Falling Skies - Review of Pilot Episode - Tonight's Must Watch

Like anything in Hollywood, the alien concept and genre has been redone over and over again. Being a sci-fi geek and growing up with movies like Star Wars and shows like Star Trek my expectations have been set very high for anything sci-fi.

I loved The X-Files, most know my passion for LOST and of course now a I have a great love for Fringe. So when V was being remade I had huge expectations and I liked the first season but it just fell flat and honestly no matter how much I love Elizabeth Mitchell I could not finish season 2. Let's not even talk about the CGI.

Of course being active here on SpoilerTV and the pop culture world, I heard about Steven Spielberg's two new ambitious shows, TerraNova (which seems to be getting most of the publicity) and Falling Skies.

I love Spielberg, but I was very skeptical on how well such high concept sci-fi shows could perform on mainstream TV. TerraNova has seen it's fair share of delays and has now been set to premiere in September, but Falling Skies has been locked and loaded for awhile now and tonight is the big night.

Thanks to the good folks at TNT that sent over a sweet little swag bag that included the two hour premiere, I had a chance to watch the premiere the other night and I will tell you it is a must watch tonight.

If you are busy tonight with Father's Day festivities, make sure you set your DVRs to record the two-hour premiere because you will love it. Heck, sit down with your fathers and watch it together!

Yes, the show is about an alien invasion and includes the classic sci-fi elements, but at the core of the show is a classic tale of survival and a father's love for his family. Noah Wyle, who is best known for his role on the hit show ER, plays the father and central character named Tom Mason. Tom a super smart history professor and his family are a part of the remaining civilians that are struggling for survival 6 months after and alien invasion.

The Masons are a part of the group of people that also form the military regiment called the 2nd Mass. Tom is second in command of the 2nd Mass with his oldest son Hal (Drew Roy) and several other young adults including a young teenage boy named Jimmy (Dylan Authors) that make up the team of soldiers with weapons taken from what is left of the police and national guard. Tom has two other sons, the youngest Matt is 8, besides trying to survive, most of the pilot's mystery is surrounding Ben who has gone missing in all the chaos.

The 2nd Mass and the rest of the human race find themselves up against a very formidable group of aliens that are known as "skitters". The name seems fitting once you see them get around on their 6 legs. I kinda got an Independence Day type of feel for the aliens, but they definitely have their own personality and I am loving their Robotech looking battle Mechs (droids) that accompany the skitters.

Since we are on the subject of the skitters and mechs, the production value for the show comes across as a movie and the CGI is actually pretty good. I was fairly impressed how believable the aliens and mech robots look. It is of course is not the best CGI, BUT the key is the CGI is not terrible where it would take away the experience of the show and the characters.

With a show that has an ensemble cast it can be hard to really feel for so many characters, but the writers have done a good job to allow you to get a feel for most of the main characters including the doctor Anne Glass (who is quick to say she is a "pediatrician") that is played by Moon Bloodgood, Weaver (Will Patton) the commander of the 2nd Mass, and even mercenary John Pope (Colin Cunningham) that adds a little wrinkle to the plans of the 2nd Mass. As I watched Cunningham being witty as John Pope I could not help myself but think of Josh Holloway playing Sawyer in the early days of LOST.

The show starts you right in the middle of the action and introduces you to the characters fairly quickly but allows for the story to reveal itself slowly through the pilot. The Skitters aka aliens have settled in with some cool looking structures rising above the city skylines and it seems like not only have they been causing some serious destruction on Earth, but they have been taking the teenage kids for unknown reasons. The children that are captured seemed to be controlled by the Skitters because they have some hi-tech alien harness strapped on to their spines. Can't wait to see what the harnesses do?

The pilot is a good ride that will get you right into the show and by the time it ended I wanted to watch the next episode immediately. So I really look forward to seeing how the story all plays out and I feel the show has all the elements to make it a hit.

Thanks for taking the time out to read the review and I hope you all enjoy the show as much as I did.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!