S01.E01: Pilot

[WearyTraveler]

I see what you're saying, and still think it's too soon to call racism with only one episode.  If a show has POC portraying good and evil characters and white people doing the same, I don't think it's racist.

 

Also, I think it's a well-known fact that actors usually find the "bad" guys more interesting to play, and actually seek for these roles often (Charlize Theron playing a serial killer, for example).  Maybe the black guy here actually beat a bunch of other white actors to get the part, maybe he was the most qualified.  We simply don't know.

 

This show has some issues, I'd agree.  But I'm not ready to call it racist just yet.

[formerlyfreedom]

Let's take further discussion on race on TV over to the Race & Ethnicity on TV topic in the Everything Else TV forum, please.

[Raja]

So I watched it. I liked it, and after The Walking Dead I'm stunned to be saying this, but I like Sarah Wayne Callies in it. A lot. I don't think she's that different, either, just that this is a different situation and her schtick is appropriate here.

I liked this about it. It's grounded. You don't have to explain too much assuming the audience is familiar with these types of situations, the scarcity, the paranoia, the turning on each other.

 

I'm glad there aren't fake looking CGI occupiers on the show. Yet. My guess is the aliens are super powerful but not very numerous. They keep sending people up to the "factory" - possibly instead of water or minerals or something, slave labor itself is the resource they are after. This would explain things like forbidding insulin to cull the weak from the herd - they only want strong, resilient, healthy slaves. But it seems like curing diabetes is a much more realistic goal than travelling to another solar system, so I'd think any aliens who could occupy us would find it cost effective just go patch our genetic code instead? But then they wouldn't be unambiguously bad...

 

I like the mayor. The job hasn't changed that much. In the real world, being mayor of a big city forces you into the same relationship with the state and the feds that Snyder? has with the aliens.  It's probably all the same people running LA, faced with many of the same problems. Not even super high tech aliens could cure the permanent urban fiscal crisis. I wish instead of being a self-described opportunist, he just said something like, "somebody's still gotta pick up the trash." Because he'd have a point. At this point I've seen LA overrun by zombies, aliens, and robots already, and this looks like a pretty tame occupation. Actually I think if the aliens would do something about the food and medicine shortages, the resistance would probably die down - the insulin thing is just crappy PR. People respond much better to being bribed than to stylish fascist flags and stuff, typically.

 

I could instantly relate to Will here. There is very little I wouldn't do to 

 

Visually I couldn't help thinking of Fear the Walking Dead every five minutes. Not just because of the sets and SWC but because this is more where I though that show would go than where it actually did. I wish it reminded me of that brilliant half season of BSG where they were on the occupied planet, and some of the characters blew themselves up a suicide bombers and others were killed as collaborators. I loved that show. This one doesn't even have to be half as good to get me to watch it.

I think part of the problem is that they have to distinguish themselves from the original V. Where they showed the visitors actually putting out the carrot while putting on more controls. And by showing the visitors they had to have the shock scenes like eating a rat. Since everything has already happened in the past life looks too easy. Small communities just sitting around protecting their few hens. Except you can't go places you didn't want to got to anyway lest you get stuck in traffic.

 

What I don't buy was that Josh Holloway cleaned up enough to be FBI or that no matter what the occupied economy was like, even with trying to hide soemone with a Special Agents educational credentials would be a delivery boy.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Should You Allow Your DVR To Be Colonized By Colony?
USA sends Sawyer from Lost and Lori from The Walking Dead to a different apocalypse. Should you join them?

[Hanahope]

Ok, I admit I wasn't paying the closest of attention, but first they say the wall is around or at Santa Monica, then they show the wall encircling a very large area, going perhaps even further east than the Wilshire/Brentwood area, and another view seemed to show part of the wall right down the middle of Downtown LA.  So where exactly is the wall(s)?  Is there more than one?  Or just one big circle around a portion of LA?  Is Santa Monica outside the wall or inside another wall?

 

I also agree that one would think with a show set in LA, everyone would be clammering for water more than anything else.

 

I also didn't understand why Lori seemed to be showing up at the resistance house for the first time, no one knew who she was and she had to be shown where to go, but when she finally got into the hidden area, those people did know who she was and she certainly seemed to be 'high enough' in the know to be aware of plans to get someone 'inside' and to ask questions about the "party"(bomb).

 

 

But otherwise, the premise seems interesting so I'll stick with it for the moment.

.

[truelovekiss]

Late to the party, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

1) what kind of name is Bram? Is that short for something? At first I thought it was Bran, like Bran Stark. Short for Brandon Stark. But I put on Closed Captioning and it said Bram.

2) both Sawyer and Lori (sorry, I'm never going to refer to them by their current characters names) interacted well with their children. I think the egg scene was cute, and I thought it did a good job of showing that things like fresh produce are rarities.

3) I would have had no idea that this show was about aliens if it hadn't said so online. I would have thought Hunger Games style of government takeover.

4) rolling my eyes at the diabetes cliche. Stop it, tv.

