Review: Falling Skies on TNT Network

By Michael Vass | June 20, 2011

So the start of the new series wastes no time in throwing us into a world that is not ours. A world that is filled with aliens, and hardly the cuddly ET type.

Given the initial scene barrels along like something straight out of the middle of a Terminator film flashback. But that is not to say it is derivitive. It sets the oppressive and daunting feel of what has happened. The world is under siege. Humanity has taken a major blow. Though if this is a knockout, is not clear.

The scene also gives credibility, to a degree, of how Noah Wyle’s character Tom Mason is the second in command of a ragtag mix of former soldiers, ex-military, and civillians of all walks of life. It also fleshes out the timeframe we are walking into – 6 months or so after an invasion force has landed.

The key characters are:

Tom Mason – we view the series from his eyes. His quest to find his son, to keep his remaining 2 sons alive, and his struggle to ensure humanity survives. He is a former history teacher/professor. It appears that his knowledge of military strategy and his experiences over the past 6 months have led him to be a trusted leader. He is well liked by all of the fighters and respected among the civillians.

Will Patton as Weaver – the leader of the Massachucetts 2nd, a 10yr veteran of the Army and expereinced in Iraq during Desert Storm. He is a bit tunnel visioned, concerned more for his fighters than the civillians he must also shelter. But he is willing to make hard decisions for the best interest of the whole group. He is a man of his word.

Drew Roy as Hal Mason – the oldest son of Tom. He is a hothead, and somewhat the typical difficult young adult we see too often in this type of genre. He fluctuates from understanding the world that is around him, to blind passions of a kid who has no clue what is going on. He has a love interest in his co-scout Sarah Carter as Margaret, and Melissa Kramer as Sarah has a young girl crush on him that he ignores.

Margaret – She rides a motorcycle as a scout on missions with Tom. She is dating his son. It appears that she went to school with is son as well, possibly knowing the entire family from prior to the events.

Peter Shinkoda as Dai – a mostly silent, competent fighter that is a core part to Tom’s personal squad. He appears loyal, and fearless. He seems to be aware of weaknesses of the alien “skidders”. He is competent with a shotgun, and likely rifle that he also carries.

Moon Bloodgood as Anne Glass – a pediatrician that is now the medial leader of the Massacheucetts 2nd. She is the defacto leader of the civillian component and liason for them with Weaver. She shares an attraction with Tom, that is probably far more than Tom realizes.

Colin Cunningham as John Pope – Seen in the 2nd half of the series priemer. He is the leader of a group of outlaws, that are ill-educated and at least a bit racist and sexist. While his brother, also in his outlaw group, is a rapist, he makes no reference to if he is aware of this. While uneducated he is intelligent and violent in equal parts. He has survived an encounter with a “skidder” 1 on 1, and took its dead body as a prize. He believes that the defeat of humanity is inevitiable and only seeks to further his own ends until that time.

The aliens – seen rarely and briefly. There are 3 types:

Fighter planes – imagine fast moving H/K drones from Terminator. Dumb but with lots of power and fast. Tracks targets by heat signature.
Robots – A kind of Cylon mixed with a Terminator. They may well hold a more organic component inside the metalic shells. Tracks targets by sound primarily, very dumb.
Skidders – a 6 legged alien that is fast, tough skinned, and relatively silent. They too track by sound. Legs and heads are weak points to high caliber weapons.
Boss alien – perhaps a 2 legged version of the alien that is in-charge of the invasion.

There are several other characters in the series opening, but they are almost completely undeveloped. A 13 year old boy who is an accomplished fighter, though he is still prone to acts of immaturity. There are a pair of brothers that are portrayed as Black former thugs. Their role is largely stereotypical comments and a desire for violence. There is nothing more shown about them either.

All three are core members of Tom’s squad he relies on for missions regularly. They are very loyal and do not question his commands, just like the entire squad. Tom appears very familiar and comfortable with them all.

Several things are very clear early on. Tom hates the aliens, most clearly seen in his lack of compassion while watching an injured alien die. He is determined to regain his son that has been captured by the aliens. He is warming to the doctor, but holds her at a distance. He tries repeatedly to give his youngest son as much of normalcy as he can.

We also know that there is tension between the civillians and the fighters. Tom is torn between the correct military stance, and the understandable desires of the civillians.

In all the series is quite watchable and stands far above other recent scifi programs (Battlestar Galactica, any of the Stargates series, pretty much almost anything on the SyFy Channel).

While we can accept Noah Wyle as a squad leader, its not quite believable how a seemingly mild-mannered teacher of high school students is so knowledgeable in military strategy or how he became a reasonable fighter.

The roles of the Black fighters on Tom’s squad appear to be 2/3 of all the Black survivors in Massachuecetts. At least 2/3 of those that have more than a fleeting appearance in the show. The stereotypical nature of the 2 is most reminicent of the portrayal of the controversial Black autobots from the Transformers 2nd movie.

The 3rd Black character of the film (Mike I believe) looks to have a more expanding role in the series in the future. He, at the moment, is little more than a tool to introduce his son and more on the story arc of what has happened to the children.

The “harness” children are straight out of several alien body snatcher sci fi films. Again a bit of tradional scifi that could be a weakness to the future plots.

The series gaps in time a bit, though not terribly.

There is a future arc about the 2 love interests of Hal. One has a religious overtone that will also likely be critical to the series. What may be important there is the way Margaret denounces faith. How this is dealth with as the series progresses will be important.

Jimmy, the 13year old, will likely be trying to prove himself. This could be a character that becomes stereotypical or comical.

John Pope is set to be a very Gaius Baltar type of character. He is ruthless and anything but trust worthy. he has no concern for his fellow humans, willing to prey on them as much as the aliens. While acted well, this type of character is prone to being written in an over the top manner. His development will be important to the future of the series – though the potential of Weaver being replaced by Tom, and thus John taking over Tom’s role seems likely.

In all there was good development of a few of the characters, though those ignored leave big holes that can be either beneficial or horrendous to future episodes.

The existence of people of color is superficially dealth with, as with most any program or movie (the Matrix series of films is an exception) in the genre. Thus when they are involved it can be either a fresh take or a rehash of stereotypes. So far the series looks to be trying to mix both.

What we saw from the introduction of the series bodes well. If the values of production and writing stay on par with this it may become the biggest hit on cable. If not it could easily devolve into another revisioned V series.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)