Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

Falling Skies in the Media


Recommended Posts

I'm okay and not okay with the show ending.  In one respect, I feel that a show of this type has to end after a certain period of time, and there is only so many new aliens or circumstances that can be introduced.  Apparently, cable tends to end most of their shows after five seasons.  If they are going to end Falling Skies after next year, then I hope it ends on an up note.  I don't want a depressing ending to the show.  If it was going to go on for a few more seasons, then more tragedy could have happened to the characters, but now it should just be about getting rid of the alien invaders.

 

I'm still sorry to see it go.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
(edited)

Falling Skies panel at SDCC 2015...

11:15am  Falling Skies:The Final Farewell

A special goodbye to TNT's epic alien series Falling Skies. Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Drew Roy, and others will be on hand to discuss favorite moments, most gruesome deaths, and memorable alien battle scars. The Espheni Power Core has been destroyed but with mutant aliens running rampant on Earth, human survival is still at stake. After being tortured, imprisoned, and having their loved ones stolen and killed, Tom Mason and the 2nd Mass are filled with rage and ready to destroy the enemy. Con attendees will be treated to an exclusive look ahead at the epic final season and a Q&A.
Friday July 10, 2015 11:15am - 12:15pm
Ballroom 20

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/friday

Edited by tv echo
  • Love 1
Link to comment

In case you're interested...

 

Falling Skies: Season Five Ratings
Published: August 4, 2015
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/falling-skies-season-five-ratings-37291/

 

This article from June (published after 5x01 aired) kinda reflects some of my dissatisfaction...

 

Has A Show Ever Come Back From A Hole As Deep As Falling Skies Is In?
Charlie Jane Anders  6/29/15 4:50pm
http://io9.com/has-a-show-ever-come-back-from-a-hole-as-deep-as-fallin-1714791290

Edited by tv echo
Link to comment

Here is  a review for the 14 Stalag Virginia:

There are now two episodes remaining in the run of Falling Skies, and true to form, we've spent the last two instalments mucking about in a Rio Bravo last redoubt military encampment where the commanding officer is running amok and governing by fear while allowing the soldiers to do whatever they like in the name of keeping folks together. Granted, this group seems a bit more together than the underground survivors of Day Of The Dead or the hospital from the fifth season of The Walking Dead, but there's not a whole lot of difference between the zombie survival and the alien survival scenario, except the aliens are less of an omnipresent threat and more of a military force to be avoided until the assault is in your favour (to complete the trifecta of references: Red Dawn).

 

It hasn't been all bad. The Katie Marshall story line has been okay, thanks to Melora Hardin's ability to act frigid and weird when appropriate, and it's been nice to see the Second Mass caught by surprise, but it plays out exactly the way it's supposed to. There are betrayals, there are reversals, people escape, people come storming in to the rescue, and only the bad guys really seem to die aside from one martyr to the cause of justice (and he spent most of his time on the show being a jerk to the Masons).

 

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/falling-skies/36615/falling-skies-season-5-episode-8-review-stalag-14th-virginia

Link to comment

I feel like this article could be Falling Skies' own obituary:

 

You have Steven Spielberg behind the scenes, and you’re telling the story of an alien-human war on Earth. Seriously, Falling Skies, how could you mess up that pitch so terribly over the past five seasons?

 

On paper, the TNT sci-fi series looks like a sure-fire critical and commercial hit — but as anyone who has tuned in over the past few years can attest, it’s been far from it. The cast, led by Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Colin Cunningham and (mo-capped) Doug Jones, is an excellent assemblage of talent. They all have skill, and that’s shown immensely the past few seasons as they tried their best to sell some of the silliest plot contrivances ever conceived.

 

 

You can read the whole thing here: 

 

http://www.blastr.com/2015-8-26/falling-skies-cautionary-tale-good-ideas-and-terrible-execution

Link to comment

God help us, people who are actually involved in making TV might end up being influenced by crap like this. The article has it backwards: Space war is a bad idea but Falling Skies had a lot of great execution, especially performances. Space war hinges on "people" going to another star for some unknown reason but then forgetting all their advanced tech and smarts to bungle a war. Bad, bad idea! The kind of tech that can travel to another star doesn't need our resources. The kind of tech that can travel to another star doesn't get beaten by small arms fire from a handful of regular cast members. Falling Skies isn't bungling its execution. Falling Skies basis in a silly idea just can't be hidden any more by smooth execution of subsidiary, related stories.

Link to comment

IMO, the last 4 paragraphs sums up the show pretty well:

By the time Battlestar Galactica alum David Eick took over for Seasons 4-5, he was piloting a ship careening toward ridiculousness — and did little to right the ship. Season 4 was an absolute mess, splitting time between an alien ghetto where many characters were being held hostage and an untouched paradise run by Tom’s (now-adult) half-alien baby. Oh, and the paradise is basically a Hitler Youth Camp aimed at brainwashing humans into thinking the aliens are great. Eick flirts with some interesting ideas here, but he’s trying to make a different show at this point. It’s not exactly Falling Skies, but trapped by the framework, it’s not entirely something else, either. It’s just a mess. All of that insanity finally gives way to a mission to literally send Tom  and his half-alien daughter Lexi to the moon in an effort to “unplug” the alien power source. Because, sure.

