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Falling Skies

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Post  MichiSichi Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:40 am

I know there is no new season yet, but on the TerraNova thread these two shows were compared. You can see Spielberg in both of them, but I do think Falling Skies is much better and towards the end I was really waiting for the next episode.
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Post  Instant Monkeys Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:19 pm

Ah, the very LAST thread in the TV section, heh. It's back! I kind of missed it. But I'm watching the two-hour premiere, and I'm 24 minutes in and I'm on Snarkfest. And I'm already doing the "rewind to see what happened because I wasn't paying attention" thing. Somewhat ominous signs. Still, I'm glad it's back. Perhaps they will smooth out their rough spots this year. I really want this show to be awesome.
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Post  xyzzy Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:57 am

I enjoy this show in a popcorny way. The Spielbergian Family of Unrelenting Moral Rightousness bugs me a little bit, but there are some parts of the show that are dark enough to make up for that. The mechs gunning down that whole group, for instance, or King Alien's desire to create a concentration camp. Then the writers go and ruin it by pointing out the obvious--Aliens=Nazis, yo, or father-son discussions that spell out character motivations that are transparent enough for even the most distracted viewer to catch onto.

I like the sound design. A lot. The mech moan of impending doom is rather creepy.
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Post  sen3 Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:46 am

I'm still watching. I liked the premiere, though I did kind of fall asleep during parts of it. I love what they are doing with the middle son (Ben?) so far. And liked the scene with the cutie builder-guy with the well-groomed locs who sought safety by cowering behind a giant mound of TNT during the attack on the bridge. That was funny.

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Post  blixie Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:53 am

though I did kind of fall asleep during parts of it.

I feel like I want to like this show more than I actually do, it's SO BORING, and when it's not boring it's dumb, but I can't point to anyone person or character who aggravates me, and I really do like Noah Wyle, but I have literally no idea how you make a show about alien invasion so dull, but they manage to do it. I think what bothers me most is that it's *so close* to V (scrappy post-apoplyptic humanity rebeling against new alien overlords), while having absolutely nothing that made OG V such an absolute kick.

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Post  Instant Monkeys Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:46 pm

I think I would like to see a little more moral ambiguity and less rah-rah absolutism. Sure, it's insulting that the aliens offer you and your fellow humans a walled-off space on your own damn planet while they do what they please with the rest of it. More than Nazis or whatever it made me think of Indian reservations and how they kept getting moved/shrunk. Sure, it's doubly insulting that they're judging everyone on Pol Pot/Hitler/etc. But you don't want to consider it? Like, even for a second? Y'ALL ARE BEING KILLED OUT THERE. Yes, it sucks that you "lost," but at some point don't you want to like, not all die? Maybe you could discuss it with everyone else before taking the principled moral Hollywoody stand that we're human beings, damn it, and we shall never surrender! That's for the French Martians! Maybe some of the other people wouldn't mind not fighting a hopeless battle for the rest of their lives?

Of course, it's TV, and because it's TV, the humans are going to prevail/have a chance. But sometimes I get annoyed on TV when they don't even pretend to acknowledge that in the show, they don't know it's TV. I wish Noah would have at least maybe seemed like he was sort of tempted. And then he could heroically decide that no, we have to keep fighting. But like, you couldn't have given him 20 minutes to seem conflicted? ALIENS TOOK OVER YOUR PLANET. SUPER-POWERFUL ALIENS. This isn't "the odds are against you" like three guys are advancing on you with brass knuckles. This is ALIENS CAME TO EARTH AND KILLED MOST OF HUMANITY WITH THEIR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. Just pretend to seem like maybe you don't know you're the hero of your own TV show for two minutes.

I hate to compare it to Breaking Bad just because that's what I'm watching right now, but Breaking Bad is AWESOME at moral ambiguity (obviously), and Walt can do something cold or underhanded and you sort of hate Walt, but you also sort of root for Walt, and you understand why Walt did what he did, but you still think Walt is a psycho asshole, but...you understand, sort of -- and the upshot is, you can't stop watching Walt and fighting with yourself about how you feel about him and that's a huge part of what makes the show so interesting. It's annoying to me when characters are put into extreme situations, and then react as if everything's black and white and clear-cut.

