Seriable’s Robert L. reviews Falling Skies “Prisoner Of War.
Reviewing the first episode of a TV series is rarely a comprehensive experience, as the quality of a story’s beginning is best measured by the middle parts proceeding.
Arguably, by broadcasting two hours of the show for the premiere, we’ve already jumped the boat from beginning to middle, but I felt like the first hour was a beginning of premise and character, and the second hour was a beginning of plot and philosophy. That’s why I feel this third hour is the most important in determining the success of Falling Skies.
How did this third hour hold up? That’s what I’m here to take a look at.
I do think there was a horrible mistake made in the casting of this show. Not fatal, but a chronic hindrance. And that’s our hero — Tom Mason – as portrayed by Noah Wyle.
This is perfectly illustrated in our first “return to the school broken and defeated” sequence of this episode. Take a look at the chemistry between his character and Moon Bloodgood’s. She looks like she’s trying too hard to be friends (or maybe more), and he’s busy trying to look casual and worn down.
Mostly he comes across as apathetic.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a few truly beautiful moments between Tom and his youngest son (who, thankfully, is not overused). But mostly he seems dead. Seriously, he’s the most uninteresting character on the show.
Very quickly, we jump and get to see some dimension in Pope’s character. I don’t know how they’re going to be able to redeem the leader of a group of thugs and rapists, but they seem to be trying it through farce. While I appreciated his crazy “I’m a chef with fabulous taste and style!” rants, I’m not sure they’re going to win very many people over with it. The performance is definitely spot-on for what they were trying to accomplish, though.
There are a few exciting action sequences to be had here, and I’m appreciative that they can do it on a budget. The attack that takes place in a series of hallways suffers from using the same hallway over and over, but that’s a complaint that could only be resolved by giving the episode a movie-sized budget.
Shooting a group of children was another excellent choice that successfully shows us that this series can deal with the language barrier, although the promo for the next episode seems to indicate that this may be taken to the next level before too long.
We’re also introduced to a major player, Dr. Harrison, who is so antagonistic in the view of everyone that they’re probably setting him up for an early death (a selfish betrayal or a sacrificial redemption). There’s a little too much in the way of talking about the past (heretofore referred to as “talk-backs”) between him and Tom. The thing about telling a story through an audio-visual medium is exploiting the visual aspect (“show don’t tell”).
Take my mental thought-process from a 30-second sequence toward the end of the sequence as proof:
(1) Why is Tom so extreme in his emotions?
(2) Why is he punching out the only man who could save his son’s life?
(3) Oh, I see. It was “Tom’s morning” to gather food.
(4) Wow, he’s a pretentious jerk.
Whereas if the entire “Rebecca” storyline was told in a series of flashbacks, it would leave me less focused on how weirdly out-of-character these moments were, and more focused on this critical piece of back story that defines the relationship of two men.
Now, these are all problems that I have seen many times before, often in some of my favorite shows, so it’s not as if any of these are a particular problem, but with nothing jumping out at me as being outstanding, other than the bold premise, this leaves me feeling very “meh” about the episode.
That’s why I’m giving it a final rating of 7/10 Seriable Stars.
Am this review wrong? Am I inconsistent? A jerk? Let me know in the comments below!
PERSON OF INTEREST Renewed For Season 2
TERRA NOVA: Season 2 Decision Delayed Until 2012
ONCE UPON A TIME: The Comprehensive Character Guide
BREAKING BAD: Bryan Cranston Confirms Season 5 Will Premiere In July
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.22 Brave New World: Part 2
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ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.22 A Land Without Magic
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.21 An Apple Red As Blood
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.21 Brave New World: Part 1
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.20 The Stranger
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
If anything, the casting is the only thing right with the show. I have seen enough of Noah Wyle’s work to know that he has incredible talent. Just see his Emmy nominated turn on ‘ER’. What’s wrong with this show for me, so far, is the writing. Period. The characters are flat because the writers aren’t giving us layers or even the flashbacks, which I think (with the show being set 6 mos post invasion) it’s easily set up for. Yet they eat up time, on an alien invasion themed show, as a sub story anyway, focused on who’s going to cook for the 2nd Mass. I know this cast is better than the writing they’re getting. Someone needs to do something about it before it gets the ax.
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Ah, I think you’re misunderstanding my criticism. It’s not that I find Noah Wyle to be a bad actor, but rather a miscast, which is quite a big distinction. For example, I love Hugh Laurie on FOX’s “House.” But everything else I’ve seen him in has seemed like a total misfit to me. I think there are actors out there who would be more capable of delivering the performance the writers were looking for.
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I’m pretty sure I gave the first two episodes of this series a Six. I’m bumping up this episode to a Seven because of the tonality shift. It was certainly darker. I’m not a fan of seeing children executed but at least the show went to a place where many shows fear to tread. (The show “24″ went there but the execution was revealed to be a staged one.) Also, Tom’s fight with the Skitter was suitably brutal as I found myself feeling somewhat sorry for the alien as Tom shot off two of it’s limbs and then beat it senseless.
I think Noah Wyle’s acting as Tom was a problem in this episode. At first I didn’t understand why he was “seething” so much and when I did find out it still seemed so forced. I thought back to Wyle’s performance on ER and I always found it credible. When his character became addicted to drugs I thought his performance more than adequate. So maybe it was his “directed” performance. I can’t recall the Directors name but I seemed to recognize it when it passed through the credits.
Speaking of acting, I’m sure it is in poor form to criticize a child’s acting but I can’t help but say that Maxim Knight as Matt is a drag on the series. I think he went to the same school of acting as Jake Lloyd of Star Wars fame. In my defense, when we see the acting that Haley Joel Osment was capable of or Game of Thrones treasure, Maisie Williams, we know children are infinitely capable. Maybe it’s the “direction” again.
As long as I am talking of acting, kudos to Steven Weber who glides between comedy and drama without a hitch. (I guess he doesn’t need direction.)
As for the story itself, I thought we made progress. War is far from all fun, games and glory. There is suffering, betrayal, cowardice and horror. We saw that in this episode. I wonder if the show runners will continue to mine that vein.
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Interesting analysis! I think you make a good point.
Direction seems to play a bigger part than most of us stop to consider. Weirdly enough, I’d argue cinematography does too. When they’re first in that hallway (before Tom’s solo Skitter fight), there’s a big long static shot that completely destroys the mood.
I recall a healthcare commercial I shot back in 2006 … normally I’m so un-photogenic that I hide in shame when I appear on camera, but with this particular shoot they got it so I nodded my head excitedly (without looking completely ridiculous) that fit perfectly with the tone, even though I wasn’t feeling that way at all during the time of shooting.
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I agree on the ‘show don’t tell’. I was expecting some flashbacks to the Big Invasion. Will we ever see that? I think they have made the decision to leave that in the past. Perhaps spend some money on these structures we’ve seen from a distance…
Some good, some bad so far, but I’ll give this a chance.
For some interesting insight into the production check out Greg Beeman’s blog. He posted some interesting stuff when making Heroes, too.
http://gregbeeman.blogspot.com/
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