The Fall and Rise of “Falling Skies”
"Falling Skies"
After the dinosaur adventure disaster that was “Terra Nova,” you’d have thought producer Steven Spielberg had gotten the Western Union saying he could no longer get away with re-selling of Reagan era family values and retrograde gender politics in a post-Bush depression. But no—he followed it with the alien invasion programmer “Falling Skies,” whose mince pie of musty tropes, Tea Party pandering, reflexive sexism and mansplain exposition style were slathered in treacle. And let’s not even talk about the mechanical aliens imported from “Robocop”‘s ED-209 without even a thank you note.
But as Season Three ends we know that hell can freeze over and pigs can fly because, thanks to some top writers in the genre hired, I assume, to revivify and save Spielberg’s turkey from the worst of his inclinations, “Skies” is now not only not terrible, but terrific, a smart, overwhelmingly emotional one of a kind. It’s become a transgressively spiritual war story that uses the persistence of constant loss as a way to explore how we redefine family in hard times. The immigration allegory and gender power and culture war subtexts enrich but don’t overwhelm the show, and the violence is designed to generate anxiety rather than action-film kicks. Yes, it sometimes meanders, but when you think how monumentally terrible “Skies” was so recently, it feels like we’re in the realm of the miraculous, and that warrants some taking stock.
Heading the Second Mass is Tom Mason ( Noah Wyle ), a former military history professor prone to sudden Revolutionary War ruminations. He has three sons: 16-year-old Hal (Drew Roy), tween Ben (Connor Jessup) and ten-ish Matt (Maxim Knight, in a vulnerably plucky, star-making turn). As if to portray all stages of the male life experience, the show includes Gulf War vet Dan, played by Will Patton with bellicosity turned to 11. With the Second Mass out-numbered, out-gunned and ridiculously dwarfed, tech-wise, the first two seasons are based around Tom’s belief that U.S. history proves that the home field advantage always wins. This is what my shrink calls “magical thinking.”
Anyway, the show was terrible. And as for “Skies”‘ women, oy. There was nervous nurse Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel) playing submissive mouse to Mason’s Big Cheese; foxy Karen (Jessy Schram), an alien-possessed Evil Babe so evil you expected her to find a honey blond mustache to glue on and twirl, and ever-surly Maggie (Sarah Carter), a good actor with the badass physicality of Katee Sackhoff but no character to attach it to. But for a pure tincture of “Skies”‘ female trouble, I present you with the strange case of Doctor Anne Glass (Moon Goodblood), the only female allowed even a very small plot of “Skies”‘ narrative land. When the Second Mass captures a skitter, Dr. Glass tires of everyone arguing about what to do and just rams her fist up the thing’s mouth and jabs at its brain until it dies a shrieking, horrible alien death.
Pretty badass, right? Wrong. The show steals the triumph of Dr. Glass immediately to restore male dominance. She abruptly freaks out, runs away, and dissolves into a puddle of tears on Tom ‘s shoulder as she whines about her family photographs . Put it this way: try to imagine Tom finally figuring the key to vanquishing the alien menace, breaking down in tears, and wandering the halls for a shoulder to cry on.
Frustratingly, the show had promising aspects. There were the teen human slave labor force created by sticky bio-mechanical “harnesses” attached to kids’ spines that only sometimes totally control you: a Cronenbergian way of folding dread and mistrust into teen angst. There were the magnificently unnerving scenes of harnessed kids cuddled up to skitters who caress them in motherly ways that verged on erotic. And there were the tiny ant-like smart-probes sliding into people’s eyes. Those were all SF ideas worth exploring—just not on “Falling Skies.”
Until suddenly they were.
I like to think that Spielberg, a child of divorce who has always idealized the intact, 1950s-style, dad-dominated family unit, took a fearless inventory, and realized that at least some of the problems that had dogged both “Terra Nova” and “Falling Skies” might be solved by people who grew up in an America more defined by a more fluid sense of family—still the core of this show. It’s the America of single-parent homes, stay-at-home dads, and single-gender couples who weren’t surprised when a May 29, 2013 New York Times piece found that “four in 10 American households with children under age 18 now include a mother who is either the sole or primary earner for her family.”
And so “Skies” went through that massive re-tooling by genre experts in alternative family dramas like “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Battlestar Galactica” (Bradley Thompson & David Weddle), “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (John Wirth), “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (David Solomon), “Dexter” (Holly Dale), “Human Target” (Heather V. Regnier) and the late, lamented “Alphas” (Jordan Rosenberg).
The proof of new-“Skies” is there in the first image of Season Three: a determined young woman’s face in close-up looking at a row of lime-dust-covered slaves, the sun glaring. You could be excused for thinking you’ve tuned into another show entirely. You kind of have. This “Falling Skies” finds humanity aided by The Volm, a noble, melancholic alien race in multigenerational war against the Espheni, the real and proper name for “skitters”, which means I don’t have to think about delicious candy every time people talk about them.
Thanks to the Volm’s tech and humankind’s pluck, the Second Mass is actually gaining ground. Still, this lime quarry attack is brutal stuff, with the group’s youth a well-oiled killing machine, right down de-harnessed girl Deni (Megan Danso), who casually rips an Espheni’s brains out in the quintessential Glassian style. The battle peaks with a classic Spielberg dolly-in/angle-up shot meant to carve heroes’ faces in the Mount Rushmores of our imagination. But since Tom—now President of the New United Sates of America—is late to the battle, the image instead admires Deni, Ben, and a bloodied Espheni rebel.
It’s the opening volley in the season’s real-world America immigration crisis allegory, where the Espheni understand that the most effective way to destroy community is to nurture mistrust and Other-hate and watch people tear each other apart. Having settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, only creates a level of comfort that more easily allows the Overlords’ micro-tech probes to go undetected and wreak maximum interpersonal damage while sucking up Second Mass military plans.
