Falling Skies Pilot Review

Well the 2-hour premiere of Falling Skies is over. What's the verdict? It's a good show, but not great. It has a lot of potential if they focus on the struggle of humanity to survive, and fight back, and less on the cliched archetypes that appear in every single post-apocalyptic vision. Since this was the pilot episode I thought I would do this review by simply talking about what I liked, and what I didn't like. That way I avoid assuming things, or theorizing about things we simply don't have enough information about. After that, I'll talk about where I hope the show goes. I plan to review this show every week whether I enjoy it or not.

Before I get into the like/dislike section I want give a brief description of the show for those who don't know. In the first few moments we learn that an alien race we call the "skidders" attacked Earth. At first humans allowed them to place ships around the planet to avoid starting a war ID4 Style. This quickly turned bad as the aliens destroyed all the electronics, then all the military bases, and finally started eliminating cities. The show is about the aftermath of this destruction. Imagine the movie Independence Day, but instead of a rousing speech, and an impossibly stupid winning solution, we don't beat the aliens within a couple days. The aliens won, and now only a few humans survive, and begin to slowly fight back.

Spoilers below the fold.




What I Liked: 

- The Cast, for the most part. The main character Tom Mason played by ER vet Noah Wyle is a former American History professor at Boston University. He's a good man, and a father of three. Two sons are with him in the resistance, and a third has been captured by the aliens. More on that in a moment. The two sons played by Maxim Knight, and Connor Jessup are pretty good. The latter is the oldest, and goes with his father on most missions. The commander of the force, Clayton is played by an actor that I have seen in many things, but he is not on the IMDB page(this will be rectified soon I hope). Clayton is the type of person you would imagine would be leading this band of rebels. He's no-nonsense, but cliche'd in his hard exterior. We know that some time in the future there will be an episode where we learn more about his past, and that hard exterior cracks a bit. Collin Cunningham plays outlaw John Pope. We meet Pope at the end of part one, and while he's a bad guy at first, it's clear to me that he will not only become vital to the human resistance, but also good friends with Mason. While he acts like an outlaw, it's clear that he is educated. Maybe not as much as Mason, but he's no idiot.

-The Setting. I like a lot that we didn't see the invasion and have those cliche'd scenes of people looking up in wonder, and news reports, and other nonsense just to have the aliens attack. We've seen it 100 times before. I except us to see flashbacks, but I also think they won't reveal very much about the invasion. I think it will be a lot like the TV show Jericho was, and we won't learn anything that they themselves don't know, or don't learn. Since all the communication went down they have no idea what is happening around the world, and I like that. It adds to the feeling of helplessness.

-The Special Effects. Shockingly, the special effects are not total crap. Syfy could learn a lot from Falling Skies when they make their next Octolobster vs. Dinolion movie. The effects were not amazing, but for a show on TNT, they were better than I previously had imagined. So kudos! Hopefully that remains true, and they didn't spend their whole effects budget in the pilot.

-The Mysteries. The show does have a hint of mystery going on. The aliens have been taking children and attaching something called a Harness to them. Why do that? It is just to make then slaves? And if so, why children? Adults are much stronger, and are no longer growing. From the preview we learned a little more about this, but I won't talk about that. There also is the "Why did the aliens come here?" question. Is it a true invasion, and they just want to take over? I agree with Pope that the American Revolution analogy is mistaken. The American Colonists declared independence and then fought the British until they left(with help from the French). Pope says the analogy should be to the American Indian, who were wiped out by the onslaught of European Colonists. Is Earth just a colony for natural resources? The Aliens are also building something massive, and it appears will be pretty important.

What I Didn't Like:

-Clayton.  Why can't a military commander be kind and understanding? I'm not saying he has to be mister sunshine, but haven't we all had enough of the standard hard as rocks commander? I like this actor a lot, even though I don't know his name, and I am confident he will grow and change as the show goes on.  Toward the end of the second part we saw a glimpse of this. He was willing to listen to someone else, and actually used smart military tactics.

-The Aliens(sort of). I didn't hate them, but they seemed pretty standard to me. Nothing really that special, or original. With that being said, I like that this is addressed in the show. They are discussing them in an intelligent manner. Things like, they probably come from a planet like Earth since they can walk around without any protection. I also liked the question asked about why a six-legged creature would use a two-legged mecha. We use mechanical machines that don't look like us, but since it was asked, I assume it's important.

-Mason's History Lessons(again, sort of). I liked it in this episode, but if it continues I will not be a fan. I would suggest if they are going to have him make analogies to historical events, or suggest actions based on his knowledge these should be given in story form rather than a couple sentences. I'm sure as a history professor he can wax poetic about Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon. It would be cool to hear those stories camp fire style. It would show his love for history, and the respect the others in the group clearly have for him.

That's really all I didn't like, there were more but it's only the pilot, so i'll hold off.

What I'm Hoping to See:

What I would really love this series to become is more like Battlestar Galactica. This is a group of people who have already lost, and they are just trying to survive. The difference is they still have a home, and if the aliens were to leave they would just rebuild, but the idea should be similar. Small resistance against a massive force that they can only play defense against, or make small pin pricks. The show needs to utilize the dark nature of the premise, and find light moments in everyday things(like sleeping in a real bed in a real house).

That's about it. As I said, I will be reviewing this show weekly no matter what I think, but so far I'm liking it.  What do you think?