5) trading with alcohol was one of the most realistic apocalypse type things I saw. Jewelry has no value in situations like this, but things that can be used do.

6) could Lori be any more of a Lori? Jesus. Disregarding safety, abandoning her children for foolhardy "missions," blaming her husband for things going wrong. Anyone else think she'll be pregnant by the end of the season?

7) Also, what's going on with children going to labor camps? Is Charlie in a labor Camp? What kind of labor are the aliens making them do? It was such a random throwaway comment, but I think it should have been discussed more.

Edited January 21, 2016 by truelovekiss

[Clanstarling]

Late to the party, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

1) what kind of name is Bram? Is that short for something? At first I thought it was Bran, like Bran Stark. Short for Brandon Stark. But I put on Closed Captioning and it said Bram.

The author of Dracula was Bram Stoker. It was short for Abraham. He was Irish, so maybe they use Bram instead of Abe there. Maybe it's foreshadowing the nature of the aliens, or maybe the creator just wanted to honor Stoker? Edited January 21, 2016 by clanstarling

[truelovekiss]

The author of Dracula was Bram Stoker. It was short for Abraham. He was Irish, so maybe they use Bram instead of Abe there. Maybe it's foreshadowing the nature of the aliens, or maybe the creator just wanted to honor Stoker?

Thanks for the insight, I was not aware of that!

[Anela]

This was a huge deja vu, so I'm wondering if I saw a preview sometime last year, and just forgot about it. The explosion in the truck, and the wife taking off her top as he walked out of the bathroom, the insulin being made from dogs, and her trading a bottle of booze for it. 

It also reminded me of Falling Skies, but I only saw a few episodes of that, the first season. I've recorded the second episode, and will watch it soon, or tomorrow. 

[Canada]

Late to the party, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

1) what kind of name is Bram? Is that short for something? At first I thought it was Bran, like Bran Stark. Short for Brandon Stark. But I put on Closed Captioning and it said Bram.

2) both Sawyer and Lori (sorry, I'm never going to refer to them by their current characters names) interacted well with their children. I think the egg scene was cute, and I thought it did a good job of showing that things like fresh produce are rarities.

3) I would have had no idea that this show was about aliens if it hadn't said so online. I would have thought Hunger Games style of government takeover.

4) rolling my eyes at the diabetes cliche. Stop it, tv.

5) trading with alcohol was one of the most realistic apocalypse type things I saw. Jewelry has no value in situations like this, but things that can be used do.

6) could Lori be any more of a Lori? Jesus. Disregarding safety, abandoning her children for foolhardy "missions," blaming her husband for things going wrong. Anyone else think she'll be pregnant by the end of the season?

7) Also, what's going on with children going to labor camps? Is Charlie in a labor Camp? What kind of labor are the aliens making them do? It was such a random throwaway comment, but I think it should have been discussed more.

 

Lori will definitely be pregnant, and not by her husband, but by his best friend!

[mythoughtis]

I liked it,  yes, some clichés, some not-quite-real situations.  But, I still liked it.  Not understanding exactly who the woman that was on insulin was in relation to everyone else, but I gather she is a relative of one of the two leads.    I want to know if Will doesn't know that his wife will leak everything, or if he 'knows' but doesn't 'know'. 

 

Yes, we are dropped into this in the middle, just as we were with Falling Skies.  That's ok.  Let's hope they are a little smarter than the Falling Skies writers.

[Netfoot]

 Let's hope they are a little smarter than the Falling Skies writers.

 

That shouldn't be hard.....

 

"I want you to go out on a super-secret, ultra low-profile, scouting mission.  Your presence must not be detected!  Use this extremely flashy motorbike, from which we have artfully removed the muffler baffles!"

[bilgistic]

I feel about this the way Tara does:

"...my TV time is precious and limited and this wasn't so great that I personally feel I really need to see more."

My favorite scene was Josh Holloway in the shower equally because yum and he was washing his hair, so I think that while I really want to like this, I have to bow out.

[tara2r]

That shouldn't be hard.....

 

"I want you to go out on a super-secret, ultra low-profile, scouting mission.  Your presence must not be detected!  Use this extremely flashy motorbike, from which we have artfully removed the muffler baffles!"

 

But they DID send him on a super-secret mission to infiltrate the resistance and then have the mayor and his entourage show up at their house the next day and offer them all kinds of cool stuff for collaborating.  Very subtle...

[AudienceofOne]

So I am late to this party. I tend to save these types of shows up and then binge watch. Which I am doing today.

This was ok. But I loathe Jsh Holloway as an actor. He's shallow and one-note. I can always sees he's acting and he has only one expression. As such, I have no idea who this character is supposed to be other than "stoic white guy with gun". I'm sure he'll be doing "stoic white guy with gun" things to "protect his family". Like, a lot. And there'll be angst about it. The wife was much better, with a nice combination of mother hen, overwhelmed, nervous and angry.

I did like the collaboration angle, especially when the aliens are never seen. It was interesting enough for me to keep watching. For now at least.