Banana Scoop

It is difficult to write this because Terra Nova showed so much promise.  And by so much promise, I meant there’s f*cking dinosaurs in it.  So I’ve finally caught up with Terra Nova this week, and instead of doing another Fall TV check up, I decided to write a warning obituary for a specific series.  In a season where TV can easily take over your life if you’re ambitious enough, you have to filter what you watch or instead you’ll also be watching your grades plummet.  So after giving Terra Nova a chance, I’ve become bored with it’s clunky dialogue, uninteresting side plots, and its general lack of DINOSAURS.

I originally thought this would be extremely promising, and even after watching the first two hours special, I felt as though it would deliver.  The dinosaurs were engaging and exciting, the characters were likable enough, the story set itself up to be more complex then it originally let on, and Stephan Lang is particularly mesmerizing channeling his Avatar  role.  So when the next couple of episodes rolled out to have them be about tiny dinosaur birds and an episode revolving around the common cold, you can imagine how disappointed I was.

And don’t even get me started on the general lack of dinosaurs.  I understand that with this being a Steven Spielberg film, family is a very important issue, but from what I got, Terra Nova looked like Jurassic Park the Series and all the excitement from Jurassic Park seems to be missing and replaced with lame teenage love stories and a boring dead-end love triangle.  The biggest problem I have with Terra Nova is that the general lack of drama.  There is nothing juicy, scandalous, or even frightening about this series, despite being about surviving 85 million years ago.  The series is rather tame and would benefit much more if it were allowed to be grittier and more realistic.  Life seems a little too civilized.  I’m almost tempted to have the series be more about the rival clan the Sixers who are clearly more interesting in their apparent lack of ammo, hobo looks, and desperate faces.

Now they've probably been through some serious sh*t.

I almost feel bad that Fox has dumped millions into this project.  It’s true the set pieces are beautiful and the CGI is probably the best on television, but it’s almost relatable to how movies will sacrifice characterization and story for effects and action.  It’s just unfortunate that Terra Nova doesn’t have enough action to salvage itself from being halfway enjoyable.  I was just hoping that Spielberg’s involvement would spur this into something magnificent with a balance of both.

I’m still pulling for Terra Nova to turn around.  If they don’t shift their story towards something more exciting rather than a lame love triangle or corny teenage love, they’ll lose another viewer.  As a result, I’m still considering on whether or not I should get into 2 Broke Girls or American Horror Story.  What do you guys think?  Dump Terra Nova for greener pastures?