Falling Skies Season 4 Ep 1 Review

Okie dokie. As I mentioned a few posts back, I really love Falling Skies. And while I love the show, I do believe Season 4 will be the end of the series. Most sci-fi shows don't survive plus 4 seasons. And I wouldn't be surprised if the 12 episode season will signal the end.

I really like the new poster. Adds a whole LOTR/WWII/Star Wars feel

According to the websites and even their own claims TNT is releasing the first episode tomorrow, the 22nd. Problem is that if you have the show through Google Play or Amazon Prime or some of the other video streaming services, they already had the episode last Tuesday.

And as I am subscribing for the show through Google Play (which I also do for the Walking Dead) I have already seen the episode. But, for those who haven't seen it yet, avert your eyes.

The War Has Changed

With the Volm taking over the main military operations on Earth against the Espheni (better known as Skitters) the Humans are left to their own devices, heading back for good old Charleston. But, Alexis Glass-Mason, upon seeing the city mentions something about "Not everyone has to die here". Thus begins a battle in which the Espheni divide and scatter the Humans, capturing many of them and fencing them in a ghetto city which was Charleston, the old capitol of the Mason led USA.

Despite the advantage they had of surprise, they didn't wipe out everyone. Killed a few, yes. But mostly they took all the ones they could and settled them there. What is it that has changed? Why are the Espheni capturing humans and not murdering them (especially the adults). Leaders are put in solitary confinement, but why aren't they executed as examples for the rest of the people?

The Volm also picked up and left within weeks of the renewed Espheni offensive, leaving behind just a few patrols. They claim that the Espheni found the hiding place for their noncombatants and so are endangered to extinction. But...didn't the Volm just barely arrive, claiming they were making great strides in their war against the Skitters?

Youth Camps

We then see Matt Mason, the youngest of the Mason sons, in a Nazi like reeducation camp. We see propaganda videos being played, portraying the adults as the reason for the war. They portray themselves as helpers, going out to help the worlds they conquer liberate become giants in the interstellar communities. 

You even have a boy that looks just like the kid in this poster.

But just as we fear that young Matt has turned, comes to find out he's secretly building a small resistance in the school. We also learn later that entire conveys of children are being rounded up for these camps.

Why? Why have they changed from harnessing the children? Why are they working so hard at indoctrinating him? That can be broken much easier than a simple removal of harnesses.

Utopia

Alexis has grown, and become a leader of some sort of peace cult. Ben had been severally wounded during the ambush, and while he seems the only one to see anything wrong, everyone else is taken with him. Nothing enters the China Town, where war hasn't touched them. 

Theories

Why have the Espheni changed their tactics? Notice that after Anna Glass and her daughter were returned, and Karyn killed, that was only about maybe thirty days prior. Is it possible that the Espheni are somehow being influenced by Anna and her daughter in how they conduct the war? We don't know what they did with Anna, but it is quiet clear that Alexis is some sort of freaky alien-human baby. Heck, she's bent moonlight back!

Is it possible that the aliens don't want to accidentally kill them, so they are only going kidding gloves until they are back in the fold? Very possible.

At any rate, I like what I've seen so far. And this has a promising start.

Thank Goodness for the Day Off!

Aliens, Confederates and Zombies...oh my.

So technically yesterday was my day off, but I ended up being busy with gaming. Got a new PS3 so I spent roughly half an hour playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Then I ended up playing State of Decay and Rome II: Total War.

I also have been watching the sitcom Fraiser. It's a sort of funny show. I've seen funnier, but I don't mind it all that much. Now, with that being said...the only reason I decided to watch it was because all my TV shows are currently in the summer break between seasons.

Here's my list of TV shows I'm watching. And looking forward to the next season.

Falling Skies

Pretty girls and weird alien stuff. Sounds like my love life.

Falling Skies is about a post-invasion Earth. Earth has been invaded and very quickly the military and major population centers were destroyed. As the alien invaders tighten their search patterns, killing the adults and stealing the children and subjugating them into a slave force, history professor Tom Mason and grisly Army veteran Colonel Daniel Weaver led a small band of resistance fighters and fugitives as they try to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

It's been a pretty intense show, with interesting human relationships. Such as, how far will you go for your family and friends. The plot has also had nice plot twists. Season 2's cliff-hanger was especially poignant and the third season was riddled with intriguing plotlines that would make other plot heavy stories green with envy.