 

The merciful end

Despite the apparent suicide mission, Season 5 finds Tom back on Earth ... thanks to the help of some new aliens and a few more plot contrivances. With the fifth and final season set to wrap up this Sunday, it feels like Eick and the creative team were content to spin their wheels just long enough to set up a final assault against the Espheni forces. As for the nine episodes up to that point? They twist antihero Pope (one of the show’s better characters) into a bad guy fueled by vengeance and unceremoniously blow him up during a half-hearted attack on the 2nd Mass. The season also spends a few episodes dealing with a trumped-up court-martial against Tom at a military base, led by a commander who is so obviously under alien control you’re literally screaming at the TV by the time the “twist” is finally revealed.

 

When last we left the 2nd Mass. last week, they were facing an onslaught of alien Black Hornets (Stakes!) as they prepare for the final assault. The finale will almost certainly deliver on the action front, and if there’s one thing Falling Skies excels at, it’s envisioning a gorgeously gritty apocalypse.

 

But as the 2nd Mass. prepares for that one final fight, we can’t help but lament the show Falling Skies could’ve been. Hey, who knows? Heroes is getting a repreive to recapture its early glory. Maybe in five or six years, we'll be writing about Falling Skies: Reborn?

 

http://www.blastr.com/2015-8-26/falling-skies-cautionary-tale-good-ideas-and-terrible-execution

Link to comment

Professional TV reviewers who call Pope one of the better characters are just bullshitting. Pope is the kind of hero that people who like the US invading Third World countries over and over want and need, because that's the kind of person who's good at it. If you get off on bad guys doing bad things, but being fantastic badasses while they win, win, win, then you just call them interesting antiheroes. Pope was an incarnation of conceptual confusion, a contradiction of the premise from the start.

Link to comment

For this show, in my opinion, yeah he is one of the better characters. 

 

Edit:

I would also add that my favorites are Dingaan, Pope, Anthony, and Weaver (as of now). 

Edited by TVSpectator
Link to comment

Two reviews of the series finale (they are spot on) and two interviews with David Eick...

 

‘Falling Skies’ Series Finale Yields More Fizzle Than Fireworks (SPOILERS)
AUGUST 30, 2015 | 08:15PM PT   Brian Lowry
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/falling-skies-series-finale-review-spoilers-1201573805/

 

FALLING SKIES: "REBORN" REVIEW
CHRIS CARABOTT  → AUGUST 30, 2015
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/31/falling-skies-reborn-review

 

‘Falling Skies’ series finale: Showrunner David Eick answers your burning questions

By Emily Rome | Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 11:00 PM
http://www.hitfix.com/news/falling-skies-series-finale-showrunner-david-eick-answers-your-burning-questions

 

Falling Skies Boss Weighs In on Series Finale's Big Twists (Including a Very Final One That Didn't Make the Cut)
By Matt Webb Mitovich / August 30 2015, 8:05 PM PDT
http://tvline.com/2015/08/30/falling-skies-series-finale-recap-pope-dies-humans-win/

Edited by tv echo
Link to comment
God help us, people who are actually involved in making TV might end up being influenced by crap like this. The article has it backwards: Space war is a bad idea but Falling Skies had a lot of great execution, especially performances.

 

 

I couldn't agree with that less. The article had it right: Great ideas and concepts, that were executed poorly. The actors did what they could with what they had.

 

Professional TV reviewers who call Pope one of the better characters are just bullshitting. Pope is the kind of hero that people who like the US invading Third World countries over and over want and need, because that's the kind of person who's good at it. If you get off on bad guys doing bad things, but being fantastic badasses while they win, win, win, then you just call them interesting antiheroes. Pope was an incarnation of conceptual confusion, a contradiction of the premise from the start.

 

 

Pope was a potentially great character that wasn't allowed to become great. Complex, with the lacl of conscience that allowed him to do what our sainted heroes could not, in the name of the same cause. He could have been Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men - "You want me on that wall! You need me on that wall!". But the show made him into a cartoon villain, because someone wasn't comfortable with complexity.

 

I think it's interesting that these articles consistently point out the same problems with the show, and the people behind the show answer don't address them and instead address different, more minor issues (like the lines in S. America).

  • Love 3
Link to comment

Lack of conscience may be useful for mercenaries conquering an empire but I think it is simplistic to assume it is necessary for defending a homeland against invaders. Exactly how being a sexy BAMF helps overcome superscience is a mystery to everyone. I don't think giving equal time to a different concept of hero was a strength, it is chickening out on having a viewpoint. You want to give credence to the idea the true heroes are great men who take upon themselves to abjure herd morality, show it making sense, don't just give the hot lines to your sock puppet. 

Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...