Monday, June 18, 2012

Falling Skies emphasizes the importance of fathers

There may be some spoilers in this blog post. >,<

Three months of in-world time has passed between last season and the start of this one. First off, I love the alien invasion story of Falling Skies, and I was glued to my seat last night for the two-hour season two premiere. If you are a fan of dystopian apocalyptics, then you might want to give this science-fiction drama a try. It has all the elements. People overcoming huge obstacles to ban together to drive aliens who have already conquered Earth back into space, cute boys and girls (there are no fat people in this show and everyone is in shape despite the scarcity of food resources), and computer generated effects galore. The fact that everyone is gorgeous doesn't bother me. I'm pretty much used to it and have grown to accept/expect it in my television.
Drew Roy plays Hal Mason in Falling Skies.
But behind all the glitz of the show's significant budget, good writing, and eye candy, there are solid themes of fatherhood. Noah Wylie plays Tom and the most important thing to him in the world are his three sons. And it's just refreshing for me to see a single dad portrayed in such a good light. On top of that he's an exceptional former school teacher, so he's really smart, reads, and is constantly teaching his sons how to grow into good men with strong moral compasses. The other thing that I appreciate about the show is that it steers clear of religion for the most part. People are conquering their own fears and their insecurities through love, companionship, and dealing with the situations without resorting to on-screen prayer to alleviate despair.
Ben Mason teaching Matt Mason (his little brother) how to shoot skitters (aliens) so that he can defend
himself. I really like Ben Mason. He's probably the most interesting character right now outside of Tom. He's
kind of become a super warrior because he has alien DNA or something inside of him now. He can run
marathons without tiring, can hear and see things no one else can, and is really strong--like the kind
that can bench press a Toyota truck.
They've also borrowed a page from H.R. Geiger and the Alien franchise by using creepy body invasion. The alien conquerors control human children with biological harnesses and then last night, we saw the doctor pull a weird worm thing out of Tom's eye that later turned into a metal ball bearing and later still, a butterfly with teeth sharp enough to cut glass.
I really need to add this button to my sidebar. It's just too cool.
So if you are a fan of science-fiction, join the saga of the 2nd Mass (Second Massachusetts) as they resist the invaders from another world. It's on TNT on Sunday's this summer. I'm so glad I have a DVR so that I can record True Blood (which shows at the same time).

Questions I want answered this season:
1) What's up with Ben? Is he ever going to be truly safe from the aliens?

2) What did the aliens do to Tom? They really screwed him up. Did they put more of those worms in his body?

3) What does the flying butterfly worm thing do aside from cut glass?

4) Why did they let all the people go at th same time as Tom by just dropping them off in a field? Then they massacred them while Tom walked off? It's clear that they did not value the other humans at all, but put extreme value on Tom. I'm thinking it has something to do with his son Ben. It also seemed like they wanted Tom to see that they spared him.

27 comments:

  1. This sounds like a great show!

    I am always disappointed when a show, or a band, or a friend, resorts to religion instead of standing on their own two feet. I hope this show continues to avoid that particular crutch. ;)

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  2. THis is where I bang my fists on the table and start crying with frustration. It sounds like a really good show, one that I would definitely enjoy, but I haven't got that channel. I will have to wait for some other means to watch it.

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  3. Life got in the way and I stopped watching, so I have no idea what is happening now.
    I buy all the skinny people though. It's like the first rule of Zombieland - Cardio.

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  5. Eye candy?

    Flying butterfly worm things that cut glass?

    I'm in.

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  6. Meh, I already watched "V" and the Terminator movies.

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  7. I don't think I have time for another show, but you do make it sound good. Funny how less food resources could make everyone skinny, but couldn't make everyone hot. LOL.

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  8. I eagerly await the first season to come out on disc form so I can rent the heck out of it. This show looks right up my alley. :)

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  9. Haven't watched this show, yet, but it's been on my list for a while.

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  10. I've been wanting to watch this one.

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  11. man, every time i see a commercial for this, i really wish i had kept up with it. Hopefully the first season will pop up on netflix instant soon

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  12. Oooo... Who is Drew Roys? He is yummy! *laughs* I might just go see the movie for him, LOL ;)

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  13. 'Does Dad love me?' is pretty much the basis of 95% of Hollywood's ouput.

    mood
    (I might be exaggerating)

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  14. I watched the first season of Falling Skies and I found it rather tedious. Talk...talk...talk! But the season finally was good and current TV viewing is so bad that I'll probably give Falling Skies a second chance. We just signed up with HBO and we're hooked on Deadwood, but now we're starting to swear too much.

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  15. I'm not familiar with this show, but Drew Roy is some nice eye candy! hehe

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  16. Another show I haven't heard of. As usual your posts make me think I need to get out from under my rock more.

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  17. I don't watch this show, but wow, what an in depth post about it.

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  18. Now how are you ever going to get that sequel done if you keep watching all this TV? ;)

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  19. @Trisha: I like it. Thanks for stopping by.

    @DRC: You may be able to find it on Hulu or even on TNT's website.

    @Alex: You should give it another try Alex. This season thus far is good.

    @Elise: Excellent. I need more people to follow stuff I watch so that we can discuss happenings.

    @P.T.: I haven't seen either.

    @Matt: It's fiction. One never questions the hotness of fictional characters.

    @DPK: I honestly think you'd love it.

    @Andrew: I like it.

    @Alyson: You should do it!

    @Falen: I bet you can find it online on the TNT website.

    @Morgan: Glad to make you a happy red head.

    @Moody: Yes, you are exaggerating. But I understand your use of hyperbole. It's funny because in many cases, it's true.

    @Stephen: Yes, give it another go!

    @Julia: He is. I agree.

    @J.L. I try to take an interest in everything.

    @Diamond: Thank you. I try for depth with every post. Sometimes I fail.

    @Cindy: I don't see any fire that needs to be put out with a sequel. It'll get done when it gets done. It's not like sales are burning down the house as it is, right? Write for yourself and that's how you'll be happy. And right now, myself is sayin' "Watch T.V. and read books before bedtime."

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  20. I hadn't been watching the show but almost caught it last night -- no time to sit down though. I think now that I'll try to catch up on the story, but when it comes to worms being pulled out of bodies I'm briefly changing the channel.

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  21. I liked Noah Wylie on ER (while it was good). Thanks for telling me about this one. I hadn't heard about it. It's nice to see fathers as good role models for a change.

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  22. Yet another one that I haven't gotten into. It's the alien invasion thing.

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  23. I'm so behind. I have never heard of Falling Skies. :(

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  24. Good questions. I wonder why the aliens did that too. I was hoping I wasn't the only one saying "what? Why?"

    So cool that the Captain seemed to be considering Pope's warning at the end.

    Loved your write up Mike. I watch this too last night, but I did it while catching up on some e-mails and may have missed a few scenes. Well, that's what rerun marathons are for, right?

    .......dhole

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  25. no tv, so i know not what i'm missing... lol

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  26. I hadn't heard of this show. I'll have to check it out between posting and commenting. :)

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  27. Been watching since Season one and it's true that fatherhood plays a major role. This series does sci-fi very well and good shows with eye candy being present but not the point are hard to find.

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