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Falling Skies 1.1 "Pilot" Discussion/Review/Comment **SPOILERS**

Pick your level of enjoyment

  • Love it.

    Votes: 12 15.4%
  • Like it

    Votes: 30 38.5%
  • It was OK

    Votes: 20 25.6%
  • Meh

    Votes: 14 17.9%
  • Stunk on ice

    Votes: 2 2.6%

  • Total voters
    78
The big bad:
Battlefield_Earth.jpg
 
I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that the aliens are actually an end result of genetic mutation/modification of humanity from a dying Earth in the future who have come back in time to colonize a young Earth.
 
it's x-com, the skitters are the floaters, the mechs the mutons, so who's gonna be the ethereals?

but yeah, it seems the Aliens weren't really interested in humans other than the harnessing thing *which I hope is relevant and not just a mysterious drama device, the next episode suggests we will see out first real plot focus on the harnesses*
they took out any force that could divert enough attention from their plans and just seem to meet aggression with measured escalation with the occasional trap or bomber strike to keep any large scale guerilla from forming. haven't seen enough to really even guess at the possibility of them keeping signifigant numbers alive for harnessing, but its plauseable
 
The claim from one of the characters was that 90 percent of the earth's population was gone.

the claim from the kid in the beginning is that they destroyed the larger cities first. And from only targeting population centres only in the millions untill there was none left, till now 6 months later when they're only targeting populations greater than 300 when until hours earlier before the pilot began populations of a single thousand were safe... Well, we were both listening to the same show.

It's fortunate that the planet was so incredibly over populated.
 
Was it wrong of me to actually root for Colin Cunningham's character?

His line about it being the leader of a post-apocalyptic outlaw gang made me laugh so hard my wife woke up beside me to ask me what was so funny.
 
Just finished watching the pilot. Decent show with a good premise, and the characters while unremarkable so far are not unlikeable. There is plenty of room for the characters and show to improve dramatically.

The writing really needs to tighten up however. Some good military consultants would do wonders for making it feel more authentic. Shoot the skitters in the legs a couple times to slow it down, then shoot it in the head? My brother and I immediately turned to each other and said at the same time, "Why not shoot it in the head first?"

The manufactured military v. civilian drama needs to be better written. Some people are sleeping in houses and some in tents? Really? So that you can move faster in case skitters show up? Maybe you should all be sleeping in houses so you don't have to take those tents down...

The mythology of the show needs a firm hand at the wheel as well. Why do road flares bring an alien airstrike within minutes while our heroes are free to use cooking fires without fear?
 
Got around to watching it last night and I liked it. It's nothing great, but seems fun, kind of like the original V series from the 80s (I never saw the new version).
Interesting seeing Colin Cunningham playing a sleezebag as opposed to his straight-laced Major Davis in Stargate; the guy can act, thats for sure.
I'll play it week by week but for now its ok.
 
It was OK, not as cringeworthy like the recent V, and some decent production values, fx, etc. I'll hold my judgment until I see a few more episodes. Still it didn't hit the ball out of the park like Walking Dead did (in showing a post-apocalyptic landscape with struggling survivors).
 
Having thought about it some more, I really hope the "harnessing" thing isn't budgetary.

In other words, I hope they aren't setting that up just so that later they can stop using CGI and just have human actors with harnesses be the opponent, a la the second season of War of the Worlds.
 
I really enjoyed it, it hit alot of the right marks for a Pilot.

Many SciFi shows, spend so long building up their characters and their Universe elements, and today's audience gets quickly bored and moves on, and the show is cancelled before it gets a chance to really hit it's stride.

I respect the decision TNT made on this, to start it after the Aliens had already invaded and were in control. So, you're already in the heart of the action from the first frame. Truth be told, I think I might've liked a little build up, or at least a narrative over the opening credits sequence, something like "6 Months ago, they came. Why we don't know yet, but, they..." However, I think it was a wise decision to start the series in the midst of it, might be a really good way not to bleed viewers quickly.

