Last week’s Terra Nova was another punch to the gut of anyone that is still giving the Steven Spielberg-backed show a shot. I’m not going to go over and over about the potential that is still there, nor am I going to continue with my praise of Jason O’Mara. Instead, I’ll just get right into the overly wrought, complex yet boring, monotonous mess that was ‘Proof.’
Jim and Taylor start the episode off by fishing, in a sense, off a cliff. It’s a pretty interesting moment as we see a little more into Taylor’s mind and more anachronistic activities being performed in a prehistoric backdrop. The scene is good, and would have been a great beginning to an action packed or suspense filled episode, which this was not.
Mira calls in her favor and tasks Josh with stealing medication from his the clinic in exchange for bringing his girlfriend to Terra Nova. The shock of all shocks happens when Skye has a major flip out over the plans. Think she might be more upset about Josh being off the market than the morality of stealing meds for the renegades? Josh demands proof that the Sixers can get his gal to him so he, like so many before him, sneak out of Terra Nova and enter the Sixers camp. You know the Sixers camp, the one that travels from place to place that Taylor can’t seem to keep a bead on even with all of his highly trained specialists and future tech.
Josh waltzes in and the Sixers open up a holographic channel so Josh can see Kara and, wait a second, that’s not Kara. Well, it is the same character name, but I really get sick of shows swapping even minor characters out like that.
Maddy gets thrown into her own Scooby Dooby Doo-type mystery when legendary Dr. Horton returns after being off the grid for half a year. The doc seems to be a little flighty with some information of his past, so Maddy puts on her knee-length orange turtleneck sweater and investigates. It turns out the doc is not the real doc, but rather an assistant gone mad who killed the real Horton and has taken his place. He kidnaps Zoe, swaps her out for Maddy, who gives Zoe a safe message for the family (“asparagus”) which brings Jim and his angry fists there just in time to save the day.
Here are some quick fixes that would benefit Terra Nova as it heads into its second half of episodes. I understand the first season has wrapped and this exercise is likely futile, but maybe some of these ideas will play out.
Reduce the Number of Subplots
There was this really awesome and deep season-long, if not longer, arc that was being set up in the pilot. Had they kept that as the main focus and built on the mythos of Terra Nova rather than making this into a full-on family show that just happens to be set in prehistoric times, then they would have afforded themselves some latitude within the week-to-week episodes to be all the things that they are trying to cram into each and every episode.
Trim or Rework the Cast
Two characters that need to either disappear or get some serious overhauls are Maddy and Zoe. Naomi Scott and Alana Mansour aren’t doing the blandly written characters any favors with their acting. There’s no purpose behind these characters other than being catalysts for additional bad circumstances to befall those around them.
More Action
Most people tuned into Terra Nova with the hope of dinosaurs, battles and big confrontations. The pilot teased these, but everything since has been a letdown. Show us just what these Sixers are made of and let them inflict some real damage. Or make us sympathize with them to give the audience some conflict over who to root for. Something… give us something. ANYTHING!
– James Zappie
