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Falling Skies: Season 4 (PREVIEW)

Lee Roberts — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 23:44:12 +0000

War time is never easy but when the war is spread across the entire world and the enemy is one from another planet the term war no longer exists. Survival is the key term now for Earth and it's people as the aliens known as the Espheni begin to use a more brutal tactic as they fight the human race. What little resistance there is have now been separated and put into prisoner camps to keep them subdued. Hope still lives in the Mason family as the father Tom Mason (played by Noah Wyle) tries to get the 2nd Mass group to the new capital of Charleston. Arriving at the capital the group believe all will be well but they quickly find out that nothing is well in this new world that's become a battle field between the Humans, Espheni, and the new alien race the Volm and the winner will get the Earth.

Falling Skies

Air Date:

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Regular Air Date:

Sundays @ 10PM ET

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Falling Skies,

SyFy Channel

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Running Time:

43 minutes

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Falling Skies: Search and Recovery (PREVIEW)

AJ Garcia — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:21:17 +0000

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Digital TV

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0.00

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Falling Skies

TNT

Falling Skies has pretty much been a love it or leave it affair for me, and with five episodes already under my belt here in the new season, I honestly have to say that I’m ready to leave it.

In the last episode, At All Costs, I really thought the show was about to bring out its big guns and finally show us what it was made of. A mystery human has survived through the battles between aliens and human, one that could possibly turn the tides, a new alien breed has arrived and given the humans the firepower they need to give the previous alien visitors a run for their money, and the cliff hanger from At All Costs was pretty well set up. Then Search and Recovery began, the following episode in series 3.

In this episode we find Tom and Pope crashed down in the forest about 400 miles form Charleston after having been pursued by an alien attack at their secret rendezvous with the mystery human. What follows is a handful of clichéd scenario’s the whole family pretty much called as we watched along. Terrible tough guy bravado one liners, silly action/escape film getaways, and a serious look at why I’ve never really cared for the show, but lets look at what else has gone on in this episode.

In the last episode Doctor Glass, after discovering some strange things about the baby she had with Tom Mason, has bludgeoned a poor innocent scientist when he makes the same discoveries, drugged her best friend and colleague, and run off with the baby into the wilderness. Captain Weaver, the ever affable and loyal character that he is whispers sweet nothings about going to track her down and warns that no one understands loyalty and devotion like the 2nd Mass who always look out for one of their own (it’s a surprise their not all dead by now). Taking Tom’s children and Margaret (Hal’s girlfriend), Weaver and his daughter head out to find the missing doctor and her baby.

The real problem of the show begins and ends here. Every time we come upon Weaver, his daughter, or any of Tom’s children, all we get is big sad eyes and crybaby stories where the kids tilt their heads to one side and reminisce about their mother or get poetic about a dead body they found on the side of the road. Its absolutely overbearing and heavy handed the lengths the show goes to in order to create dramatic moments. It’s what kills the show.

You want to show the more human side of the humanity under an alien attack, fine, but this is just overdoing it on a grand scale that drags the science fiction vibe into the dirt. The last episode was great because it was non-stop, in your face, and put on display the real frailties of humanity; greed, paranoia, lust for power, etc. Just when the ball was rolling we go back to this slow drawn out teenage angst stuff that makes me want to shut the TV off for good when it comes to this show. Some may love it, I personally can’t stand it. In any case, I wouldn’t be shocked to find that this is the last season of Fallen Skies.

Falling Skies

Season:

Episode:

Search and Recovery

Starring:

Noah Wylie

Maxim Knight

Connor Jessup

Falling Skies: Collateral Damage (PREVIEW)

AJ Garcia — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:59:40 +0000

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Digital TV

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Grade:

2.80

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Falling Skies

TNT

Season 3

Tom and Weaver have been notified that the aliens have refurbished a nuclear plant to help them rebuild their army of mecha suits that have been the cause of many human fatalities. Their only option is to take out the nuclear plant in such a way that it doesn’t cause fallout from the radiation, making their plight thus far purposeless.