Anyway, maybe they're going to have some of that, like he tells the rest of the crew "...and so I told them to shove it!!!" and people are mad. But I'm willing to bet all the "good" characters (the doctor, Noah's kids) will be steadfast in their refusal, where it will be the "untrustworthy" characters (grizzled commander guy, long-haired Sawyer guy) (sorry, I will remember everyone's name again when I've watched a bit more) who will (at first, until they learn their lesson) want to agree. And just in general I wish there was a little more complexity to the stories.

And, the disclaimer: Perhaps this very thing happened in the episode, but I don't know because I fell into a COMATOSE SLEEP approximately halfway through, woke up, tried to turn off the DVR recording, could not, and finally realized the hour had ended long ago and the recording had stopped and it was on an episode of CSI or something. I will give it another go and perhaps I'll feel more warmly towards the whole thing. I want to love you, summer alien show.
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Post  sen3 Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:30 pm

So it really was that boring? I thought I was just really sleepy. I'm gonna watch no matter what. It's the only alien tv show around these days. I miss alien TV shows. God, remember all the alien sci-fi TV we had in the 90's and early 00's? I'm starved.

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Post  biakbiak Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:36 pm

But you don't want to consider it? Like, even for a second? Y'ALL ARE BEING KILLED OUT THERE. Yes, it sucks that you "lost," but at some point don't you want to like, not all die? Maybe you could discuss it with everyone else before taking the principled moral Hollywoody stand that we're human beings, damn it, and we shall never surrender! That's for the French Martians! Maybe some of the other people wouldn't mind not fighting a hopeless battle for the rest of their lives?

While I agree he should mention it to the group and let people decide for themselves. It seems to me it would be a fairly big leap of faith to trust the people who are killing you and ensnaring your children that they were just going to round you up and let you leave in peace.

But yes this show is surprisingly boring.

I think what bothers me most is that it's *so close* to V (scrappy post-apoplyptic humanity rebeling against new alien overlords), while having absolutely nothing that made OG V such an absolute kick.

Seriously! Don't trust the person who has been up in the spaceship! Some of these people had to have seen V!
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Post  Instant Monkeys Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:31 pm

biakbiak wrote:While I agree he should mention it to the group and let people decide for themselves. It seems to me it would be a fairly big leap of faith to trust the people who are killing you and ensnaring your children that they were just going to round you up and let you leave in peace.
Very true. Even a single moment of doubt would have been welcome, though. A flicker of "we could stop fighting!...No no, we can't trust them, I must not capitulate." And did he really have to grab a nearby machine gun and start spraying the aliens? What is this, Rambo in Space? What kind of sucky aliens let him get away with that?
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Post  Escape Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:42 pm

Instant Monkeys wrote:
And, the disclaimer: Perhaps this very thing happened in the episode, but I don't know because I fell into a COMATOSE SLEEP approximately halfway through, woke up, tried to turn off the DVR recording, could not, and finally realized the hour had ended long ago and the recording had stopped and it was on an episode of CSI or something. I will give it another go and perhaps I'll feel more warmly towards the whole thing. I want to love you, summer alien show.

Hee. No, this thing did not happen, as I recall. My disclaimer to that is Falling Skies is a show I also want to really like, but it's one that ends up being a lot of background noise and I walk out of the room because I forget something is on that I wanted to watch.

It's like, most of the main characters have potential, but none of them ever do anything different. Or exciting! Or even remotely questionable. It's just... bland.
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Post  FiggyPudding Tue Jun 19, 2012 11:35 pm

xyzzy wrote:I like the sound design. A lot. The mech moan of impending doom is rather creepy.

I love that sound effect, too.

I almost deleted the premiere, but ended up watching it. The pacing was better than last year, thankfully we don't have to slog through as much boring set up and rah-rah speechifying.

Yes, the people are still stupid - "Hey let's take this super sophisticated morphing implant with us!" and "Gee, I escaped pretty easily and I'm the only one they didn't shoot! But no, I don't need to tell anybody." I guess that's why they still need Pope, to point out how stupid they are. When the whole prison camp idea came up, I was surprised they didn't show camps where people agreed to this only to be rounded up and slaughtered.

