Falling Skies

[nacho]

I wasn't going to bother with a new thread, because I'm betting this will suck. But the two hour premiere is Sunday night and, despite my reservations, I'm kind of excited.

What got me excited was Scifi Signal's review (a blog I usually trust).  Their final thoughts (after a lengthy review describing the pilot and the story):

Part of the group's survival depends on acquiring food, a fact not lost on the occupying aliens. Food runs are dangerous and are usually where humans will run into either the aliens (the insectoid "Skitters") or their robotic sentries known as Mechs. The aliens of Falling Skies are nasty and quite dangerous, showing little mercy in a few well-placed action scenes that drive the point home. There are longer story arcs as well. For example, the true plan of the aliens is being revealed over the course of several episodes, with teasers dropped just frequently enough to keep you hooked.

It's true that SciFi fans have seen the themes being explored in Falling Skies. How can you hear "alien invasion" and not think of Independence Day? And striking back at an occupying alien force sounds a lot like V. But the similarities end at the themes being explored. For one thing, this invading force does not conceal their hostile nature like the lizards of V. And don't expect Independence Day-style action scenes. Just like The Walking Dead was not about zombie attacks, Falling Skies is not about the invasion itself. The focus here is on the aftermath and a group of survivors.

In short: Falling Skies is more post-apocalyptic drama than it is an alien invasion story. And that's all right by me.

[nacho]

Haha! Oh, man...

In the first minute, in the voices of several children, they give us a quick prologue -- the invasion, what happened, and what the aliens are doing.  It's like Formula One storytelling.  Zooooooom! Entire plot of every alien invasion movie in 60 seconds. GO GO!

Then we go into Terminator flashbacks. I mean... The resistance out hunting for food and being hunted in turn by the scary aliens.

Okay, okay... So the aliens rule the planet. There's nobody left but scattered bands of resistance. They have NO means of fighting back. And the main resistance group is just hanging out about a mile from the city in full view of the mothership, above ground, with fires blazing at night.

Um...

Kind of like in V: The Final Battle when the entire LA resistance made an abandoned movie ranch their HQ. Because the alien overlords aren't going to notice several hundred heavily armed people wandering around out in the open, right?

Also, when making a despair-filled PA story, you don't have to have characters keep saying, "I wish everything was back the way it was."

Well, yes. Of course you do.

1am, so I'm quitting at the end of part one. Which ended with a touching scene of children skateboarding poignantly.

A mass exodus out of the city is the last scene of part one -- largely unarmed, and in broad daylight -- as the resistance quits and heads to the country. I guess the aliens don't send out patrols, eh? Or have any monitoring devices at all.

[nacho]

Part two is instantly stupid. The hard as nails little John Connor kid is in charge of the sacrificial dog in a gambit that looks like it's been pulled off a thousand times to lure out a sentry. So when it works and the deadly robot mega-sentry comes out, the hard as nails kid goes Nooo! The dog! And goes running TOWARDS the super mega sentry to save the dog.

Man... This show is awful.

Meanwhile, with the main group, we have the usual civilians vs. soldiers thing. We contribute to the fight! We cook! Blah blah... Son of a bitch, people, this is a post-apocalypse show! People are killing people for a can of rancid tuna. And yet we have the same Walking Dead syndrome (Oh! How I miss Maytag Corporation most of all!!!!) combined with this weird "rights of the civilians" argument. You're ALL against the wall and hunted.

Maybe if this were set right after the invasion, but the impression is that we're about six months later. Children are armed and fighting, resignation has set in, command structures have been created from a militia force.

Star dialog:

"If you start firing, the robot will come in." This is said as a way to convince them to give up their guns, which they do....um...after they've fired off a bunch of rounds.

So, part one -- open fires at the camp, no problem. Part two -- patrol ships seek heat and even a flare will attract them.

What a shoddy piece of shit. And now we end with our little group heading out on a suicide mission to rescue our main guy's kid who is effectively dead (and they know it). After 90 minutes of whining about fighters vs. civilians, the head of their resistance outlet not only lets six fighters go off to kill themselves for nothing, but our main guy is the second in command.
 

