Terra Nova: Season 1, Episodes 12 & 13 “Occupation/Resistance” (C+)
It’s no surprise that this two-hour finale wasn’t terribly satisfying. After what I still contend was an awesome pilot, this show has spiraled downwards in terms of being interesting, coherent, and well-written. This show ended up being much more about the sci-fi link between the past and the future, which should be exciting but just isn’t. Having cartoonish villains is part of the problem, and Jim’s dinosaur, however cool it should have been, didn’t help with that as it promptly picked off some of the more ridiculous members of Lucas’ employment group. A complaint about “bugs the size of dogs and plants that eat children” was particularly irksome, and Elisabeth’s trickery involving a poison was obvious and dumb. Cara making it through the portal and dying because of her proximity to the suicide bomber is a huge letdown, though hopefully it will allow Josh to focus on Skye, who has been nothing but loyal to him. There was plenty of blabbering about loyalty to parents and children in this double episode, and what I take away most is that gunshots and stab wounds don’t mean much in prehistoric times because you can still move around with considerable ease. Jim pretending to be incapacitated following the explosion wasn’t terribly impressive, and the only real bit of drama we got, aside from the destruction of the portal, was the death of a character. That was a relatively unprecedented, finite event, and Wash did get a chance to display some personality before being killed by Lucas. Now, if it continues, maybe the show can focus on living with dinosaurs and some more engaging drama, which the plentiful amounts of Sixer loyalists living in the Badlands on ships from the 1800s could create. The fate of this show may not be known for a few weeks, and sad as it makes me, I’m not sure I would opt to pick it up. It needs a major overhaul, and I’m not talking about special effects.
Season grade: C+
Season MVP: Though I’m tempted to choose Dean Geyer as lunar accountant Mark Reynolds, it’s no contest, since the only decently impressive player is Allison Miller as Skye
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