Fall TV preview: 'Terra Nova,' 'Hart of Dixie' - Dallas Morning News (subscription)
Terra Nova
Many years ago, I scoffed at the building buzz about an upcoming theatrical release.
"It might be good," I told friends, "but kids aren't interested in dinosaurs." The movie: Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.
Whoops.
That lesson learned, let me predict that another Spielberg project, Fox's Terra Nova, will be one of the TV's biggest smashes this season — and not just because kids love dinosaurs.
Although it may be television's costliest series ever, Terra works because it's more about flesh-and-blood characters than computer-generated creatures.
"It was far more challenging finding a believable family that you can fall in love with," said co-executive producer Brannon Braga. "Fortunately, that's the thing that's working the absolute best right now."
We meet that family, the Shannons, in Monday's premiere. It's 2149 and the environment has collapsed to the point where an outside stroll requires a gas mask, and a fresh orange is cause for raucous celebration. After a series of bad breaks, the Shannons are invited to board an exclusive time machine to join colonists a million years in the past.
"This is a chance to start over," says the settlement's leader, Nathaniel Taylor (played by Stephen Lang, the tough-guy colonel in Avatar). "This is a chance to get it right."
Yeah, as long as kids stay within the dinosaur-protected gates, which of course they don't.
There's also a rebel team with a mighty ax to grind, some innocent flirtation between teens and more than a few group hugs.
If that sounds an awful lot like a Spielberg formula, that's because the Jurassic director served as a principal adviser for Terra Nova, weighing in on everything from the groundbreaking special effects to story lines.
"There were a couple occasions where we were playing a scene and [co-executive producer] Jon Cassar would say, 'We're going to do it this way,' and I would stupidly ask, 'Why?' And he'd say, 'Because that's what Mr. Spielberg wants,'" said Jason O'Mara, who plays Jim Shannon, the father who is fearless about protecting his loved ones. "His presence was really felt on the set and in the finished product."
Spielberg has yet to actually visit the set, largely because it's in Southern Queensland, Australia, a location as lush and captivating as Hawaii in Lost. O'Mara said the remote location is beneficial, and not only because it looks stunning on the small screen.
"We already feel like we're sort of displaced pioneer families," he said. "It makes our jobs a little easier as actors."
There is a price to pay for such exotic locations and groundbreaking special effects. The two-hour Terra pilot was originally supposed to air in spring as a teaser to the fall season, a strategy that worked well for Fox with Glee. But the visuals proved too demanding to get done in that time frame.
Executive producer Rene Echevarria said they discovered the show requires six more weeks of post-production work than most, delaying the premiere from spring. These effects have never been attempted before in film or TV. In fact, Echevarria said that five years ago no one thought the technology was possible.
The results are worth the delays. If you don't jump at the first sight of flesh-munching dinosaurs on a tirade, you're cleared to join Bear Grylls on his next Man vs. Wild adventure.
Innovation doesn't come cheap. According to the Los Angeles Times, the pilot cost $20 million, setting Terra on track to being the most expensive TV series in history.
Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly believes it will be worth it.
"Is it a big bet? Yes, but that's the business we're in," he said. "Whether the show works or not, it's not going to come on quietly. It's going to get sampled and it's going to be different from anything else on the air."
-- Neal Justin, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Hart of Dixie
There's not much new or, for that matter, believable about Hart of Dixie, the comedy-drama premiering Monday on the CW, right after Gossip Girl. But it's so naive and innocent in its all but total lack of originality, you feel kind of mean knocking it.
The show is about an overly committed young medical student, Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson, The O.C.), who gets passed over for a thoracic surgery internship because no matter how brilliant and skilled she is, she has yet to learn that her patients are human beings. On the day of her graduation, she is approached by an elderly physician from a small Alabama town who invites her to share his practice. She politely declines, but of course, given the title of the show, we know she'll end up there anyway.
In Dixie, we get a lot of sassy city girl in a small rural town, an icy reception from another local doctor, wary townfolk who begin to be won over by the new doctor and, of course, the new doc gradually awakening to the notion that there's more to life than Manolo Blahniks and a career as a hot-shot city doctor. And there's a resident hunk, played by Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, The Good Wife) who, of course, has been to the big city so we know he puts his right shoe on his right foot and all. He happens to have another girlfriend, a mean-girl Southern Belle who prances around in hoop skirts, but we pretty much know where that's going once he and Dr. Hart "meet cute."
-- David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle
Terra Nova
7 p.m. Monday, Fox (Channel 4). 2-hr. premiere. Special free screening event at the Dallas Angelika, Mockingbird Station, 5321 Mockingbird Ave. First-come seating starts at 6:30 p.m. 214-841-4712; angelikafilmcenter.com
Hart of Dixie
8 p.m. Monday, CW (Channel 33). 1 hr.
Returning tonight
Gossip Girl (7 p.m., CW); Mike & Molly (8:30 p.m., CBS).
24 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGHJYNq4tPYerpr16tGVbngCWbI7A&url=http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/television/headlines/20110923-fall-tv-preview-terra-nova-hart-of-dixie.ece
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