[nacho]

By the way, the absurd dog incident was a way to write the kid out of our team of heroes who head off at the end of the pilot. I love how there are two of each character. Two 12 year old John Connor boys, two identical black guys who basically share lines and actions, and two tough gun-toting blonde girls. By the end of the pilot, John Connor kid is out and one of the black guys is dead. So our hero team is now red shirt black guy #2, Chinese shit kicker, troubled elder son, main guy dad, and two blonde girls.

Is this where we get to say Falling Skies is a pastiche of sci-fi formulas?

I also love how I spent 90 minutes not getting into any of the characters at all. You don't care when black guy red shirt #1 is killed... Nor does anyone else on the tight-knit team!  He's dead, they shrug, it's never mentioned again, and they repeatedly invite his killers to join them.

[nacho]

Last night's episode was remarkably stupid.

I'd still like, at least, someone to comment on why the aliens don't patrol the countryside. And I hate every stupid character. The show is so formuliac, it actually follows the same formula as the pilot episode. So it's not just an exercise in tropes, it's the same story again. The same sort of problems -- hardened squad member loses his shit and blows cover and runs out into the middle of the shit. This episode, it's to save a kid. Better than a bait dog that was meant to die, I guess.

I especially love that the aliens capture someone, then let them go, and the rebels aren't concerned at all. They don't change their location or anything. In fact, they make steps to make their base more permanent.

The history professor thing is called on to explain how the Germans did the same thing to Allied prisoners. So "it's just a message."

A message to...do what? Tell the last remnants of a shattered civilization that you're trying to exterminate to stop fighting? I don't think the same situation quite applies.

[nacho]

Ha! The most recent episode opens up with them messing around with the captured skitter and Moon Bloodgood says, "Don't underestimate them."

Okay! Thanks! I will try not to underestimate the wildly advanced alien who's part of a relatively small invasion force that, nonetheless, wiped out civilization and almost all of humanity and against whom we don't stand a chance in hell of surviving.

[RottingCorpse]

Tell me again why you're still watching this?

[nacho]

I'm part of a study group that's charting my higher brain function before and after each episode. Doctors believe that Falling Skies is causing terminal cancer.

[nacho]

This fucking shit got renewed for a second season!

[nacho]

Today's alarming news:

(1) There's going to be a second season?!?!

(2) Terry O'Quinn is joining the cast!

#2 means now I have to go back and suffer through the rest of season one. Because Terry can do no wrong...

[nacho]

Okay -- I'm giving season two a try. I had to dig this thread up to remember why I made a note to myself to do so and, so far, no Terry O'Quinn.

What's really funny is that you don't have to watch the first season. At all. What's even funnier is that they recap the entire first season in 20 seconds.

So... Starting pretty much from scratch in the second season is okay, actually. They've worked out a few kinks. This show is basically Terra Nova, except nobody's clean and the camera stays on them when they get machine gunned in the face. Otherwise, it's poorly thought out garbage. Still not worth anyone's time... But I'm going to go ahead and keep Dropboxing it at work. Why not? Plus now there appears to actually be a story! Shocker!

[nacho]

I'm trying... I'm really trying...

[nacho]

Episode five and the show is actually vaguely palatable. Mainly because they've introduced a fifth column within the alien camp... So we get a little more than the one sided "boring pretty white people vs. unknowable enemy with no clear motivation".

[nacho]

Jeez... They must have a guardian angel.

U.S. cable network TNT is happy with its hit science fiction drama, renewing Falling Skies for a third season this week.

The show follows the human resistance in the wake of an alien invasion that devastates civilization on Earth, and is currently halfway through its 10-episode second season.

Ten episodes have been ordered for Season Three, which will air in the summer of 2013, Deadline reports.

[nacho]

Finally catching up... Episode nine introduces Terry O'Quinn. He immediately steals every scene of this horrible show. And he's the presumptive president of the new US! Nice.