Terra nova

[ericadawn16]

I finally watched the two hour premiere of Terra Nova. I was excited since it's dinosaurs and Spielberg, what could go wrong?

After fifteen minutes, I felt like Ian Malcolm.

"Ah, now eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right?"

I guess I'm spoiled by Primeval where they realize people watch for the animals and not the plot-lines. Plus, I tend to HATE Dystopian stories and that's what this is basically, complete with classic American family chastised for having a third child.

Then, we get dinosaurs and they shoot at them. I suppose it could be tranqs or something non-lethal but it didn't seem that way...

The main dinosaur is something called a slasher which is either something so new they didn't bother with a proper name or they thought we were too stupid to be told. Geez, at least with Jurassic Park, they might have been incorrect names for what was shown but they all had names.

The head of the settlement seems like a ripoff of the Avatar guy, but nicer. Now, the oldest daughter in the family is awesome. She's extremely smart with science and math, including dinosaur knowledge...
And she's made to feel embarrassed or a freak everytime she says anything remotely smart.

WTF? I thought we were past this!

When you have such awesome female role models in the first two Jurassic Park films, this is what pissed me off the most.

So, did anyone watch the third episode? Does it get better?

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Comments

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

They haven't shown episode 3 over here yet, but I am planning to watch it even though it is, as you say, just one cliche after another.

It's too glossy -- glossy sets, glossy people with glossy teeth... It belongs to the set of TV programmes that are afraid to show dirt or (real) dissention because it might alienate the audience advertisers.

There was a BBC series earlier in the year called Outcasts, which had more or less the same scenario (suspiciously), except that the colonists had been sent to a distant planet rather than into the past. (Why would anyone try to colonise a world full of dinosaurs?) It had the usual British TV wobbly sets, but the benefit of Hermione Norris, Liam Cunningham, Daniel Mays, and a guest turn by Jamie Bamber. I loved it, but it wasn't popular and I think it's been canned.

It's hard to watch Terra Nova without comparing it with Outcasts.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

It's not a separate world. Basically, they go through an anomaly like Primeval but they don't call it that, of course. The anomaly leads to Earth at an earlier time when there were dinosaurs.

I never compared it with Outcasts but I suppose that explains a lot. I saw the first two episodes of that and didn't like it either...even with Jamie Bamber.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Yes, I realise it's prehistoric earth. But it's still 'a world with dinosaurs' and settling it is bat-shit crazy!

didn't like it either...

It probably took a while to get started, but I think it's been one of the best things I've watched this year.

[trektotorch.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that humans screwed up the earth so badly that it is unlivable. Then we send these same humans back to prehistoric time in order to start screwing up the planet a lot sooner then we did before. From what I can understand this is supposed to be a different time line. Whatever that means. I, too, find it so irritating about the elder daughter apologizing for being smart. What is with that. Another prehistoric version of women not allowed to be smart and show it, especially around boys. But, it still is an entertaining program. But, I don't expect it to last beyond one season.

[direwolfdragon.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it. It is entertainment and there are times I just want entertainment to be entertaining without looking deeper.

That and I think it might be FOX trying to make a show that is going to last, to be popular because what is deep tends never to be popular :(

I am afraid it is going to go the horrid way of LOST though. It is like they are trying to pack too much glitz in and grab everyone's attention. Sad :(

The head of the settlement IS the Avatar guy, the same actor who played Quaritch :) Albeit a bit toned down from being obviously bad, but I do find myself thinking of him as Quaritch rather than Taylor anyway.

I did kind of go o_O at the whole 'slasher' dino thing, but given the fact that the dinos tended to use their tails as weapons with a slashing motion, I am not going to automatically jump to the irrational conclusion that the creators were downing the meaning of the term 'slash' that is used to denote a same sex relationship. I may have a chip on my shoulder at times, but that is kind of ridiculous. I am sure that the scientists in that setting have a name for that dino that is not 'slasher', but in today's society how many folks use the scientific name (unless they are scientists) for creatures?

I won't even go into my views on using the term 'slash' for fic portraying same-sex relationships. I KNOW why it is done, but looking at the definition of the word slash which is usually violent and reducing in nature? Rambling though, sorry.

As for awesome female role models, I am holding out hope for more about Washington (Taylor's second in command) and for Skye. As for Maddie, she is sixteen, she is supposed to be awkward and from what I have seen from her she isn't trying to hide her smarts even though people appear to be shocked at how smart she truly is. I am going to give folks the benefit of the doubt and say they are shocked because of her age, not because of her gender. Especially when her mother is a very smart and noted surgeon, one who is even asked to lend her skills to other scientific pursuits.

Where is the outrage about the portrayal of Josh? Typical teenage boy who brainlessly rebels against everything and harbors an irrational grudge against his father for being sent to jail? Why does he have to be shown breaking every rule? Surely there are teenage boys who follow the rules....

Personally, I say it gets better but if a dsytopian premise and a settlement where people use necessary and proper force to defend themselves against wildlife (although in the latest episode, instead of wiping out nearly an entire population of dinos, they spent time devising a way to lure them away from the settlement) and where a teenager is going to be portrayed as a typical teenager regardless of gender, isn't your thing, I don't think you will enjoy.

I don't think the premise of this show is about the beasts, as you mentioned Primeval (I love Primeval, although I miss Cutter) tends to focus on. It is meant to focus on the people within the settlement rather that primarily on their environment although that environment is important.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your reply especially for telling me how it IS the same guy!
I now have an urge to watch him in something different, like a romantic comedy...I wonder if he's done one.

I never even thought of the whole slasher in relation to slash fic thing, but I tend to be a little old-fashioned with terms at times. I still cringe at "top" and "bottom" since it seems to make everything relate to the heterosexual missionary position.

Anyway, my main complaint is that in Jurassic Park, we have nicknames like Raptor, T. Rex, Spitter, etc. but we were also told the real names. It seemed like here they didn't even bother telling us the real one.

With Josh, I was kind of annoyed with the typical portrayal until it was pointed out how it was ironic how Josh hates his dad so much but is basically turning into him and I had hope he would improve in the future...like what usually happens.

Several of you do say it gets better so I probably will try the third episode and see how things go...

[settiai]

The main dinosaur is something called a slasher which is either something so new they didn't bother with a proper name or they thought we were too stupid to be told.

They actually did give the name fairly early on in the episode, Acceraptor, but then they simply started using the nickname. It's one of the fictional dinosaurs that they made up for the series, since only a relatively few actual species have been identified from fossils for that time period.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Thank you for correcting me. I have Closed Captioning on but I still miss things.

Love the icon.

Have you seen:
http://ontd-jp.livejournal.com/ (http://ontd-jp.livejournal.com/) ?

[settiai]

I've seen it, but I'm not really big on any of the ONTD communities. *shrugs* They're just not my thing.