Falling Skies (No Spoilers)

[JDFP]

Just caught the premiere of this on TNT and all I have to say is: WOW! It completely blew any expectations I had out of the water as being absolutely phenomenal. I've been waiting for another great sci-fi series since Battlestar: Galactica ended and thought it would be hard pressed for a series to live up to that caliber of excellence. It seems I've been mistaken as TNT has delivered (at least with the first two episodes for the premiere tonight). I will definitely be watching regularly and have hopes and faith this show will continue to deliver in such a way as it did earlier tonight. It's like a mixture between "V" (the original miniseries with Michael Ironside and Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) none of that new bullshit) and "Battlestar: Galactica" as it focuses on a ragtag team of survivors (military and civilian) fighting together against the already invaded aliens to try to get them to leave what's left of the world after they've already destroyed most of the U.S. and the rest of humanity. It's also got a fantastic cast, Will Patton is the leader of the military group who plays a tough-as-nails former reservist captain who is trying to protect the 300+ civilians with his small military force and lead them to safety away from the cities (very reminiscent of Admiral Adama). Here's the preview for the series which is executive produced by Spielberg: I can't recommend this show enough! j.p.

[Tom Price]

Walking "touchy feely soap opera" Dead has competition from this show among others. Unlike last year when it was the only thing on that box you simian mammals worship.

[Publius]

I agree, it was very good. I'm looking forward to seeing them provide more backstory as the series progresses (the trailer has a lot more "first contact" type scenes whereas the premiere provided all the backstory through children's drawings).

[Danny]

So 4 episodes in and im really digging this. Little slow and suffers from the "lets film in abandoned areas for ease of doing so" type scene building but on the whole i like it. Not spectacular though, you kinda get the feeling theres no way other than to force drama that these guys arent going to win everything forever at the end but i want to know more about the aliens and thats enough to keep me watching a show that probably got started with "hey, the masses liked district 9, lets steal that but make the aliens bad guys!" in some boardroom. Still scenes like the main guy dragging his way through the hallway in episode 3 have me way more engaged and entertained than pretty much any of the best bits of the walking dead tv adaptation. That and its nice to have good sci fi on tv again.

[blind2d]

The aliens are the bad guys? Screw that, totally played. I want one (a sci-fi show or movie) where Earth gets its ass handed to it by aliens that really do know better than us. That would at least be a tiny bit less overused. "Ooh, or a giant wheelbarrow full of salt and bits of glass!" - 2D

[MikePizzoff]

Wow, this looks incredible. Somehow I haven't even heard of this until now. Anyone else notice the Wilhelm scream in the preview? Walking "touchy feely soap opera" Dead Looks like someone never read the books...

[Danny]

Looks like someone never read the books... to be fair the show is soap opera bullshit compared to the vastly superior source material.

[clanglee]

you simian mammals Are there non Mammalian Simians? I enjoy the show so far. . .it's pretty engaging. It's starting to get a bit dry and repetitive tho. . .so they will hopefully spice it up a bit in following episodes. But so so far. . . not too shabby.

[kidgloves]

Enjoying this as well. Like Danny says, a bit slow to begin with but has started to get interesting in episode 4.

[Publius]

Are there non Mammalian Simians? No, but there are non-simian mammals. Falling Skies isn't bad, but suffers from from two common movie/TV errors: 1. The "bad guys can't hit the broad side of a barn syndrome": why does it it take these super-advanced alien mechs so long to designate a target with their multiple laser beams from a few yards away? Oh yeah, cuz the makers of the show want dramatic pauses as our heros notice the laser dots and jump out of the way, that's why. Any human IDPA shooter would be able to do far better. 2. The "small world, innit? effect": The hero's son sees a column of abducted children trudging along the road during a scouting mission and - whaddya know, it's the hero's other son! They go to rescue that son and - whaddya know, the abducted kid standing next to him is the son of another guy in the hero's small group of fighters. The hero's group meets a scientist who thinks he's figured out something important about the aliens and - whaddya know, it's an old friend who also happens to be the man who watched the hero's wife die during the alien invasion. Small world, innit?

[Mitchified]

No, but there are non-simian mammals. Falling Skies isn't bad, but suffers from from two common movie/TV errors: 1. The "bad guys can't hit the broad side of a barn syndrome": why does it it take these super-advanced alien mechs so long to designate a target with their multiple laser beams from a few yards away? Oh yeah, cuz the makers of the show want dramatic pauses as our heros notice the laser dots and jump out of the way, that's why. Any human IDPA shooter would be able to do far better. 2. The "small world, innit? effect": The hero's son sees a column of abducted children trudging along the road during a scouting mission and - whaddya know, it's the hero's other son! They go to rescue that son and - whaddya know, the abducted kid standing next to him is the son of another guy in the hero's small group of fighters. The hero's group meets a scientist who thinks he's figured out something important about the aliens and - whaddya know, it's an old friend who also happens to be the man who watched the hero's wife die during the alien invasion. Small world, innit? I'm with you for the majority of this, but the part about seeing his son in the group of children actually makes sense. They're still in the general area that they were living in when the invasion happened; odds are if the son was captured and put into service/slavery, he'd be put to work somewhere in that area. So that part I can buy.

[Tricky]

I watched the first episode the other night and couldnt get into it to be honest, the sickly sweet family values dialogue and cheesy hero type speeches didnt engage me, and I couldnt help feeling that many of the ideas were heavily borrowed from elsewhere, the big alien base structure thing reminded me of District 9 as did the mechs, and the alien bug things that controlled people seemed a rip off of those things on that series "Millenium" with Lance Henrikson that used to be on years ago. I know its hard to do alien invasion stories without being much like all the others, but this one is painfully obvious that Spielberg is involved and doesnt break any new ground. I'll watch a few more episodes to see if it draws me in, but not expecting much. Special effects are nice though!

[Neil]

The reviews of this weren't very +ve so I skipped it!?

[kidgloves]

I watched the first episode the other night and couldnt get into it to be honest, the sickly sweet family values dialogue and cheesy hero type speeches didnt engage me, and I couldnt help feeling that many of the ideas were heavily borrowed from elsewhere, the big alien base structure thing reminded me of District 9 as did the mechs, and the alien bug things that controlled people seemed a rip off of those things on that series "Millenium" with Lance Henrikson that used to be on years ago. I know its hard to do alien invasion stories without being much like all the others, but this one is painfully obvious that Spielberg is involved and doesnt break any new ground. I'll watch a few more episodes to see if it draws me in, but not expecting much. Special effects are nice though! I had a similar reaction to you but i hung on in there and it gets much better. It was the score that was giving it that sickly feel.

[shootemindehead]

Yeh, I'm with Pub, Mitch and Trick here. This show isn't really doing it for me. It waaaay too full of peptalk and manhugs. Far too many rubbish "characters" involved too and a really redundant "hero" in Noah Willey. Some terrible soapy teenagers and really annoying kids here too. There score is feckin awful too, as Kidgloves said. When it isn't hokey glory-filled "war" music, it's tinkle tinkle sad-assed piano, with "characters" looking off into the distance in terribly staged melancholy. Bottom line, the people just aren't real, but are yet again comprised of typical American TV types, surrounded by weak "drama". I've actually found myself, saying "for fuck sake" and FF'ing through some of the soap opera moments. That's a really bad sign. So far, it's 'Days of our lives' with a few aliens.