Spielberg's TV series Terra Nova Series coming this fall

[Bryancd]

LOL! Shep, that post was the clinical definition of "hating" on something! You were good up until the end. If you make a statement along the lines of "I don't see what you people see" it comes across as "You people wouldn't know quality entertainment if it fell on you". ;) Being critical turns into hating when you challenge people who like something to defend themselves.

[Rico]

I reserve all my hate these days for George Lucas! ;)  LOL!!!   :roflmao

[QuadShot]

I reserve all my hate these days for George Lucas! ;)  LOL!!!   :roflmao

Me-sa yousa is CRRRAZZZY! (imagine Jar-Jar Binks type voice inserted here) :)

[Rico]

Interesting....

Fox's Terra Nova opens to so-so ratings...

The two-hour series premiere of the Steven Spielberg-produced prehistoric time travel series "Terra Nova" debuted Monday night on Fox and drew 9.22 million viewers and a 3.1 A18-49 rating. Given all the hype and the expensive nature of the series (the pilot reportedly cost $10M-$20M — amortized over the season — and the average episode budget is $4 million) the numbers failed to impress. Despite that, there was a positive to be found in that the premiere managed to hold its audience throughout the two hours. The first hour averaged 9.35M viewers and a 3.1 A18-49 rating and the second hour dipping only slightly to 9.08M viewers while holding steady among A18-49 with a 3.1. Needless to say the show's future — whether it'll be just a short 13-episode series or a long-running one — rests on the performance of future episodes.

In case you missed the two-part episode you can watch "Genesis" for Free on iTunes in HD. Fox will also be re-airing the episode this Saturday, October 1 at 8 p.m.

[ElfManDan]

I think I'm just tired of crappy TV. I've seen all this stuff before and I didn't really like it then. It was predictable in the bad way. Actually you know the one thing that really bugs me about modern media is execution. I like concepts, but it just seems like they are being very poorly executed. There's lot of shows that I just don't like because I don't think they are being made well when they could be amazing. That may be why I really disliked it cause I like the idea, but it just bugged me seeing it butchered like that with boring unoriginal family drama, cardboard cutout characters, and irrelevant story plots. It's not what I was expecting, and it was far worse then I was expecting too.

Sorry to get critical and I don't mean anything against you guys who like it. It's just my frustration with the whole TV and film industry these days. I don't have a lot of time to watch anything and my bar for good TV is pretty high, I need good story, plots, and concept, good characters I can connect with, and good dialog and scripting. The three key things for me otherwise I just can't stand it.

[Rico]

Not a problem having an opinion after giving something a try Dan.  If you want top notch TV I'll give you a few of my favorite, current show suggestions (not sure if you watch any of these on a regular basis):

"Dexter", "Breaking Bad", "Fringe", "Doctor Who."

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I think I'm just tired of crappy TV. I've seen all this stuff before and I didn't really like it then. It was predictable in the bad way. Actually you know the one thing that really bugs me about modern media is execution. I like concepts, but it just seems like they are being very poorly executed. There's lot of shows that I just don't like because I don't think they are being made well when they could be amazing. That may be why I really disliked it cause I like the idea, but it just bugged me seeing it butchered like that with boring unoriginal family drama, cardboard cutout characters, and irrelevant story plots. It's not what I was expecting, and it was far worse then I was expecting too.

Sorry to get critical and I don't mean anything against you guys who like it. It's just my frustration with the whole TV and film industry these days. I don't have a lot of time to watch anything and my bar for good TV is pretty high, I need good story, plots, and concept, good characters I can connect with, and good dialog and scripting. The three key things for me otherwise I just can't stand it.

Personally, I'm actually feeling so burned out on TV that I don't even feel like giving new shows a shot because I think they'll just cancel them within a season.  Not to mention, you can't watch anything on Hulu anymore.  So if I accidentally miss an episode on the night it airs because, golly gee I might have school/work to deal with, I miss the episode.  And the other methods are a chore to deal with and it leaves a bad taste.  See, this is what happens when you cancel so much.  You get me (and more no doubt) burned out. 

I'm not giving Terra Nova a chance.  I really haven't gathered anything from this thread from both sides (yes, read the spoilers) to hook me in.  And if it opened to so-so ratings, then it will likely be cancelled in a couple months.  Especially if this was on Syfy...

King

[Geekyfanboy]

I may be taking all this criticism too personally as I work in TV and alot of my friends work in TV and I know how hard we work to try and entertain the masses. It's well known that you can't please everyone and there will always be haters. TV is a business to make money. They aren't making these shows out of the kindness of their heart.  I can respect folks giving their opinions once, what kills me are when people complain about something that they haven't watched or don't really understand, they are just jumping on the "hate" wagon. Or complain about it over and over and over again. yeah we got it.. you don't like it.  And just to be clear I'm not accusing anyone here on the boards of doing this. I'm just speaking in general.  At least with Dan's hating of Terra Nova he watched an episode. Not sure where this was going.. just tired of all the TV/Movie/Entertainment hating going on... shouldn't take it personally but I do.

[Jobydrone]

For me the premiere was exactly what I was expecting.  If you look at the creative people behind this show and think about what you saw in the previews (automatic weapons vs. Dinosaurs) you kind of knew what you were in from the start.

