Sci-Fi Falling Skies

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Genre: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Director: Robert Rodat

Cast: Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Connor Jessup, Maxim Knight, Colin Cunningham, Sarah Carter, Mpho Koaho, Doug Jones

First aired:

Overview: Falling Skies opens in the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign against the occupying alien force.

Trailer

Hmm, something that bugged me all the way through season one was why the aliens didn't just storm their group, since they were so large, but it was explained later in the season that they weren't seen as a threat. Last episode actually if I remember. Then the lead was asked to come with them to talk, and we know how that ended up. Season two started a little bit flaky, didn't have the feel of the first season at all. I wonder if there are different writers onboard, or budgetary constraints?
 
TNT has ordered a 3rd season of Falling Skies. 10 episodes have been ordered to be aired in 2013. US ratings continue to be inconsistent but combined with the 115 non-US markets that it is also airing in, the shows is so far a success for DreamWorks.
 
Finally caught up on my DVR, and watched the series 3 premiere...well-done, in my opinion, though I really didn't like having to piece together what had happened in the seven months of story time that passed between last season's finale and this premiere. Should be a fun season, though.
 
... though I really didn't like having to piece together what had happened in the seven months of story time that passed between last season's finale and this premiere.
That was my only complaint as well, especially with the oldest son. Is the youngest son the same actor from last season? His hair style at least made me not even realize who it was at first.
 
That was my only complaint as well, especially with the oldest son. Is the youngest son the same actor from last season? His hair style at least made me not even realize who it was at first.
The youngest son looked like the same actor, just a bit older (guessing he went through a growth spurt).

Before things all got squared away, I thought maybe they'd changed up the actress playing Noah Wyle's love interest (wife, I guess now?), until she showed up later and it turned out the other lady was some sort of assistant, or VP, or something. I also don't remember the middle son's friend this season being there last season, but maybe I missed something...she sort of resembles the other boy who they detached from the harness (but didn't he die?), appearance-wise.
 
[spoilers]

I wasn't entire sure whether they thought they were fooling the audience in the latest episode, or if they were trying to get us to cheer for Mason to figure out the scam...either way, I thought it fell pretty short, especially since he was able to escape his captors so easily (although I don't doubt they planted something on him).

Not sure if the new-wife-and-daughter were truly dead, or if it was just set up to look that way. Considering the daughter's "heritage", I would have thought they'd have kept them alive.

And going back to the previous episode before this one, I still didn't get how Mason, the great strategist, thought going it alone was the smart move...

[/spoilers]
 
[spoilers]

... especially since he was able to escape his captors so easily (although I don't doubt they planted something on him).
The escape bothered me as well. Even if it wasn't part of the aliens plan for him to escape the scene with the grid being turned on was on a balcony about 20 stories-or-so up on the side of the tower. There is no way he fell all of the way to the ground that high up and survived so he must've fell to a lower story. OK, but then how did he make his way through the tower evading capture? The writers made quite a few leaps in faith that the viewers will just blindly go along with it.

Not sure if the new-wife-and-daughter were truly dead, or if it was just set up to look that way. Considering the daughter's "heritage", I would have thought they'd have kept them alive.
My money would be on they are alive and Mason was either shown something fake or it really was them but in a cocoon like state.

And going back to the previous episode before this one, I still didn't get how Mason, the great strategist, thought going it alone was the smart move...
Yep, another break from established character traits. If anything he would've had Hal go with him back to the farm while having the middle son guide the youngest son back to Charleston.

All in all it was not a good episode. They relied too much on the gimmick at the start of the episode, and the scene of Mason in his old house bedroom, while glossing over the rest.

[/spoilers]
 
[spoilers]All in all it was not a good episode. They relied too much on the gimmick at the start of the episode, and the scene of Mason in his old house bedroom, while glossing over the rest.[/spoilers]

I'd have to agree...and yes, the "flashback" definitely drew me in, but they should have thought through the rest of the episode more.
 