Tom and Weaver are introduced to a hermit like scientist that has been responsible for powering the Charleston community and who might be able to help Tom and his team destroy the nuclear plant without killing both sides. Tom’s tactics in implementing this plan do not sit well with Weaver and Pope’s input pushes the issue even further between them. Both sides start to consider the validity of their alien allies involvement in their plight.

Meanwhile Hal and Margaret are having domestic issues as Hal must conform to his new life after sustaining a life altering injury from his last meeting with Karen. Anne has given birth to Tom’s child, or is it? Matt is having adjustment issues dealing with life in the alien apocalypse as well Anne’s new role in his family. Lastly, there is a spy among them.

While I was never really too great a fan of the show when it first began to air, too much typical family drama, human in fighting, and boy scout speeches and actions, this new season, so far, seems to be all flash with small hints of intrigue.

To say that season one and two were pretty much intellectual programs is a given, and it’s also a given that season 3, again, thus far, is all action, dramatic boy scout speeches and actions not withholding.

It’s only two episodes in, well, really the first two episodes are part of a two hour season premiere, but things look to have changed up dramatically. It reminds me a lot of the original V series. The survivors find their place, a child might bridge the gap between the two species, a small faction of aliens have come over to the human side, and the humans have really begun to bring the fight to the aliens like never before.

I’m not saying the show doesn’t have its tinge of originality, but I feel like we’ve been here before. So far, I feel like the show is starting to spiral off. Whether that becomes an issue in the future for the seemingly successful show is yet to be seen. Time will tell. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.

Falling Skies

Season:

Episode:

Collateral Damage

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Falling Skies: Thin Ice (PREVIEW)

AJ Garcia — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:05:47 +0000

Review:

TV Show

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Grade:

2.94

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Falling Skies

TNT

Noah Wyle

The end of Season 2 for Falling Skies was a dramatic one. The 2nd Massachusetts had finally reached Charleston and thought found their home among the already established power of the city, only to find out that the governing body there was a bit, well, wimpy.

Instead of fighting back against the alien invasion the population, governed by Arthur Manchester (Terry O’Quinn; Lost, 666 Park Avenue), a former Professor of Tom’s, has chosen to lay low and let the aliens believe they have already conquered Charleston. Of course Tom and his band of freedom fighters can’t do that, which eventually leads them to trouble.

A coup begins, led by the general of the Charleston Army (Matt Frewer; Watchmen, Eureka), and Tom and his troops are given clemency. Things of course get complicated when Ben returns, bringing with him the red eye faction of the alien rebels, and, through Ben, Red Eye begins to tell Tom about a massive underground weapon being built which needs to be destroyed, and as a bonus the overlord for the alien army will also be there. Long story short, Tom and his army, with a few losses and some unexpected turns, win the day, destroying the weapon and killing off the overlord.

The end of season two finds the now united Charleston community experiencing what they believe to be an earthquake, only to find more spaceships landing on their front door. Is it friend, is it foe? All we see is the emergence of a new alien from the ship before the show fades to black.

I watched all of season 1 and half of season 2 before I gave up on the show. Give me sci-fi where kids are involved and you only end up having story arcs involving parents making stupid decisions on behalf of their children, neglecting the rest of the people they are with. Throw a romantic angle in there ands you can just forget about it. Falling Skies certainly had a lot of that. Still, I made an effort and watched the remainder of season 2 to prepare myself for the third season of the show. I was kind of left scratching my head.

Things are really not as we left them in season 2. There is an enormous gap in story that has thus far been unexplained. You don’t even find out until the second episode of season 3 that the gap is a 7 month long period in which new characters, that we have to accept without explanation, have popped up on screen, alien technology that has been integrated into the human world without any sort of origin story, and, oh yeah, that new alien at the end of season 2, they’ve already given him a nickname and let him stay in camp. What’s going on around here?

