Consumer Psychology : Terra Nova

Sorrow

So I watched Terra Nova last night and I was entertained not a half bad show, the sets were extravagant, and filled with beautiful people.

However I looked deeper into the show than that, analyzing the hidden messages of consumer psychology.

The story of the show is a crappy overpopulated, poluted, corrupt society where the rich have everything and the poor are left with nothing. They come to Terra Nova and imediately they are in this amazing land of plenty, with bustling well stocked markets of beautful people, clothes, and foods.. the only catch you have to live within a giant cage under the eyes of heavily armed and watchful guards and a lord who is only there to look out for you and tell you what you will do.

Of course they hint at free will in a few young people sneaking outside the cage, they even have a cutsey name for it OTG ( outside the gates ), these kids half to sneak off to drink to have a little fun, but they are punished for thier disobideance by being attacked and brutalized by monsters, only to be rescued by the all seeing, all knowing Lord. The show ends with the young offender begging forgiveness of the Lord, and pledging her obediance for all he has done for her.

Frankly I found the show to be a bit of a creepy look into the possible future of the class warfare we currently face, farming compounds where armed overlords provide for the workers, telling us where we will live, how many children we will have, and what job we will do.

The advertising was dead on target showing these happy beautiful people that have all the pretty things we wish we had but can't afford. 

I found the most poinient moment to be this little 5 year old girl looking into the sky in awe and saying " Are those clouds? They are so white. " 

Very scary show with a ton of hidden messages and psychology involved.

twodayslate

I liked some of the more subtle science-based touches that they threw in, like in the end where the moon seemed larger because it was closer to the earth x million years ago, or in the very beginning where the kids were in awe of the orange the dad brought home because they'd never seen one before.

Little things that most people don't think about like astronomical phenomena or the extinction of important species, because they usually take more than a generation to occur.

Scubie67

 Lots of  politics and enviromentalism in it which I figured as much with Spielberg producing it before I even saw it .

Brakedancer

I think you missed the actual point of the show. The society they left was far more repressive than Terra Nova was; Jim was arrested because he and his wife decided to have a third child, and it was made pretty apparent that the police officer arresting him was one of the bad guys. Then you have the fact that the prison was pay to visit, indicating corporatisation, and the inmates weren't given rebreathers despite the horrific pollution. It's made abundantly clear that the society on Earth has become corrupt, with the wealthy elite living in biodomes, while everyone else lives in a state of permanent twilight because the smog is so thick.

 

Compare this to Terra Nova, where a known fugitive is given a second chance at life, and is trusted enough to become a member of the security detail. Then there's the fact that all ethnicities are represented, and the Commander takes the time to talk to the citizens of the colony, and actually connects with them. Hell, even the conflict with the sixers is painted as one of mutual respect. Mira and Taylor clearly respect each other, though it seems they disagree on the way things should be run.

 

Make no mistake, there is definitely a class war going on in the US right now, but Terra Nova isn't painting that class war in a positive light. Yes, there is security, and the teenagers got in trouble for escaping outside the gate, but seriously, there are fucking dinosaurs running around. If I were running a cretaceous era colony, I'd keep a tight lid on security as well. Even modern birds can mutilate a man, and dinosaurs were a hell of a lot bigger and more dangerous than birds are today.

Precusor

Were almost at 7 billion people and that number will double in 10 years.