So has enough time passed that we can talk about the last season finale? :D

In short, they rebooted the show back to the original premise in season one! After building up all that hype about how everything will change once the machine was finished the main characters are now once again just a roaming group of survivors on their own.

Season three better start off with quite a bang to keep my attention.
 
I'm not sure how they'll continue keeping our interest. Now it sounds like the aliens are all going to be attacking each other and the humans will just be on the sidelines. Only glimmer of hope (for storylines, at least) seems to be the part-alien child.
 
TNT has a released a trailer for season 4 of Falling Skies. The series returns June 22 and it looks like the war between the alien factions intensifies with the humans caught in the middle.

 
A rather intense season premiere, this one...lots of info to digest, and hopefully they parse out all of the different plot lines in a way that I can follow through the rest of the season.

Apparently, the alien invaders must have re-thought the whole notion that the 2nd Mass wasn't worth paying attention to...

Although at this rate, by the end of the season, Tom's new daughter should be older than he is...
 
Watching the season premiere my first reaction was to wonder if perhaps I missed an episode from the last season before realizing what was going on. Mentally I don't think I was expecting the show to do a time jump, the changes with Lexi, and the new direction that is being taken with the abducted kids.

The internment camps is a bit of a jarring change of tone for the show. I know it is allowing the writers to slowly drag out the new story elements but I think I prefer them on the open road instead of being confined.
 
The internment camps is a bit of a jarring change of tone for the show. I know it is allowing the writers to slowly drag out the new story elements but I think I prefer them on the open road instead of being confined.
Given the interaction between the "good alien" (who I constantly hear the name mistakenly as "Goat Cheese" - ack!) and Tom, and how two of his sons are already rebelling against their new overseers (not sure I followed where the oldest son ended up), I'm guessing they won't stay confined for long.
 
Watching the season premiere my first reaction was to wonder if perhaps I missed an episode from the last season before realizing what was going on. Mentally I don't think I was expecting the show to do a time jump, the changes with Lexi, and the new direction that is being taken with the abducted kids.
They only did a four-month time jump from the capture to "today." The various phsyical changes with Lexi over the four months (or how they happened so fast) were explained in one or more of the episodes from last season as part of her "hybrid" status. You knew something was special about her, in regards to the Vishwani (sp), from some of the last episodes, if memory serves...
 
They only did a four-month time jump from the capture to "today." The various phsyical changes with Lexi over the four months (or how they happened so fast) were explained in one or more of the episodes from last season as part of her "hybrid" status. You knew something was special about her, in regards to the Vishwani (sp), from some of the last episodes, if memory serves...
It's not the time jump itself that bugs me but rather how much changed in that four months. If the jump was a year or two, then I'd have no problem with it.

The physical appearance of Lexi aside, the Shangri-La village of cult-like followers is a pretty decent place to have been done in just four months. Even if Lexi changed entirely in one day then it means that within 16 weeks she obtained followers, they found a location, and they not only cleaned it up but repaired the damage as well including a pretty nice water garden with landscaping. Unless they found a complete Home Depot store sealed off & pristine from before the invasion then I'd find it hard to believe that place got to where it is in just that time.

Then of course there are the re-education camps complete with DVD promotional videos to show the kids. Last season the kids were being harnessed, jump forward and now they are being indoctrinated by non-harnessed humans who have drank a little too much Kool-Aid.

Mason and the rest of the crew are in a prison ghetto and yet they've been able to form alliances, hold clandestine meetings, have a 'Ghost' folk hero emerge, and generally roam free to do almost whatever they want.

And how did a former doctor, Anne, become the rebel leader when just four months earlier she was on the verge of a mental breakdown with people fearing for her safety? After being abducted by the invading aliens, bearing an alien hybrid child, and then having some mental stability issues, she should be the last person leading anybody.
 
A bit of unexpected news.... TNS has ordered a fifth season of Falling Skies. It will also be it's final season. No word on why the decision to end the show after 5 seasons but, with this number of season on, the production costs are likely getting pretty high and ending the show will free up both money and a time-slot for new shows.
 
Back
Top