PilotWatch Update: TERRA NOVA

Last week I gave a two-star rating to the series premiere of TERRA NOVA (you can read my review here).  I said I would give it another episode or two to see if it gets better.  Well, I just watched the second episode, so I'm here to give you an update.

Week 2 saw the Terra Novans dealing with mating, both for humans and for prehistoric flying reptiles.  Yes, this episode was all about sex.  Jim tried to have sex with his wife, and angry birds tried to have sex in Terra Nova.  Apparently, the colony had been built right over the birds' breeding ground and now they were mad and wanted to kill everyone.  When the colonists were doing initial digging they found a cave full of old eggshells and, being the upstanding scientists they are, decided they were no biggie and to go ahead and build over them anyway.

So those birds were understandably pissed at having their ancient mating grounds razed, paved over and colonized by clumsy bipeds.  Solution?  Kill them.  The bipeds' solution?  Make them mate somewhere else.  So Jim's wife manufactures a pheromone spray that Jim and CommanderMan use to lure the birds away from Terra Nova and force them to establish new breeding grounds outside the fences.  (By the way, those fences?  Not proving all that effective.)

I loved that the moral of this episode was: If you find out that you completely destroyed an ancient species' instinctual mating and breeding grounds...screw 'em!  Make 'em go mate somewhere else cause this land is YOURS now!  The birds were portrayed as some kind of horror movie villain, sneaking through air vents just to attack small children.  Kind of an anti-environmental message, if you ask me.

All in all, a major step down from the already-disappointing pilot.  Not even a single reference to any of the mysteries introduced last week, much less answers, only brief allusions to the Sixers, and lots of time spent making nature look like the bad guy.  I was let down to see the show dip into a monster-of-the-week format instead of exploring the groundwork that was laid in the premiere.  None of the characters were developed, no plot lines were expanded upon, just a lot of running around, flapping arms at CGI birds.  I really wanted to like this show, but even $4 million per episode can't hide the fact that this show is just...not good.

Verdict:
Worse than the pilot.

What did you think, Fellow Addicts?  Were you excited or let down by Episode 2?  Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments!

What did you think of Episode 2 of TERRA NOVA?