• Network: FOX
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 26, 2011
  • Season #: 1
Terra Nova Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 271 Ratings

  • Summary: In the year 2149, humankind seeks escape from the polluted Earth by traveling to the past to establish a new colony.
  • Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction, Science
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 28
  2. Negative: 1 out of 28
  1. Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Sep 21, 2011
    83
    As a weekly series, the effects need to remain impressive and the writers need to avoid falling into "Lost" and "Walking Dead" band-of-survivors rehash.
  2. Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    Sep 26, 2011
    80
    Terra Nova manages to introduce a panoply of narrative threads and themes while telling a remarkably clean story, both in terms of plot line and tone; Terra Nova is whole-family friendly.
  3. Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    Sep 26, 2011
    60
    Indeed, it is hard to knock Terra Nova overall, such does it succeed on its own terms, which involve working over the pituitary brain and the sympathetic soul.
  4. Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    Sep 26, 2011
    30
    By the end of a couple of 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.

See all 28 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 107
  2. Negative: 39 out of 107
  1. I think it's one of the best shows out there! i love it! It's very entertaining, you never know what is going to happen next. I think the qualitity of the show is actually pretty good..I love the dinosaurs and how it is written. At times i think the script is a little chessy, but not that bad. I hope there will be a season 2! Expand
  2. Terra Nova is a fun, family show that it pays to be seen. I think his greatest virtue is exactly the clichés.I do not want another "LOST". The series is simple, fun, with no great pretensions, and should not be tempted to have large overly complex scripts. Great series. Expand
  3. The effects are great, the storyline can be great. Please do not turn this into a sad crummy production. Points of failure: Cars with no doors in dinosaur land. Children getting lost in the dinosaur infested jungle... adults learn of this and instead of sending the military out to get them instantly, the hero goes to his hut and has a heart to heart chat with his wife about whether or not she should go... then they take her along. Producers... go watch the 1st 5 episodes of BSG... watch it again... ok, now try to bring some of that edge into your multi million dollar production before it slides into the land of lost shows... because it has great potential... but after 2 episodes it is already slipping. And by the way... lots of your viewers will be scientists (we like SciFi)... so next time you have biologists capturing new organisms, figuring out their "pheremone" homing systems, and then synthesizing "enhanced" versions of said pheremones in 3 hours start to finish... just don't. Go to UCLA and get some grad students to advise you... I guarantee they'll do it for free donuts. Not only will your show be more believable, it wall also be better. Last rant - those flying bats in episode 2 were neither scary nor intimidating. All they served to do is make the son look incompetent in his total inability to kick any kind of dino ass. Expand
  4. I thought that FOX could do it better. Having into the game such a director as Jon Cassar, they could do it better, but the script is horrible! We can advance everything that is going to happen. If the shows continues like this, is going to fall quick. Expand

See all 107 User Reviews

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