More TV Ramblings...

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a big Sci-Fi fan. I just heard that Fox has cancelled the Terra Nova show. I felt I just had to throw my two cents in about this show because to me the reason it sucked is so obvious... and, because it also points out something kind of important about popular entertainment these days. Namely, a lot of expensive special effects doesn't buy quality television shows! Good writers do!

Actually, when I first started watching it I thought it would actually turn out to be really good. I think it had a Star Trek producer associated with it and the premise -- the earth has been destroyed by climate change and humans go back in time to the earth when it was prehistoric and pristine -- seemed to me to have a lot of promise.

But as the weeks went on, I realized this show began to fall back on just agonizingly bad one-dimensional characters and horribly predictable plot lines. There was absolutely no suspense whatsoever in a TV show that was supposed to be about constant suspense! In every episode you just knew the central characters were going to survive. And that ruined all the fun.

Now, contrast that with one of my favorite shows, like, ever, -- The Walking Dead. Each week you're on the edge of your seat because you just know the characters, no matter how central they are to the plot, could very well be dispatched by a zombie, or even one another. But what really makes it work are the three-dimensional characters. None of them are purely good or bad, benevolent or evil. They are human, riddled with imperfections and flaws. We can see ourselves in all of them. The best part of this show is sometimes just watching the worst, most despicable characters and catching just a glimpse of the goodness inside of them and hoping they'll rise to their better selves.