New Fall Shows: Terra Nova

I think it is safe to say that Terra Nova was certainly one of the most anticipated new shows this year considering Steven Spielberg is one of the producers and promised a Jurassic Park-esque experience.

Steve ol’ pal, you had me at “dinosaurs”.

"TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past." - FOX.com

After watching the two-hour premiere, I have to say, I don’t think Terra Nova (for those of you who did not have the supremely delightful experience of taking Latin in high school, Terra Nova means New Land) disappointed. In fact, it was a whole lot better than I was even expecting.

I was sold on the idea of a dinosaur, futuristic, Jurassic Park-like show already, but then I watched it, and to my utter enjoyment I discovered that not only is this a Spielberg-dinosaur show, oh no, it’s a LOST show too!

Let me break it down a little:

Jurassic Park Similarities

1. Dinosaurs (duh)
2. Purposefully filmed at the same location that Jurassic Park was filmed at
3. The vehicles, guns, and compound gates also look vaguely familiar…

 

LOST Similarities

1. Time travel (Where are we and when are we?)
2. The Sixers = The Others
3. “What is this place really?”
4. Strange symbols from an unseen mysterious person that can unlock the secret to everything that is a mystery.

I swear I've seen a similar-looking promo somewhere before...

And that was only in the premiere! I can’t wait to see what this show has in store in the future (or I guess in this case it would in the past…)!

I’m a little excited about this if you couldn’t tell.

And I don’t think I’m the only one since the premiere has seemed to be getting positive reviews.

Also, I thought the special effects were great, and the whole in-the-not-so-distant-future-there-will-be-so-much-pollution-that-you-can’t-see-the-sun-and-need-masks-to-breathe-and-population-is-strictly-controlled aspect is actually pretty probable, so while kind of frightening, is also very intriguing.

I’m also fascinated by the fact that all of the characters are from the future (2149 A.D. to be exact) but the majority of the show, and from this point forward, takes place 85 million years ago. Therefore, none of the characters and settings is directly relatable to the audience, but yet they are at the same time. There are still the fundamental concepts of family, friendship, loss, and survival, but just within circumstances (both prehistoric and extremely advanced all at the same time) that we have never experienced.

I will now conclude my geeking-out portion of this post.

If you are a fan of Jurassic Park, or LOST (if you dislike LOST then we can not be friends anyway), or both, or if you like shows with adventure, mystery, and sci-fi elements, then you NEED to watch this show.

Monday nights at 8:00 PM on Fox.

This concludes the coverage of new fall premieres (at least until Once Upon a Time in October, which is actually the show I have been looking forward to the most of all)

Anything you watched and liked that I missed?

All photos from FOX.com