Terra Nova 1x01&02 - Genesis Parts 1&2 (Grade/Discuss) SPOILERS

[Temis the Vorta]

In Falling Skies, the Trademark Spielberg Family had a purpose - to give Noah Wylie a family to fight for, and also to provide kids who could be integrated into the action in interesting ways. The oldest son could confound our prejudices by being a competent fighter, not a sulky brat. The middle son, of course, was caught up in the heart of the conflict, about the harnessed kids - which is still a mystery.

But in Terra Nova, the family really has no purpose. The three-way conflict between Lang's character, Mira and his unseen, missing son, seems like it's going to be more to the point.

The impression I got was that the difference between timestreams was only very slight.

I don't think there's any way to say how much difference there is, except that it wasn't big enough that there weren't gigantic land octopi roaming the Earth 85M years ago in lieu of dinos.

 

[davejames]

The incredible success of TV shows like NCIS, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds and other crime drama are all example of what format people like. Now it's all about making those weekly story interesting with great characters, good writing and a little bit of arcs that doesn't interfere with the understanding of an episode (feel lost like we missed some important episode). Bottom line people watch episodic TV format much more. We're talking 10-18 millions a week here. It's not even in the same league. Wake up TV producers!!!!

I would hope there would be room for BOTH styles. Besides, who gives a crap about popularity. I'll take the brilliant Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones over any of those bland procedurals anyday.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The incredible success of TV shows like NCIS, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds and other crime drama are all example of what format people like.

Not me.

But if people like that format, they have plenty to watch. And if they want that format combined with sf/f genre stories, SyFy is at your beck and call, with shows like Warehouse 13. Alphas seems to be following in that mold as well.

The real question here is whether sf/f can survive on broadcast TV at all. Every attempt flops, and surviving shows like Chuck and Fringe are on their last legs, whereas cable is a hospitable enough environment that there have been several recent successes.

Next up is American Horror Story on FX. I sense another tidy hit in that one, but of course, it doesn't need 9M viewers or even anything close.

I'll take the brilliant Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones over any of those bland procedurals anyday.

I just looked up Breaking Bad's ratings and got a shock! It's never even gotten even 3M viewers and the most recent ep was 1.5M. So many people are missing a great show. But it doesn't really matter since that level can maintain the show just fine, for as long as the producers think they need in order to tell the story in full.

 

[McDuff]

I would hope there would be room for BOTH styles. Besides, who gives a crap about popularity. I'll take the brilliant Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones over any of those bland procedurals anyday.

I hope TV producers in general stop listening to people like davejames. 15 millions people a week watching many "bland" crime drama, tell us otherwise.

Sure some highly serialized TV shows are ok from time to time (I actually like them on DVD), some people like them, but enough is enough. Wake up TV producers!!

Breaking Bad, don't joke us they got like 1.5 millions people watching it. Put that on broadcast they would get 3 millions or not. Compare that to 10 millions or even 18 millions a week for many shows!!

 

[MANT!]

A good beginning..I hope they play up the mystery aspect a bit...

 

[Hyperspace05]

What's your point, McDuff? Do you think ratings imply *anything* other than more people like the "bland crime dramas"? Not really.

But even so... Does TV need another bland procedural with little continuity? There's more than enough of that to go around for EVERYONE.

So I appreciate the makers of "Terra Nova" are trying to do something out of the ordinary. Hopefully they can dump the bland/bad stuff and push forward with the rest in new directions.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I would hope there would be room for BOTH styles. Besides, who gives a crap about popularity. I'll take the brilliant Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones over any of those bland procedurals anyday.

I hope TV producers in general stop listening to people like davejames. 15 millions people a week watching many "bland" crime drama, tell us otherwise.

Sure some highly serialized TV shows are ok from time to time (I actually like them on DVD), some people like them, but enough is enough. Wake up TV producers!!

