TV GUIDE: Weekend TV: The Newsroom, Falling Skies, The Great Escape
Jun 22, 2012
by Matt Roush
... PURSUIT AND ESCAPE: I was away last week when TNT launched a second season of Falling Skies (Sunday, 9/8c), the post-apocalyptic alien-invasion combat thriller that has returned in much tougher fighting form, with some of the best sci-fi action you're likely to see this summer. The humans are decidedly the underdogs and humanity itself at a premium in this grueling and degrading battle, as our heroes try to elude when they're not attempting to eradicate the nightmarish spider-like "Skitters" and their robotic "Mech" muscle, who have taken over most of Earth.
"If we're resting, we're not resisting," cautions Tom Mason (Noah Wyle), the conscience of the 2nd Mass regiment, who is still bedeviled by suspicion and self-doubt following his mysterious return from the alien mothership. While on board, he was admonished by the Grand Poobah alien, "Be honest. Oppression is in your nature." Try telling the historian something he doesn't know. But as he countered, "Be careful about drawing too many lessons from the past. Our history is yet to be written."
So is Tom a true rebel or is he a "walking time bomb," as the rebel biker Berserkers and their confrontational leader Pope (the dynamite Colin Cunningham) contend? Just as enigmatic: Tom's conflicted son Ben (Connor Jessup), a former captive/slave of the aliens, who has channeled his hate into a rogue sideline as a hunter-assassin, with tragic circumstances this week. He's not sharing the fact that his psychic bond with the aliens still flares up from time to time, which seems to alarm him as much as it does us.
Falling Skies has amped up the dramatic stakes this season, even offering a glimmer of hope when an unexpected visitor drops into their midst, balancing the earnest family values with a visceral survival saga that keeps the hokum mostly at bay. Terra Nova could have learned something from the way this show has developed, and maybe if Fox had given it a second year, it could have become a contender as well...
