The Father Thing

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.

There is nothing inherently bad about The Father Thing, however there is nothing that notable about it apart from on the surface it tells a similar story to the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

After a meteor shower, some of the townsfolk in a Chicago suburb seems to have been replaced. A few people notice the strange behaviour. Charlie Cotrell (Jack Gore) has a shared love of baseball with his dad (Greg Kinnear) but then suspects that his dad has been taken over by an alien entity.

Charlie starts an online resistance movement and ropes in other school kids in the town to expose the aliens.

Maybe this story is a parable of kids growing up in a hostile adult world or households that have been split by divorce and the child inherits a substitute father or mother figure.

I get so tired of reading reviews by people who criticize this episode based purely on elements of plot. Yes, this episode is an example of a familiar story, and familiar stories tend to be a bit predictable.

I'm less interested in what the story is than I am interested in HOW it's being told. The acting in this episode is TERRIFIC. The lead child-actor does a very fine job. This is the first time I've seen him in anything, but he clearly has talent. Greg Kinnear, as usual, is understated and subtle in his performance. Lesser actors would probably have been over the top with the creepiness. For me, the lack of obviousness made the storytelling more effective. Mireille Enos also delivers a beautifully understated performance.

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 This story of young American school-kid Charlie who discovers his beloved, baseball-loving dad has been replaced by a beetle-like alien invader which assumes the host's appearance and memories was like a vaguely Speilberg-ian take on "Home Alone".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.

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.