Breaking Bad, don't joke us they got like 1.5 millions people watching it. Put that on broadcast they would get 3 millions or not. Compare that to 10 millions or even 18 millions a week for many shows!!

TV producers never started listening to people like davejames, or any of us, for that matter. They don't need to. They can read their Nielsens reports and figure out for themselves what works and what doesn't.

And you missed the point about Breaking Bad. The fact that it would get 3M on broadcast and quickly get cancelled is why it doesn't belong on broadcast. And why shows like it don't belong on broadcast. On cable, the show is doing well enough to get enough seasons (five) to tell the whole story sufficiently (and then some, I actually think they could have wrapped it up this season, the fourth).

So the producers are getting what they want. The viewers are getting what they want. AMC is getting what it wants. What's the problem?

 

[McDuff]

TV producers never started listening to people like davejames

Sure they are:

Highly serialized Sci-fi shows:
Lost (the one success), Flashforward, The Event, Surface, the 4400, Walking dead, Falling skies, V, Stargate SGU, Terra Nova, hell I forgot probably a dozens of them.

More episodic Sci-fi shows:
Warehouse 13
-insert your own tv shows here-

And even them are slipping toward the serialized format.

It's incredible that TV producers don't listen to the people who speaks with their viewing habits.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

TV producers never started listening to people like davejames

Sure they are:

Highly serialized Sci-fi shows:
Lost (the one success), Flashforward, The Event, Surface, the 4400, Walking dead, Falling skies, V, Stargate SGU, Terra Nova, hell I forgot probably a dozens of them.

You missed BSG, the one every other tried to copy because it was so GD successful. And Terra Nova has had ONE episode. You dont know anything about how its gonna play out.

More episodic Sci-fi shows:
Warehouse 13
-insert your own tv shows here-

And even them are slipping toward the serialized format.

It's incredible that TV producers don't listen to the people who speaks with their viewing habits.

You like crap TV, we get it.

 

[McDuff]

You missed BSG, the one every other tried to copy because it was so GD successful.

Successful? Please tell me the rating of it. And what TV shows beside Stargate SGU tried to copy it. I'm curious if you list some TV shows that did. Thank you.

Caprica? Look at the ratings. It's a joke. Even BSG fans shitted on Caprica. You may have love it like it was the best TV show in the world but the ratings tell us otherwise. Even BSG fans didn't watch it. The TV producers failed to realize that people like the space action, the adventure in BSG not only the character drama stuff.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Ratings mean jack. Its successful because people like it, not because some suit made money off it.

Did I mention Caprica? Once?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

BSG succeeded in getting good enough ratings to allow the series to survive long enough for the producers to tell the story they wanted to tell, in full.

That's the only definition of success in TV that counts for me. The bean counters might have a different idea, but I'm not a bean counter and I don't care what they want.

TV producers never started listening to people like davejames

Sure they are:

Highly serialized Sci-fi shows:
Lost (the one success), Flashforward, The Event, Surface, the 4400, Walking dead, Falling skies, V, Stargate SGU, Terra Nova, hell I forgot probably a dozens of them.

They made those shows because davejames told them to?

Hey davejames, use your amazing powers of persuasion to get Star Trek back on TV!

Okay, comedy aside, I'm pretty sure that more serialized shows get made for broadcast than the ratings would warrant because writers and showrunners like to write serialized shows. Why wouldn't they? Does anyone become a writer with the ambition of turning out cookie-cutter CSI scripts? That's gotta be boring as shit for them.

Of course they'd rather be doing some wild-ass, high-concept series with tons of character development. Their problem is that a high percentage of the viewing public lacks the brain cells to be able to follow that kind of stuff (not to mention that just because you want to write a show like that doesn't mean you can pull it off without creating a godawful mess).