No matter what’s happening in an episode’s story, “Skies” nags at questions that supposed quality shows like “Ray Donovan” and “Low Winter Sun” don’t think to even treat poorly, because nihilism is a full-time job. When is the right time to forget your old life? What violence is and isn’t justified? Who decides how we pass on our legacy? “Falling Skies” triumphs when it shows people attempting partial answers.
In the episode “ Badlands ,” a silent, shadowed artist welds a “Tree of Liberty” out of bronze and tin for what will be a dreamlike memorial. Public art and the procedures of loss are celebrated as a child choir sings a starkly beautiful, modernist hymn. People hang metal ‘leaves’ inscribed with the names of their beloved lost on the tree’s branches, pausing for prayer. It’s “Falling Skies”‘ creators crafting a new spirituality that works for people coping with old gods that looked the other way. There’s a breeze of classic Spielberg optimism here that just makes everything achier.
Tom, meanwhile, is arguably closest to a Volm named Cochise ( Doug Jones ). So it’s crushing on a personal level when, after the human/Volm alliance leads to the destruction of an Espheni installation, Cochise’ father announces, as nicely as he can, that because humans are physically, intellectually and technologically inferior, there can be no place for them in the ongoing Volm/Espheni war. However, the Volm will be happy to relocate humankind, with full protection, supplies, and housing to…Brazil. Enraged, Tom pledges that humans will fight to their last breath for their planet. Dan splutters about a new, better resistance, one that’s all human, dammit! (Dan’s daughter, played by Laci J Mailey, doesn’t get the downside of a life of protected leisure lying on beautiful beaches drinking Mai-Tais, but the men won’t hear of it.)
“Skies”‘ great new card trick is the merging of macro and micro. While the military deals with their pyrrhic victory, we return to the story of Doctor Glass and Tom’s strange child, who grows at a terrifying intellectual rate while continuing to appear as an infant—until there’s no hiding her true nature from Tom in a shocker reveal: Still only a few months old, Lexi is now the height of a six year old. When she sees Lourdes in agony and near death from the hundreds of insect-like probes buzzing in her head, a single glance makes them fall out of her eyes and turn to what looks like onyx dust. Then Lexi says “Hi Daddy!”
Kudos to Wyle for getting down the mix of shock, dawning realization that it was something the Overlords did when they abducted him that caused Lexi’s difference, and bursting love and pride for her being so awesome. And then his terror for what all of this means: Having an older son, Hal, who caused untold numbers of people to die while under alien control; and Ben, who may have had his harness removed but is still in psychic connection with the Espheni, a boy of two countries who can separate from neither; and now a daughter with the DNA of two worlds. Hal has three children who are immediate danger from a body politic recently betrayed.
But even with his fear of what the fragged Second Mass might do to his family, now poster children for the evils of alien miscegenation, and his barely checked terror of having the Other alive and doing things in his own body—even with all that, Tom doesn’t bail, or balk at this radically new idea of family. If anything, he loves them more fiercely. Tom proves himself the equal to Doctor Glass, who all season long has had to live with, explore and control the information about these issues as they developed, never giving in to fear or other peoples’ hysteria, alone, for her reasons.
Much like “Battlestar Galactica” finales, this season of “Falling Skies” ends with nothing but exciting question marks. It has so effectively destroyed its settings, goals, and our assumptions while pushing its characters to such no-way-back extremes that it’s hard to imagine what the show might be next season. But I’m betting it involves lots of angry villagers.
Ian Grey is a New York writer whose work on visual arts, music, and identity politics have been published by Press Play , Baltimore City Paper , Lacanian Ink , The Prague Post , The Perfect Sound , Salon , Gothic.net , Smart Money , Time Out New York , and other forums.
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Falling skies.
- Common Sense Says
- Parents Say 4 Reviews
- Kids Say 13 Reviews
Common Sense Media Review
Earnest alien drama gets hostile but holds back on gore.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that violence drives the plot of this sci-fi drama, but it's surprisingly light on blood and gore. That said, characters use weapons of every sort -- from guns to explosives -- and death is a common occurrence. (The aliens themselves are pretty creepy, too.) You'll also hear low-level…
Why Age 14+?
Violent acts aren't excessively shocking or gory, but there are frequent gun
Infrequent use of "damn," "hell," etc.
Sex isn't the focus in a survival situation, but there's some mild innue
Any Positive Content?
The show drives home positive messages about building community, working togethe
Most characters are fighting for the common good and are willing to risk their l
Violence & Scariness
Violent acts aren't excessively shocking or gory, but there are frequent gun battles, laser fights, and bombings with bouts of blood and death. Most characters have experienced life-altering moments of violence. Children taken prisoner by the aliens are outfitted with controlling devices that look painful and invasive.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.
Sex, Romance & Nudity
Sex isn't the focus in a survival situation, but there's some mild innuendo/flirting/interaction between select characters. Some kissing.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Positive Messages
The show drives home positive messages about building community, working together, and protecting human life whenever possible. Most families are no longer intact, but the concept of family is still very important.
Positive Role Models
Most characters are fighting for the common good and are willing to risk their lives to protect each other. That said, the human survivors take orders from a largely male leadership. A few women play important secondary roles in camp (one is a doctor, two are fighters), but for the most part, the men seem to be in charge.
Parents need to know that violence drives the plot of this sci-fi drama, but it's surprisingly light on blood and gore. That said, characters use weapons of every sort -- from guns to explosives -- and death is a common occurrence. (The aliens themselves are pretty creepy, too.) You'll also hear low-level curse words like "hell" and "damn," and see light sexual content (like kissing).
Where to Watch
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Parent and Kid Reviews
- Parents say (4)
- Kids say (13)
Based on 4 parent reviews
Great Show.
