Cast: Jason O’Mara, Christine Adams, Byron Brockmann, Shelly Conn, Stephan Lang, Simone Kessell, Landon Liborion, Allison Miller
Director: Nelson McCormick
Writers: Paul Grellong
Network: Airs on Fox, Mondays @ 8pm
Original Telecast: Oct. 31, 201

Adultery and crimes of passion … is this really what TERRA NOVA should be focusing on five episodes into its 13 episode run in the first season?

I don’t think so as the show has already struggled with finding its core mythology and sustaining entertaining ideas and storylines in the first few episodes. Instead shouldn’t we be learning more about why the Sixxers are banished or what role Taylor (Stephan Lang) played in that banishment or what the real reason behind the community is? Or even the writings on the rocks from Taylor’s son?

It would have been OK if they focused on maybe some of these other major plotlines as subplots in “Bylaw” but instead what did we get? More about Josh (Landon Liborion) trying to get his girlfriend from the future to travel back in time to join him even if she doesn’t want to come and Momma Shannon, Elisabeth (Shelley Conn) and Malcolm (Rob Hallett) trying to save a dinosaur still trapped in an egg.

Really? This is what this show is doing to get fans excited about dinosaurs and a new world? I don’t get it. Surely there are plenty of stories that don’t involve such run-of-the-mill storylines that could be broached. I understand the need for character development and setting the stage about the community involved, but we’ve already done this. We’ve had a number of episodes where Jim Shannon (Jason O’Mara) has proven to be a worthy cop for the settlement and where Taylor has proven to be an adept leader and where Elisabeth is a caring doctor. Now, let’s get to something interesting and more fascinating about the show and the environment in general.

In the end, it was not actually about adultery or a crime a passion but about a gambling debt. I know, I was chucking too. If this is the best they got, I fear for what the episodes that are coming will deal with.

Now, toward the end we did get a bit of the payoff with the whole Josh and Skye (Allison Miller) storyline where they went to meet Mira (Christine Adams) in order to get Josh’s girl sent to the past and that was more interesting than anything we saw in the first 55 minutes. Of course, the whole thing with Mira has been the most interesting part of this show and the most mysterious. But it is about time we got more of it and more of a payoff than what we have gotten so far. Hopefully, we’ll get more her and her secrets in future episodes.

Things that I thought were interesting or hilarious in “Bylaw”:

• Yeah, dude’s in army fatigues and roaming the jungle at night are the new red shirts of science fiction according to TERRA NOVA, just about every episode has thus far opened with some dude biting it this way.
• You know someone commented last week about the use of technology in TERRA NOVA and why they have some things but not other logical items. Such as why have top shelf medical equipment, upgraded Hummers, a bunch of other futuristic stuff but no flying vehicles or helicopters or ray guns or anything like that? Was that taking it too far? Did the producers say: “Oh, wait we can have all these technology marvels and comforts but let’s not go too far because we still want to appear like this is a community struggling.” Seems odd to me.
• On a related note, who brings a motorcycle to the prehistoric age? I mean really, motorcycles? Were they trying to rip off MAD MAX?
• Prehistoric turtles eat metal and human flesh, who knew?
• Apparently, doctors in the future (past?) don’t accept Darwin’s law and opt to help a trapped little dino in an egg.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Click on Link: TV Review – TERRA NOVA – Season 1 – “The Runaway”
Click on Link: TV Review – TERRA NOVA – Season 1 – “What Remains”
Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with TERRA NOVA star Stephen Lang
Click on Link: TV Review – TERRA NOVA – Season 1 – “Instinct”
Click on Link: TV Review – TERRA NOVA – Season 1 premiere

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Article: TV Review: TERRA NOVA – SEASON 1 – “Bylaw”

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