Falling Skies

Falling Skies was a show that at first I wasn't sure I wanted to watch.  As a child I used to have dreams of a nuclear war and I was the only survivor.  So Falling Skies wasn't something I was sure I wanted to watch.  But I decided to anyway and fell in love with it.  While it deals with the aftermath of an alien invasion, it also delves deeply into the psyche of those who survive and fight to continue surviving.

Noah Wyle is superb as a college professor turned soldier.  With military history as his forte, he brings a different perspective to the fighting often comparing it to ancient battles and how certain tactics worked and didn't work and how people banded together to take back their own.  It's also ironic that the show is placed in Boston, the heart of the American Revolution.

Noah's little band of freedom fighters is led by a seasoned soldier who tends to not want to listen to Noah's suggestions, but when he does he realizes there's more to Noah's dissertation than just hypothetical pomposity.  Some tactics work, some don't.  They regroup and try again.

The mystery is why the aliens need the children who are fitted with a harness that is slowly revealed to be more than just a device to control them.  What I like best about the show is the slow and logical way the freedom fighters uncover information about the aliens and about themselves.  Some bits of info are obtained in a brutal manner, but others are obtained through observation.  Little hints are dropped along the way that don't pay out until several episodes later.

Last night was the season finale and the series won't be back until summer 2012.  I don't know if I can wait that long.  Okay, I was a little bitter knowing I'd have to wait that long, but then I realize the anticipation will keep me thinking about it.

This is a show worth watching, not only for the interaction between the characters, but the way they are rebuilding a new civilization, the practical problems of survival in such an uncertain environment and the knowledge that life will never be the same again.  Also, I'm constantly thinking about how other cities and countries are dealing  with the aliens since this is a global invasion.  There's lots of story potential here that could keep this series going for years.  I'm hoping the ScyFy channel picks it up.

What the series did spur in me was a desire to go back to writing science fiction and fantasy.  Jackie's not too thrilled about the idea, but I'm going to manipulate her and make her think it's her idea.  Sh!  Don't anyone tell her what I said. Popular TV series like Falling Skies and Game of Thrones is a shot in the arm for writers by introducing new ideas and new thoughts about directions in writing. If people are watching these shows as avidly as I did, they'll want books about similar situations, pushing writers to try our wings in many different directions.  So I'm pushing Jackie, though it is like trying to push a twenty ton boulder uphill.

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