The wife of the protagonist is an outstanding doctor, and gets to Terra Nova easily. But her husband, former police officer Jim Shannon has to escape from prison - no, he is a good guy, only in the future there is a limit on the number of children (no more than two per family), and he and his wife not only produced a third, but also tried to prove to the authorities that he had the right to do so. So he literally has to break into the portal with a fight. But there, in the Terra Nova colony, under the leadership of the harsh but fair Commander Taylor, everyone will start a new life, shook off the ashes of a deadlocked civilization.
The series is literally full of obsessive propaganda of family values. The family life of the main character is given a significant role in the film, although this life is completely uninteresting for an outsider, because all happy families are happy in the same way. Everything in pink light, sometimes there are small far-fetched difficulties - baseless outbursts of jealousy, petty conflicts between father and son on artificial occasions, but in general everything is smooth, smooth and as if hinting to the viewer that a big family is cool. Would they live so happily in the gloomy post-apocalyptic world of the future - the question is removed, because they pulled a lucky ticket to the American dream under the clear sky of the Mesozoic.
Terra Nova is characterized by some slow development of the main plot, which is too simple, so it is artificially delayed. This is done in a super clumsy way: whatever happens in the main storyline, by the end of each series everything comes to the initial sum. Real significant events take place in series 1-2 and 11-13, in the rest we learn how Terra Nova lives, is treated, learns, with whom they fight, what they build and grow, etc. This, in principle, is also interesting, but if the end-to-end story cannot be organically stretched throughout the series, maybe it would be worthwhile to forget about it at all? It could be done as in the cult X-files, where “mythology” from time to time was diluted with “monsters of the week”... yes, in general, there are many solutions, and the writers of “Terra Nova” chose the most clumsy.
According to Hollywood tradition, the durability of dinosaurs is comparable to the strength of armored vehicles. Moreover, when it is necessary in the plot, a large raptor in two counts was piled up, and when not necessary, predatory lizards remained unharmed under dagger automatic fire.
If you go back to the script, then the plot holes and inconsistencies in it - at least add up. In the first episode behind the scenes there is such an important event as the escape of the hero from prison! Why did the creators of the series decide that the viewer is not interested in how he managed to do this? Yes, just they themselves were not interested, just to show the tropical world with dinosaurs, and the prologue to skip the gallop, having managed to draw a “party line” that having many children is cool.
And the Sixth with their strange tactics? If they had such trump cards on their hands, why did they hide it? Why did they not try to lure the residents of Terra Nova to their side, did not conduct propaganda? No one prevented them from fitting APCs with loudspeakers to the perimeter and telling them what a miracle transmitter they have. But they only hide, steal and spy. And expect a miracle from Lucas. What if Taylor's son was just a crazy maniac and his theory was a mistake? Yes, by the way, the drawings on the stones, according to which everyone decided that he was close to discovery - this is something beyond common sense. An ignorant person cannot distinguish a scientific work in physics from a meaningless set of words generated by a computer! And here, far from science, warriors understand something not even by drawings - by rough sketches made by chalk!
Until the end, there was hope for some ambiguity, a clash of ideas, a moral dilemma. But no – in the end, everything slid into a confrontation between romantic rebels and vicious cartoon bourgeois. Moreover, if Commander Taylor can be called ambiguous, and even antihero, then his opponents are pure, comic evil. With their capabilities, they could save the entire civilization of Earth, and all they have in mind is plunder and an unmotivated thirst for destruction. So black and white morality is in all its glory.
Acting is not impressive. As a "guest movie star" here, Stephen Lange plays Commander Taylor, and perhaps only he managed to create a vivid and memorable image. I can’t single out anyone else, and the main character is one of the most faceless and dull.
The music is... quite standard. But the title melody is very good, under it would be a beautiful screensaver, but alas. However, in the credits of each series can be heard.
Is there anything to praise the series for? Well, at least he's not promoting anything wrong. A strong family, care for nature, altruism, humanism - all this is great, but all this morality is presented quite clumsy. The nature of the Mesozoic is good (but the gloomy cities of the future are clearly drawn, as in a video from a computer game fifteen years ago), dinosaurs look serially cheap, but it will come down and so. However, with this approach, there could be more.
Funny, but this series, perhaps, very deeply reflected the national mentality of Americans. After all, heroes solve the global problems of humanity in the same way as those who eventually created the United States - by fleeing to an unknown land where everything can be started again. In the Old World, such a scenario would probably not have been invented - it's all very American. This, in theory, was supposed to stir up some archetypes in the soul of the viewer in the homeland of the series, but apparently the harsh reality made this myth false. After all, all continents have long been open, and other planets are still inaccessible, so all of us earthlings need to somehow learn to solve problems here, on the lands of our ancestors, from which we have nowhere to retreat. Not waiting for someone to take us to a fairytale dinosaur country.
It’s no surprise that Terro Nova was shut down after the first season. Of course, it is a pity that an interesting reserve for the continuation was lost in vain, but it is unlikely that the idea would be adequately released.
The result: a mediocre NF series, bright enough in design and original in design, but weak in terms of everything else - plot, acting, ideological content. See if you like dinosaurs or if you’re crazy about Stephen Lang.
5 out of 10
Original