Falling Skies

Some movies and shows are a mystery to me. Why are they appreciated and loved and high rated by a community which claims to have high standards and no easy 'suspension of disbelief' ? OK, maybe I have too high expectations from that community, namely the SF-lovers. I am at least one, but luckily no part of a community.

I had no high expectations from 'Falling Skies', when it started, but they were lowered in an instant after watching the first episode, as I had to realize, that this show is not about Aliens, Science Fiction, or war, or even surviving the ultimate invasion, but about the American Dream, which is a dream since it isn't allowed any longer to be lived out: Adults and teens (male only in the past, but now also female) running around in then open, wavering and shooting all kinds of guns in a so-called situation of self-defense.

That means complete freedom, no more fences, no more tax payments, no more traffic rules. A world full of rednecks, even some with academic degrees (at least those who can yield a gun fast enough), more or less united against the common enemy, some more or less willfully collaborating.

And so it stayed, for the full first season, the full second season, the full third season, and the full fourth season. That is continuity, I said to me, at least.

Maybe some people who get permanently bashed at work can come home, watch this show and go to sleep thinking about their lead role against foreign invaders like...everyone, in case of an invasion, of course.

It doesn't do the show any good that Steven Spielberg is involved. On the contrary, it seems that a work of Spielberg today does mostly look for satisfying the smallest common denominator of the biggest number of viewers. There he failed with 'Terranova', which was one step above 'Falling Skies', but at least delivered some good CGI, some interesting theories and strange characters.

Which 'Falling Skies' doesn't. It is a straight-to-beer-can delivery and grabs random pieces from the third-class storytelling wasteland of pulp magazine, that should never see the light of the telly in order to store the cockroaches where they belong.

After unbelievable four seasons, that 80ies-like torture of an SF show will hopefully come to an end with the final 5th season. Oh, it's a shame, many will cry, there would be so much more to tell....

The only satisfaction that came to me is the idea that the story of the show has some parallelism with the US Iraq adventure. There, they devastated the country, too, tried to install a submissive government, which failed, too. Conversion of the society to western standards failed also. Because at gunpoint, such things usually do not work out very well. Which Israel could have told them long ago (if she would have had realized that, eventually).

However, the season 4 finale was actually so massively ridiculous, predictable and stupid, I thought I would have maybe completely missed the subtle humor (or horror) of all four seasons. Am I a damn idiot, I asked myself ? Yes, I answered, it was idiotic alone to watch this show, hoping it would improve a bit in time.

Even though Falling Skies was originally on from 2011-2015 I just recently got around to watching it. I have to say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I actually binged all 5 seasons pretty quick. It has a solid cast that includes Noah Wyle, Will Patton, Moon Bloodgood, Sarah Carter, and a handful of other solid actors. There are plenty of alien invasion shows out there to choose from but if you're a fan of the genre then I recommend you give this a chance. There is plenty of action and drama to keep you entertained and the production value is good for a cable tv show without a big budget.

So I'm not familiar with the source material this is based on. Never read any of that and I'm making this known from the get go. So I can't really give you an insight about any differences about any comparisons there. Having said that, the general theme and the idea behind the show is quite nice.

Human survival and struggle is something we can identify with. Aliens on the other hand may be a stretch for some - though let's keep it real, with such a big universe out there ... who is to say if there isn't any other lifeform out there. But if there is, would that be how things played out? Probably not. From a very engaging and quite draining (in a good sense) beginning ... well this takes some directions that I would not always agree with.

Too many coincindences, too convenient at times and quite a lot of cliches storylines combined. But it is still possible to get you, to make you care to quite an interesting degree. You get accustomed to the characters after a while and even the wildest ups and downs - you just get with them. Having a very bad apple becoming a part of the group, as backup to stir things up every now and again ... it's either clever or cheap writing.

Science Fiction - you may like the soap opera elements or not. But you can have fun (to a degree) with this

I'm not sure why people are complaining for the wrong reasons. Some seem to think Science-Fiction means "Babylon 5" - Aliens, Space...lots of costumes. So you can't really say "this is Sci-Fi" from ten years ago. No, this is Sci-Fi today.

And yes, there is a lot of dramatization and overacting, but overall a pretty decent plot is strung around it. There are some parallels to the "Walking Dead" and other series. I'm still struggling to call "Falling Skies" original. It's a lot of things at this time and we have to see how it works out. It certainly has the Walking Dead feel, where characters are replaced along the journey to keep the human tragedy fresh. Always new despair to be recalled and told about - some of which may be pretty interesting to see.

I'm not sure - I'd say a decent 7 points for this one, depending on how it develops. Pacing is really a problem in the series. You never feel like a huge amount of people is on the move or anyhow involved in this. It feels like some people sitting in a school and crying a lot (which is what it is).

If this is another show trying to make the viewer cry and emphasize with the protagonists - don't! Writer's don't do it, please! We are not interested in sad stories per se, we want to see a world that is bigger than a schoolyard, one that has deeper stories to tell. I'm giving this 8 show points in hope of a deep plot and fewer emotional problems. We know they are there, but unless these problems are plot-defining, they are really, really boring; so cut it short.No more filling up minutes with pathos.

The first few seasons were great - I would rate them 8/10, but my goodness is it let down by most of season 4 and season 5.

Season 5 is just painful to watch. The plot lines they've concocted feels so disjointed from the first 3 seasons and gives the show a completely different vibe. I think the problem is they tried so hard to hold on to the original cast that they came up with these wacky subplots to keep them relevant.

It just doesn't work and make any sense. And don't get me started on Popes character development - totally thrown out the window. Ended up disliking pretty much all of the main characters in the end. A shame.