Powerful drama, what's the story.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg , FALLING SKIES follows the dramas of human survivors living in the wake of a global alien attack and their collective efforts to fight back and reclaim their planet. The action centers on the 2nd Massachusetts, an organized band of resistance fighters and civilians who have an ace up their sleeve with Tom Mason ( Noah Wyle ), a former professor with expert knowledge of military history and combat tactics. But Mason must balance the facts in his head with the sadness in his heart after losing his wife -- and watching his teenage son, Ben (Connor Jessup), become an unwilling alien hostage.
Is It Any Good?
If it's possible to add a "family" feel to a show about an alien apocalypse, then Falling Skies manages to do it. But it does so with such heavy-handed sincerity that, at times, it feels oddly insincere. As a result, the show gets mired in earnest moments about sticking together and working collectively for the common good -- which are great messages, to be sure, but unfortunately don't help to advance the plot.
Couple that with the show's dialed-down realism (you're largely spared the blood and guts you'd see in real life -- and on most shows of this nature), and you're left with a big-budget, high-concept series that, while watchable, feels surprisingly bland.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the show's premise and the messages it sends about survival and human nature. If the world ever suffered a catastrophe of this scale (alien or otherwise), how do you think humans would behave?
How does the level of violence in this show compare with that of other movies and television series that have dealt with the same topic? Would real-life conflict on this scale be more or less violent than what you see here?
Are the aliens themselves too scary, not scary enough, or just right for TV?
- Premiere date : June 19, 2011
- Cast : Moon Bloodgood , Noah Wyle , Will Patton
- Network : TNT
- Genre : Drama
- TV rating : TV-14
- Last updated : December 18, 2023
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Science Fiction, or Speculative Fiction if you prefer. Fantasy too. Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, Heinlein and other SF books. SF movies and TV shows. Fantasy stuff like Tolkien and Game of Thrones. Laser guns, space ships, and time travel. etc. Star Trek, Battlestar, Star Wars, etc.
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‘Falling Skies’ Finale: Why the Series Ended on a ‘Very American’ Note (and How the Series ‘Almost’ Ended)
Falling Skies
- Terry O’Quinn Is the Guest Star King: 10 Roles You May Have Forgotten
- Noah Wyle Previews ‘The Red Line’ & Looks Back on His Best TV Roles
Spoiler Alert: Details from the Falling Skies series finale below.
After five seasons and three showrunners, Falling Skies , TNT’s alien-invasion series from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, concluded Sunday night with hero Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) killing the Espheni queen and surviving to celebrate a new and better world. In an exclusive interview, executive producer David Eick (who arrived in Season 4) tells us all about it.
In the end, it was a decisive victory for the Mason family and the 2nd Massachusetts. Was this your ending or was it passed down from the creators and Steven Spielberg? It wasn’t pre-ordained by the network or Amblin, but it did become a collaboration with the folks at Amblin, including Mr. Spielberg. I presented him with a very broad strokes proposal about the character arcs, and how Tom Mason and the 2nd Mass would have to go a philosophical and moral place nearly as dark as the enemy in order to defeat them. That was very exciting to him and TNT. I also proposed the ending that you saw. He was in favor of it, offered some thoughts, which we used and it came out great.
You, along with Ron Moore, were responsible for that ambiguous mystical Battlestar Galactica ending; why such a straightforward finale for Skies ? There was an inherent supernatural element to Battlestar from the beginning. Falling Skies was very grounded and realistic, and ironically, terrestrial. So anything other than that would have felt contrived. That said, I’ve done a final episode that has an alien queen monster and exploding alien beasts in the sky, so it’s not exactly what I would call a documentary.
Is the ending a patriotic paean to can-do Americans? There’s an unapologetic patriotism in its sensibility, but it’s not jingoism or a Deer Hunter polemic. It’s a very optimistic and hopeful resolution and very American. It’s also egalitarian, open and multi-culti in its approach.
When Tom ends his speech to the assembled multitudes, he says that humans have learned “we are not alone.” He seemed to mean that in an inclusive way, not a warning way? “We are not alone” is the tagline from Close Encounters of the Third Kind . It’s kind of meta in a Spielberg way, but also very appropriate to the message of the show.
You made the decision that none of the Masons or their closest friends would die. Why? Before I got to the show, there were terrific episodes about losing members of the 2nd Mass, but by this season especially, that chord had been played. We know that the stakes are real. In the finale, one of our new members sacrificed himself and we got the very near miss with Anne (Moon Bloodgood). There was enough death in the episode.
Did you ever consider really killing Anne in the finale? The nature of Falling Skies isn’t that hopeless and nihilistic. In Battlestar , we would have killed the mom and the child. Then played a game of poker. But it’s not the flavor of this show.
You went a bit supernatural with the newly arrived aliens, the Dornia, bringing Anne back from the dead . Our rules for the Dornia were established in the first episode this season. In some mysterious way they were able to save Tom, which was so inexplicable that Tom was almost executed for coming back from space alive. In the final episode we learned that the Dornia, through their relationship with the water, could protect, reinvigorate and even resurrect. We never really say Tom and Anne are dead, just most likely near death, and through an organic method, healed.
You did absolutely kill Tom’s ally-turned-enemy Pope (Colin Cunningham). When he died, Tom barely acknowledged the fact. He tortured Tom’s son Hal (Drew Roy), but it still seemed cold. Noah and Colin always had a bit of friction and that dynamic played nicely on camera. What we decided to do this season, with Spielberg’s blessing, was take Pope back to where we met him: a damaged individual. He came close to redeeming himself but after the death of the one woman he loved, he fell all the way back into bitterness and madness. That was really sort of the tragedy of Season 5. Tom was, more than angry at the end, he was just indifferent to Pope.
Was there a tiny bit of redemption for the dying Pope? He didn’t shoot Tom when he could have. Exactly. He knew that his own death was the only gesture he could make that had any hope of making amends for what he did.