 

[RAMA]

It amazes me how people take for granted the production values on tv these days...most of the work in the show couldn't even have been done consistently 5-6 years ago. Studios wouldn't have used as much location shooting 8-10 years ago (you can thank Lost for that). Aside from the production, which was excellent, the show was a little bit predictable and lacked some common sense...people had to act like the dumb fools in horror movies for anything bad to happen...running out of an armored vehicle into a pack of wild carnivores, fighting security guards to protect your illegal child when it would only have gotten you a fine, et al. Some of the technical issues need to be fixed/explained, ie: how they communicate forward in time with another timeline, how/when they plan on increasing the population, how did the probe transmit data, etc. Still it held my interest long enough to wonder what the petroglyphs were all about; why Terra Nova is really there, and why the Sixers broke off from the colony and who sent them (The Others!); and what their exact theory of divergent timelines is. So far (one ep) I still liked the first season of Primeval better, but I'm willing to watch it longer. I'll rate it "above avg" for the complete production.

RAMA

 

[McDuff]

Did I mention Caprica? Once?

That's why I wrote Caprica with an interrogation mark beside it. Because I didn't know what shows you were talking about beside SGU which copied BSG. I thought maybe Caprica was one example of it for you. Can you list some examples? I wanted to point out than an all character drama BSG (called Caprica) flopped rating wise as even BSG fans didn't watch it.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Longest running Sci fi show on TV is serialized. Doctor Who.

I for one LIKE shows that make you think and remember, and arent all smiles and happy dance at the end of their hour.

As for examples, i believe most of the serialized TV today is thanks in part to BSG.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It amazes me how people take for granted the production values on tv these days...most of the work in the show couldn't even have been done consistently 5-6 years ago.

Do you mean that we're taking it for granted? Maybe the trouble is, if the characters suck, the eye candy can't make up for it.

 

[Ruaidhri]

Did I mention Caprica? Once?

That's why I wrote Caprica with an interrogation mark beside it. Because I didn't know what shows you were talking about beside SGU which copied BSG. I thought maybe Caprica was one example of it for you. Can you list some examples? I wanted to point out than an all character drama BSG (called Caprica) flopped rating wise as even BSG fans didn't watch it.

Interrogation mark? Get out the bright lights!

 

[arch101]

It was Ok. I liked SGU better, but I'll keep watching for now.
Alternate timeline, huh? And I wonder how the people of the future in this timeline are liking the re-tooling of their past by these folks?
They will have to pick up the "continuing story" pretty quick to keep any viewership.
I was also getting an "Earth 2" vibe, and that show was on almost 20 years ago. Dreamworks has really come a long way with their TV shows.

 

[McDuff]

Longest running Sci fi show on TV is serialized. Doctor Who.

I can admit that I liked Lost, which is highly serialized (I watched most seasons on DVD though). A bit less the last 3 seasons, but they were good too.

I also like Doctor Who very much (one my favorite TV series). Especially the Russel T Davies era (I don't' like old Doctor Who). I consider it highly episodic btw. Even the most episodic shows like X-files or Star Trek TNG involve some continuity or character/story arcs but never in a way where you can't understand ANY plot lines in an episode.

For example Data's quest to become humans. Sure it's a continuous character arc but you can easily take each episode as being about an android wanted to explore x or y aspect of his humanity without remembering the specificity of what happened before. In layman words: you don't feel lost because you didn't watch one or many episodes before. Which is the case with Doctor Who (Davies era). Also each episodes involve a complete story with a beginning a middle and an end and hopefully an interesting original intelligent subject matter.

 

[RAMA]

It amazes me how people take for granted the production values on tv these days...most of the work in the show couldn't even have been done consistently 5-6 years ago.

Do you mean that we're taking it for granted? Maybe the trouble is, if the characters suck, the eye candy can't make up for it.

Well I dealt with that separately in the post...it may ultimately be eye candy, but in this genre, its often a staple, and if done well it adds to the show, just like music, lighting, photography, what have you..its difficult to separate. It was the attitude specifically towards the FX and production I was mainly targeting in that sentence.

RAMA