TV Review: FALLING SKIES Season 2 The March To Charleston

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Season 2 of TNT’s Falling Skies premiered to quite good audiences, thanks to a solid first season the show had begun to gather momentum, I decided that to keep up with the US on this was a waste of my bandwidth and I should just hang for it to premiere four weeks later on the UK’s FX network. Following the season 1 finale I hadn’t really decided whether I would watch the second or not, but I have to say I’m pleased I did as Falling Skies has now been renewed for a third season and as promised TNT ramped up the action and story in this second season and they have firmly cemented it as one of my favourite non fall shows, essential summer viewing when all of our regular favourites are away.

At the end of that first season Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) willingly got into an alien spacecraft for reasons unknown, season 2 sees him return to Human resistance group the 2^nd mass, any explanation? Of course not, Tom has just been tucked away on an alien ship for the last three months and he doesn’t know why. I was expecting answers to this but actually I don’t care that they didn’t come because this second season of Falling Skies was even better than the first in my opinion. This season introduced a new angle to the Skitters who were the season one protagonists, the alien foot soldiers who the 2^nd mass were fighting or hiding from on a daily basis. Turns out the Skitters were kids who had been harnessed by the aliens when they invaded other planets, in season 2 they wanted to stage a fight back, a section of them formed a resistance group and communicated with Commander Weaver and Tom Mason through Tom’s son Ben, Their plan? To kill their overlords and then co-exist as one big happy family.

The 2^nd mass however have other plans, get to Charleston, a town they know is occupied by military and where a new civilisation has been started, kind of like Terra Nova, just this time were not 85 million years in the past. I think what I enjoyed about season 2 was the fact they were on kind of a road trip, the 2^nd mass didn’t find themselves bogged down in once location too often and like season 2 of The Walking Dead that added to the danger that was on offer from Mech’s and Skitters, although Mech’s really didn’t feature to heavily in the second season I only recall seeing them in the opening battle which was probably one of the best in the entire season.

As with most new season, Falling Skies introduced some new characters to the mix, first was an impressive new addition Jamil Dexter (The Killing’s Brandon Jay McLaren) a voice of some authority in the 2^nd mass ranks and also a handy mechanic, however no sooner did his story get going they killed him off, I thought a bigger named actor may have been granted a little more screen time than the five or six episodes he was treated too.

If I had to say anything about the second season it would be the story line involving Charleston, I have no problem with it per-se but right from the beginning (or at least mid way) of the first season the mission for the 2nd mass has always been to get to Charleston, they finally get there at episode six or seven, however they find that Charleston is not all it was cracked up to be, they have formed a government with Arthur Manchester (Lost’s Terry O’Quinn) as President, he has helped form a military and the citizens of Charleston find themselves some what oppressed, not allowed to leave the confines of the city which will be the US Capital when order is restored.  The 2^nd mass, being on their own for such a long time don’t take lightly to being treat this way, they have countless run in’s with both Manchester and the military before finally deciding that the city walls of Charleston are not really for them.

All that brought about what season 2 was really setting up, the march into season 3 and possibly many more for this show. Earlier in the season Ben Mason (Connor Jessup) had decided that he didn’t belong with the 2^nd mass and much to Tom’s dislike he took off to go live with the rebel Skitters in order to help them kill their overlords. That’s where this got interesting but it should maybe have been introduced into the story a little sooner. The apparently “safe” Charleston was very easily breached by Ben and a bunch of his Skitter pals in the final episode, he came to inform them all of some laser gun (which is way to geeky for me to remember the name of) that was going to be used by the over lords to kill them all. The shift then came about and it looked like Charleston was not the be all and end all of the story and focus should probably have been put onto this laser gun thingy mabob a little sooner, at least then we could have had time to build to it.

Thinking those would be the final scenes of the second season we were dealt another surprise. Hal Mason (Drew Roy) had been knocked unconscious during the battle to destroy the laser gun (I’m starting to sound way too geeky now, that’s three times) and woke up in a room on his own, even after the 2^nd mass had agreed to keep an eye on him, he had one of those weird alien worms (sounding geeky again!) crawling out his eye and then back into his ear with a real creepy “let me get my mission started” smile on his face. So you can be sure that Hal is going to be worth keeping an eye on during the third season. Then just as the gun (I’ll leave the geeky bit out this time) is destroyed loads of things drop from the sky one of which turns out to be a space ship (seriously I’m not a geek) and another new alien steps out, roll credits. Season three will no doubt be bringing us the answers, who are the new aliens? Are they friends are foes? Maybe that gun was pointing up to keep them away, who knows?