Was the Espheni queen digital or part puppet? She was a cool creation. That was all a digital creation, enhanced terrifically by the voice of Battlestar’s Tricia Helfer. She really gave the character a soul. I had pitched to Spielberg that the queen had suffered a personal pain. It was assumed that the invasion was all about some galactic strategy and of course there was some military application, but in the end it was an emotional vendetta that the queen needed to exact. She was enraged that when her daughter first arrived on Earth, the people killed her.
And ate her. Yes, ate her. The network was nervous about the consuming, the head on the stake in that story. But they appropriately gave in because those details helped you understand what motivated the creature.
Is there room for a spinoff series or a TV movie after this finale? I was a hired gun here, and on my way to my next thing [a Syfy series based on Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi classic Gateway ], so I don’t have any say, but I will tell you my original ending. We’re listening to Tom as he’s ending his speech and the camera goes up to the stars when he says “We are not alone” and then dives back down to the Washington Memorial. Earlier, when Tom broke open the vial and the creature goes into his flesh to poison the queen, the creature then crawled away. In the final scene, we would have found that critter and watched as he scurries away. Then cut to black. They didn’t want to do that. [ Laughs ]
That smacks of an Eick-style ending. Because that’s who I am. [ Laughs ] But the final ending is in keeping with the style of the tone and show, which is hopeful, and as I said very American. I hope it didn’t feel too mawkish.
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Falling Skies
- Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy
- Noah Wyle as Tom Mason; Moon Bloodgood as Anne Glass; Drew Roy as Hal Mason; Seychelle Gabriel as Lourdes; Colin Cunningham as John Pope; Bruce Gray as Uncle Scott; Will Patton as Captain Weaver; Sarah Carter as Margaret; Scarlett Byrne as Lexi; Mira Sorvino as Sara
TV Series Review
Chicken Little has been scorned for generations for being an alarmist, mistaking a falling nut for the end of all things. “The sky is falling!” Little would holler over and over.
‘Course, there’s always a chance that Chicken Little might turn out to be right.
In TNT’s sci-fi series Falling Skies , it does look as though the end of the world—or at least the end of the world as we know it—was pretty close to a reality. Nasty aliens invaded, slaughtered most of us earthlings and were in the midst of mop-up operations, hunting down the last remnants of humanity and pilfering children.
The Cost of Victory
But we humans are a feisty lot. Thanks to a little derring-do, a touch of alien help and a lot of sacrifice, humanity has fought back and seems on the brink of reclaiming what’s left of the world from its alien invaders. But the toll has been high—physically, emotionally, perhaps even spiritually. And while viewers know that the cost of losing the war would’ve been unthinkable, Falling Skies also asks in its reportedly final season, What’s the cost of winning it ?
As the resistance goes on, the battlefield grows more complex. Another alien race is working shoulder to shoulder with us. And sometimes it seems as though we humans fight among ourselves as much as we do with the enemy. No one, it seems, is safe—and no one’s absolutely positive about what new challenges might wait around the corner.
“In the last two years I’ve been kidnapped, tortured, shot, implanted with an eye worm,” said Tom Mason, the show’s prime human hero, a few seasons ago. “Last week I was almost torn apart … and contaminated by a nuclear reactor. I think we can count on something happening. Don’t you?”
A “Family Show”?
In the midst of all that carnage, Falling Skies still manages to seem more interested in picking up pieces than in breaking them. “The setting is very dark and gritty, but the wonderful thing about this show is that the tone is very uplifting and inspiring,” Drew Roy, who plays Hal Mason (Tom’s son), told nbcnewyork.com . “It’s people at their worst trying to come together, all from different backgrounds, and having to focus on one thing.”
Falling Skies is also a little cleaner than some of the other freak-fare we’ve seen lately. The aliens aren’t pretty (though they might beg to differ). And they have these weird harness-like things they plaster on the spines of captured children that remind me of the “face huggers” from the Alien movies. There’s blood. And guts. But we don’t see the same kind of fawning fascination with gore that’s evident on, say, The Walking Dead .
The show also has issues with foul language that seem to have gotten progressively worse, but some secular reviewers have actually called Falling Skies a “family show.” I wouldn’t go that far. It skitters (as it were) over the line a few too many times to deserve that kind of compliment.
Episode Reviews
Falling skies: 6-28-2015.
After cutting off alien power from a base on the moon, Tom finds himself in a dream world talking with his dead former wife who, drawing analogies from her own battle with breast cancer, encourages Tom to hammer the reeling aliens with both barrels and to find his “warrior.” Tom unleashes his inner warrior by battling a flying alien, pummeling it to death and then ripping off its head to display to the folks back home. Hunting parties split up, gunning down and blowing up aliens, mainly the crab-like Skitters. (One group of Skitters, uncontrolled by their Overlords, ravenously attack each other.)
Two people die: One bears a gory flesh wound on his shoulder, while the other is apparently ripped apart by two hungry Skitters. (We see her hunting partner get splashed with blood.) Tom shoots an alien several times without mercy. Anne, Tom’s second wife, also kills an alien—but she tries to do so with compassion, telling it to “let go” after stabbing it in the throat. Two of Tom’s sons, Hal and Ben, continue to vie for the affections of a woman named Maggie. (Maggie says she loves Hal, but has feelings for Ben, too.) Characters say the s-word once, “d–n” three times, “h—” five times and “b–tard” once. God’s name is misused once, as is Jesus’ name.
FallingSkies: 7-20-2014
“Mind Wars”
Anne holds an Espheni overlord captive. Her daughter, Lexi, encourages her to free him. (We later learn that the overlord is partly Lexi’s father.) Tom is captured by turncoat humans, and Captain Weaver and Tom’s son Matt stalk the evildoers to rescue him.
