Falling Skies (Tv Series ~ 2011)

[milan kyuubi]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462059/
http://www.tnt.tv/series/fallingskies/
http://sharetv.org/shows/falling_skies

FALLING SKIES

The series opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of the human population. The aliens are now rounding up the few people left, but they are met with strong resistance from a group of soldiers and civilians who fight for their survival – all while struggling to maintain their humanity. Wyle plays Tom Mason, a former college history professor who becomes the reluctant leader of one of the resistance groups. Also starring in the series are Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation) as Anne Glass, a therapist who works with the surviving children to help them cope with the traumatic situation; Drew Roy (Lincoln Heights) as Hal and Maxim Knight (Brothers & Sisters) as Matt, Tom’s two sons; Jessy Schram (Crash) as Karen, who is one of the survivors’ motorcycle scouts; and Seychelle Gabriel (Weeds) as Lourdes, an orphaned teenager who helps run the group’s commissary.

This looks interesting, I'll be sure to watch the first episodes. The first episode has already been aired today, but I haven't watched it yet.

[Alchemist007]

I'll probably catch it online sometime...I actually tuned in to the start of it on TV but I missed just like a couple minutes here and there so I turned it off after 10 minutes total. Online viewing with the amount of user control I have I'm just too spoiled to watch a series on TV now.

[DonQuigleone]

Interesting concept. Will keep an eye on it.

[Xagzan]

I watched the premiere. It's pretty boss. Kind of a like a smaller scale Terminator (the war after J-Day) but with Aliens and not quite as bleak. It did feel more cinematic than most other shows I've seen.

[Hooves]

This does seem to be interesting indeed, will come around to watching the first episode sometime.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Interesting series. I just hope it won't last only 1 or 2 seasons until it's axed by bullshit businessman.

[Rennir]

I saw the premiere and I was pretty impressed with it. So far, I like the character development and the casting seems good to me too.

[DonQuigleone]

After watching I found it a bit corny and overly sentimental. The special effects were very good though.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

After watching I found it a bit corny and overly sentimental. The special effects were very good though.

This.

Spoiler for spoilers:

I found it hard to take the characters reaction to when they came across the wounded/dying alien remotely seriously. These aliens HAVE essentially murdered everyone you know, and the majority of the human race here. My reaction isn't going to remotely be to whimsically look at the alien and wonder what it's thinking. I'm probably going to be embittered, angry and shell shocked, and I'll probably start cutting bits of it off while it's still alive because I hate it so much.

But yes. Definitely to sentimental for my taste by far.

[DonQuigleone]

Also, that Alien was definitely too hard to kill. Why bother with Mech suit (though they are very cool, I'll take any mechs I can get....), when you're already nigh impossible to kill.

I just think it would have been much better if they spent a bit more time on the script. The actors are actually decent, it's the script where the problems are.

Then again this kind of sentimentality is par for the course for Spielberg (who's producing).

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Also, that Alien was definitely too hard to kill. Why bother with Mech suit (though they are very cool, I'll take any mechs I can get....), when you're already nigh impossible to kill.

When you see the Alien up close, it was pretty clear that it was wearing body armor.


Though I certainly found it interesting that the characters seemed to find the fact that the alien mechs had a different number of limbs than the skitters a more interesting point of contemplation than say, the fact that the Skitters are running around in combat completley unarmed.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Then again this kind of sentimentality is par for the course for Spielberg (who's producing).

That's the thing that irks me so much. Not EVERYTHING that Spielberg does is smarmy and sentimental like this. We're talking about the guy who produced Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, the Pacific and who directed Schindler's list. Spielberg CAN take a realistic and serious approach to these kind of violent situations and how they effect people. Not everything of his has this smarmy sentimentality over it.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

Though I certainly found it interesting that the characters seemed to find the fact that the alien mechs had a different number of limbs than the skitters a more interesting point of contemplation than say, the fact that the Skitters are running around in combat completley unarmed.

That actually is an interesting point. Hopefully the show might make a plot point of it. Certainly one positive is that they managed to make the alien's motives suitably mysterious.

That's the thing that irks me so much. Not EVERYTHING that Spielberg does is smarmy and sentimental like this. We're talking about the guy who produced Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, the Pacific and who directed Schindler's list. Spielberg CAN take a realistic and serious approach to these kind of violent situations and how they effect people. Not everything of his has this smarmy sentimentality over it.

Well, even those titles did have a bit of sentimentality, they were just able to overcome it by having every other element be very well executed. Unfortunately that element which gives his works emotional pathos can too easily run away with itself and become corny. It's a fine line to walk, and I think that Falling Skies ended out just over it. But I think it's primarily the script. The actual ideas behind the show are quite sound.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Well, even those titles did have a bit of sentimentality, they were just able to overcome it by having every other element be very well executed. Unfortunately that element which gives his works emotional pathos can too easily run away with itself and become corny. It's a fine line to walk, and I think that Falling Skies ended out just over it. But I think it's primarily the script. The actual ideas behind the show are quite sound.

