Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2011-12 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at a big and expensive swing from FOX, Terra Nova!
The Details:
Premiered: September 26, 2011 on FOX
Starring: Jason O'Mara, Shelley Conn, Christine Adams, Allison Miller, Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, Mido Hamada, Alana Monsour and Stephen Lang
Created by: Kelly Marcel and Craig Silverstein
What I Thought Then:
"The CGI is pretty cool and unlike any other drama on network TV but the story is also quite intriguing making for a promising show."
"The world they created is breathtaking."
"Stephen Lang is a standout as the leader of Terra Nova and I can't wait to see where his story goes."
"The acting isn't always on par with the setting, the effects, and the story."
What Others Said:
"Terra Nova manages to introduce a panoply of narrative threads and themes while telling a remarkably clean story, both in terms of plot and tone; Terra Nova is whole-family friendly." - Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
"Even with a lavish two hour premiere, Terra Nova could stand to slow down and admire the world it has taken us to - Earth, 85 million years ago. Still and all, it's a dazzling debut, with a variety of compelling mysteries to get itself going." - Hank Stuever, Washington Post
"If you can make it past the exposition, and the earnest family cliches - a rebellious teenage son, an awkward brainiac daughter - there's plenty of satisfying dino action. And it all looks gorgeous." - Matt Roush, TV Guide
"After you've suspended about a 10-year supply of disbelief, Fox's new epic drama Terra Nova turns out to be an okay adventure story." - David Hinckley, New York Daily News
"By the end of a couple episodes, most viewers will be wishing Spielberg and his henchmen had spent more time on scripts and less on special effects, even if it meant splicing old outtakes of Barney and Friends into the action sequences." - Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald
What I Think Now:
I was surprised at how positive my initial review of the show was. Maybe I was less burned at the time by these high concept dramas as I hadn't watched as many of them back then. I only re-watched the first half of what was, at the time, a two hour premiere. I had no memory of how they got to the part with the dinosaurs. Literally all I remembered about the show was that there were dinosaurs. And that's for good reason. This is a show that was all style and no substance even if it had an intriguing premise. The production values were very high even in an era of network TV spending more on their pilots. The story was not interesting in the least to me. I understand they had to get through a fair amount of plot to get to the place they wanted to be and that's probably why FOX decided to air the premiere as a two hour pilot. But it was long and tedious to get to the world that the show was going to be the rest of the way. And once they got there - yes, there were beautiful visuals and the dinosaurs really were impressive. But there wasn't any better of a plot. It was hard to sit through one hour of this. I'm impressed I sat through two hours of it fifteen years ago.
What Happened to the Show:
Terra Nova had a long and tortuous rode to airing on FOX. With Steven Spielberg on board as an Executive Producer, the show was a hot project and FOX made the unusual decision at the time to forego a pilot order and instead ordered 13 episodes in Spring 2010 with the intent of airing the show during the 2010-11 season. The series order was in part due to the extremely complicated production values of the show and that was also the reason the show did not make it to the air in the 2010-11 season, finally landing a spot on Monday nights for Fall 2011. The incredibly expensive pilot received mixed reviews (64 on Metacritic) but seemed to be highly anticipated and big premiere ratings were expected. But when it premiered in the second week of the fall season with a two hour episode, it delivered underwhelming numbers (9.2 million viewers and a 3.1 demo). Over the fall, it dropped in the ratings some - though it stayed at a respectable number. But FOX needed this to be a four quadrant hit to justify its expense and that was not happening. It ended its 13 episode season in December 2011 but FOX didn't make a decision on the show until March 2012 when it was cancelled. When Netflix was just beginning to dabble in original programming, it considered picking up Terra Nova for a second season, but that did not come to fruition.
Final Episode: December 19, 2011
Episode Count: 13
Where to Watch: Tubi, available for purchase on DVD
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work at Benjamonster's TV!
