Anybody watching it?
A show about an alien invasion of Earth. It's got John Carter from ER and General Bethlehem from The Postman that seem to be a couple leads. They are a couple officers in the fledgling resistance movement, the "2nd Massachusetts," operating out of Boston.
So far I've heard not a single New England accent.
Anyway, the aliens blew the shit out of Earth THEN invaded, so we didn't get to see any cool apocalypse porn, though there was a really sad part at the beginning where we got that exposition with a child narrator with his crayon drawings. Read that as "a lot cheaper than showing a bunch of cities getting blown up."
So far, not super impressed with the show.... they suggest that their resistance movement is having results, but we obviously don't see any progress in a 2 hour pilot. Like Terminator 4, it bugs me that the bad guys have completely won and supposedly have full control of the battlefield, yet large groups of humans can walk around in broad daylight with no cover with complete impunity.
But it was ok enough to keep watching, for now.
Falling Skies
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DoctorChaos
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:58 pm
GORDON wrote: Like Terminator 4, it bugs me that the bad guys have completely won and supposedly have full control of the battlefield, yet large groups of humans can walk around in broad daylight with no cover with complete impunity.
That bugged me too. I was kinda impressed that they made it a plot point that the mech's and the skitters had different number of legs. I have a feeling the skitters are a conquered race.
Wadda mean? Other people can read this?!
I'm an episode back, and from what I understand there's only one to go, and despite the huge holes in logic, I'm mildly enjoying this show.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
They added some new writers, and I guess they all worked on Battlestar Galactica.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
First and second season BSG was great. Season 3 became Melrose Space and a little painful, and worst yet their idea of writing interesting characters was to reverse gender roles. The women were sleeping around and not giving a shit, and the men were whining and pining for their one and only true love girl. That is also painful.
I wonder which writers this show got, assuming they were different writers.
I wonder which writers this show got, assuming they were different writers.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Did a marathon of Falling Skies Season 2 this weekend.
They made some changes to the show.
First of all, the body count skyrockets. They kill more folks than The Walking Dead. Seriously, there's a death every episode.
Secondly, the budget obviously increased because there's more aliens, more battles, more extras, bigger and more sets, etc.
Third, they have changed the writing. They've added more romance, more twists, more aliens, more humans, etc.
Overall, I'd say the second season was a vast improvement on the first, which wasn't horrible. Still, the show seems to miss something. I have no idea what, but it has moments of brilliance, and then moments of absurdity.
If you like Sci-Fi, this is a good watch.
They made some changes to the show.
First of all, the body count skyrockets. They kill more folks than The Walking Dead. Seriously, there's a death every episode.
Secondly, the budget obviously increased because there's more aliens, more battles, more extras, bigger and more sets, etc.
Third, they have changed the writing. They've added more romance, more twists, more aliens, more humans, etc.
Overall, I'd say the second season was a vast improvement on the first, which wasn't horrible. Still, the show seems to miss something. I have no idea what, but it has moments of brilliance, and then moments of absurdity.
If you like Sci-Fi, this is a good watch.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
I think I just finished season 3? Very odd choices made this year.
Spoilers ahead.
Everything I said about season 2 is the opposite here. Outside of the main 2nd Mass unit, all the actors they brought in for season two are gone. They replace them with extras and child actors (not kidding).
They still kill a lot of folks, but it genuinely feels like they did so as a budget cut.
The skitters become a rarity, as do the mechs. Other special effects jump to the forefront in their absence.
The plot this season is all over the place. There are soap opera subplots involving romance, a Hitler youth camp, a "ghost", a hail mary plan, and a really, really cautious enemy. I really don't understand their plan at this point unless they just want to mimic Nazi Germany.
The plot takes a weird, weird turn with Tom's daughter, and she becomes a huge plot device.
Next season is the final season.
Spoilers ahead.
Everything I said about season 2 is the opposite here. Outside of the main 2nd Mass unit, all the actors they brought in for season two are gone. They replace them with extras and child actors (not kidding).
They still kill a lot of folks, but it genuinely feels like they did so as a budget cut.
The skitters become a rarity, as do the mechs. Other special effects jump to the forefront in their absence.
The plot this season is all over the place. There are soap opera subplots involving romance, a Hitler youth camp, a "ghost", a hail mary plan, and a really, really cautious enemy. I really don't understand their plan at this point unless they just want to mimic Nazi Germany.
The plot takes a weird, weird turn with Tom's daughter, and she becomes a huge plot device.
Next season is the final season.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Season 5 was as all over the place as 4.
