Live And Learn

Season 1, Episode 1, Aired
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6.9
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EPISODE RATING: Fair
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After an unprovoked and devastating alien invasion of Earth leaves the planet in tatters the remaining humans must learn to work together and fight the aliens if they are to continue to exist, Former history professor Tom Mason as Second In Command of the 2nd Mass must juggle his duties as leader with his duties as a father to his 3 sons, One of whom is being held captive by the aliens.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (13)

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  • Weird mixture of fair to good acting, cheesy special effects, senseless screenplay and costumes.

    4.0
    "Poor"
    By Rick_1000, Oct 20, 2011
    I was really hoping this would be a good series because I like Noah Wyle and wanted to see him again on screen. But while I like his performance and that of several of the casts, this is just a VERY poorly executed series written and staged by rank amateurs. I have a very hard time believing this show was produced by Steven Spielberg, but sadly it is.
    Wyle plays a widowed father with 3 sons, one of whom was captured by aliens in a post-apocalyptic world where 90% of the world's population had been decimated. He is made 2nd in command of a rag-tag group of 'resistance' fighters calling themselves the 2nd Massachusetts. There are the usual cliche characters of tough love commander, bleeding heart doctor, rebellious teenager son, cute adorable little son, defiant fighters, female toughs,kindly old forks, etc. Apparently, Spielberg has gotten into a rut in his old age. Standard predictable characters which would be forgivable but for the script and sets.
    Watching this series, one could not help but wonder just how much money the studios in Hollywood have lost in the current recession because the special effects in this sci-fi series is as cheesy as it gets. I've seen vastly better F/X on computers games produced in the 1990's.
    Bad F/X and predictable casts of characters could be salvagable if the story were executed right. Unfortunately, not in this case. Apparently, the series producers decide to not only skimp on F/X, but technical advisors. Views are expected to believe that in a post-apocalyptic world of Boston, Massachusetts resistance fighters armed with leftover guns fromstate armorieswould be running aroundwith Russian AK-47s and RPGs. Did anyone in Hollywood-land NOT understand that AK-47s and RPGs are notstandard US military equipment? That they are not made in the US? That in a world without electricity, air travel, trans-oceanc travel somehow all resistance fighters in the US are armed with non-US weapons? While we are at this, how does a group of over 300 people survive in the outskirts of Boston for 6 months without water? Or how everyone is able to keep their hair so neatly cut and trim? Howclothes are without tears or rips or patches?
    But I will give the actors their dues. Everyone did their part in give a good solid performance in the acting department. If only the script, production, editing, F/X. and everything else were worthy of such efforts.
    moreless

  • Seen it before.

    5.5
    "Mediocre"
    By AnnMareeBard, Aug 17, 2011
    Watched the first episode and I am a little dissapointed - it seems that we've seen this all before but now we have creepy looking aliens with nothing on the agenda but to kill everyone and take over the world, unlike other shows that had their agenda secret while trying to be our friends. Hopefully it gets better along the way like SGU did, and if it does I hope they keep it longer than the first series. So far Noah is the only reason I'll watch it again. If they decided to show it from a different perspective - captives in the ship trying to survive and get out - that would be interesting!moreless

  • Needs to get better FAST

    3.5
    "Bad"
    By isakura, Aug 17, 2011
    This show is pretty terrible, and once again, it is largely due to the writing and unforgiveable stupid plot and storyline.

    The acting, though not very good, is at least forgiveable... it's hard to act when you don't believe in what you are given to say. Terrible dialogue plagues this show. One example is when Noah Wylie tells a small group of people "If we can hurt them they (the aliens) will leave." kid says "well it hasnt worked so far" to which Noah replies " Well it will, because it has before" .... then begins spouting off examples throughout history.

    I had high hopes for Falling Skies. Instead of seeing the sci-fi tv show void filled with something wonderful, I found a show that made me roll my eyes and groan more times than I could count.

    This post-apocolyptic war show was completely unbelievable and it was painful to watch as they squeezed in every boring and seemingly, all too happy, aspect of these peoples lives.

    Had I been drinking something when they showed the women standing smudge-faced in an assembly line in the river passing the laundry along to each other with great big smiles on their faces, I am sure I would have spit it out in laughter.
    It felt as if every aspect of these peoples lives and society were thrown at me and squeezed into 45 minutes so that I would fully grasp what they were trying to build. Someone makes sure we know some of them still believe in God... someone else tells us the roles the civilains have, cooking, sewing and mending, and most importantly, hauling away trash. Hauling away trash? Have they looked at the world they are walking around in? The entire landscape looks like one big dumpsite. I think there are better things to do than haul away trash. They make sure we see there is still school, where kids learn and brainstorm as well as hypothesize about why spider-like aliens would create bi-pedal robots. (Come on, we all know it is to keep manufacturing costs down). I think they are building a society based on recycled corn and cheese, with a side of ham.

