Falling Skies - New Alien Invasion Series on TNT

[sindatur]

First two episodes aired this Sunday (It's on my On Demand, so, should be accessible to most US folks, and apparently starts in other countries soon)

I really enjoyed it, it hit alot of the right marks for a Pilot.

Many SciFi shows, spend so long building up their characters and their Universe elements, and today's audience gets quickly bored and moves on, and the show is cancelled before it gets a chance to really hit it's stride.

I respect the decision TNT made on this, to start it after the Aliens had already invaded and were in control. So, you're already in the heart of the action from the first frame. Truth be told, I think I might've liked a little build up, or at least a narrative over the opening credits sequence, something like "6 Months ago, they came. Why we don't know yet, but, they..." However, I think it was a wise decision to start the series in the midst of it, might be a really good way not to bleed viewers quickly.

At first, I was a bit nervous, when they kept advertising Noah Wyle as the Lead, thinking, although, I like him alot, I don't really think he's capable of carrying an Action Series as it's lead, maybe a Sitcom as a Cliff Huxtable type father. Turns out, it's a true ensemble cast, without a single lead, so that's good.

There's an Anti-Hero in the vein of Sawyer from LOST, or Baltar from NuBSG or Dr. Rush from SGU. Very well cast, I was very impressed with Colin Cunningham's portrayal of this character, he was a favorite for me. Also very impressive is the Grizzled Military Leader (Played by Will Patton), very reminiscint of Sol Tighe from NuBSG, but, in control, not the really fracked up, lacking confidence drunk Tigh was most of the time on NuBSG.

Lots of realism with the unkempt streets and landscapes, real problems like a young boy whose feelings are hurt because military manuevers will screw over his birthday.

I'll definitely continue watching.

[[Syl]]

I was mostly unimpressed. The only standouts for me were the realistic settings and the aforementioned performance by Cunningham (and even that felt slightly forced and two-dimensional). I'll give it a few more episodes, but I'm not expecting much from this one.

[Zarathustra]

Pretty boring. Not much sense of danger. Inexplicable motivation for the aliens. They target flares?? Why take the time to blow up a flare, but not the 300 humans directly surrounding it? They just don't like light very much? WTF? Why do aliens bother setting traps to lure in humans, when all they have to do is fly around and they'd see 1000s of humans about a mile away from the mother ship, camping in a damn field? I can't stand stories about aliens who are smart enough to master interstellar travel, but can't outsmart a rag-tag group of humans who are standing out in the open, in plain view of the mother ship ... humans whose biggest weapon is a machine gun. I don't think I'll give this another episode.

[sindatur]

Pretty boring. Not much sense of danger. Inexplicable motivation for the aliens. They target flares?? Why take the time to blow up a flare, but not the 300 humans directly surrounding it? They just don't like light very much? WTF? Why do aliens bother setting traps to lure in humans, when all they have to do is fly around and they'd see 1000s of humans about a mile away from the mother ship, camping in a damn field? I can't stand stories about aliens who are smart enough to master interstellar travel, but can't outsmart a rag-tag group of humans who are standing out in the open, in plain view of the mother ship ... humans whose biggest weapon is a machine gun. I don't think I'll give this another episode.

The Aliens don't waste their time on such small groups as 300, that's why the humans split up, to stay under the target number.

Since the Aliens are putting collars on Humans, they obviously want them as slaves, so they don't want to wipe them all out (There's only 10% of the population left to herd from), and pretty much leave them be, unless they become threatening

[Zarathustra]

The Aliens don't waste their time on such small groups as 300, that's why the humans split up, to stay under the target number.

Yeah, I heard that. But then I saw aliens targeting single humans, a pair of humans, a small team of humans, a dog, a couple flares, etc.

300 is pretty arbitrary, though the aliens might have their reasons for picking that number, but the show couldn't even stick to its own logic.

[sindatur]

The Aliens don't waste their time on such small groups as 300, that's why the humans split up, to stay under the target number.

Yeah, I heard that. But then I saw aliens targeting single humans, a pair of humans, a small team of humans, a dog, a couple flares, etc.

300 is pretty arbitrary, though the aliens might have their reasons for picking that number, but the show couldn't even stick to its own logic.

