Falling Skies – My Opinion Of The First Season

Posted Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 11:00 am GMT -4 by 0

This past Sunday night felt a little empty, I don’t have HBO so I couldn’t fill that void with True Blood and Entourage; instead I had a mini-Falling Skies marathon at my house. I watched the last 3 episodes of season 1, and while it wasn’t the same as having a brand new episode, it was still nice to see the fine folks of the 2nd Mass back in action. Even if it was just DVR’d. Now as I sit here in my 2nd Mass hat, thinking back about the first season, I can say I really did enjoy this show.

Falling Skies came to our television screens with a tremendous amount of hype this year. I’ve been excited for the show since Comic Con 2010, Noah Wyle was the prefect choice to play Tom Mason; so right away I knew the show would have quality acting from the lead. I was excited for the web comic that came out every other week between January of this year and the series premiere. One thing that did worry me, a SciFi show on TNT. I was afraid we would have week after week of Syfy Saturday Night Movies, just an hour at a time. I’m happy to say I couldn’t have been more wrong. The effects, aliens and CGI was excellent, and the coolest thing about FX in the show… practical FX!

I’m a sucker for using puppets and models when showing aliens, it stems from being a big fan of the Muppets as a kid. It is the reason I was so drawn to ‘Farscape’, because the Jim Henson Creature Shop created the aliens. The “Spider” Skitters in ‘Falling Skies’ were actually puppets in some cases. TNT actually released video on how the Skitters were made.

As good as the series was on screen, I think where they succeeded the most; promotion. The show was hyped, oh yes it was hyped, but by teaming up with sites like Klout.com and offering Klout Perks and even a chance to win a “Walk-on Role” by tagging your tweets #fsincentivized. ‘Falling Skies’ @FallingSkiesTNT Twitter account held trivia contests throughout the season. They were also able to take the online hype machine and take it offline. For the first few weeks of the season each Tuesday I got a delivery via courier with some new ‘Falling Skies’ swag.


You can see in the pictures above the sweet 2nd Mass Hat, Canteen and Compass; as well as some Skitter fingers and a canvas ‘Falling Skies’ bag. I have to say, receiving these “gifts” only enticed me to watch the show more.

Now, as much as I enjoyed the show, ‘Falling Skies’ was not immune to some of the cliches many of these shows fall into; the commanding officer losing his mind becoming irrational, the humans turning on other humans to try and make nice with their alien oppressors, and finally, adding more and more peripheral characters, most of whom do not matter in the long run. The one thing that bothered me the most, not one of the main characters died. Sure, Karen got the harness treatment, but was she really a main character? She didn’t die and they know how to remove the harness from the kids (if that even matters, apparently Skitters can call them back at anytime). But seriously, how many times can the Asian guy get shot or stabbed and still be patched up and ready to go in the next episode?

If those are my only gripes, I think ‘Falling Skies’ was far and away a success for TNT. I loved the cliff hanger ending, and I can’t wait to see what happens next season. Until then (Summer 2012), make sure to follow along with Falling Skies on Facebook and Twitter throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring; and hopefully we well get a fresh batch of Web Comics to continue the story until it is time to be beamed back into our living rooms on Sunday nights.

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  • Darkmermaid

    I have read reviews here and on io9 that were shamelessly positive despite the glaring flaws with this show, the huge plot holes between tired cliches, lackluster acting and ridiculous dialog and not a Massachussetts accent anywhere to be found in the 2nd Mass (although I’d rather no accent than a bad Mass one).  I wanted to like it, watched the entire season and the best thing I can say about it is that it it was consistently mediocre.

    The reviewer bias towards this show is starting to make sense to me if they were sending bloggers and reviewers swag week after week…

    • http://www.sciencefiction.com Patrick Ruddell

      Really, do you honestly think a Falling Skies hat or t-shirt would sway a decision? Think about it, if they didn’t like the show why would they even wear the hat? It would take a lot more than some mass produced swag to sway my judgement!

      I can tell you as the owner of this site that I have never received swag or advertising money from the Falling Skies team and I LOVE this show.

      • Darkmermaid

        I apologize if I’ve offended.  Just trying to understand this Falling Skies phenomena, I love sci-fi and know lots of people who do as well, but have been unable to find anyone who would actually admit that they thought it was a good show, most were of the opinion that it was ‘meh’ at best.  Like I said, I watched every episode, but about halfway through the season, our viewings became like  MST3K, which made it much more enjoyable.  I don’t think swag could possibly make anyone like something they’ve determined they don’t like, but I’m suggesting that it is possible that the agressive marketing campaign could have predisposed some to be kinder than they would have otherwise….

