on not knowing exactly what lives beyond the gates (which, if you know anything about the show going in, you know it's dinosaurs).

These characters are just way too dull, there's no interesting hook or momentum going into further episodes, and half of the story details seemed to be shoved in via badly ADR-ed afterthought lines in otherwise boring scenes of people just sitting around talking like there's nothing else interesting happening around them.

Even the dinosaurs look crappy.

[Lucky]

Not sure why, but I'd really like to see this show bomb.

[[ETM]]

I always hate it when an expensive and ambitious sci-fi project bombs, because I keep hoping someone does it right for once, and the more of them bomb, the less likely it becomes.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Every ad I've seen for this made it look awful. It just looks so... bland.

[Henry Gale]

Every ad I've seen for this made it look awful. It just looks so... bland.

Truth in advertising! A Fox first!

[Lucky]

;374020']I always hate it when an expensive and ambitious sci-fi project bombs, because I keep hoping someone does it right for once, and the more of them bomb, the less likely it becomes.

True, but this isn't the kind of sci-fi I want to see take off. Granted, I haven't seen the pilot so I'm seriously stereotyping. I get much more excited when something like Game of Thrones succeeds critically and commercially.

[Sxottlan]

Yeah this was pretty terrible. Don't think I'll return for another go around.

[MadMan]

I'm going to try and watch the opener (I taped it) sometime this week, but the comments in this thread are not encouraging.

[[ETM]]

It was... better than I expected.

I laughed at the thought of Sam Tyler Wannabe again finding himself in the past.

I think I'll be watching more mostly because that girl who befriends STW's lame son is super cute and Quarritch owns everything.

[Ivan Drago]

It looks like a cross between Avatar and Jurassic Park. Pass.

[Henry Gale]

;374166']It was... better than I expected.

I laughed at the thought of Sam Tyler Wannabe again finding himself in the past.

I think I'll be watching more mostly because that girl who befriends STW's lame son is super cute and Quarritch owns everything.

I should add that these would also be my biggest incentives for returning.

[[ETM]]

It looks like a cross between Avatar and Jurassic Park. Awesome.

Yeah, fixed.

No, seriously, plot-wise, the only reason for returning to the show are the faint glimmers that it isn't Avatar-meets-JP.

[Irish]

Comments here lowered my expectations so much that I enjoyed this in all its cheesy glory. I didn't find it any worse than the mainstream stuff that has appeared on other networks (Enterprise, V) or SyFy (SGU).

Offhand predictions: They're not on earth. The colony was supposed to be temporary and the original goal was to strip mine alt earth for raw materials. Characters find one or both these things out during sweeps, if the show lasts that long. Side bet that Our Hero can be sent back to the future at any time, but Der Leader is keeping him around for nefarious purposes.

Aside from nagging inconsitences and oddities -- like why Captain Graybeard's command center looks like a polynesian tiki bar when the colony has access to modern materials -- mostly I'm curious why Fox keeps trying on sci fi shows when they never work out. Since X Files ended more than 10 years ago, you'd think they would have moved on from trying to recapture that former glory.

[[ETM]]

why Captain Graybeard's command center looks like a polynesian tiki bar when the colony has access to modern materials

You mean like iron ore?

[[ETM]]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/28/article-0-0E2137C100000578-40_468x286.jpg

FOX...

[Raiders]

Wow, that's straight outta The Birds. The establishing shot of the attack was identical.

[MadMan]

If I don't get to the previous episodes I have taped on my DVR, I'm probably going to give up on even watching this show. Damn you MNF for getting in the way.

[Irish]

Twice now I've started & stopped watching the third episode. Trying hard to like this ... But it's just so damn bland.

[[ETM]]

Third episode is straight out of the Star Trek plot book... they've done the "science outpost unauthorized experiment gone wrong" too many times. Curse you, Brannon Braga.

[MadMan]

After realizing I was not going to watch any of the episodes on my DVR, I deleted all those saved and I have decided to just wait for DVD. I have a feeling this will be a wise decision.

[Irish]

Terra Nova has just been cancelled by Fox.