At first, I was a bit nervous, when they kept advertising Noah Wyle as the Lead, thinking, although, I like him alot, I don't really think he's capable of carrying an Action Series as it's lead, maybe a Sitcom as a Cliff Huxtable type father. Turns out, it's a true ensemble cast, without a single lead, so that's good.

There's an Anti-Hero in the vein of Sawyer from LOST, or Baltar from NuBSG or Dr. Rush from SGU. Very well cast, I was very impressed with Colin Cunningham's portrayal of this character, he was a favorite for me. Also very impressive is the Grizzled Military Leader, very reminiscint of Sol Tighe from NuBSG, but, in control, not the really fracked up, lacking confidence drunk Tigh was most of the time on NuBSG.

Lots of realism with the unkempt streets and landscapes, real problems like a young boy whose feelings are hurt because military manuevers will screw over his birthday.

I'll definitely continue watching.
 
Also very impressive is the Grizzled Military Leader, very reminiscint of Sol Tighe from NuBSG, but, in control, not the really fracked up, lacking confidence drunk Tigh was most of the time on NuBSG.

Haha, I kept thinking that in every scene, I've never heard Will Patton speak that way before.
 
Some people say dreams do not come true, but this one did. I had a dream like this 6 or 7 years ago. Almost identical set up, only the machines were abit bigger.


When i picture an invasion of such scale i always have trouble figuring out, how will people survive.
In Terminator they were hiding underground, in Matrix they were really really deep underground.
While in here the survivors can freely move around. And this is an interesting change. Its sorter like, this is an alien invasion, and yet it feels like World War 3 in 80's at the same time( reminds me abit of Operation Flashpoint pc-game the original). Because you are thinking: "well they got space ships, and yet they cant track a 300 people slowly moving away from the city with a track and 2 bikes?" but i am sure theres got to be some explanation to this, since it was abit strange for the Ressistance not to use radio communication.

The characters are easy going and likeable. The Scene when father Tom tried to stop son Hal from going after brother Ben, sorter reminded me of the same scene with Tom Cruise(Ray Ferrier) and Justin Chatwin (Robie Ferrier) in War of the Worlds.

Its not as strong as Game of Thrones, but its likeable.




P.S Yours:
"What did an alien thought befor he died"
- Geez wish i had a radio to call for back up...EEk

Maybe, they've already devastated the population as much as they need to. Maybe they need to keep the remainder of the humans alive for future harnessing. If they can't afford to keep killing humans on the same scale, it's perfectly understandable they are allowed a certain amount of freedom to move around, and since there are so few left of them, maybe they aren't seen as a major threat
 
One thing I didn't get is the ease and relaxed state in which they moved around in broad daylight under wide open skies in such massive groups, but it's only in the cover of night that they start sneaking around and acting like they're vulnerable to detection?

Why do those aliens even have aircraft?
 
The aliens only hunt for groups of a thousand or more.

And they only attack people under their nose or shooting at them.
 
Also very impressive is the Grizzled Military Leader, very reminiscint of Sol Tighe from NuBSG, but, in control, not the really fracked up, lacking confidence drunk Tigh was most of the time on NuBSG.

Haha, I kept thinking that in every scene, I've never heard Will Patton speak that way before.

I had the impression he "always" plays the crabby/evil guy and it would have been nice to see him cast against type, like Major Davis was. That's when actors can really show ya what they got. But maybe they can develop his character beyond Cliche Military Bad Guy.

The aliens only hunt for groups of a thousand or more.

And they only attack people under their nose or shooting at them.

Maybe they're related to the Borg? ;)
 
Colin Cunningham.

He's playing Han Solo if George Lucus had balls.

Colin was fabulous in JPod and I loved it that his job on stargate was to show up at the SGC whenever an especially bad apocalypse was imminent to tell Hammond and O'Niel that George Bush was rooting for them.
 
This show has got "cancellation" written all over it.

I'm not so sure. TNT and Turner in general do give their summer series time to develop even if ratings aren't great at first. They are not as cancel happy as the big networks. Yea, I'm talking to you FOX ruttin' fools. Gorram it! ;):p
 
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