It sounds like I didn't enjoy it, but overall it was okay. Much better than last year with everyone giving each other moony looks and letting skitter-sympathizer teen run around being sulky and petulant.

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Post  Wildog27 Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:53 am

Watched it last night and I thought the second hour was a lot better than the first hour. And from a film geek stand point, I LOVED the long tracking shot as the team was preparing to go across the river. I am constantly in awe of shots like that.

I think that overall it's better than last season already, which I gave up on about halfway through. I don't know if that is a halo effect from knowing that Battlestar Galactica writers are working on it, but I thought it was better paced as well and while still having the father-sons relationship as a focal point, it didn't overdo the schmaltz like last season. I'll stick with it for a while longer.

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Post  Instant Monkeys Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:00 pm

Wildog27 wrote:I don't know if that is a halo effect from knowing that Battlestar Galactica writers are working on it, but I thought it was better paced as well and while still having the father-sons relationship as a focal point, it didn't overdo the schmaltz like last season. I'll stick with it for a while longer.
Reeeeeeaallllly? That is my exact complaint about the show in a nutshell: that it's not enough like Battlestar Galactica. That is EXCELLENT news. (I haven't watched the second half yet so I'm glad to hear it's better.)
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Post  Wildog27 Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:41 pm

I really liked the touch of the girl Tom rode back to Boston with having braces. It brought home the immediacy of the alien invasion and the fact that her chances of getting those of her teeth ever are pretty slim.

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Post  MichiSichi Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:30 am

I liked the premiere although I hope they keep up the pace f the finale and first episode.
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Post  xyzzy Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:40 am

Wait, what? Battlestar Galactica writers?! Thank Christ. If anyone can inject personality into these characters, it would be them. It also explains the slightly darker tone of the opening episodes. I await the moral ambiguities this show requires with more confidence. Plus better battles.
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Post  MichiSichi Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:46 am

Not bad not bad
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Post  Wildog27 Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:33 am

Finally saw this week's and I really liked it. Still hitting the family aspects nicely, but it's not maudlin like last season. I'm in with it so far.

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Post  Instant Monkeys Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:49 am

Yeah, I'm caught up, and -- not bad so far! I liked the second and third episodes better than hour 1. Keep it up.
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Post  xyzzy Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:11 am

I finally caught the most recent episode this morning. I actually thought it was pretty decent, though a bit flawed near the end because there was a lack of forward momentum.

I loved the opening; it was well shot and had a surreal feel to it that almost convinced me that it was a dream. I think it's pretty cool that Noah is sending his youngest out on safer missions. It demonstrates that he's listening to his son's desires to be useful and underscores that lack of manpower is a pressing problem. The stunt they pulled was stupid dangerous, but I'm not opposed to the idea of a show putting children in danger in an apocalyptic world.

It seems that people on Other Forums(tm) are convinced that 2nd Mass essentially led the skitters to the warehouse, but I'm not sold on that, exactly. I doubt that Ben & Matt rode their bikes right up to the harnessing plant and cut the engines just a few yards away; I imagine that walked them in a distance, and the kids stealing the bikes set the discovery of their hideout in motion. I *do* wonder if the skitters can read Ben's mind, though; did they see, through him, that a cornucopia of harnessables were holed up nearby?

Speaking of the harness, I do have a hard time buying that these aliens just happened to have a biological entity that is perfectly adapted to the human skull and spinal cord complex. I hope that at some point we find out that the aliens created them somehow after arriving on Earth. And what they're for, really. What do they actually need these human slaves for, other than possibly communicating with other humans? Something they don't seem to do all that much.
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Post  FiggyPudding Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:14 pm

It's noticeably better this year, did they fire all the old writers or something?

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Post  xyzzy Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:17 pm

They hired a few Battlestar Galactica writers.
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Post  FiggyPudding Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:14 pm

I never saw Battlestar Galactica, but their influence is a huge plus.

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Post  sen3 Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:28 am

I stayed awake! It's getting good now. I hope Ben is a double agent or something cool.

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Post  xyzzy Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:19 am

This show wins "most improved summer fare" in my internal awards ceremony. It's so much more adult this season; the Spielbergian imprint is all but erased.

I'm really dialed into the rebellion plot and I have nothing but dread for their arrival in Charleston, if it happens. Something seems not right there.
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