TV’s second most popular post-apocalyptic drama, Falling Skies, aired its season two premiere last night on TNT. The first season’s finale ended with Tom (Noah Wyle) going aboard an alien ship to talk to the invaders, and that’s exactly where season two picks up. The two-hour premiere mostly answers the question of what happened while Tom was on the ship but still leaves a few tidbits of mystery to keep the audience wondering.
Falling Skies is one of the more action packed television shows, thus leaving it in good graces with me. There were a few nice firefights mixed throughout the premiere and it ended in an explosive face off between the aliens and humans, all coming together to make a first-rate premiere. It looks like the rest of the season will keep up the drama and action as well. As with the first season, the second season will have ten episodes, so tune in every Sunday night at 9/8c on TNT to keep up with who is surviving the alien invasion.
Warning: Spoilers Below!
Here’s what happens:
A small group from the 2nd Massachusetts is fighting off the aliens, both the insectoid aliens (skitters) and their robo-drones (mechs). (I’m just going to refer to a mixed group of skitters and mechs as aliens.) Ben (Connor Jessup) shoots at a skitter, but when it falls over it reveals Ben’s own father, Tom, standing behind it with a gunshot wound courtesy of his sonny boy. Fortunately, Dr. Glass (Moon Bloodgood) works her magic and heals him.
Ben gets all snippy and upset that he shot dear old daddy and gives attitude to everyone in their camp. He then challenges older brother Hal’s (Drew Roy) authority by teaching youngest brother Matt (Maxim Knight) how to shoot a gun. The two older brothers have words, an exchange that ends with polite grunting.
While Tom lies unconscious from his gunshot and Dr. Glass rummages around in his intestines looking for a bullet, he dreams about what happened on the alien ship. Basically, the big mamma alien tells Tom to surrender, give up on fighting them, and they will provide the humans sanctuary camps where they can live in peace. Tom says screw you, gets dumped back on Earth, and walks/rides a bike back to the 2nd Mass. where he then gets shot by his own son. Fascinating, I know. Tom wakes up and everything is peachy keen…except that there’s still an alien apocalypse going on.
The second episode starts with Tom talking to Dr. Glass and wondering if the aliens have messed with his mind. He tells Captain Weaver (Bill Patton) that he shouldn’t trust him, and the captain says he’ll decide who to trust. While Tom talks to Hal, he starts bleeding from his eye, has a seizure, and falls over, leading Dr. Glass to discover a parasite taking a vacation in Tom’s eyeball. They remove it and store it in a glass jar because killing it would be too logical. Tom freaks out and has them put him in restraints in case there are more parasites inside him that want to make him do bad things.
Meanwhile, aliens destroy the only bridge that gave the group a way across the river, so the 2nd Mass. devise a plan to rig it long enough to cross and then blow it up. While they work on that, the parasite pulled from Tom’s eye escapes its jar, grows wings, and flies out of the bus.
2nd Mass. patches up the bridge and starts moving across, so of course the aliens find them and attack. Tom has Matt cut him loose from his restraints so he can fight while a half-dozen nameless extras get mowed down around him. Just when the aliens look ready to take out Tom, Matt comes through for him and shoots the looming skitter. Everyone makes it across the bridge but Tom, and the others have to blow the bridge with him on it. Oh well, scratch one Tom. Is Matthew Fox available to replace him? Oh wait, never mind. Looks like Tommy Boy is okay after all.
The show ends with the escaped parasite flying back to a skitter and crawling into its eye.
Likes:
- Great action opening.
- Ben pwning Hal by easily grabbing his arms and pushing him down like a bully on the playground.
- Good representation of what the world is like when Tom burns money to stay warm.
- Love the scene where they remove the parasite from Tom’s eye. Ewww!
- Intriguing ending.
Dislikes:
- Slows way down after the opening.
- Butt ton of commercial breaks – or do I just not watch cable TV enough to know that’s the usual amount of commercial breaks?
- Not a whole lot of character development. Just soldiers planning their next battle – which would work for a movie, but I’d like to see a little more character growth…or regression…or something.
What are some of your likes and dislikes about the premiere?
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