Matt wants to punish the people who captured his dad. Weaver cautions him to not let anger control him. “If you let that hate destroy who you are, then we lost everything,” he says. And when Matt tries to shoot the kidnappers, he discovers he can’t. Meanwhile, Anne beats her captive overlord viciously, but the abuse causes Ben (who’s psychically linked to the Espheni) great pain. We see blood run out of his nose, and bruises and welts rise on his stomach. Two people get shot, and others get shot at. Tom’s captors punch him twice, drawing blood. Tom headbutts someone. Lexi gets angry at her mother, nearly strangling her. (She has strange powers, presumably thanks to her Espheni dad.)
A feverish Lexi appears to languish in bed naked (she’s covered except for her shoulders). People drink bourbon around a campfire. We hear about a chilling act of betrayal. Characters say “d–n” three or four times; “a–” “b–ch” and “h—” once each. A Mormon farm is mentioned, and someone snidely says, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
FallingSkies: 6-16-2013
“Badlands”
A firefight ensues when guards are attacked by fellow humans (who are worried that the crew in Charleston has sold out to the aliens). “I think the only good alien is a dead alien,” says one aggressor. People are wounded and killed. A woman is hit with a bullet … and a piece of rebar when she falls. (We see the metal rod sticking through her head.) Not quite dead yet, she suggests that she be put down, like a dog.
Dr. Glass worries that her baby (that she had with Tom) isn’t human as the settlement prepares to beat off another attack. When Captain Weaver’s daughter asks how he can be so calm and even optimistic, he says, “If I’m optimistic, it’s because I’ve got something worth dying for,” hugging her close.
When a woman finds a spot outside to relieve herself, preadolescent Matt Mason tries to watch. “She’s old enough to be your grandmother,” Pope scolds. The woman, however, tells Pope to give the kid a break. “It’s probably the most exciting thing he’s ever seen,” she says. Pope compliments Matt on his thieving.
Two women share a drink. We hear “h‑‑‑” eight or 10 times, “a‑‑” four or five, and “d‑‑n,” “b‑‑ch,” “b‑‑tard” and “p‑‑‑” once each.
FallingSkies: 6-24-2012
“Compass”
Ben and Jimmy hunt skitters, shooting them, stabbing them in the throat and immolating them … until one red-eyed alien evades their attacks, impales Jimmy on a tree branch (we see lots of blood, only partly obscured by the dark evening) and works some weird telepathy on Ben via the alien-implanted spikes on his back. Jimmy eventually dies and Ben remains a part of the group—but are the aliens using him? Seems so.
Meanwhile, Tom and Pope have several big conflicts—the last of which leaves Pope beaten and bloody. The crew heads for Charleston, S.C., where they hear that a more organized resistance is forming. Fighters show gumption, heart and skill in this episode, and Captain Weaver laments the fact that kids like Jimmy and Ben have to grow up so quickly in this horrific world. One character is buried underneath a cross.
Folks drink beer. We hear “a‑‑” and “h‑‑‑” (four or fives times each), “b‑‑ch,” “b‑‑tard” and “p—.” There’s one misuse of God’s name. We hear references to human excrement.
FallingSkies: 6-3-2011
“Grace”
The resistance carts in a captured skitter, hoping to communicate with it. One doctor would rather dissect the thing than talk to it. But at this point it seems that cooler heads will (might?) prevail. Meanwhile, Tom is attacked by a skitter who is leading a band of weapon-wielding children.
A skitter is shot with a handgun and shotgun, dying from the latter. Another alien is knocked out when someone sticks a gun in its mouth. Several skitters are blown up while sleeping. A human fighter is shot in the leg. (We see the bloody wound.) Removing a “harness” from a boy leaves bloody protrusions on his spine.
A human rebel (who wears what appear to be skitter claws around his neck as trophies) makes off-color sexual and borderline racist remarks. Characters say “h‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n,” “p‑‑‑” and “b‑‑ch.” They misuse God’s name.
In the midst of all that, Lourdes’ faith is a big focus, and she prays frequently. She whispers a prayer for missing children and, when someone asks incredulously whether she thinks it’s helping, she says, “It helps me.” As resistance members gather for dinner, she leads several in prayer. “I still think we can appreciate what we have in our life,” she says. “Even now.”
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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Here's How You Can Watch Every Season Of Falling Skies
Dystopian fiction has been all the rage in the 21st century with film series like The Hunger Games and TV shows like The Walking Dead depicting the breakdown of society, often as a result of some existential threat. Just one year after The Walking Dead came out, a similar show was released presenting a very different threat – Falling Skies on TNT. While it's easy enough to shoot some zombies in the head, provided you aren't face-to-face with a horde, Falling Skies focused on a group of survivors dealing with extraterrestrials who have a great deal of firepower at their disposal, and if that wasn't bad enough, the aliens also enslave children.
For five seasons, Tom Mason ( Noah Wyle ) leads a rebellion to take back Earth from the otherworldly menace. Anyone who's a fan of alien invasion stories along the lines of Cloverfield and War of the Worlds , the latter of which is surprisingly based on real events , will enjoy this unique spin on the genre. The audience gradually learns about the aliens' capabilities and weaponry alongside the characters, keeping you on the edge of your seat from one season to the next as the aliens' ultimate plan gets uncovered.
Anyone in the mood for some sci-fi action that doesn't overstay its welcome will want to give this series a watch. Plus, there's a pretty simple way to get every episode at your disposal.
All five seasons of Falling Skies are on HBO Max
You're in luck if you have a subscription to HBO Max. All 52 episodes of Falling Skies are currently streaming on the platform commercial-free, so you can binge-watch the entire show at your leisure.
If you don't have HBO Max and don't particularly want another streaming service to pay for (with this specific one costing $14.99 a month), then you can always purchase the series. Anyone who's a fan of physical media will be delighted to hear that you can get the complete Blu-Ray box set currently on Amazon for $59.35 . That comes out to about four months of paying for HBO Max, so if you know you're a fan of this series and plan on rewatching it over and over again, it's a worthwhile investment.
