Terra Nova - "Occupation"/"Resistance"

Season 1, Episode 12 & 13

If FOX were the sort of network that cared about critical reception or creative quality of its shows, tonight’s finale would be something of a benchmark for the show. Of course the network doesn’t care about these sorts of things, but critics do, and with the show’s fate still up in the air in regards to renewal (apparently it all depends on foreign markers, who tend to eat up this kind of empty blockbuster-type fare, regardless of things like story or characters), for us the finale will serve as retroactive proof for the series renewal/cancellation/reasoning for either of those options. But looking over the two-hour finale, I find that even as there were a number of strong moments here, it (unsurprisingly) was still dragged down by all the episodes that preceded it.

Terra Nova - "Within"

Season 1, Episode 11

You might be wondering why, after reviewing the pilot and then giving up, and then dropping in on the fifth episode and being similarly disappointed, I would consider dropping in on Terra Nova for a third time. The answer is simple: I don’t have anything else tonight. But really, I’ve been watching the show as it’s been airing, because even as the show a disappointment, it also held potential…okay, it’s really just because I’m a masochist. But embracing mythology helps to boost a show’s quality more often than not, so I will be covering tonight’s episode as well as next week’s 2-hour finale in order to discuss where I think the show went wrong and whether it lived up to any of the potential we saw back in the pilot.

So strap in and put on your snark helmets, boys and girls, because things are about to get….middling.

Terra Nova - "Bylaws"

Season 1, Episode 5

Dropping in on the show, as continues its middling path

I must admit that I feel sort of bad for not following through on my promise to write about Terra Nova on a weekly basis. I mean, it’s a pretty bad show – worse in fact than I would have thought based on the pilot – and I don’t really have the energy to write about another subpar show every week – that’s what Modern Family is for. (Sadly, a few months ago that slot used to belong to Glee, but the latter show has picked up this season.) But because I heard that the show is planning on picking up its serialized elements – and because I don’t have class tonight, as lack of time was another reason I quit my coverage of this show – I’m offering up this review for those three whole people who were disappointed that I haven’t followed through on my initial commitment.

I just wish that this was a better episode; I don’t know when exactly it was that we’re supposed to enter serialized territory, but it certainly wasn’t tonight. 

Terra Nova - "Genesis"

Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2

“Together, we’re at the dawn of

a new civilization. No pressure.”

-Taylor

I’m not going to pretend that I went into Terra Nova with the highest of hopes. As a sci-fi series on FOX that’s produced by Steven Spielberg, I knew more or less what I was getting into, and it wasn’t going to be The Next Great Sci-Fi Series, for sure. Then why did I jump in to a series that I knew might not be that good, as well as commit myself to writing about the thirteen-episode first season?

Because dinosaurs are fucking awesome. The only problem is that the show knows it all too well, and it feels like that’s the reason the show doesn’t work as well as it should.