Falling Skies - season 3

[RJDiogenes]

Well, the season is off to a pretty good start. I'm dubious about the baby and the Human Overlord-- reminds me of V: The Series and Battlestar: Galactica, which is not a good thing. But I like the way the situation has evolved over the break, with Tom as president and Weaver now a Colonel under his authority. I like that Max Headroom is still with us and I liked that Locke was still with us, until he wasn't. The plot was full of holes and silliness, but that's why I call it an Irwin Allen show-- I just show up to watch the characters dealing with a Pulp alien invasion scenario.

 

[Admiral2]

Silliness or not, I'll still take Falling Skies over the "Shtako-Stahma-Whinyteenalienrebelseveryweek" show over on siffy. And i'll take both shows over the one with no power starring the Katniss-wannabe.

 

[JD]

This was a great pair of episodes. They definitely set up some interesting stuff for the rest of the season. I'm curious if Hal is the mole or not, he seems like the obvious choice thanks to the probe, but I have a feeling if that was the case they wouldn't have hidden it.
Cochise seems pretty cool, but I don't entirely believe that the Volm are helping the humans for the selfless reasons they claim. There's got to be more going on there.
I'm still not to thrilled with the special baby arc though, that's been done to death by sci-fi and fantasy already.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Special baby or crazy mommy?

It's neat trick to make all the human mothers on the planet kill their babies.

Tidy.

 

[Sindatur]

IMDB is always wrong when it come to episodes cast are in.

No one can be in 27 episodes when there are only 20, each season only has ten episodes.

This is Season 3, so 30 episodes are filmed. It's very typical for IMDB to have been updated for S3 cast by now.

So every other character is killed off?

The numbers are always wrong, there are shows 40 years old and the numbers are wrong.

Eh, I was just startled for a moment, when I noticed the kid in 27 eps, and Noah Wylie in only 20 - At this point, I still haven't noticed the rest are also 20 episodes. A few seconds later, I finished the thought, and then checked everyone else's episode count, where I noticed, they too hadn't been updated.

32 minutes into the premiere (84 minutes total), and enjoying it.

Brought a tear to my eye when that first Skitter came up over the hill top, with the "Red-Eye" tributary warpaint

Kinda bummed we didn't get to see any of the other side of the Cliffhanger I hope we get something of a continuation from there, a flashback or few even would be nice

 

[bigdaddy]

The show will never do any flashbacks. There was a TVline.com preview talking about the episode that I can't find now. They were debating continuing from the finale or jumping right into the action. But Steven Spielberg is against flashbacks.

I agree, we get 10 episodes a year. They are only around for 8 weeks out of 52, the jumps are welcomed to me.

 

[gblews]

***SPOILERS***

Well, the stupid continues for another season.

Somehow, all the characters miss the obvious, that a pregnant women shouldn't manipulate a strange alien machine that arcs strange radiation through her fingertips.

My first thought when Alexis started acting smart was that it had to do with Tom. Although I missed the first episode of season 2, wasn't he abducted and wasn't he given some sort of implant? Or did I mis-hear that?

This show is a tick above Defiance. It is doing a better job of creating a more "believable" world and the acting is better, overall. I liked season 1 then lost rack of the show and missed all of season 2. Finally got caught up (except season 2 opener) watching the TNT marathons. Looking forward to the season.

 

[bigdaddy]

The thing in Tom was taken out of his eye in one of the season 2 episodes, and wasn't that put there by the good skitters?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

You'd think they'd promote Billy Bob Thornton's appearance on the show, that was him right?

 

[bigdaddy]

Was that him in the power plant? I couldn't figure out who it was but I could tell it was someone I knew.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I was being facetious, he reminded me a lot of Billy Bob.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Are you talking about Wilson from House?

 

[Sindatur]

So, am I the only one who was emotionally moved by the Skitter Red-Eye War Paint? No one else (that I've noticed) has mentioned it? Did I miss it's inclusion last season? I didn't see previews. was it in the previews? Just wondering why I was so moved by something no one else has mentioned

 

[Guy Gardener]

On one side you can say, the humans need help in not shooting their allies.

Although... If what we're looking at is "tribal" then you really have to wonder how advanced the Skitters were when the Aspheni showed up that them might have been on par with the precolonial African Bushmen (I don't think that's racist language when used in a historical context.).

But you have to wonder if the harnesses are completely responsible for the radio telecommunication, how did they converse pre Aspheni?

I watched Joe Doe a couple weeks back, and just because all the baddies used sign language consistently, it was assumed that all the baddies were deaf. It was a byproduct of their other enhanced abilities, that they lost the ability to hear in exchange for telepathy and telekensis... BUT! It turned out near the end that we discovered that they could all hear very well with perfect ears, it's just they were super paranoid about NSA listening devices recording their conversations.

The Skitters have a lot of hands. Their sign language would be very complex.

It's also possible if many generations have been slaves to the Aspheni, that they may have lost their indigenous language, and wouldn't know how to return to uniform sign language if something did happen to their harnesses.

 

[bigdaddy]

The Skitter paint was neat, but I wasn't "moved" by it.

Does beg the question if the good new aliens are actually good, how do the skitters fit into the whole thing? They didn't really bring that up.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Do they Slave Skitters want to be slaves?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So, am I the only one who was emotionally moved by the Skitter Red-Eye War Paint? No one else (that I've noticed) has mentioned it? Did I miss it's inclusion last season? I didn't see previews. was it in the previews? Just wondering why I was so moved by something no one else has mentioned

I assumed that the good skitters used it to distinguish themselves from the bad ones, like the "red sash" cylons in nuBSG: Daybreak.

 

[Sindatur]

So, am I the only one who was emotionally moved by the Skitter Red-Eye War Paint? No one else (that I've noticed) has mentioned it? Did I miss it's inclusion last season? I didn't see previews. was it in the previews? Just wondering why I was so moved by something no one else has mentioned

I assumed that the good skitters used it to distinguish themselves from the bad ones, like the "red sash" cylons in nuBSG: Daybreak.

But it was obviously in honor of The Skitter Freedom Fighter with the Eye injury that was referred to by the Humans as "Red-Eye" who gave his life for the cause. I was really sad to see him killed off last Season, they made me care about him/her/it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Yeah, I didn't mention it, but I noticed it. I thought that whole cavalry charge was pretty heart-tugging, which made the later anti-Skitter sentiment even worse.

 

[stj]

All good Christians and political conservatives believe in free will, so that crap about mind control is obviously an excuse. The skitters therefore are alien invaders and all deserve to die. And our heroes will most heroic if they can steel themselves to do the dirty work.

Of course, in the fictional universe it's absurd for the characters to believe that the skitters are morally culpable. Often the problem for SF is that the emergence, even in disguised form, of real issues (unlike most of television,) is still accompanied by moral cowardice. In a fictional context, some of the characters should be looking at the skitters as the aliens most likely, by far, to be genuine allies, who've earned a place on Earth. And those who don't think so are unlikely to be as badass as Pope, still the worst character on the show. Basically anyone who would hold those positions in this context is just a hateful boob. But showing this is far to close to saying that to make peace with "our" enemies, who are always depicted as an alien Other, requires we actually surrender something. Oh, my. Better to leave weird holes in the plot and weak or irrational characters! Or have Pope as the alternate hero for assholes to identify with.