Falling Skies - Season 1 [DVD]

Let's be clear: this isn't a bad show, but it sure ain't great either. It has its moments, and it kept me watching... mainly waiting for something a bit special to happen. I'm still waiting TBH so here's hoping Season 2 steps it up a gear and delivers.

As has been said elsewhere it's full of cliches, but that in itself isn't a problem when it's done well: see the reimagined Battlestar Galactica for the benchmark of how to turn cliched material into something spectacularly unmissable.

Falling Skies is enjoyable up to a point, but probably best approached with low expectations. Everything's merely OK, but I feel we've a right to expect more than that from projects waving the Spielberg banner.

I bought the entire series on blue ray because I had wanted to watch this on TV, but it seemed to run at weird times and wasn't very well advertised.

Finally I had a chance with the box set and it has been a mixed bag.

This is a show which shows massive potential and I can see it going great places in later seasons, but the first seasons is a bit questionable.

1) The visual effects.

The main aliens which you see throughout the entire show are very well animated, but the mech. units are absolutely awful and in most scenes they are badly positioned, badly animated and move weirdly and have no real life.

A perfect example is the final episode, where a large number of mech. units are on screen at one time, and they all move in sync without any independence and no life to them. Yet on the other hand, other scenes are amazing and the aliens look alive. Its a mixed bag!

2) The very strange plot holes.

A lot of people have talked about the strange idea of having the children collect scrap metal. This is actually explained later down the line and as a plot idea, I didn't mind it. The bad aspect is the way in which it is shown on screen. You see a shot of children walking across a roof top and throwing small bits of metal to the ground for more to collect. Unfortunately the scene is underwhelming, badly shot, badly acted and just has NO impact for what is meant to be a mass-scale operation by the aliens.

Then you have the idea that 200-300 humans are just casually walking through the countryside to a newer and safer location! None of the aliens saw them??? They are camped out in a massive field where other humans can see them, and yet the aliens don't?

There are numerous other, strange story events which occur throughout most of the episodes, which are strange and make no real sense and no real thought seems to have been put into them. You really do have to turn your brain off for most of this.

The last issue being the lack of scale! Now this may be answered in a later season, but where are all the aliens?

At the very first episode, one of the children states there were "millions" of aliens during the first invasion, and yet we barely see one or two of them at a time and again... these humans are able to walk through the countryside in the hundreds without encountering anything?

If you can ignore all of that, this is a good show!

A show which shows potential to grow and become more defined.
The acting is top-notch and the action sequences quite impressive.

There is potential here, but like a lot of TV shows the first season is finding its feet and needs to be cleaned up for the future.

I generally love sci-fi, books, movies, and TV. I approached 'Falling Skies' with every bit of excitement only a Spielberg conception could produce, and was pleasantly rewarded.
The show uses carefully woven plotlines and engaging characters to create a post-apocalyptic world helmed by aliens, nicknamed 'Mechs' and 'Skitters' by humans. While it's true dystopian worlds are a dime a dozen these days, 'Falling Skies' does the smart thing, and approaches the genre with a new angle: Family.
It was refreshing, to say the least, and made the story seem all the more threatening when the characters were in jeopardy. I like this new spin on an age old concept, and I eagerly await season 2!!!!