They were being obviously threatening. I never suggested they would avoid killing at all costs, but, leeway is given. This was also at night, and the Aliens seem to be more skiddish at night

[Zarathustra]

I don't see what is threatening about a small team in a pickup truck going on a food run, or a dog approaching a warehouse, or two humans running away pushing a food cart, and yet all these instances provoked a deadly response. In fact, the characters said that the warehouse was a trap to lure in humans (i.e. the aliens picking a fight, not responding to an unwanted threat). If they were luring the humans in to take their kids, why was the robot sentry programmed to start shooting as soon as it saw the very first being to fall for the trap (which happened to be a dog ... hardly a threat)? Wouldn't it have been smarter to allow them to actually enter the trap, and then take the kid? The robot was even going to kill the kid! If the team leader hadn't pushed him out of the way at the last second, he would have been shot. But the kid wasn't a threat. He was just trying to save his dog.

I'm not trying to be argumentative. If you like the show, fine. I hope it gets better. But for me it was a weird mixture of "the aliens aren't any threat" and "we must flee the aliens because they are a threat." Even if there is a way to make sense of that logically, and the show didn't violate its own logic, from a story-telling perspective it undermines its sole source of tension. If the aliens aren't a threat, who cares? The writers seemed to have recognized this flaw, so they manufactured half a dozen instances where the aliens were a threat ... even though they weren't supposed to be by the internal logic--logic, which I suspect was invented solely for the purpose of making it seem "realistic" that a large group of women and children could leisurely flee the mother ship. All the rules seemed to be manufactured on the fly.

[[Syl]]

It's like Lifetime Network decided to make Battlestar Galactica. Think I'm going to pass on the rest of it.

[aTOMiC]

I watched several episodes and had a very lukewarm reaction to most of it. There are some very irritating narrative logic issues that bugged me.
I get the point of the story they are trying to tell but the storytelling itself is fairly clumsy.
Not a fan of the cgi effects for the most part, especially the "walkers" or whatever they are called.
I agree that the threat level varies wildly. There quite a bit of milling about as if there's nothing to be concerned about and then at other times its all "keep your head down and be careful!"
I don't buy that a alien invasion powerful enough to wipe out the combined military might of the entire planet would seem to pose only a marginal threat when attacked by a group of dinks armed with rifles that are generally ineffective unless you sneak up behind an alien and at point black range let 'em have it with a shotgun blast.

It's just not working for me.

[sindatur]

I watched several episodes and had a very lukewarm reaction to most of it. There are some very irritating narrative logic issues that bugged me.
I get the point of the story they are trying to tell but the storytelling itself is fairly clumsy.
Not a fan of the cgi effects for the most part, especially the "walkers" or whatever they are called.
I agree that the threat level varies wildly. There quite a bit of milling about as if there's nothing to be concerned about and then at other times its all "keep your head down and be careful!"
I don't buy that a alien invasion powerful enough to wipe out the combined military might of the entire planet would seem to pose only a marginal threat when attacked by a group of dinks armed with rifles that are generally ineffective unless you sneak up behind an alien and at point black range let 'em have it with a shotgun blast.

It's just not working for me.

All SciFi Series have a rough start while they find their balances, but, I think it got better week to week and ended very strongly, personally. Around about the 6th episode, they start answering some of the questions. I think it's set up to come back very strong next Summer

[Cail]

We caught up to the current episode over the course of last week. It's not a perfect show, and there are some serious logical gaps, but overall I like it. It's paced really well, and the narrative moves quickly. It doesn't strand you on a farm for a whole season.

The show seems to have found its voice, and the actors have settled into their roles. It's not as gritty as BSG, but it's also better focused. It's not descending into Seaquest-level family-friendliness with all the teens and tweens.

It's a good show. It'll probably never be great, but it's entertaining.

[SoulBiter]

Catching this on Amazon Prime. The CGI for the skitters is pretty lame but the storyline is starting to gel. Its got 3 or 4 seasons so I will go ahead and see if it can hold my interest.

[Cail]

We're still watching it. It's still not a great show, but when it's on it's game it's pretty entertaining. When it's not though, it's pretty forgettable.

[sindatur]

We caught up to the current episode over the course of last week. It's not a perfect show, and there are some serious logical gaps, but overall I like it. It's paced really well, and the narrative moves quickly. It doesn't strand you on a farm for a whole season.

The show seems to have found its voice, and the actors have settled into their roles. It's not as gritty as BSG, but it's also better focused. It's not descending into Seaquest-level family-friendliness with all the teens and tweens.

It's a good show. It'll probably never be great, but it's entertaining.

This is the last Season, so, it's actually only got 3 more Episodes and then the Series Finale (Or if they choose to run the last two episodes back to back on the same night, like they used to, it would be two more episodes, and then the Double length Series Finale)