It's a great deal compared to paying for digital copies of each season. You can purchase every season from Amazon or Apple TV, but it's going to set you back between $19.99 and $27.99 per season. That means you'll end up spending well over $100 if you decide to go down this route. Then again, if you don't have a Blu-Ray player, you may not have a lot of other options.
For anyone who hasn't seen Falling Skies before and wondering if they should give it a chance, the answer is a resounding "Yes." The series received predominantly positive reviews across all its seasons, never really dipping in quality. David Hinckley of the New York Daily News even wrote in his review for the show's first season, " Falling Skies is looking like the season's best popcorn television."
Aliens continue to inspire some of the most intriguing fiction around. If we do one day meet extraterrestrials , hopefully they aren't like the warmongering ones found on Falling Skies .
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Falling skies: tv review.
"ER" alum Noah Wyle leads an ensemble cast in the high-concept TNT drama.
By Tim Goodman
Tim Goodman
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What it’s about: Executive produced by Steven Spielberg , the alien invasion drama stars Noah Wyle ( ER ) as a former history professor who is charged with leading a regiment of resistance fighters protecting a big group of civilian survivors – all while trying to free his son from alien captivity. Think of it as V meets The Walking Dead .
Premiere date: Sunday, June 19 at 9 p.m.
Steven Spielberg is executive producing two high-concept television series and has, in the past couple of years, been shepherding them to the small screen. But along the way, one – Terra Nova on Fox – was seemingly stealing all the hype.
Part of that was an enormous budget, with the 13 episodes reportedly costing $4 million each, plus shooting on location in Australia. Millions more were spent on elaborate sets. But there always seemed to be delays when Fox was preparing to show clips to critics. Production delays eventually forced Fox to drop its plan to air the pilot in May, a la the Glee launch, then return with a bang in the fall after everybody talked Terra Nova to death on social media all summer.
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With the big May sneak-peek doomed, along came June and, with quite a bit less fanfare, the impending premiere of Spielberg’s other series, Falling Skies on TNT.
And guess what? It’s really good.
So good and so entertaining, in fact, that the pressure is squarely on Terra Nova not to become a high-priced flop (cough, FlashForward , cough) come fall. Hey, stranger things have happened.
And when it comes right down to it, do you want your sci-fi to involve going back in time with dinosaurs or confronting a post-apocalyptic world where aliens have bombed the bejesus out of Earth?
Exactly. Let Terra Nova dabble in Jurassic danger while Falling Skies puts machine guns in the hands of kids. Or they could both be really good.
If you’re wondering about kids with machine guns, yes, it has come to that in the world of Falling Skies . The premise is that alien ships arrived – present day – and brought a whole lot of whoop-ass with them. Much of the world has been destroyed, military targets taken out, the population decimated and the aliens are an occupying force. It’s left up to ordinary citizens to fight back – kids included — even though they are vastly outnumbered, under-armed and technologically lacking.
Falling Skies picks up six months after the carnage and part of the citizen army known as 2 nd Mass (because they are in Boston) is looking for food and weapons, trying to avoid the deadly mechanized robots (known as “Mechs”) doing the killing for the multiple-legged aliens (known as “Skitters”) who launched the attack. (The aliens are hard to describe, but if you’ve seen Monsters, Inc., think about Mr. Waternoose sans color or the ability to sound like James Coburn ).
The series wastes little time in setting the grim scenario: Everybody’s on their own. The resistance fighters are doing the best they can, but it’s a rag-tag collection at best, vastly overwhelmed to the point where anybody who can handle a gun gets one (if there’s one to be spared). The aliens have also kidnapped teenagers and attached a tentacled bug to their spines, which essentially turns them into zombie-like slaves.
Conceived by Spielberg and Robert Rodat (who wrote Saving Private Ryan ), the series also claims Graham Yost ( Justified, The Pacific ) as an executive producer. Mark Verheiden ( Heroes, Battlestar Galactica ) and Greg Beeman ( Heroes, Smallville ) are co-executive producers – and hopefully they’ve learned from the wayward mistakes of Heroes as Falling Skies goes forward.
The series stars Noah Wyle as Tom Mason, a Boston history professor with a specialty in military tactics. He’s assigned to Weaver ( Will Patton ), the commander of 2 nd Mass. Moon Bloodgood is Anne Glass, a pediatrician who lost her own family but is taking care of the children in the group. Mason has three sons – eldest teenager Hal ( Drew Roy ) who has become impressively battle-hardened; middle child Ben ( Connor Jessup ), kidnapped and “harnessed” by the aliens; and 8-year-old Matt ( Maxim Knight ), who has not only lost his mother, who died in the invasion, plus a brother under alien control, but he doesn’t have the ability to fully understand why his life isn’t normal.
And that’s ultimately what works best in Falling Skies . Smartly set just far enough after the attack to have the shock worn down, but not far enough for anyone to have fully recovered, emotionally, we meet these characters at an unfamiliar juncture for most sci-fi fare. Spielberg and company don’t have to recreate War of the Worlds for us to know what happened. Falling Skies shares a number of welcome similarities to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica , in that both series have a tone that each character understands and both series accomplish a lot for what is likely a fraction of what Terra Nova is spending. This more granular approach to the apocalypse favors sharp writing and nuance. Credit Wyle with establishing exactly the right tone here – his character has lost his wife, a son is kidnapped by the aliens and instead of running around frantically, his downbeat acceptance essentially conveys, “Hey, it’s done. It happened. We didn’t dream it. This is life as we know it now.”
Of course, in that way there are also welcome comparisons to The Walking Dead as well. Falling Skies is first and foremost a survival story. The series does well by not sugarcoating reality for the children in the story. Mason’s youngest may want to celebrate a birthday and get a present, but the abiding mood is that such whimsy belongs in a past life. There’s a bigger question out there – what are the aliens up to? – plus numerous unanswered smaller questions about whether there’s a government in place, how many people are still alive, etc.