I do have a few gripes with it. In the 1st Season, it is stated that the easiest way to defeat the enemy's personal armored drones is to use bullets made from their own armor. But after their first battle, they abandon the idea, never speaking of it again. There are other small plot devices that are lost, which make no sense. Also there is much to gripe about when it comes to the CGI. It didn't even start becoming really good until third season. Much of the time prior to that, it was almost B5 in appearance.

Also, I don't understand why it is taking them a year to get to the next season. It ended early last summer, and it's not being released until the 26th of this month. Aggravating to say the least.

The Walking Dead

BRAIIINS!

The Walking Dead is perhaps the ultimate show at the moment. Sheriff Rick Grimes is hit by fire during a roadblock, goes into a coma and awakes months later, to find the world is gone, replaced by zombie hordes as the dominant force on the planet. He joins up with a small group of survivors and must fight both the dead and the living as they struggle to survive.

Part of what drives the show is the unique human story. A character driven show, it is also perhaps the most realistic show when it comes to survivability. No one is safe, and main characters we expected to live for a long while end up being among the first to fall. By now, out of the original group of survivors, there is perhaps four. Four out of a dozen. At the rate they lose main characters, the show will probably end by default in season 6.

Never a horror fan, the show's true suspense comes from the expected. The zombies don't jump out to grab you. But you are scared that something will happen. Some of the greatest villains of literature were the ones that never appeared, because you ended up having such a dramatic image of them.

My main problem with the show is just how short the seasons are. Their height right now is sixteen. This leads to mid-season breaks, which while I can understand, I really hate. Another thing I dislike is how no one calls them "zombies". They are walkers, biters, skin eaters. But never zombies. Last time I checked, the word "zombie" wasn't copyrighted.

Hell on Wheels

Post-Civil War Rebel Syndrome

Hell on Wheels is a western set right after America's Civil War. Cullen Bohanon is a Confederate veteran who is on a path of revenge, killing the murderers and rapers of his dead wife and son. And to do that, he is forced to go west to work on the Union Pacific Railroad, where the last of the killers is hiding.

The main thing I like about the show is how involved we become with the characters. You really begin to feel for them, and unlike some of the sunnier Westerners, isn't afraid to show us the political correctness of the time. The disregard shown the recently freed negro race. The utter contempt between white and indian. It's a show meant to be watched with your Book of Political Correctness checked at the door. And it's because of that fact, that these are shown as real people and not as some sequin lapdogs that is compelling.

But that's where it ends. There is little research done on the subject of a post-Civil War west. Cullen Bohanon is shown as man with no moral scruples. As a Southerner and a gentlemen (which he is portrayed is being, even if not of the aristocracy) he evolves from a simply farmer for revenge to being a man with wealthy Railroad connections. He keeps on becoming something larger and larger, while everyone else seems to regress.

The show also seemed to have lost it's steam during Season 3, having jumped the tracks. The Mormon Antagonist story-line was made simply because they couldn't think of anything else. It really feels that way. The season 3 ending was more of a meh than the bell-ringer they tried to make.

If anything, I'm watching it for hopes season 4 gets back on track.

Arrow

Basically the Green Arrow without the name Green.

Last but not least Arrow. Oliver Queen, after being on an island for 5 years returns to his city. But this time, instead of just being a playboy, he's turned into a vigilante, out to save his city from the corrupt rich and the vile every day villain.

Perhaps what is best of this show is how most the cast have a natural chemistry with each other. Many shows it's obvious that everything is acted out and the cast don't mesh well. But that's not the case with Arrow. It also premiers my current favorite actress, the recently uncovered Emily Brett Rickard. She's a wonderful actress, and is a real delight to see as she has improved her acting, this being her first major role.

For the most part, the action is well paced and we won't lament for lost story opportunities, because they try to get as many possibilities and run with them.

My main beef with the show is how disorganized season 2 was. Between weird scheduling of episodes (even after the Olympics we might see two episodes per month) and a storyline that seemed all over the place, in many places it seemed to be a messy affair. But, I really hope that the conclusion of the Deathstroke storyline will return things to a normal pace and get the show back in the groove that made it such a force season 1.

There you have it. My watch list. The last two did really have rough times, but I am hoping the next seasons of them will change things around. There are very few shows I get interested in that are newer. Many of which are all about blood and mayhem, plot and storytelling wise (I'm looking at you Revolution). But when you can find a good show, it's a nice thing to kick back and watch.

Thank Goodness for the Days Off.