New World, Tired Show
Terra Nova arrived last night with the most hoopla of any new fictional show this season. The pilot cost as much as $20 million and has a lot of big names behind it, including Steven Spielberg. The premise is simple: in a dystopian future, certain pilgrims escape through time travel to a community set 85 million years in the past. So we get the best of both worlds--futuristic technology in a world of dinosaurs. There are plenty of problems to deal with, of course, including a splinter group that opposes the main settlement.
Since Lost debuted in 2004, there have been numerous wannabes--they number in the double figures*--and Terra Nova, for all its money, may be the least interesting. There are plenty of directions the show can go from here, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the trip.
*Heroes, FlashForward, V, The Nine, Jericho, Invasion, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, The Event--that's just off the top of my head.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:09 AM
7 Comments:
How do V, Terminator and BG qualify as Lost imitators? More of that time travel thing?
I won't be able to catch Terra Nova till the replay later this week. I still like How I Met Your Mother, and they were scheduled opposite each other. I would like a good sci fi drama, but the main question I have going in - why 85 Million years back? Why not 30 or 40 Million, so there wouldn't be any dinosaurs - just giant three-toed sloths and maybe a saber toothed tiger to contend with?
Anon: I cast a wide net here. I was referring in general to ensemble pieces with action or sci-fi aspects trying to repeat the mass success of Lost. Really the furthest afield was The Nine, which was about nine people stuck in a bank robbery. The show (which got some good reviews but struck me as a horrible premise) was pretty much a straight drama, but each episode featured flashbacks to the robbery that commented on present-day action.
Denver Guy: They don't have a choice where they go back to.
I often wonder how much you can tell from pilot episodes- I 've seen other good series where the initial pilot seemed to really suck but then it found its stride over time. Of course, the example I can think of Miami Vice which doesn't really count because I was among the minority who thought the first episode sucked. (Of course, I thought all the subsequent episodes sucked too but since it was a popular show in school, it was always an excuse to have a TV party)
Lost had a great hook for its first episode and drew folks in (Disclosure- I only saw the final episode and only experienced the rest of the series though LA Guy's posts ). As I recall Heroes started out well before dissolving into muck after season 1
Anybody remember Earth 2?
Many in the blogosphere have noted similarities Terra Nova has to many shows and movies, particularly Lost and Jurassic Park. A number have noted a resemblance to Earth 2, which I guess would make this Earth 2: 2 or Earth 3.
Drama pilots are probably better than comedy pilots to give a feeling for the show, because so much comedy comes out of character which can take time to develop. But I think every series has discover itself in its first season. Still, as I've noted in previous posts, I didn't love the Lost pilot--it was only a few episodes later than it became my favorite show. Nevertheless, you could see it had something from the start. Unfortunately, whatever that something is, it's not in Terra Nova.
I missed out on Lost because I didn't like the pilot. I thought it was going to be some sort of adult version of "Lord of the Flies." When I heard it was good, it was too hard to try and catch up (but I will someday). I did the same thing based on the Office, because I couldn't stand how stupid Michael Scott was, but I did catch up on that one (only to drop it after 2009).
Despite these lessons, I am not giving "Hart of Dixie" or "Gifted Man" another chance - they were pretty bad, especially Dixie.
Most shows get cancelled anyway, so it could be a good strategy to sit back and wait and see if it's worth it.
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