Terra Nova Instinct (2011) Online

With such an exciting title I was expecting the show to finally take off and reveal the Commander as a John Rambo sent back in time to save humanity. Sadly the writers decided to trade my revolutionary concept for an episodic story that couldn't have been more disappointing.

First it was predictable and even Walt Disney Animation Studios served us with more twisted productions. Second there were at least two dead boring and neverending discussions that almost made me doze off. It's not character development, it's soapy drama polluting the sacred science-fiction realm. The only person I care about is Skye, played by pretty Allison Miller, because she makes a charming Jane in my - very subjective - opinion. Third and not least the action scenes were… missing ! It's pathetic considering Terra Nova is supposed to be a TV blockbuster but Instinct convinced me that it should quickly become a box office bomb. For example the security team was asked to hunt two dinosaurs. One second later they were back with them like nothing happened. An other one for the road ? Near the end they left the base in an armored vehicle. A few seconds later the Commander explained everyone what happened to him as his body was wounded. Do they take the audience for brainless worms ? Even my five years old daughter would be able to point out these annoying ellipses.

The only problem is that I don't have a daughter yet but it's not my point or is it ? The truth is that watching this third episode was enduring, already, and probably fried many of my precious geeky neurons. Add the return of the dumb behaviors, like throwing a rock at noisy pesky tiny dinosaurs, anecdotic subplots, non-immersive visual effects and an unexploited survivalism lesson. In fact I don't get who is supposed to enjoy such a show considering how it doesn't even make you laugh or cry like a little girl about to end up in the stomach of a scary sneaky monster ten times smaller than her. Make it twenty the CG was just too cheap ! Moreover it's not even family-friendly as it features graphic violence and silly parents allowing their innocent little daughter to keep a carnivorous plant in her bedroom. I think it was a Nepenthes-like animatronic. Drinking its acid liquor could be your last cocktail as it's used to digest preys !

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time watching Instinct. If the damage is already done well I'm curious about what you guys thought of it. In both cases I can only recommend you to check out Primeval because the 5th episode of its first series had a similar story but it was well produced, intense, slightly twisted, frightening and even moving. In fact its climactic sequence featuring Claudia Brown and Nick Cutter is one of my all time favorite. And to help me forget about this farce I already plan to read Jurassic Park and watch the third film of the trilogy.

Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.

The episode cops a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds but it does give a reason for the "birds" behavior. The rock throwing at the single pesky animal only to find several of them attacking you is a bit tired, but it did work reasonably well. The episode did improve on the Pilot, with a somewhat better approach to "how do you live in a world that's new to you". The old "old flame" theme was introduced and naturally we now have two males jostling for the "ONE" girl apparently available in the entire colony. All the teenagers fall in love instantly and the only one not paired up is the little kid -- I wait for her to find a "cute dog substitute" pet. On the other hand, the episode made good use of minimal CGI and at least was sound enough to entice a person to watch another.

The first regular episode, instinct, was so much better than the pilot that I can barely explain it. Was it a different writer? With the title "Instinct", and with the soap opera buildup they seemed to be pushing, I was expecting it to be a show about adultery or some other base human failing.

It turns out that it was the same writers. How did this happen? I suppose it could be that they were so anxious to set the show up in a certain way they let go of all rationality. They wanted a father who had been in prison and escaped and an angry son that didn't respect laws and customs. They didn't stop to think that they had forced these developments so hard they would undermine the shows credibility. Now that the scenario is set up, they are doing great things with it.

OK, I'll give this show a chance. I almost can't believe they could match what they did this evening. It was just too impressive.