For a frantic hour and a half I scoured the internet wondering if maybe there was an episode that I missed, maybe Amazon Prime failed to include it in their season 2 collection, maybe there was a webisode deal going on that I needed to track down. Nothing. We just make this huge leap 7 months into the future where everyone has undergone massive story change ups. Tom for example has a new job (trust me, it’s a doozy), Hal is having complications resulting from his little kiss with Karen at the end of Season 2, and things haven’t quite been the same between Tom’s little army and the alien invaders. I think, and stop me if I’m wrong, but fans of the show will not be pleased.

Falling Skies season 3 feels almost like a completely different show with all the changes that have been made. While the show is still about a ragtag group of human survivors trying to fend off the alien invasion as well as keep it together in their own camp, the writers do try and add a few fresh idea’s into the mix. Will it be enough though and will fans of the show stick with the odd opening episodes that will leave even the most hardcore fans a bit in the dark? Time will tell.

Falling Skies

Season:

Episode:

Thin Ice

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Falling Skies (PREVIEW)

Jason Pace — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:17:31 +0000

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TV Show

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Grade:

4.00

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This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with an invasion of aliens who take children as slaves. That was the premise of Falling Skies when it hit last year. The show began with the end nearly behind us, the aliens were already here and we, humanity, had largely lost the fight. But pockets of resistance fight against the invaders. Once such pocket is the 2nd Massachusettes, a collection of soldiers and other fighters protecting a larger group of civilians, trying to survive and looking for a way to fight back. And that's what we got for 10 episodes last fall.

Now, Falling Skies returns for a second season. The first season ended with Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) striking a noticable blow against the skitters - the aliens - and then accepting the offer to go aboard their ship to meet. I got to watch the first four episodes of the upcoming season, and I can say for sure that if you liked the previous season then you will love what they have in store for the 2nd Mass this summer.

The show picks up three months later and Tom returns from his meeting. His sons have taken a larger roll in the 2nd Mass since he left, especially Ben, who is experiencing many changes after being freed from the alien harness - even more than we saw last season. That's the first, maybe, ten minutes, and the show takes off from there.

Falling Skies continues to follow the formula it used last year, where episodes contain a single story but tie into a overall plot arc for the season, and having seen less than half the upcoming season I am very eager to see more.

And if you can't wait, be sure to head over to the official site where they've put up a four issue comic series for The Battle of Fitchburg, which fills in the gap from the end of season one and the start of season two.

Good Sci-Fi is hard to find on TV, but TNT has definitely nailed it with Falling Skies.

Falling Skies

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Falling Skies

Peter Oberth — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:04:14 +0000

Written and produced by Robert Rodat and Steven Spielberg, this show takes place after an alien race has wiped out the majority of the human population. A group of soldiers ban together to try to stand up against the alien force.

Falling Skies

Regular Air Date:

Sundays @ 9/8C

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Falling Skies VIDEO

Pandora — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:54:11 +0000

Falling Skies

(Previews Video)

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TNT firms cast for Spielberg pilot

Peter Oberth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:21:46 +0000

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Moon Bloodgood, Jessy Schram, Seychelle Gabriel and Maxim Knight have joined Noah Wyle on TNT's untitled alien invasion pilot from executive producer Steven Spielberg.

The project, written by Robert Rodat from an idea he conceived with Spielberg, is set shortly after aliens have wiped out most of the human population and centers on a ragtag group of soldiers and civilians led by widower Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) who struggle against the occupying alien force.

In the pilot, directed by Carl Franklin, Bloodgood, Schram, Gabriel and Knight all play members of the group.

Bloodgood will play Anne Glass, a therapist working with the children to help them with the trauma of the alien invasion. With her strength and dry sense of humor, Anne, whose husband died during the invasion, becomes a bedrock of the survivors' community and Tom's confidant.

Knight will play Tom's youngest son who is still dealing with the terror of the alien invasion.

Schram will play Karen, an athletic tomboy who works as a motorcycle scout.

Gabriel ("Weeds") will play Lourdes, a pretty teenager who has lost family and helps run the camp's makeshift commissary.

ICM-repped Bloodgood, who recurs on "Burn Notice," co-starred on "Terminator: Salvation" and "Journeyman."

Schram, who recently filmed a three-episode arc on "Crash," is repped by UTA and Kritzer Levine Wilkins.

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