Except the "sentimentality" in those titles wasn't something that needed to be overcome. It was something that naturally flowed with the story and was dramatically appropriate.


Letting pathos run out of a control IS a problem going on here, but I also think it's the content of the Pathos. One thing to remember about Spielberg titles like Saving Private Ryan, Schindlers List, The Pacific and Band of Brothers is that they DIDN'T have happy crappy stuff thrown into them. They had emotionally dramatic scenes, but they weren't happy crappy. That's ussually what I envision when I think of sentimentality in film. And that's something Falling Skies had to much of. It distracted from the fact that this was a horrific alien invasion where billions of people have died.

...Well, and then there's the fact that our pilot seems to put more emphasis on our characters messing around with some bandits than with the actual aliens themselves.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

Except the "sentimentality" in those titles wasn't something that needed to be overcome. It was something that naturally flowed with the story and was dramatically appropriate.


Letting pathos run out of a control IS a problem going on here, but I also think it's the content of the Pathos. One thing to remember about Spielberg titles like Saving Private Ryan, Schindlers List, The Pacific and Band of Brothers is that they DIDN'T have happy crappy stuff thrown into them. They had emotionally dramatic scenes, but they weren't happy crappy. That's ussually what I envision when I think of sentimentality in film. And that's something Falling Skies had to much of. It distracted from the fact that this was a horrific alien invasion where billions of people have died.

...Well, and then there's the fact that our pilot seems to put more emphasis on our characters messing around with some bandits than with the actual aliens themselves.

Good point. Over all, this version of the apocalypse doesn't seem to be that bad. Well, things are good enough that they can run a school.

I mean your planet is in the middle of an alien invasion, you're fighting for survival, and you send children to a school??? Maybe those kids should be out, I don't know, gathering food or something?

[Alchemist007]

Random prediction: they turn kids into skidders.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Alchemist007

Random prediction: they turn kids into skidders.

Didn't they had skidders at the beginning of the invasion though?

Unless they made THOSE out of some other conquered species.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

I reckon they turn the kids into those bot/mech things. Oh, and the revelation will only come after they kill one and pry it open.

[lightsenshi]

Falling Skies is a series around a "classic" alien invasion scenario. One where the aliens wipe out military, infrastructure, etc, etc, etc. Several things are suggested to me after watching the pilot.

1) The aliens use a conquer and remove tactic. I.e. they use a large invasion force to conquer territory then move said invasion force to another location, leaving only a (by comparison) small garrison force behind. The Japanese conquest of the Philippines back in WWII jump to mind as a similar event. This suggests one of two things to me:
a) The aliens are currently in the middle of fighting an interstellar war with another race yet to be introduced (such as we saw in the original V series). Or
b) The aliens are conquering large amounts of territory for resources and placing the bulk of their forces at nodal points where it can respond as needed.
Alternately, it could be both.

2) The alien technology is clearly a mix of highly sophisticated organic bioweapons (such as the parasites we see on the captured children) and moderately advanced technological warfare. The fact that they lack body armor capable of shrugging off even shotgun pellets at close range (not hard to do with steel) and that the 'mecha' they use don't conform to their body structure (six legged creatures using two legged war machines), suggests to me:
a) The alien technology is primary the result of captured technologies (such as we see in the movie Independence Day) which they have adapted to their own use.
b) It also suggests to me a lack of flexibility. There's a notable lack of unmanned combat machines (many of which are all over in most modern militaries) and clearly no change in tactics from day the garrison force set up shop.

As for why you'd send kids to school, there's still a need to pass along knowledge necessary to run and maintain an industrialized society. In this case, it's more important than just about anything else (long term, anyways) and I suspect that they don't spend more than a couple of hours a day at it.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by lightsenshi

As for why you'd send kids to school, there's still a need to pass along knowledge necessary to run and maintain an industrialized society. In this case, it's more important than just about anything else (long term, anyways) and I suspect that they don't spend more than a couple of hours a day at it.

Firstly, I don't think they have much hope of starting an industrialized society for a while. Secondly, why go to all the complication of having desks and a lecturn, why not just, I don't know, sit around in a circle?

[cors8]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Firstly, I don't think they have much hope of starting an industrialized society for a while. Secondly, why go to all the complication of having desks and a lecturn, why not just, I don't know, sit around in a circle?

Having desks and a lectern may just be for psychological affects too. Just because the world has gone to shit doesn't mean they have to abandon everything that was "normal" and live like shit.

Also, even if there isn't much hope for things getting back to normal in the near future, knowledge still has to be passed on. Who knows when the scientists/doctors/etc. will get killed before passing on as much as they can to the kids?

Heck, even in the Terminator series, I bet they had schools and stuff. They just didn't show it. You can't have future generations knowing crap if you want to survive and win a long war against a technologically superior force.