So finally Terra Nova landed on SA screens last night. One of thee most expensive tv shows in the world ( price tags go up if you want to have decent looking dinosaurs on screen). I watched it thinking this is going to be Lost meets Jurrassic Park,well it was kinda; it had some of the dynamics of Lost ( unknown land,filled with tropical vegetation, the group of misfits (in this case the pilgrims) vs the others (known as the "Sixers" - a break away rogue group) and it had the dinosaur action of Jurrasic park and it's scenary.But was it any good though?
Well if you been watching the Mnet promos or reading the paper, you know the premise of the show.The earth is gone to waste and its over populated.therefore a bunch of people settle and in a pre-historic times and our focus is the Shannon family.This being an American series each group of settlers are aptly known as pilgrims,the Shannon coming in on the 10th pilgrimage.
There's the heroic but slightly flawed dad ( Jim Shannon played by James o' Hara whose been in a lot of TV shows including Life on mars),the dutiful and wise wife with a British accent who also is a doctor so she does not need to be the damsel in distress (Elisabeth played by Shelly Conn) their nerdy girl child, their not so smart pubescent boy and the little girl who suppose to score all the cute points. One other very interesting cast member is Stephen Lang,you'd remember him as the tough as nail commander in the movie Avatar .His playing a similar role here but with a beard. He is a bit more of a benevolent patriach of the settlement than ironclad commando type but still kicks dinosaur butt when it comes to it. His the leader of Terra Nova settlement and he may be hiding more sinister trueths which will unravel as the series goes.So the principal cast ain't lame.Which is cool
The action is plenty but this being the double header pilot ,it was to be expected.Nothing puts bum on seats like good action ask hollywood. Man do they deliver though. There was plenty of very cool moments such as when the dumb son goes hanging out with the pretty girl and the rest of "we too cool for school" crowd when things go very wrong and they end up being trapped by a group of dino's nicknamed "slashers''. Pity the black dudes were the first monster fodder but at least the body count started including some white folks towards the end.
Then there was Stephan Lang going one on one with a dinosaurs that was cool to see.It helps that the action is fast paced but as soon as the idea of the Sixers was introduced and the way it was introduced.It was clear that Terra nova does not have the smarts of "Lost" .Cause its quiet clear were the series is going to head.ie that we can't trust Lang, the Sixers although are painted as the 'bad guys' are probably the good guys,that the family will probably have to switch sides later on...i just hope i'm wrong or the show does a good job of giving us these stories that we even forget that its actually very predictable.
So one could say Terra Nova is far from being a lame duck,its got action,cool dinosaurs,stephan lang, beautiful scenery ,a fast pace but so far not a lot of smarts but lets see what the other episodes bring.So stay tuned it can only get better...I hope .