But the entertainment value and suspense of Falling Skies is paced just right. You get the sense that we’ll get those answers eventually. And yet, you want to devour the next episode immediately. You know, like a raptorsaurus.
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Season 5 – Falling Skies
Where to watch, falling skies — season 5.
Watch Falling Skies — Season 5 with a subscription on Max, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.
What to Know
Falling Skies ' final season resolves itself with a predictable, albeit satisfying, conclusion.
Critics Reviews
Audience reviews, cast & crew.
Moon Bloodgood
Will Patton
Maxim Knight
Connor Jessup
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Movieman's Guide to the Movies
Review: “falling skies”: the complete fifth season bd + screen caps.
“Falling Skies”: The Complete Fifth Season (2015)
REVIEW NAVIGATION The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Suspense, Drama Warner Home Video | TV14 – 440 min. – $49.99 | February 2, 2016
Date Published: 02/18/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers . Leave a ReplyYour Comment You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> Name (required) E-mail (required) Screen RantFalling skies. Your changes have been saved Email is sent Email has already been sent Please verify your email address. You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics. Reviews (0)Have You Watched It? Be the first to leave your review. Your RatingConnor jessup, moon bloodgood, jessy schram, seasons (4).  Season 1 (2016)Season 2 (2018), season 3 (2022), season 4 (2026), users reviews (125). We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the review below and remember to keep it respectful.  Your comment has not been saved  Latest Stories10 non-star trek series directed by jonathan frakes, 10 post-apocalyptic dramas to watch if you enjoyed into the night, falling skies series finale review: the bright ending we expected, 'falling skies' season 5 premiere review: the final battle for earth, related titles.  eternal sunshine of the spotless mind BABY REINDEER
Overall [Rating:3.5/5] The Series [Rating:4/5] Video Quality [Rating:4/5] Audio Quality [Rating:4/5] Supplemental Materials [Rating:2.5/5] Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures (Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format) [Rating:4/5]  Falling Skies is a new series from cable network TNT and executive producer Steven Spielberg. The series tells the story of a group of survivors living together after Earth is invaded by aliens. It’s been six months since the invasion, and the survivors have banded together in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hoping to somehow fight back, the group (named the 2nd Massachusetts) is lead by Tom Mason (Noah Wyle). Also included is the commander Colonel Weaver (Will Patton), Tom’s son Hal (Drew Roy), and Dr. Anne Glass (Moon Goodblood). The series itself is well-paced, acted and packs in a solid amount of action/thrills.  I’ll be honest and say that the idea of aliens invading Earth, and humans trying to survive, is really nothing new. This idea has been done countless times before. But, something or should I say someone sounded different about Falling Skies . That name being Executive-Producer Steven Spielberg. Regardless of opinion on the man himself, he does bring a certain sense of quality to anything he touches. With that said, as soon as I had heard about his involvement, I knew I had to tune in on premier night. Boy, was I not disappointed at all. Well-acted, paced, and with a solid sense of storytelling, Skies (outside of the excellent The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad ), just may be one of the best, new series on TV. Even though I had said the alien angle had been done before, Skies felt different. I point toward the acting, in particular that of Noah Wyle and Drew Roy, as one of the strongest points. Initially playing as antagonists toward how to defeat these invaders, the two, eventually, know they must work together. The banter between the two plays off well adding a sense of tension, a sense of fear to the series. It’s aspects like this, and the overall flow from episode to episode, that makes Falling Skies a series I highly recommend you check out. Video Quality  The series’ 1:78:1 framed, VC-1 encoded transfer fares better than the original HD broadcast. Of big difference between the HD broadcast and this Blu-ray transfer is the series’ overall palette. I found the TV counterpart to lack any real punch or solid definition. Some may be quick to point to the tone of the series and label this a stylistic decision on the creators’ part. In comparing the 2 (thanks in part to still having the entire first season on my DVR), the wider exterior shots (mostly of the school yard) held more clarity. We could make out background detail that previously was not noticeable (stop signs, cars, etc). I’m not saying this is a huge difference, but something that is definitely noticeable. Other items like film grain are still present with a slight layer applied. This all helps to add to the somewhat dark, lack of hope elements the initial episodes carry. The print from episode to episode is in solid condition with no instance of scratches, damage or other anomalies that may plague the transfer. While the image is not completely perfect, I still found this to be an overly pleasing job by Warner, one which fans will approve of. Audio Quality  Falling Skies: The Complete First Season arrives with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Dialogue is well reproduced throughout the series, even though actor Noah Wyle does tend to speak a little bit on the lower side. There is no instance where the dialogue does drop out. The series-wide use of sound effects, whether the velociraptor sounding skitters or the revving of a motorcycle, all sounded fine. LFE is solid throughout, in particular thanks to the score by Noah Sorota has the kind of range to it that offers deep low end in some of the quieter, more haunting scenes (in particular one key moment during episode 8, of which I won’t reveal for worrying of spoilers). The mix also creates a sense of real-life atmosphere, building up during the heightened areas, then quieting down in other areas. All in all, this track suits the series well. Supplemental Materials [Rating:2.5/5]  The supplements provided on this release are:
The Definitive Word [Rating:3.5/5]  Falling Skies , while not a perfect series, is engaging enough with solid thrills and acting. Warner’s Blu-ray for the series features improved video over the HD broadcast with a good lossless track and a few solid features. Fans of the series will definitely want to add this one to their ever-growing Blu-ray collections, while others will want to move this to the top of their rental queue. Additional Screen Captures[amazon-product align=”center”]B004LROMX4[/amazon-product]  Share this:
Related ArticlesIsn’t the Blu-ray encoded with VC-1 at 1.78:1? Hi Toddwrtr, Thanks for catching that error. Totally my mistake. Thanks for reading! Join the Discussion on TheaterByte! Cancel replyThis site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed . Stay ConnectedNotice of compliance with federal trade commission 16 cfr part 255. In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR part 255 guidelines, this website hereby states that it receives free discs and other theatrical or home entertainment "screeners" and access to screening links from studios and/or PR firms, and is provided with consumer electronics devices on loan from hardware manufacturers and/or PR firms respectively for the purposes of evaluating the products and its content for editorial reviews. We receive no compensation from these companies for our opinions or for the writing of reviews or editorials. Permission is sometimes granted to companies to quote our work and editorial reviews free of charge. Our website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or the services we write about. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising . Latest ArticlesPrivacy overview.
