Terra Nova and an Italian Gem

The Terra Nova cast prepare to meet Glee at Nationals

 I've watched two shows this week that for very different reasons caught my attention. You'd have have to have been living up a Bongo tree on the Isle of Wagawong to have missed the trailers for Terra Nova.    "Speilberg, most expensive show ever made, time travel, dinosaurs!!!!!"

They didn't trail the cliches or the 21st century teenage American attitude that is transplanted on both the future - and via the time portal - the past.

Terra Nova begins with a rip off of Blade Runner in Chicago 2149, it then rips off or 'borrows' ideas from six other series/films. The world is overpopulated, Earth an ecological disaster area and the air barely fit to breathe. The set up and execution bears a horrible resemblance to the BBC's "Outcasts". And we know what happened to that.

In the world of the future there are laws limiting family size but the Shannon family have one more child than they should. Up until the opening sequence they've successfully hidden her in the air conditioning duct any time a Childcatcher cop comes to call. But this being genre sci-fi all that is about to change. Nasty Nazi-style cops are at the door and this time the little babe blurts out a cry whilst the Childcatchers are trashing the room.

Dad, Jim, a square jaw and an unprepossessing presence, gets banged up. His wife, Elizabeth,  struggles on for two years before she at last gets a chance to see him in jail and when she gets there she discovers he's developed a slight cough and redness around the eyes - being a Doctor she can instantly diagnoses such things. She leaves him her breathing mask which is the 22nd century version of a cake with a file in it.

With one bound he's free and joining the rest of the family as they head for the portal to the past, the Stargate to Terra Nova.

Here they encounter what looks like Centre Parcs in a jungle clearing. All gravel drives, flower and fruit markets, nicely scrubbed children and the odd pterodactyl swooping down gull-like to nick the kids chips.

Head of the colony is Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang, the white bearded guy from Avatar here sporting a black and white striped beard). We're not too sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy but he does have more presence than everyone else put together. Not that his lines are any better.

We may be 85 million years in the past but Teen American Mall Attitude is still on display and one of the Shannon kids soon joins some other kids as they go OTG - that's outside the gate. And what have they hidden out there? Why it's a Still, the kids are making moonshine.

A massive budget, CGI dinosaurs, fantastic scope for all kinds of stories and what have they come up with - kids bunking off to make moonshine. Duh. The cliches abound like the pterosaurs - 
which here looked the most CGI of all the dinos on display.

The wonder of seeing a giant dinosaur come to life in Jurassic Park is still something I can feel deep inside. But that was a long, long, time ago and we've seen so many CGI beasts since then it's hard to get excited about them in the same way, so this series has to do something else. Like 'Lost' it has its mysteries, strange markings on rocks, and it's own set of OTHERS, here they're called SIXERS and I'm guessing that Commander Taylor's missing son is amongst them - if not leading them.

But we've seen it all before.

Really. Ten, count them, ten Executive Producers and THIS is what they have collectively concocted? The story is rice paper thin and falls apart just as easily. I sat and watched the opening and second episode and by the end I couldn't care less whether I see any more of this tosh. Which is a shame, as going in to any new series always I really want to love it.

Everyone is so po-faced here, no humour, terrible background music, false jeopardy, contemporary attitudes, stupid conflict, two dimensional characters. The only time the dinos looked remotely scary was at night, when it was raining. Now where have I see that before? Otherwise they bore a strange resemblance to chickens - and before anyone says, yes but birds are related to dinosaurs these beasts are supposed to be terrifying and I ain't never been terrified of a chicken!

My biggest gripe with this kind of stuff is the lack of real emotion on display. Everyone reacts as though travelling back 85 million years in time is completely normal. There's lots of forced false emotions going on. People don't act that way.

I read this from a critic: "Go in without high expectations and there is some fun to be had".

No.

This is Speilberg, a man whose name has been connected to some of the most absorbing films of the past thirty years.I expect to be entertained and enthralled and surprised and wowed.

This is the most expensive tv series ever made. Why would I go in without high expectation.

This kind of criticism is unforgiveable. It's a cop out for every crap show that makes it onto the air. There's no place for comments like that here.

Whether we see any more of the dystopian 22nd century society I don't know - can they go back through the time portal or is it a one way street? I hope they do go back and all get wiped out by the bad air.


Speilberg should be more choosey about what he puts his name to. And we won't even mention Falling Skies.

Contrast this tosh with Romanzo Criminale which began this week on Sky Arts. 



I wouldn't be surprised if this show's entire budget didn't match that spent on one episode of Terra Nova.

This seires does a different kind of time-travel. It takes us back to Rome during the 1970's and tells the true story of the Banda della Magia, the prolific and bloodthirsty crime family in Italy who were responsible for some of the most violent crimes the country had ever seen.

Real emotions, terrific acting and writing, violent, funny and beautifully shot.  Absolutely brilliant. I know what I'll be watching Mr S.