Falling Skies - Season 4 Premiere - Ghost in the Machine - Advance Preview

     Every season a show like Falling Skies is forced to reinvent itself to some small degree. Last season we saw Falling Skies go through many, many changes. Seeing the Second Massachusetts go from making their own decisions to having their decisions made for them, both by other humans and by allied aliens, was a difficult change to go through, albeit a successful transition. Now setting into it's fourth season, viewers can expect Falling Skies to reinvent itself yet again.

     At the end of the last season, Tom Mason was reunited with his family and all seemed to be going hunky-dory. Fortunately for those of us that prefer to watch humans fighting aliens, I can tell you that this show is not going to turn into Little House on the Prairie. From the very beginning of this episode, it becomes clear that this season is going to be absolutely action packed. Within the first few minutes of the episode, the Second Massachusetts encounters new alien technology that I'm sure is going to be a useful plot device for later this season.

     Assuming you have seen a number of the promos that are available, most viewers have probably already been able to discern that the Second Massachusetts is going to be very separated this season, at least initially. While it may bother fans that some of their favorite characters won't be able to interact for a number of episodes, I see it as a strength for the show. It allows each character to prosper in new settings and nothing is better than seeing how a character responds to a new situation....especially a violent one (maybe that's just me). My favorite part of this entire series has been how each character (specifically Ben, Hal, and Matt) has changed over the course of the series. Both in writing and visuals, Falling Skies has done a truly remarkable job displaying their growth over four seasons. However, not every character has to grow at such a rate...

     The latter part of season 3 showed viewers that Lexi wasn't exactly normal (or human) and viewers can expect this trend to continue this season in a much more plot central fashion. That being said, don't anticipate anymore weird alien kid stuff going on...at least on that side of the show. Given the recent casting of Scarlett Byrne, you should be able to figure out a little bit about what is planned for this arena. In the first episode of this season, Lexi is quite mysterious and almost hippy-ish. While I might be inclined to roll my eyes at a Woodbury-like compound, I have to give credit where it is due. The compound has an oddly religious undertone that is both mysterious and interesting. It's going to be fun to see how all of the characters respond to Lexi's massive transition, especially her father.

     Speaking of children, a lot of promos have teased what seem to resemble something of a Hitler Youth group. This is on par with Tom Mason's love of history and it's value to the fight. Even though all of our characters are separated, this relates to multiple story lines in the first episode, and the Espheni would seem to be taking a lesson from Tom in following the lessons of the past. I've always enjoyed Tom's references to history as I am a history buff myself and although one reference to the Gettysburg Address in this episode was fairly cheesy, I'm looking forward to seeing how Tom's historically calculated response to the Espheni's new plan works.

Rating: 10/10

     I don't often like to give a perfect score because I always think that something could be better in an episode, but this episode of Falling Skies accomplishes everything that it needs to and doesn't waste anytime doing it. There isn't a single story line that I find annoying and given the high number of story lines that the writers are running with this season, it is quite a feat. Oh and one last hint: Time jump.

Tune in to Falling Skies on Sundays @ 10/9c directly after the premiere of The Last Ship on TNT. Be sure to come back here to SpoilerTV to let everyone else know what you thought of the episode.

About the Author - Brandon Rowe

Brandon is a freshman in college and enjoys watching a lot of TV. Brandon likes to write articles about favorite films and especially his favorite shows which include Homeland, Falling Skies, Fringe, Suits, and more than can be written on this page. Brandon also managed the "In the Hot Seat" competition here on SpoilerTV in 2012 and would like to do it again in 2014 if possible. Feel free to use the Facebook, Twitter, or G+ links below to contact him.