        • http://www.sciencefiction.com Patrick Ruddell

          No worries, I’m not offended. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. I don’t like Eureka and my friends think I’m nuts, lol.

          • http://sciencefiction.com/ Bryan Hardbarger

            Patrick, is indeed, NUTS. Do we still love him? Sure! By the way, I like Falling Skies too, and “swag” has no sway over me either. ;)

          • http://admindaily.com Jesse

            lol, you beat me to it Bryan :) and for the record, seems how nobody else here wants any swag I will accept it all.. not that I can offer anything in return for it but I would hate to see it go to waste ;-)

          • http://sciencefiction.com/ Bryan Hardbarger

            Don’t get me wrong, Jesse, the swag looks brilliant! This article was written and posted way before any mention of swag coming our way! haha! And yes, I DO like Falling Skies, but remember what network we’re on here, people. This is TNT, “We Know Drama” is the tagline. 
            Don’t expect every episode to be crammed full of action, DO expect, however, good character development, and interesting story lines. I for one, appreciate the series and I’m here to stay!

          • Anonymous

            How you don’t like Eureka, is one of the great mysteries of the world. 

    • Anonymous

      I appreciate your opinion, I think if my views of the show are biased in any way it is due to the lack of solid Sci-Fi programing in the summer. I’ve stated before, if Falling Skies were on the Fall against anything else I would be a show I would DVR and catch up on when I had the chance (kind of like Burn Notice or Covert Affairs on USA, both fun shows to watch, both filled with the same kind of plot holes/devices as Falling Skies)

      I do agree with you, no New England Accent is better than a Bad one. Thanks for commenting!

  • Matthew Wood

    I heartily agree with all of that! Falling Skies was a series that I started watching with a significant amount of criticism at heart. I was, initially, bitterly disappointed to see another ‘man vs alien’ fest with nothing else underneath the surface. Thankfully that, as time went on, was more than compensated for by the characters and the interesting way we learned more about the Skitters. 

    I am now an ardent follower on Twitter and Facebook and genuinely look forward to the new season next year. 

    In the meantime – I wonder how Terra Nova is going to turn out?  

    • Anonymous

      Matthew,

      Every time I see the preview for Terra Nova, all I can think of is that old series Earth 2 or even Sliders. I know E2 didn’t have any dinosaurs, but for some reason that I what is clicking in my head when I see TN, Hopefully it is good. 

      Thanks for commenting! Make sure to keep up with the Falling Skies “mystery” all year through their social media sites.

  • Anonymous

    Try Yahoogroups…I can’t ever get it straight, though, if the group name is TNTFallingSkies or FallingSkiesTNT. And the Falling Skies Proboards. Me and quite a few others will tell you it’s good. I waited on the last two eps, will watch just before the next season starts, but it’s been pretty good so far.

    And I’m also part of the not liking Eureka crowd. Although admittedly I was never curious enough to watch it. I’m picky as to what appeals to me.

  • http://ScienceFiction.com Ze

    You don’t consider Mike, Rick’s dad being shot as a main character dying?  I’m borderline on that one.  

    • Anonymous

      Mike wasn’t a main character either. I’m talking the Masons, Weaver, Maggie, Pope and Dr. Anne & Lourdes. They were the main characters, and at no point in the show did I ever feel any jeopardy for any of them. Even when weaver had the Mech laser sights on his forehead. :o )

  • http://twitter.com/RoundTableNerds Chris

    I really did come to like Falling Skies it just took a couple episodes for me to get sold on it.  The premiere was interesting but didn’t seem like anything special, but with time the show grew on me.  I think one of the most interesting things was seeing how Noah Wyle grew into the role of Tom Mason.  At first Tom seemed almost wooden but then Wyle was able to show just how everything Tom did was for his kids.

    I’m really looking forward to season 2 and seeing just where they go from here.

  • Robert Henderson

    I have big problems with the show. The suspension of disbelief required is higher than anything I have ever experienced. Hal Mason is 16. In real life the actor is 27 (now-maybe he was 25 when the show began), and you can tell in the show he’s at least 24, but then that’s nothing new. I saw a show where a thirty year old was cast as a high school student. These aliens are superior to us technologically yet they don’t have basic heat sensing? Our thermal imaging cameras (we’ve had them since the 50′s) can sense heat for miles. We can sense human movement from space!!! Though the characters and their emotions are well drawn, I don’t think I’ll last through the first season. I can’t deal with aliens who have wiped out 90% of the human population but are too stupid to fly grids and find large human encampments in broad daylight less than ten miles away. It’s like the aliens came, killed most everyone, then got lobotomies. Ridiculously stupid.