George Allen Miller One Geek's take on all things SciFi

I had a chance to take a look at the new show on TNT, Falling Skies, over the weekend. My initial reaction was, in a word, disappointed. But, honestly, after some reflection and a look at the previews of the season to come, i’ve moved from disappointed to slightly dismayed.

So, the story opened up just after an alien invasion by some six legged freaks with really weird and improbably space ships. They have basically conquered all of humanity, kill any adults they find and capture and turn into slaves any children they find. Sounds like a fun bunch.

When I first started watching the show I noticed that it started to feel a great deal like V from the 80′s. Let me  be clear, V from the 80′s NOT ABC’s recent attempt to revamp the show. The modern V sucked balls.

Now, I know, V really wasn’t the exact same as Falling Skies. In V, they aliens had come, they hadn’t taken over anything, and we mostly kicked their asses and sent them on their way. Then someone decided to start a television series and BAM, we have V the series from the 80′s. Which, to me, felt a lot like Falling Skies.

Why? How? Am I nuts? Probably. In both shows, Falling Skies and V, the cast goes on mission, fights some aliens, secures some food, water, rescues some people, and then they go home. Period. IN that way both shows feel very simliar to me. And that is why that I had a very poor feeling regarding Falling Skies. I honestly don’t think it’s going to go the distance. The recipe isn’t dynamic and the story line just feels like it falls flat.

And just what kind of super high tech aliens can only scan 500 humans or more at a time? This was one of the plot devices in the show that I really had an issue with. We can, modern humans, use telescopes to find something as small as a car on the road in Kentucky. You’re telling me that these aliens have mechs, massive spaceships on stilts and can’t do a freakin planet scan for a group of 500 people schlepping along the road? Give me a break.

Come on writers, lets think of something better here. You can even go with something like, the aliens just don’t give a good god damn about people anymore. Sure they will kill adults, slave out the kids, but they won’t actively hunt anyone because they’ve already won, why do they care?

But there is an interesting silver lining. The aliens may turn out to be humans and the entire invasion may be some future / past attempt to save us all. I dunno, i’m just guessing there but the previews seemed to lean in that direction. Which is an interesting plot for sure but is it enough to carry a show in the 21st century? I don’t think so. I give it half a season before it’s axed. It just doesn’t seem to have the balls to carry itself. Poor plot, poor action, 80′s themes, and bad writing leave this one dead on arrival.