The Father Thing

Playing out like a combination of "Invaders from Mars" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", this story centers on a young boy, who, while camping with his father, observes a meteor shower, and later, something much more sinister.

Convinced that more and more people are not who they appear to be, the tension ratchets up as he investigates what's going on with his father and seemingly everyone else.

Nicely done riff on a classic science fiction story.

I don't know how many cold war films were made where invaders took over common folk. "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is probably the prototype. This one borrows from that and a host of others, including the series "Stranger Things." Because the character of Charlie is so well drawn, this works. It would seem that the fatal flaw in the aliens is that they need host bodies. Charlie could have been killed at any time, but they wanted to assimilate him. There is good suspense and some interesting kid characters. The closeness of Charlie and his father makes his task so much more dramatic. The cinematography is very good with some quite positive special effects. Greg Kinear as the father is certainly quietly threatening. We can only wonder what will happen next.

This one is the real deal, friends, don't confuse this episode as a "mash-up" from other shows, because this one is based in the original short story from Philip K. Dick (hey, his name is in the show's title!) from 1954. If anything, other shows took ideas from these kind of stories.

I think it was a very good episode. And I'm enjoying a lot watching this show and seeing Mr. Dick's stories come to life (because he didn't just write _that blade runner_ book ;) ).

You can't avoid having a « déjà-vu » feeling watching this episode; it's literally a mash-up of movies such as « The Body snatchers », « The Faculty » and the recent TV show « Stranger Things ». But it's not just a cheap rip-off; the SFX are good and the strange atmosphere is well set, and Greg Kinnear is great as usual. If anything it's a little short on time; 15 more minutes would have been nice in order to give some characters more run-time and backstory.

I enjoyed this latest entry in the Philip K Dick anthology series even if it was decidedly lighter in tone. This story of young American school-kid Charlie who discovers his beloved, baseball-loving dad has been replaced by a beetle-like alien invader which assumes the host's appearance and memories was like a vaguely Speilberg-ian take on "Home Alone". Convincing his initially reluctant school-chum and said friend's big bully of a brother to help him, they embark on a save-the-world mission in their own backyard as they track down the invading aliens to their incubation pods in a nearby forest.

Like I said, it's shot very much from young Charlie's Shane-like perspective, with lots of subjective camera work, forward tracking shots and low-angle set-ups, while the narrative is laced with the type of humour the likes of Bill and Ted were dispensing several years ago. I especially liked the simple but effective way the boys literally trampled down the alien threat once it became clear to them.

Greg Kinnear is the big name in this one, playing Charlie's dad, but the child actors steal the show in a fun and occasionally funny nod to those films from the 80's and 90's where time-travelling, alien-battling, meddling kids were saving the day.