No surprise except: holy shit, they flushed $4MM per episode on this show.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/fox-cancels-drama-terra-nova-series-being-shopped-to-other-networks/

[number8]

I'm surprised. I had no idea this was still on the air.

[Henry Gale]

Well I was expecting it for a while since apparently the contracts of everyone involved in the show were only for the first season, and Fox had to make a decision before December 31st of last year to renew them. At this point, they would have had to renegotiate everyone if they actually wanted to bring it back.

Plus, the thing just didn't pull in enough viewers to justify the cost, and I can't really say much else about the actual show since I only saw the premiere. Between this, The River, and the quick decline of Smash (but being on NBC probably helps its chances), Spielberg can't catch a break this season.

[Dukefrukem]

I read they were going back and forth on canceling this or Alcatraz .

[Henry Gale]

I read they were going back and forth on canceling this or Alcatraz .

Makes sense. Cancelling both would send a message of "Hey! We've given up on genre shows! Feel free to give us your comedy and reality pitches!", especially since Fringe and Touch (depending on its performance) aren't likely to make it either.

[Irish]

Spielberg can't catch a break this season.

Someone in the Deadline comments noted that, with one small exception, he's never been remotely successful on tv.

[Dukefrukem]

Remember his miniseries "Taken"? IT was awful.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Makes sense. Cancelling both would send a message of "Hey! We've given up on genre shows! Feel free to give us your comedy and reality pitches!", especially since Fringe and Touch (depending on its performance) aren't likely to make it either.

I've read that canceling Alcatraz is still a very distinct possibility.

[Irish]

Just an aside, but I love the fact that you rated Journey 2 in your sig. One star means extra good, right? :D

[number8]

Spielberg was very good at bankrolling television shows. Just... not live action.

[number8]

He seems to do okay on cable, though. Band of Brothers, obviously, and United States of Tara got 3 seasons, which is decent.

How is Falling Skies doing?

[Irish]

How is Falling Skies doing?

If that is still on the air, it'll be my turn to be surprised.

(Also, not sure you can count much cable. Tara, okay. But Band was a miniseries with enormous per episode budgets.)

EDIT: Color me surprised. Not only has Fallen Skies been renewed for a 2nd season, it's one of TNT's top rated shows.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Just an aside, but I love the fact that you rated Journey 2 in your sig. One star means extra good, right? :D

:P

You're free to read my extended thoughts on its awesomeness in the thread I created for it in the 2012 database. You don't have to look very hard. I'm the only review.

[number8]

If that is still on the air, it'll be my turn to be surprised.

(Also, not sure you can count much cable. Tara, okay. But Band was a miniseries with enormous per episode budgets.)

EDIT: Color me surprised. Not only has Fallen Skies been renewed for a 2nd season, it's one of TNT's top rated shows.

That's hilarious. It's like the ONLY show on TNT currently that's not a procedural.

[Henry Gale]

I've read that canceling Alcatraz is still a very distinct possibility.

Oh, I can definitely see it happening. But I guess I wish they'd either give Fringe one last year to go out properly (which considering its ratings, may only be likely with a short, cheaper final season) or allow Alcatraz to continue as a low-stakes Friday show and fill Fringe's spot on the network. Getting rid of both would just seem like too much of a washing away of all sci-fi on their network. Or more specifically, all J.J. Abrams.

[Sxottlan]

Not surprised. The pilot was horrendous.

And I never even knew when that Alcatraz was on. Never saw it.

[EyesWideOpen]

I'd be disappointed if they cancelled Alcatraz. I refuse to even accept that they might cancel Fringe.

[Dukefrukem]

Rumor; Netflix might be picking this up

[Henry Gale]

I don't know, apparently Netflix is running into budget problems with Fincher's House of Cards, which I'm going to assume is a show with considerably less money and scope needed to properly illustrate it. Plus some of the cast of Terra Nova seems to already be moving onto other pilots, so depending on what the schedule is like, it may be even harder to move forward now.

But at the same time, I'd like to see something like this happen and succeed as it would prove to be a viable afterlife for other shows in the future.

[number8]

Rumor; Netflix might be picking this up

Netflix wants to spend 4 million dollars an episode for a show that no one's watching? What the fuck for?