    Minor spoilers and plot points follow...
    This show has several ridiculous and unforgiveable scenes in it. Although i could really pick this show apart, it would be too simple to. Truthfully, i was barely paying attention anymore during the second half of the 2 hour premier.
    Things are ridiculous from the beginning of the major split up of the city. They decide to split up into groups of 300 to make themselves less easy to find, yet they trapse en-masse down major roads riding motorcycles and the like while we see alien patrol ships flying in the air in the background, somehow completely unable to detect a group smaller than 500. This idea is only made more ridiculous by the fact that as soon as you get our hero's son, alone on a back road doing recon, he suddenly comes across several alien ariel scout craft, a few mechanized ground troops, and also, you guessed it, his missing brother, controlled by an attached alien slug, of course.
    Also unforgiveable is the fact that they wait until they have gone far down the road and find no food to send the afore mentioned recon mission backtracking to get food. You know you are leaving town and may not find food, why wait until you dont find any to send people back to get more. Maddening! As if you didnt already see Weaver (played by Tom Patton, who seems to be unenthuiastically reprising his role of General Cunningham from the movie The Postman)possibly being killed and replaced by Noah Wylie, just for boneheaded poor planning. I know I know, blame poor writing yet again.

    It makes you wish they had monkeys with typewriters in outer space.

    They also throw in a bit of good old fashioned racism. Why not, we are being overrun by an alien horde, why should humanity unite? The antagonist John Pope, after capturing Noah Wylie's party, in yet another unforgiveable yet predictable boneheaded scheme, says he doesnt want to keep the black guy for his group.... but wants to keep the Asian man because they (Asians) are good at fixing things. My vote is then please have him fix all future scripts for this show. Did anyone actually read the final draft? I will say it again... Monkeys, typewriters, outer space.

    Complete speculation follows...My guess is that over the next few episodes the band of ragtag humans will find a way to either remove or override the control slugs and infiltrate an alien horde base so that they can somehow blow it up. We, in the process, will somehow learn the spiderlike aliens are merely foot soldiers also under control of the slugs, and the alien mother ships will return with the true invading aliens... perhaps Spielberg's greys or the like... all the while Noah Wylies character will non-stop be fighting and quoting history books. Yawn and fade out season one.... possibly forever. I do not know for sure, because I will not be watching. I will be waiting with bated breath for the third Planet of the Apes movie... hoping, just hoping.... you guessed it. Monkeys, typewriters, outer space.moreless

  • Only 1 word can describe the first episode of this show, BRILLIANT

    10
    "Perfect"
    By VConn, Aug 17, 2011
    Everything was brilliant, The writing, the acting especially from Noah Wyle and his on screen sons Drew Roy and Maxim Knight.

    The special effects were exactly what you'd expect from something with Spielberg's name on it as was the action and fight sequences. All of which will continue to happen and improve as the series progresses.

    There was drama and tension between all especially Hal and Tom over how best to rescue Ben and Tom and Capt. Weaver over tactics and treatment of the civilians, It highlighted perfectly not only the tensions that arise between family but also the social divides that split us as a species even in the wake of an alien invasion though the evolution of those relationships throughout the first 2 episodes were handled well and in a believable fashion with everyone realizing that in order to survive cooperation is necessary.

    The actors have all been perfectly cast and fit the roles like a glove I was cautious that I'd be able watch Noah Wyle as anything except an ER Doctor but he really pulled it off.

    I'm looking forward to more and hope TNT renews this pronto because really with almost 6 million viewers last night why the hell wouldn't they?moreless

  • 101

    5.5
    "Mediocre"
    By thefanof, Aug 17, 2011
    Dull and deficient, are two words I would use to describe the latest TNT show Falling Skies. We have been seeing promos for this show for months, but this is yet another disappointing sci-fi show.

    Right off the bat they prove that they want to be The Walking Dead. A group of strangers coming together to survive an apocalypse. The main flaw is that they did not even show us the invasion. Maybe they're holding that off for a later episode, but I doubt it. How can you not even show us the event? That was the problem with the NBC show with that title.

    The acting is so lame too. You just got a feeling of "I've seen this already!" throughout the whole show. Not what you want to see.moreless
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