Terra Nova 1x03 - 'Instinct' (Grade/Discuss) SPOILERS
- Thread starter Tom
- Start date
A bit of news, the show is doing very well when you add in time-shifters. Whether this means anything to advertisers, and how much, is another matter.
I hope it hangs in there. Even with dull characters, it's different from everything else on TV.
I hope it hangs in there. Even with dull characters, it's different from everything else on TV.
Comcast Cable On Demand, is set up with commercials and no fast forwarding availability (Same as Falling Skies). So, On Demand Viewing, should be worth every bit as much as a Live viewer, because you can't escape the commercials.
I'm looking forward to the show growing, and I never judge a show in it's first few episodes for having Stereotypical characters or Archetypes. You gotta start somewhere with the characters, so starting with the stereotype and building from there, isn't a problem for me. Now, if the characters are the same in Episode 5 as they were Episode 1, then, yea, that can lead to a problem. Matter of fact, oftentimes, it's easier to keep track of the characters when they start out as stereotypes, "The Mustache Twirler, the Dumb Blonde, The Hero, The punk Kid, the grizzled old Military Guy, etc.
I wonder if that's responsible for the 40% of DVR viewers who don't skip ads. There's probably also some folks who like ads, or are too lazy to skip them, or have gotten into the habit of watching them.
Lost's characters were also archetypes - the heroic doc, the pretty girl in trouble, the troublemaking redneck, the jolly fat guy, the Arab who might be a terrorist, the mysterious bald guy who might be a CIA badass. But even in the first two hours, there were hints that the stereotypes were going to be overturned because the writers were aware of what the audience was thinking.
The possibly-terrorist Arab guy, for instance, was very helpful and rational, and he used his exceptional math skills to calculate how long the signal had been repeating - a detail that made him too much of an individual for us to expect him to follow a cliched path. And iirc, the bit about Kate being handcuffed and therefore some kind of criminal was also revealed in the premiere. It wasn't long into the first season before every stereotype had been exploded.
I just don't see that kind of clever set-up in Terra Nova at all, except that Stephen Lang is acting so mild and reasonable because he will no doubt turn out to be up to no good, but that's not exactly what I would call a clever set-up.
The characters all seem arrogant and oddly middle class. From my perspective, in a world where population explosion has destroyed the planet our sympathies shouldn't lie with the selfish people who put their own desires above the law and have a third child or with the guy on Terra Nova who says he doesn't care about the population control of the old world - well, why would we need to worry about population control when we can just over-breed and start destroying the planet all over again? I was offended that my sympathies were supposed to lie with the lawbreakers from the start. Although why they didn't just given all men vasectomies after their second child, I don't know.
Good point about their "middle class" sensibilities, that does seem odd, given how they were living. It might be more interesting and plausible if the kids were more cynical and feral, or possibly more loyal to their parents, living in a society where safety and resources were not assured.
And since the Dad is a cop, did he ever kick down doors of people with three kids to enforce the draconian laws? That might have been another way to make him more interesting, if he realized he was living in a society where he was forced to be a hypocrite, and wanted to find a way out, even if it meant having to fight dinos.
In fact, forget the third daughter. Maybe the way to handle the backstory is that the family is living in a protected part of the city, with spacious quarters and domed parks, because they're part of the elite. Daddy is a cop who kicks down doors of the less fortunate in support of a corrupt system that protects the elite from the environmental degradation around them. Mommy is a doctor and also part of the elite. The kids are spoiled, nasty little brats with an unearned sense of entitlement, just like all their friends in Dome City.
Daddy finds out about the Terra Nova project, which people in his own social class don't care about, since they're not going to leave their cushy lives to live in a dinosaur infested jungle. But Daddy realizes the family must leave, because dinos are better than their soulless existence. He's different from everyone else - he hasn't been utterly corrupted.
That makes the parents look more heroic because they didn't really need to leave. It gives us some interest in seeing if the kids can be smacked out of their bratty ways by their new, difficult lives. Dad is overjoyed to be seemingly living in a "clean" society where everyone is equal and pulls together for the common good. And then the suspicions start to mount...
And since the Dad is a cop, did he ever kick down doors of people with three kids to enforce the draconian laws? That might have been another way to make him more interesting, if he realized he was living in a society where he was forced to be a hypocrite, and wanted to find a way out, even if it meant having to fight dinos.
In fact, forget the third daughter. Maybe the way to handle the backstory is that the family is living in a protected part of the city, with spacious quarters and domed parks, because they're part of the elite. Daddy is a cop who kicks down doors of the less fortunate in support of a corrupt system that protects the elite from the environmental degradation around them. Mommy is a doctor and also part of the elite. The kids are spoiled, nasty little brats with an unearned sense of entitlement, just like all their friends in Dome City.
Daddy finds out about the Terra Nova project, which people in his own social class don't care about, since they're not going to leave their cushy lives to live in a dinosaur infested jungle. But Daddy realizes the family must leave, because dinos are better than their soulless existence. He's different from everyone else - he hasn't been utterly corrupted.
That makes the parents look more heroic because they didn't really need to leave. It gives us some interest in seeing if the kids can be smacked out of their bratty ways by their new, difficult lives. Dad is overjoyed to be seemingly living in a "clean" society where everyone is equal and pulls together for the common good. And then the suspicions start to mount...
They crashed a block away from Newman's jeep in JP.
"It's amazing how my daughter is a walking exposition bunny."
Or electric fences. Seriously, if the giant, carnivorous, animals living outside your fence can just fly or jump in or whatever then your fence is pretty much not doing a damn thing.
Maybe if he did a few less crunches he would've learned how to cook.
Good question, they could have brought them dis-assambled and assembled them. they should at least have some recon drones.
Hey, General Halftrack. You're living in an area around DINOSAURS! That's pretty much begging to be routinely attacked by large, mean, angry and hungry creatures!
Why is he all angry and surprised as if this is a big deal or something to even consider? Build a better fence, get some better guns and don't play with the huge carnivorous animals!
Why is he all angry and surprised as if this is a big deal or something to even consider? Build a better fence, get some better guns and don't play with the huge carnivorous animals!
In the future, platinum will be plentiful but oranges will be rare.
It's a birdemic!
Commodities.... OF THE FUTURE!!!!