This being the last season, I would call the whole of Falling Skies a poorly written mess on top of what could have been a slam dunk for a TV show with solid actors.
The budget was clearly too low. All the sets felt cramped and they were stuck in them for lots of episodes. (Same shit that happened to Walking Dead season 2 when AMC was too stupid to realize they had a massive hit on their hands.)
Going back to The Walking Dead comparison, I'll bet if they could do it all over again, TNT would rethink shorting this series. If not, then TNT executives suck. The world wants these types of shows, but they don't want them poorly made.
Hell, I can honestly say that The Last Ship, Public Morals, and at least one other TNT show has me interested, but I won't waste time watching them because I know they'll be poorly made too. In fact, ads for The Last Ship that run during Falling Skies look like they also suffer from a low budget and cramped, overused sets.
Then there's the writing. It's all over the fucking place. They should have named the show "Deus Ex Machina" because it's used more here than any show I've ever seen. Need a new weapon? Here comes one conveniently right when you need it. Need a new enemy? Here's one that even the alien whose race has been at war with the baddies for hundreds of years has never seen. Two episodes later, let's throw another out there. And another. And he doesn't even know how the baddies hierarchy works!
The budget is so low that the final episode, where dozens of militias are waging a massive offensive against the alien baddies, spends about half of its 60 minutes in a tunnel where people are talking romance and a hint of danger lurks in an Alien egg ripoff. The rest has the entire group stopping to chat while the lead fights the main baddie by talking to it. I'm not kidding. No battle is ever seen. I bet the aliens killed themselves out of boredom.
But hey, at least they gave the series finale 6 extra minutes!
The fucking soap opera relationships, the shitty speeches, the character shifts, the way they destroyed the most interesting character on the show Pope, the completely ignorant way they portrayed the military and military tactics, etc. The show started so well, and ended up sucking monkey balls.
I'm wasting too much time on this pile of shit. Here's an IMDB thread that completely agrees with me and sums up how this show was very promising in seasons 1-3 and then came crashing down. Even Spielberg bailed on it.
Fuck the people who killed this show.
I cannot recommend this show to anyone. Seasons 4 and 5 just got too bad. I would recommend you avoid watching anything on TNT until they prove they will fund it throughout its run.
Edited By Leisher on 1443761564
This being the last season, I would call the whole of Falling Skies a poorly written mess on top of what could have been a slam dunk for a TV show with solid actors.
The budget was clearly too low. All the sets felt cramped and they were stuck in them for lots of episodes. (Same shit that happened to Walking Dead season 2 when AMC was too stupid to realize they had a massive hit on their hands.)
Going back to The Walking Dead comparison, I'll bet if they could do it all over again, TNT would rethink shorting this series. If not, then TNT executives suck. The world wants these types of shows, but they don't want them poorly made.
Hell, I can honestly say that The Last Ship, Public Morals, and at least one other TNT show has me interested, but I won't waste time watching them because I know they'll be poorly made too. In fact, ads for The Last Ship that run during Falling Skies look like they also suffer from a low budget and cramped, overused sets.
Then there's the writing. It's all over the fucking place. They should have named the show "Deus Ex Machina" because it's used more here than any show I've ever seen. Need a new weapon? Here comes one conveniently right when you need it. Need a new enemy? Here's one that even the alien whose race has been at war with the baddies for hundreds of years has never seen. Two episodes later, let's throw another out there. And another. And he doesn't even know how the baddies hierarchy works!
The budget is so low that the final episode, where dozens of militias are waging a massive offensive against the alien baddies, spends about half of its 60 minutes in a tunnel where people are talking romance and a hint of danger lurks in an Alien egg ripoff. The rest has the entire group stopping to chat while the lead fights the main baddie by talking to it. I'm not kidding. No battle is ever seen. I bet the aliens killed themselves out of boredom.
But hey, at least they gave the series finale 6 extra minutes!
The fucking soap opera relationships, the shitty speeches, the character shifts, the way they destroyed the most interesting character on the show Pope, the completely ignorant way they portrayed the military and military tactics, etc. The show started so well, and ended up sucking monkey balls.
I'm wasting too much time on this pile of shit. Here's an IMDB thread that completely agrees with me and sums up how this show was very promising in seasons 1-3 and then came crashing down. Even Spielberg bailed on it.
Fuck the people who killed this show.
I cannot recommend this show to anyone. Seasons 4 and 5 just got too bad. I would recommend you avoid watching anything on TNT until they prove they will fund it throughout its run.
Edited By Leisher on 1443761564
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”