“Within” TERRA NOVA – The Recap

At this point in Terra Nova’s run, it’s pretty clear to me the series has no idea what it wants to be. You have all this promising material just sitting there, waiting to be used effectively (dinosaurs, time travel, a war between ideals), and it’s constantly put up against the type of storylines you’d expect to see from an ABC Family series. Here’s the thing; the few times Terra Nova has buckled down and dived into its more dense storylines it has excelled. The upcoming war for Terra Nova has me excited; more excited than I rightfully should be.

I didn’t hate “Within”. On the contrary, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. This is mostly just a continuation of the last episode, with everyone still searching for the Sixer spy. Since Skye’s motivations weren’t about to change, I just accepted her for the pawn she was and let her story as the spy unfold. It was good. I enjoyed the games Taylor and her were playing, especially when they were literally playing a game and Taylor looked right at her and said “Your move.” That was a pretty good line. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s about as multi-layered as the show could possibly get at this point. That’s okay. Not every show needs to be laced with double-meanings and visual metaphors. Those show’s are great and I love them, but they aren’t for the casual viewer. Unfortunately, I can’t say that Terra Nova is for casual viewers either. As I said, it’s confused as to what it wants to be. It has this building war that’s perfect for the average Joe to sit down and fall in love with, but they also have to sit through Maddy looking for a new power core for her computer.

That’s where this episode gets to me most. I can stomach the main storyline with the Sixers because that’s at least engaging despite its flaws. It’s fun, dramatic and there’s a sense of urgency now I can respect. But when you put Maddy’s quest to be able to read and do homework up against an oncoming war, it just seems trivial. Are we so supposed to understand that Maddy’s computer is equally as important as Lucas’s plot to open the portal to the future and bring back some bad people who want to turn Terra Nova into a mining facility of some kind? The two don’t go together! Not this late in the game.

I’ve been saying it all along and I’ll say it one more time: Terra Nova would have benefited from losing the family angle. They’re unimportant to what’s going on and it’s driving me up the wall. I don’t care about any of them, so why would I want to watch them live their silly little lives? Unless they directly affect what’s going on with the Sixers, I don’t want to see them. If magically the show was given a second season, I would ask that the entire Shannon family be purged to make way for more interesting people (Jim Shannon can stay, just for continuity). I’d much rather follow Malcolm, Taylor, Wash, Skye, Lucas, Boylan and Mira than the Shannons. That would be an infinitely more enjoyable show.