The main attraction of AMC's breakout hit The Walking Dead isn't a secret: it's the zombies. But the reason people continue to watch the show is that it features a strong set of characters banding together in the face of imminent destruction. There's a lot of that same formula going on with TNT's Falling Skies—but instead of the rotting undead, star Noah Wyle and his dirty bunch of freedom fighters are at odds with some spiiiiiiiders from spaaaaaaaace who occasionally hop into some badass mech-suits.
Alien-invasion TV series have had a tough time recently, but Sunday's two-hour pilot episode of Falling Skies offered some early proof that it may buck that trend. A major difference between Falling Skies and its predecessors is its creators' smart decision to start the show several months after the aliens have raped and pillaged Earth. We were spared—thankfully—from seeing the average day interrupted by vibrating water glasses as spaceships arrive to hover over every major cities. No more goofball alien sympathizers holding signs of welcome, no more stern president wondering how to talk to the newly arrived beings, no more crowds of people staring up into the sky when they really should be hiding in basements. The aliens are already here, and they kicked our asses—deal with it.
Dealing with the invasion is a group of about 300 freedom fighters, and that's where the heart of the story lies. Imagine that! An alien-invasion series that makes characters its top priority! More specifically, it's the relationship between Tom Mason (Wyle) and his son Hal (Greek's Drew Roy) that forms the early foundation of humanity as opposed to reducing them to a bunch of gun-toting maniacs. Many months after the aliens have landed and vaporized much of the planet's population, Hal is eager to grow up and full of the bravado that comes with being a cocky teen. And Tom has to balance protecting his eldest son (he's already lost one kid to the aliens) with sending him into dangerous situations when necessary (Hal is one of the more able-bodied men in La Resistance).
The show's other relationships and characters are a bit flimsier—the Hal, his girlfriend, and the other young girl potential love triangle is horrible—but have potential to bloom in upcoming episodes. It's a side effect of the pilot spending most of its time on Hal and Tom, but this is something we can live with. At least with Hal and Tom, we have something to take away from our first viewing instead of a bunch of half-baked characters.
Wow, four paragraphs in and I've hardly talked about the aliens and special effects. I must finally be growing up! Overall, the Skitters (taste the rainbow) look pretty damn good for a basic cable show that doesn't have the fundage of a major network behind it. And let's give the show credit for not copping out and doing the whole "the aliens look like humans!" thing to save on special effects. Falling Skies is going for it, even giving us close-up shots of the aliens, and that earns my Knuckle Bump Respec' Award of the summer even they aren't necessarily worthy of those Emmys they hand out the weekend before the real Emmys.
I also appreciate the lack of information we have on the aliens. We don't entirely know why they're here or where they're from; that's going to be a fun story to follow as the series progresses. And we're teased with this little nugget of the aliens' bipedal mech suits. Why are they bipedal? Are the six-legged Skitters the worker bees and the mech suits modeled after a different class of alien? Let's hear your theories if you got 'em.
I may not be ready to declare Falling Skies TV's next great alien show, but it's off to respectable start and demands further viewing. Go Team Humans!
Additional notes:
... One thing I liked about the premiere was that no one (besides that dumb kid who went after his dog) did anything really stupid. It's almost unheard of to have so few moments where you just throw your hands in the air in disbelief.
... Another thing I liked about the premiere was its abundance of location shots. There wasn't one moment where I felt like I was looking at a set, and that really helped sell the idea that the Resistance is making things up as it moves along.
... I've wondered this for some time now and still can't make a solid decision. Moon Bloodgood: Hot, or just kinda hot?
... How soon will we be able to buy brain-controlling, spine-attaching backpack on Etsy?
Follow TV.com writer Tim Surette on Twitter: @TimAtTVDotCom
i was so looking foward to something fun and differant...it has been done to death. i really like noah wyle and that is why i gave it a chance. everything seemed canned. i think alot of people will like it so i believe it will have a following...i am looking for a real sci fi thriller like "far scape" again. i suppose i will be waiting a very long time...this is too easy and way too ho hum...it felt like i had seen it b/4. and i really hated a whole hr spent on sociopathic psychopaths one that will be in the show as a regular it looks like...that whole last hr felt like being slapped in the face...it could have been on any show...tired of so much of the same depiction of human filth for entertainment...should have been an alien...now after all that...the preview made it llook like maybe there is more to the aliens than robotic weapons you have no hope of talking to or relating to. if that is the case i could come back we will see???moreless
I agree with Harowen. Boring and diappointing, been done before. I swear the aliens even look familiar. And by the way Rever MA is not to the North West!! Marblead is NE of Boston, I am from there, so is Revere. I won't bother to watch again.
Love this show, really good right out of the gate. Love Speilberg, the man is a genius, though I'm pretty sure he recycled some of his sound effect from "Jurassic Park"... I'm pretty sure those aliens were actually Tyranosaurus Rex, because that's what they sounded like. :P
Now that I have lost almost ALL of my favorite SF shows...V being one of them I will happily take Falling Skies. And I agree, I like that we were spared the whole beginning of the attack. It kinda felt like it picked up where Battle:LA left off. With us humans having our collective asses kicked and everybody scrambling to stay alive and try to figure out how to kill the critters. I am looking forward to seeing just where this goes. Two thumbs up! TNT. I will continue to watch.
The Walking SkiesThe Falling Dead
A big YES from me.
really liked it
dissapointing. The most anoying thing is that the characters suffers from the standard setting. The hero is a history teacher, father of a rebellious teen whos dating a hot blond. the squad is like a poitically correct poster and the leader is dictatorial. already the civilians are starting to revolt because they have to live in the tents while the army has the abandoned houses. And in comes the antihero, a criminal that knows how to kill the aliens.How do you fix this show? all you need to do is kill all the right characters.
