I think there's something wrong with me, because the second I saw the trailer for Terra Nova, the first thing I thought was "This looks like Tabula Rasa". After seeing the first episodes, I can say that it sort of does remind me of that old style of adventure that TR had back in the day. So far it's been OK, the characters aren't annoying, and the plot is nice so far. I just hope that whole missing son/scribbled stuff in the rocks, doesn't turn into some convoluted mystery that will never coherently explained.

TN looks great so far (big budget, good actors), but I'm wondering if they can keep it interesting. It doesn't really have its own flavour, so yeah, very stereotypical. Fringe is starting to feel like its run its course, there's been almost no plot development in season four so far (we get it, you're dreaming about that guy... don't need 3 episodes to tell us).

TN is 'ok.'   Nothing partictularly interesting in the overarching plot, etc.  basically its a western frontier drama wearing some future-jargon.  Wish it were more.

For having such little budget to work with, I thought Falling Skies did alright.

I love how the old cliche about scifi soldiers aim and weapons is so embedded in TN. The whole our guns are futuristic but apparently can't hit anything or pierce dinosaur skin is ridiculous. Why is it in every scifi gun technology actually gets worse...

In the 2005 movie King Kong, dinosaurs go down to a few bullets. A refreshing change.

I really hope they can throw some curve balls with TN. It's got dinosaurs, it's got some rebel faction, and there's a time rift. It just feels like it could get old very quickly. They really need to bring the time rift into the equation, because it's the only thing that keeps the show interesting imho. Maybe an army comes through the next time, or people from another timeline, or another future, or another world.

I just want the story to progress somewhere. All these sci-fi shows develop a working concept and then try to milk it with fillers. The audience abandons them, and the show is cancelled with the story not having gone anywhere because they filled it with fillers. Just do a story from the start, and you'll get a loyal audience - even if the story changes shape after a while, or is very long. See Lost. See Battlestar Galactica. 20 episodes with 15 being fillers isn't an epic sci-fi adventure. It's a 5 episode mini-series.

tl:dr; fuck fillers.

The epic question every time a television network airs something SciFi with promise--will they screw it up?

Pretty sure the answer is yes.  They didn't screw up firefly (outside of cancelling it). 

[rant]

TN had so much potential ... and really ... it's just crappier version of Lost mixed in with some Stargate Universe drama. Seriously, they are in the middle of no where  with DINOSAURS and they wander around in the middle of the night, with hardly any protection, with bullets that can't even hurt a dinosaur (shoot the dang things in the eyes if you can't hurt them anywhere else), and some wierd convoluted story that's just going to ruin the whole thing.

Seirously ... is there only like one dinosaur per every five square miles? Ugh ... I was hoping people would be getting eaten EVERYWHERE and that there WOULDN'T be a crud ton of stupid teenagers doing stupid teenager stuff without ANY reprecusions!

I mean, the 'slashers' were ridiculous! The kid gets 'empaled' and sent flying like 100ft by a tail covered in 7 inch spikes ... and he only has a 'small' gash ... no ... he would be cut very nearly in two. More over than that however is the fact that the Dinosaurs are apparently dumb. They sneak around and wait for you to shoot at them with innefective bullets and then run away. Seriously!? They would run up on you, savagely attack you and you would be dead, none of this 'tip-toe' Barnny the Dinosaur style of stuff ...

This isn't science-fiction. It's just a well setup show that is falling flat on it's face. It's the reason Sci-Fi just isn't going anywhere these days. (which is frustrating all on it's own)

[/rant]

Thanks for saving me the time of trying out TN. I will stick with Fringe and the good old series that I own. 

So terra nova just finished the first season, and the season finale, a double-episode, actually didn't suck. It wasn't good, but it was better than the rest of the show barring the first two episodes. It pushed every character out of their comfort zone, which is what I really like.

The characters feel extremely silly. The most important characters mostly have family, and they're pretty much falling over each other trying to save the families from each other. Ie, one bad guy has had her daughter taken hostage. So she captures someone's mom, and forces that mom's daughter to do some shady stuff. So that daughter endangers the next kid. It's just so... one-dimensional. It's like there's a list of important character aspects, and at the first place comes family. And family also comes at 2nd, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh place. And aaaaall the way down on the list you'll find other things such as loyalty, greed or ideology.

The show is also horribly black and white, morally speaking. Sure, you have some people betraying each other, but it never has any real impact on the story and everyone's forgiven and hugs in the end. And that's the problem. The people doing shady shit are doing it for the same reason - someone's kid or parent has been taken hostage. And yet, for some reason, that makes some people unforgivable, enemies to mankind. And others who started out in the good-guy camp just get a pat on the back and cry about it for 3 episodes.

The TN final episodes had some good moments and a good overall plot but they where full of plot holes, cliches , and unrealistic decisions that tarnished the show. Seriously people in the future must be pretty suicidal/stupid.