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COMMENTS
The spawn of Spielberg and Robert Rodat (" Saving Private Ryan "), "Skies" starts after humanity loses an alien invasion. A hardscrabble group of patriots—the 'Second Mass', as in the regiment of Battle of Gettysburg fame—fight the brown-skinned, multi-legged, creatures that humans dubbed "skitters," a name that always made ...
Upcoming Movies and TV shows; ... 79% Avg. Tomatometer 90 Reviews 70% Avg. Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings ... Watch Falling Skies with a subscription on Max, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video ...
Falling Skies is an American science fiction television series set in a post-apocalyptic era, created by Robert Rodat and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.The series stars Noah Wyle as Tom Mason, a former history professor who becomes the second-in-command of the 2nd Massachusetts Militia Regiment, a paramilitary group of remnant US military personnel, military veterans, civilians and ...
Falling Skies boasts a notable producer in Steven Spielberg, who came up with the idea for the show with his Saving Private Ryan screenwriter, Robert Rodat, who wrote the first hour of the series ...
Falling Skies: Created by Robert Rodat. With Noah Wyle, Drew Roy, Maxim Knight, Will Patton. Survivors of an alien attack on earth gather together to fight for their lives and fight back.
Nov 21, 2019 Full Review James Walton Daily Telegraph (UK) Falling Skies doesn't look like being yet another of those American dramas whose sheer quality means we'll have to spend hours in front ...
Our review: Parents say (4 ): Kids say (13 ): If it's possible to add a "family" feel to a show about an alien apocalypse, then Falling Skies manages to do it. But it does so with such heavy-handed sincerity that, at times, it feels oddly insincere. As a result, the show gets mired in earnest moments about sticking together and working ...
Movie Reviews Trailers Film Festivals Movie Reunions Movie Previews Music Music. ... 'Falling Skies': Wil Wheaton talks with cast about tonight's episode on '2nd Watch' -- VIDEO
Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Improving over its initial season in almost every way, "Falling Skies: Season 2" offers up plenty of smart thrills ...
Generally Favorable Based on 43 Critic Reviews. 68. 70% Positive 30 Reviews. 28% Mixed 12 Reviews. 2% Negative 1 Review. All Reviews; Positive Reviews; ... Falling Skies is exactly what you'd expect it to be, only a very good example of it (and is at its best in Sunday's pilot), and an ideal summer series. ... Get a list of the best movies and ...
Tolerable but there are probably better basic cable sci-fi series (but not many). Falling Skies and Ronald Moore's BSG were probably the only standard American basic cable TV sci-fi series I watched in their entirety from around that time (I know BSG was a few years earlier). I loved BSG.
Spoiler Alert: Details from the Falling Skies series finale below.. After five seasons and three showrunners, Falling Skies, TNT's alien-invasion series from Steven Spielberg's Amblin ...
Permalink. Season 1 was pretty good for a low-budget sci-fi. There was a family dynamic, there was true tension, and there were constant alien attacks. Out of all of the seasons, the first was the most realistic. Season 2 was pretty good, too. A trek to Charleston, political infighting, aliens winning the war.
Falling Skies: 6-28-2015. After cutting off alien power from a base on the moon, Tom finds himself in a dream world talking with his dead former wife who, drawing analogies from her own battle with breast cancer, encourages Tom to hammer the reeling aliens with both barrels and to find his "warrior.".
You can purchase every season from Amazon or Apple TV, but it's going to set you back between $19.99 and $27.99 per season. That means you'll end up spending well over $100 if you decide to go ...
Falling Skies is first and foremost a survival story. The series does well by not sugarcoating reality for the children in the story. Mason's youngest may want to celebrate a birthday and get a ...
Rated: 3/5 Aug 28, 2015 Full Review Brian Lowry Variety Although Falling Skies is a pretty lean, mean, combat machine, with some first-rate visual-effects work, the producers have also ...
VIDEO - 4.5/5 "Falling Skies" flies back to Earth onto Blu-ray presented in the originally televised 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Although the bulk of this season, not to mention the series, seems to be set at night or in dark places, it still doesn't look half bad with great detail throughout and colors, albeit muted, show flashes giving a certain ...
Falling Skies. 5 Seasons Available (52 Episodes) 2011. A group of survivors forms a resistance movement after an alien invasion. Starring: Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Connor Jessup, Maxim Knight.
When Earth is invaded by extraterrestrials, humanity loses the battle against the alien attackers. Picking up after the defeat of the human race, Falling Skies tells the story of a former college professor (Noah Wyle) who becomes the leader of the Second Massachusetts, a group of soldiers and civilians who are struggling to fight against the occupying force.
Falling Skies opens in the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an ...
Overall: [Rating:3.5/5] Falling Skies, while not a perfect series, is engaging enough with solid thrills and acting. Warner's Blu-ray for the series features improved video over the HD broadcast with a good lossless track and a few solid features. Fans of the series will definitely want to add this one to their ever-growing Blu-ray ...
Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed. ... Falling Skies Critic Reviews. Add My Rating Critic Reviews User Reviews Cast & Crew Details Filter by season. 68. Metascore Generally Favorable ...