Brannon Braga, the executive producer and main creative force behind this show, has a pretty specific reputation in the SF scene.  He's not associated with a lot of work that is universally loved by everyone.  Flash Forward failed terribly.  Many thought his season of 24 was the worst of them all.  Voyager and Enterprise are not considered the best Trek series.  I really liked all those things though (except FF) and expect to enjoy this as well.  I'm hoping that with the Spielberg association the show might have more legs and be given a bit more leeway than some other programming that wouldn't survive a less than stellar first season.

[Rico]

From the way I understand what this series will be about, is it's going to center on the family quite a bit.  Again, I'm ok with the series so far.  There are things I'd tweak, but I'll keep watching.  It's nearly the only true SF type series we have on right now.  But, I have a feeling given the big budget that it will have to do amazing ratings to continue after this first 13 episode set.

[jedijeff]

I hear what everyone is saying. There were elements of this show that I hope they might change a bit, but the over all concept of the show I like. I do think that Characters do play a major part in a shows success, or just in how people relate to them and their feelings on the show. For me, I think I have a good handle on Taylor and Jim (The Dad), the rest I don't really know a lot, so I am hoping the fill out some of the supporting cast in the next few weeks.

I guess with shows, they are hit and miss with people. Joby mentioned how he did not like Flash Forward and others have said the same, but that was a show that I really connected with. I think a lot because I cared for the characters, and I liked the approach to it. Some other show like The Event I could never get into, I watched the first half, and then the first episode after the break, but then they piled up on my pvr and I never had the desire to watch anymore and deleted them. I guess that is why there are so many shows on TV, since everyone has different tastes and likes :). I guess the hope is that enough people have same likes as me and watch the shows I like that they get enough rating to keep on the air :) . Sometimes that happen and some times not.

I agree with King as well, that with the rate of cancellations, sometimes a person has to ask, why even bother watching if they are just going to pull the plug. The last few years I was disappointed to see some shows cancelled so quickly, like Journeyman, The Dresden Files and Flash Forward. I joined up on a few pages for the people trying to save them, but it was pretty much a hopeless cause.

I agree with Kenny, sometimes criticism or dislike of something gets tiresome. I sort of taken the viewpoint, that a person only has so much time in their life or day, I am not sure why they would fill it up complaining about things they don't like or watch. I would think that time is better spent on the things they do like. That is not directed at anyone here, just the internet in general. I follow autoracing, and for the last 3 or 4 years I have had to watch people complain about Indycar racing, and how they don't like it. They don't watch it, but still post in forums and news stories their dislike. I got it for a year or so as the events were fresh after it formed. After that, my feeling was just move along and find something else in your life. That is way off topic on this thread, but just summarizes my feeling on dislike. So with TV, I feel the same way, if a person doesn't like a show, if they are not going to watch it, then they probably don't have anything to complain about it. Just my two cents.

[Geekyfanboy]

From the way I understand what this series will be about, is it's going to center on the family quite a bit.  Again, I'm ok with the series so far.  There are things I'd tweak, but I'll keep watching.  It's nearly the only true SF type series we have on right now.  But, I have a feeling given the big budget that it will have to do amazing ratings to continue after this first 13 episode set.

I agree Rico if it doesn't do stellar in the ratings area we know Fox will do what it does best.. kill it.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I forgot that iTunes has the first episode free to TV shows these days so I checked out Terra Nova. 

[spoiler]I think this show simply isn't aimed at young adults. I didn't think it would be as bad as Sheppard said but it was.  The writers took short cuts to push the plot forward and it made the family very unsympathetic and the show falls apart because it focuses on the family.  I'm not really interested in what the sixers are doing because I have a feeling its going to be some pretty bad/overdone plot point about government conspiracies.  There are a lot of cliches in this plot and it drives me nuts....

What I think really bothers me is the family.  They have been given more than most, a new chance on life, their dad out of jail where he spent two years, oh no, 2 years, that's so long, get the jobs they desire and all they can do is act like it isn't enough.  Geez, its like watching a kid complain because all he got was a Wii and he also wanted a XBox 360 as well.  =\  No one ever seems grateful that they got what they got.  Not even once.  And the angsty teenager boy got old fast because we've seen this character a million times and he's about as interesting as a cardboard box.  All he cares about is the girlfriend in the future.  If that's all he ever cared about, then he should have just stayed behind.  I'm really tired of that cliched character because guys can...on occasion ;)....think about something else than girls.  If they were engaged, that would be different.   

Btw, worst CGI on the dinosaurs ever.  Really unbelievable that those are real creatures and coming from Spielberg, that's pretty sad. 

I think ultimately, its a show about family drama.  And that's probably why Sheppard and I don't like it.  For whatever reason he doesn't, but I don't because family dramas are overdone and dull.  Because TV has a tendency of fixing all the problems eventually so its fairly predictable what will happen to the family.  Putting the show in a SciFi setting doesn't hide what the type of show it is.  And since the show hinges on the family, it can easily break apart. 

However, despite all my critical arguments, I can understand why people would like this show.  There is certainly something good here, its just not for me.  [/spoiler]

King

[X]

What was wrong with the dinos?

[Rico]

What was wrong with the dinos?

Yeah, I thought they looked pretty darn good.  Especially on my big, HD TV.