I really don't know what to make of Falling Skies, the latest, in what seems like an endless flow of shows about humanity on the brink. As you would expect, the tone is very Poe-faced, sombre and at times it makes Battlestar Gallactica look like Modern Family. But as alien invasions go, it's well done and the extra terrestials, skitters and mechs, are pretty skittery and mechanised in equal measures. But the characters leave me a little cold.
First off we have Noah Wyle as Tom Mason Minuteman and ex professor of military history, handy that. Has there ever been a more earnestly sincere actor as Noah Wyle? Here he looks upon the remnants of humanity with the same pained expression he looked at a ruptured spleen in ER. Then we have Will Patton as Captain Weaver, could somebody please tell me why Mr. Patton has decided to do a spot on impression of Lloyd Bridges from the Hot Shots films? It's crazily off putting but always raises a smile. Also I have to mention the magnificently named Moon Bloodgood, as the doctor type, not because she stands out or anything but because, with a name like that she should be teaching at Hogwarts.
Falling Skies is obviously supposed to nudge the viewer toward seeing similarities between the characters current predicament and the American war of Independence, like John Adams with spaceships or something. And just in case we're slow on the uptake, we get long conversations in front of a mural of George Washington and Benjamin Franklyn. If our heroes could harness their self righteousness as a weapon, they would send the aliens packing in an afternoon. I'm also living in fear of the fully functional laboratory turning up. Everyone of these kind of shows have them, thankfully The Walking Dead got its lab out of the way in one episode. But I think we all remember how fatally wedded Survivors was to its lab.
Despite all the gripes Falling Skies has a good pace to it and is pretty intriguing, so I'll be sticking around for the season.
Over
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