Thursday, September 29, 2011

Terra Nova - Genesis 1 & 2, Pilot, S01E01-02

Amazing! I absolutely loved this show. Distopian future meets time travel meets fresh start with dinosaurs. Crazy and exactly the kind of premise I can get behind. Plus, with the right amount of emotional family connections and more than a dash of mystery, who wouldn't enjoy this show?

Granted the CGI dinosaurs aren't exactly amazing. It's like they tried a little too hard to make them awesome, but didn't quite have the budget, so they end up being more mediocre than they would have been if less effort had been involved. Also, the Carnisaurus (aka Meat-a-saurus) and the Slashers aren't any kind of dinosaur that I've ever heard of. But let's not interfere with creativity when it is so much fun.

We started with a family, husband and wife and 3 kids, all thrilled to pieces over an orange, once again a rare treat. I couldn't help but wonder whether they would be able to make the peel into candy after they ate the fruit as 19th century settlers to North America used to do. But the thrill of the orange is forgotten when population control shows up, and we discover that a family is four and not five people. The world is a horrid place, the environment destroyed, the sky and air disgusting.

After this quickly introduced desolation, our heroes are offered a chance to go to Terra Nova, a place of hope far away from the world they now live in. Problem is, Dad's in jail and the youngest child who's not supposed to exist anyway isn't welcome. There was quite a lot of tension in the segment leading up to the travel through the time-rift into the past. Part of me hoped for a division between where they were going and where they had been. I would love to know more about this terrible picture of our future. Certainly we will learn more about it as our characters relate their new experiences as shocking and in other such ways, but I've always loved a good story about a distopian future.

Nevertheless, once through to 85 million years ago, the show continued to impress me. First off, they quickly explained some sciency thing about the probe sent through which apparently proved these passengers were in an alternate timeline, and that killing a butterfly would not change the future. I'm not entirely sure if this is to lull us into a false sense of security, or if it was an easy way to stop people from complaining about it.

Next, they also dealt with the crimes of our hero family like civilized people, and not like petit fonctionaires. No one cared anymore if there were 3 children instead of 2, and as long as all the people who showed up were useful, then that was good enough.

Finally, there was quite a bit of mystery. For instance, who are these 6ers? This secondary band which split from the main group could truly want to harm our heroes, or they might have very different motivations. Also, what is the deal with the symbols carved on the rock by the missing scientist. What does that all mean?

I can't wait to see this show again next week and to find out what is going to happen.

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