Terra(bly Bland) Nova

When I heard about Terra Nova, Fox's new show about people from the future having to travel to love in the days of the dinosaurs because future Earth is too polluted, my first thought was, "What about the butterfly effect?" As a big sci-fi fan, I was immediately interested in the ramifications of the old thing about how killing a butterfly back in the dinosaur era could flood the earth in the present or something equally nutty. To a lesser extent, I was also curious about just how the time travel was pulled off. Imagine my disappoint, then, when in one short scene it is explained that they didn't create time travel but instead took advantage of a rift through time that opened out of nowhere; then amplify my disappointment when they say that the time portal also took them into an alternate timeline so they didn't have to worry about the butterfly effect at all. They used almost those exact words. So, basically what we have here is a drama pretending to be science fiction while removing the science fiction from itself by taking the easy way out and not having to explore any sci-fi issues at all. The writers really should have taken a lesson from Rocky IV...

There really is no easy way out, people.

Take away those elements and what do we have left? A really bland drama about a family with an unnecessarily whiny son, some mysteries ripped straight off of the island from Lost, mostly lifeless acting and dialogue, and some really bad CGI dinosaurs. Seriously, the Jurassic Park dinosaurs looked better than this, and that was eighteen years ago!

Wait, we're how old now??

Terra Nova gets cut from my list, not so much for being bad, because it isn't; it just isn't good, either. There's nothing about to make me want to come back and watch it again. Maybe once Fox cancels it after one season I'll eventually get around to watching it just to see how it ends, but I doubt it. That's five new shows rejected and only 2 Broke Girls making the cut... I'm starting to weep for network television.

In an unrelated note, I am now an ordained minister, capable of performing marriages, funerals, and various other things... I mean, if I can't find a real job, might as well, right?

Yes, yes you can!