So, an odd thing happened.
I was setting my PVR to record Terra Nova and started to see commercials for the new season of House, which is on after TN. House is a show I enjoyed the first couple seasons of, but then the show got stupid, gimmicky and formulaic so I stopped watching it. But in the new season of House, he’s just gotten out of prison, most of the old cast are gone, and the show has pretty much reset itself to a fresh start.
So I started to record both Terra Nova and House.
Now, I don’t even bother to watch Terra Nova, but I adore House again.
I think that says it all. TN feels to me like Deep Space Nine (which was a good show), but without the elements that made DS9 good. The family drama and characters are flat, the mysteries around the show are boring, and the dinosaurs aren’t in it enough for me to care. They’re already doing old Trek plots I’ve seen a zillion times.
Maybe I’ll give it a shot again in the future, but sorry Terra Nova, I’m leaving you for House.
I watch Terra Nova with my sons. To be fair, the younger two. It’s a way to introduce them into science fiction that’s pretty milquetoast. My eldest is somewhat disgusted by the show and finds it incredibly boring. I don’t comment on his taste, but I do recognize that he likes some pretty puerile humour.
As it comes to House. While I can appreciate the character involved, I abhor medical shows almost as much as I do Cop procedural shows (shoot me in the head if I have to watch the Wire or Law and Order again). I find them all so formulaic as it bores me to tears. That being said, I am able to appreciate the forms of other things… like mysteries if the characters are unique enough.
J
Well, the forumula is a skeleton upon which to put other things, but I agree that formulaic shows can only go so far before they start to get boring.
I stopped watching House years ago not so much because of the formulaic approach, but because they were determined to try and trick their audience into thinking they weren’t just formula shows. I got tired of fake drama that always reset to zero (because it has to, or the show ends) which they would try to pass off as real drama. A formula show should just be what it is, and not try to trick it’s audience by being something else.