One thing is for sure Falling Skies done a great job of cementing its reputation for me during its second season and I look forward to what season three has to offer, especially as the 2^nd mass would seem set to leave Charleston meaning that its once again going to be a bit of a road trip.

Weekly TV Previews: Will REVOLUTION Get Any Better? PERSON OF INTEREST Finding Mr Finch, VEGAS and There Back DEXTER Season 7, HOMELAND Season 2

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Hello and welcome back to the regular Fall TV season feature here at Movies Music & Television of the weeks TV previews, like always I will preview the next episode of all the shows currently under review here at MM&T as well as the shows which I’m watching but maybe not writing about every week. This is the first one back since last Fall so some shows (Dexter/Homeland) are yet to premiere on their respective networks, there for not to much to give away right now, but we’ll get through what we can, here goes;

Revolution – No Quarter 1.3

Following two episodes of Revolution I’m yet to be enthralled by what’s been on offer, best way to put it, is that in my opinion it’s been mediocre when compared to other works from J.J. Abrams, that’s not say that it can’t get better and in all honesty I hope it does, I touched on the subject in my review of “….” That there are plenty of avenues for the show to go down and hopefully it will do that. In respect of this review, well it does not really give much away other than Miles (Billy Burke) telling Charlie (Tracey Spiridakos) that the futuristic USB stick has the ability to turn the power back on and give the US it’s power back, take a look and let me know what you think.

 

Person of Interest – Bad Code 2.2

It goes without saying that Person of Interest is the best show that J.J. Abrams has on TV right now and the season 2 premiere did not disappoint in any way whatsoever. Reese was back to doing what he does best in kicking ass whilst Finch was off being all mysterious and wisdom like fencing off against computer hacker Root (Amy Acker). It seems that season 2 will deliver action, drama and mystery at the same level and above from what we got during season one and I can’t wait. “Bad Code” sees the hunt for Mr Finch head to Texas and possibly the first opportunity for the Machine to act outside of its usual jurisdiction of New York, amidst the kick ass who thinks Reese will be successful in finding Finch this week?

 

Vegas – Money Plays 1.2

From all of the pilot episodes I have seen so far in this Fall season this one has by far impressed me the most, it delivered a classy first episode which saw a weekly crime procedural mix together what should be a longer running feud between law enforcement and a local Mob boss, I’m hoping the weekly procedural side of things drops like I said in the review and hopefully we concentrate more on the bad guys v good guys side of things. The latest offering from Vegas “Money Pays” looks to continue in the light of the “Pilot”, plenty of kick ass from Dennis Quaid and a weekly procedural, I don’t mind that to much if like Person of Interest they can keep the focus on the main story behind the characters, take a look at the preview. 

 

Dexter – Are You…? 7.1

Without doubt the biggest returning show of the Fall season is Dexter, hype has been building since last December when Dexter Morgan plunged his knife into the chest of Travis Marshall’s chest, only to be caught by his sister and Miami Metro Lieutenant Debra Morgan, finally part of Dexter’s secret is out but now Dexter must fight even harder to stay one step ahead of Miami Metro and more importantly his sister, who can never find out the full truth behind Miami’s best blood spatter expert. Being the first episode I can’t find a direct trailer for the episode but this is the latest preview available from three days ago, enjoy.

Homeland – The Smile 2.1

Homeland was without doubt the biggest new drama to hit screens last Fall, from start to finish it was brilliant, it had you constantly guessing, is Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) a terrorist? Or is CIA Agent Carrie (Clare Danes) as crazy as everyone thinks she is? The question was answered during the season 1 finale when Sgt Brody was preparing to blow up the US President and a roomful of his representatives, of course he didn’t go through with it but now he has an even bigger position of power, spurred on terrorist Abu Nazir, Sgt Brody is now a US Congressman with an influential voice in US politics. Again like Dexter I don’t have a trailer for the first episode but this latest teaser really promises that Homeland will once again be hard hitting and possibly even better than season one.