Pretty much "The Walking Dead" except they substituted Zombies with Aliens. All that means is double the fun!
meh
I believe the mech suits are bi-pedal because the brainwashed children man them.
Soso start. Hopefully, it will get better.
I didn't like the pilot episodes. I thought it was boring .
Moon Bloodgood = Very, very hot
Great start. Since the show doesn't have the backing of a major network they did a pretty good job on the special effects. I think you can thank Steven Spielberg for that. How can't you make a decision on if Moon Bloodgood is hot or not? Moon is hot.
Liked it. but lacked some bit, as the poster below, said. too little action.it's not gonna be battlestar galactica quality, that's for sure, but i'll keep watching the show
I really liked it. I'm not a huge scifi fan (unless it's one of Joss' shows), but I really liked the characters. The relationship between father and son was free of the general whiny teen/trying to hard parent thing that seems to plague most shows. I'm sure Game of Thrones is a much better show, but I can't watch that because I get too invested in characters and GoT treats the ones I like horribly. I'm trusting Mr Spielberg not to do the same.
it lacked bite, especially for a premiere! so disappointed. Maybe i shouldnt have watched it after game of thrones finale.
Don`t get me it was ok, but I expected much more :(
ok so basically you say that this is agood show, and not boring not stupid as your whole bashing on The Event. You're a strange person
Sadly boring and derivative. Those of you praising it have little taste.
Moon is kinda hot, Sarah Carter on the other hand is super smokin'
Hahaha oh Tim, I caught those two slights to The Event. But seriously, the whole time I was watching Falling Skies I was baffled that this kind of show could appear on TNT. I think that this show has a lot going for it, and am excited for the upcoming episodes. Also, did anyone think the Skitters looked like Nerubians? You'll win an Internet if you get the reference.
I really liked it definitely gonna watch it again! :)
Had a 'Walking Dead' on TNT vibe....// Lots of action, weird-ass aliens, Noah Wyle, and a couple of blonde chicks....it was cool.. ..something that you don't have to think too much about...... I'll give it a chance ..Hey, not everything can be Game of Thrones> who has just reset the standard in bad-assery// Moon Bloodgood WAS very hot, but is older now and is attractive for her age but not HOT anymore.
Why is it always just the Americans? what about the rest of the world?
It reminded me a little of Firefly. I'm definitely sticking around for a few more episodes. I love Noah Wyle from ER and Jessy Schram from Veronica Mars.
Moon: HOT!!! Did you see her in Daybreak, which had some seriously steamy scenes with Taye Diggs? If so, you wouldn't even ask.Oh, yeah. Falling Skies gets a B+. Not perfect, but pretty darn close.
Promising. I give it a passing grade, and will come back for more. I close my eyes and hum whenever the "lovesick trio" is on, and look forward to seeing the other characters develop further. Loved Pope, liked the way Tom handled himself in a crappy situation, and am looking forward to seeing how the soldier/civilian conflict will develop.
liked almost everthting except the damn love triangle .... and dont like the new girl with pope , too many females but pope is awesome :)
Give kids a rest .Super 8 sucked.....big time so does this.
The dialogue at times was cringe worthy. The acting is so so. So far the storyline has been lame. I am not surprised cause the trailer was lame. I say 1 season or less. By the way the kids thing is a bit overdone (missing kid,kid wishing for birthday and return to normalcy,kid with stolen childhood forced to be soldiers why when there are able and older adults i cant tell and so on) Slielberg should
I gave up about an hour and a half in. Nothing new here that I haven't seen done better elsewhere. It just got more boring as it went on. And the whole rival gang of humans kidnapping the group scouting the armory was just awful storytelling.
The kids are in the mechs for the problem it presents in combat, nothing more. No one will want to kill kids, especially a mech that might have their own kid in it. Its a plot device people, it doesn't have to make the most logical sense from a scifi perspective. Trust me on this.
Hard to swallow that they came here prepared to mechanize slaves for cannon fodder. Seems more likely they are either a previous planet enslaved race, or the more likely primary species from the home world. Logic says you DON'T send your own species out to war bare-assed when you have minions!! Why hit earth, why else...V A C A T I O N!!!!!!
So, we have have weak leadership, limited,spotty weapons and food stores, slow-moving groups of humans being picked off at each rest. Good for eliminating unwanted characters. Role-reversal for soldiers protecting 1 day, wearing back-packs the next. Roving wolfpacks of civilian hostiles capable of upsetting any plans. An Alien force using human captives for??? I'd say it was a worthy effort for 2 hours. Give us the alien agenda, brush up some character development, and hopefully show us some comparative locations...IE east coast/west coast communication established to compare notes.moreless
I really liked what I saw. Good action and character development, along with good use of CGI for a cable series. Plus, this takes place well after the alien invasion, which is a huge breath of fresh air.
The acting was lousy, the dialog was boring, the editing was really slow, the plot did not hold up. The characters did not have any depth. Let's hope this is only pilot episode jitters.
This was a really good start, there was action right from the beginning (good action that worked for the show). But there was also time for getting to know the main characters and even find a few favorites among them to root a little extra for. I agree about the potential triangle, I hope they develop it and make it good because it could get really interesting.
I kept waiting to turn it off, because I just knew it was all over-hyped. But, it just kept drawing me in. Yeah, you're right, it does need some work. But, I saw more potential out of it than I've seen out of a whole bunch of recent new shows, aliens or not.
Yeah, we know, do the reveal already. *The kids are inside the mechs*
epic
Why am I bored watching this? Moon is very hot.