First Stargate Universe, now Falling Skies. Apparently, when it comes to science fiction, (television) writers are phoning it in these days. Way to give the genre a bad name.
To be fair, kudos for attempting to make a post-apocalyptic program. Hats off for thinking outside the box, sidestepping another sixties show or rehashed procedural. However, there's a reason scifi is described as the thinking man's genre. Mediocre scriptwriting isn't going to wash.
Unfortunately, Falling Skies airs on the same network as The Walking Dead. I've blogged before about the horror of that show (and by horror, I mean the atrocious scripts, not the zombies). Falling Skies carries on the dubious nouveau tradition of join the dots apocalyptic storytelling.
Here is the trailer for the show. I'll admit, I was worried after I caught a glimpse. It definitely lacks the kind of zest I was expecting. Miracle of miracles, somehow I managed to hold onto a shred of my initial optimism...
...till I actually watched the pilot.
To summarise extensively, aliens have invaded Earth. Falling Skies starts six months after Invasion Day and follows a ragtag bunch of rebels. Our protagonist is a history professor turned soldier. One of his kids has been captured by the aliens and 'harnessed', which seems to involve mind control via a big slug-looking thing attached to your spine and brain.
Okay, there's a few, teeny-tiny issues here. Things like plot, narrative, characters, and moments that are just plain nonsensical. Boy, have we got some logistical problems...
Here's a dozen factors that stood out in the pilot as, hm, questionable* at best:
1. For some reason, these technologically advanced aliens can't seem to 'see', let alone find, roaming packs of humans numbering in the hundreds. Apparently they've have never heard of heat seeking goggles. But later in the episode, a baddy sets off a handful of flares, which does draw them in. UH HUH.
2. We all know trolleys are unreliable, taking ten minutes to manoeuvre down a supermarket aisle. Why exactly you'd attempt to roll a full trolley down the middle of a road covered in car wrecks and chaos at night while being chased by an alien remains one of the pilot episode's great mysteries...
3. There are civilians and soldiers (although most of the soldiers are more just anyone who picked up a gun, from what I can tell). Some soldiers are disgruntled at having to drag the civilians around. Now the million dollar question- why exactly are all the able-bodied men and women labelled "civilians" not being trained to fight, even on a rotating roster??
The answer is, apparently there's no room for grey. The scriptwriter's cling to this easy black and white conflict, created courtesy of a rigid, caste-like system comprised of Soldiers and Civilians. (Oh, there is a thirteen year old boy who totes a gun on patrol, while other grown men stay back at base camp dishing out soup and fixing clothes). In summary, MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.
4. The resistance is constantly on the look out for ammo, yet they waste bullets en bulke. When a renegade fighter tells them to shoot out the alien's legs first before shooting them in the head, I couldn't work out why they didn't carry swords, and just chop off the heads, instead of piling round after round into a near corpse? Extravagant, much??
5. On that note- why do none of our brave soldiers seem to carry knives or machetes en masse? I know, a machine gun is better, but since the soldiers are often shot or incapacitated before capture, a few massive knives strapped to the body aint gonna hurt!
6 Everyone's been on strict rations for a few months at least (as in, water-y oatmeal for brekkie and soup-y slush for dinner) so the cast should be majorly LEAN. Yet somehow, the civilians include a LOT of healthy, portly types who look like they've been sneaking off to a secret Krispy Kreme location.
7. At the beginning of the pilot, the commanding officer splits everyone up, making it clear all scientists will travel with him (ie, offscreen). This is a BIG disappointment. I wanted to see the research into the alien technology, how the scientists were forced to work outside of their disciplines, the possibilities of biological warfare, etc... instead, a lot of screen time is dedicated to a family dynamic that's not very diverting to watch.
8. Our protagonist is a history professor who spends the entire episode quoting past moments in history when the underdog rose up and won. This quirk remains charming for all of two minutes. (If he keeps up with these rousing stories, he's bound to get taken out by a round of friendly-fire).
9. Everyone is dull. Seriously. The main characters are lazy, sloppy cardboard cut-out stereotypes you've seen a dozen times before. By starting the story six months in, there should be some major post traumatic stress going on. The effects of a unique longterm scenario like this would provide psychological fodder for decades to come. Not with this crew, though. Their reactions are dumbed down and over-simplified.
10. Decimated cityscapes are always represented on tv by piles of cement rubble and a scatter of small, eternally-burning fires. It's like there's a budget backdrop shop offering a special somewhere, it's all so neat. Where are the corpses and rats? Plus, it's been six months. Would these little fires still be burning so tidily??
11. I know the aliens are a less-than-subtle metaphor, and it's only the first episode, but honestly, whatever happened to the old adage, Know Your Enemy?? Nobody seems really interested in understanding the aliens, their goals and psychology (if only to defeat them). They're two-dimensional baddies, which also makes the basic us vs them mentality difficult (and boring) to watch.
12. It's good to know that even while the good old US of A is falling to an alien invasion, women will continue to wear push-up bras, skintight jeans and long hair hanging loose. Sure, they've probably got nits by now, and you might think all that hair on your face would be annoying in combat, but you'd be wrong. God Bless America.
*Just to note: I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but the actual basis of a program HAS to be solid. I can shrug off a few dodgy script points while watching a series, but the IDEA of it, needs to feel... relatively plausible. Instead, Falling Skies premise tilts toward farcical, more's the pity.
If you do want to catch some quality humans vs aliens conflict, go old school, and chase up a few episodes of the nineties classic, Space: Above and Beyond.
That, my friends, is how it's done.
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