reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Night Agent; Your Friends & Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics
George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.
Chuck Todd interviews me about alternate histories
Hey, I saw the first episode of Josh Holloway's latest series, Colony, on the USA Network last night, and liked it. Definitely has potential. (I saw it On Demand - the series will premier this Thursday, January 10.)
With the demise of Falling Skies and the success of Childhood's End (it got pretty good reviews, though I wasn't thrilled with the ending of novel in the first place, but that's just me), we're definitely due for another alien occupation of Earth series. Colony could well be it.
Holloway's Will Bowman and his wife Katie (played by Sarah Wayne Callies = Lori Grimes from The Walking Dead) play the pivotal couple in the story, and do it well. It's good to see both back on television, as well as more work from Lost co-runner Carton Cuse.
Fargo concluded its second season earlier this month with a few episodes that were, literally, just out of this world. Well, one was, anyway.
In the next-to-last episode, which featured one of the best shoot-outs ever on television, with lots of evil characters getting their just deserts, and some not-evil characters, too (like that brave lady cop), which I guess makes their deserts unjust, we have a resolution of that shoot-out, a saving of the day for Lou - which had to be saved, since we know older Lou from Season 1 - by a UFO.
So does this mean UFOs exist in the Fargo universe? Is Fargo, in addition to all of its other merits, science fiction?
Not necessarily. No one interacted with any alien. And reports of UFOs are common enough in our reality and world. So whatever was seen at that shoot-out was just light in the sky, which was caused by some contraption, which may or may not have been an alien ship.
Even if it was, would that be so bad? Well, certainly not for me, seeing as how I'm a big fan of science fiction, having just reviewed Childhood's End (and I reviewed most of Falling Skies), speaking of UFOs. I've even talked about them on the History Channel.
But there is what literary critics call a protocol issue, if UFOs with aliens are suddenly introduced into a series like Fargo. If you have a dead body, murdered, in a room with a door locked from the inside, this makes a classic whodunit. If you solve it by discovering the murderer beamed into and out of the room, that kind of solution can anger mystery fans by violating the expectations of the whodunit genre.
On the other hand, there has always been an aspect of Fargo that almost seems out of this world, anyway. Hanzee, the "Gerhardt Indian" and one of the best characters in season 2 (well played by Zahn McClarnon, who also stood out in Longmire), has even been suggested to be an alien. And, let's face it, that cold snowy terrain sometimes looks like a scene from another world, even when there isn't a gunfight at the OK Corral to liven up the night.
As is the case with many top-notch television series these days, the next-to-last episode was better than the finale, which tied things up, but with far less energy than the previous episode. Still, it was great to see that Lou's wife Betsy survived, and her collapsing was because of the treatment the she had indeed been receiving, thus giving this finale a nice, unexpected silver lining which also is an intrinsic part of this series, and therefore not completely unexpected, I guess, but heartwarming and welcome.
Well, although everything up to the ending in this, the very last episode of Falling Skies, was more of the recent same - which is to say, not very interesting or original - the series managed to pull off a memorable conclusion in its last few minutes.
Memorable because, against all odds, there was real change and optimism in that last scene. Tom giving a speech, maybe prelude to his becoming President, Weaver cleaned up, and everyone looking a little older and very good. And Tom's last words, that we learned that we're not alone, were just right for the conclusion of this difficult series.
Difficult because, well, how many times, how many ways, can you tell the story of we humans somehow surviving against overwhelming, all but impossible odds? And our success, based on the premise that if you can destroy the queen, you can wipe out the whole civilization, is not only cliche but was introduced out of the blue just a few episodes ago.
Still, Noah Wylie's acting, and his character Tom Mason and his three boys, and throw in Will Patton's Weaver, especially in this and the previous season, have made an indelible contribution to the science fictional genre of invasions from outer space. It comes down from Wells' War of the Worlds, through Heinlein's The Puppet Masters and Clarke's Childhood's End and Damon Knight's "To Serve Man," which was also a great Twilight Zone episode - all of which were much better stories than Falling Skies. But Falling Skies, because of somehow the realness, the uniqueness, of the Mason family, or the impact of this overwhelming invasion on this family, and its stubborn carrying of hope when everything was against them, deserves to be counted among those incredible narratives.
Perhaps we'll discover alien beings out there in the universe tomorrow - or, if our luck turns really bad, be attacked by them. But till then, Falling Skies will be a fiction worth watching and recalling, with all of its flaws.
Falling Skies seems to be plummeting to its ultimate conclusion, or lurching along, checking off boxes that need to be checked, rolling out another trite gambit, in episode 5.9 on Sunday night.
Pope is now (presumably) dead. Check. Lexi's dead, too, after she comes back, or rather the bad alien comes back in her form, just as happened with Weaver's old flame last week. Check.
And the new threat? The Esphemi have not only overloads, but a queen who is above them, calling the shots - "the"queen" - and she's apparently calling for an ultimate showdown at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
If time travel were part of this story, maybe Nixon could appear at this showdown, plucked forth from his infamous appearance at the Lincoln Memorial during the protests against his conduct of the Vietnam War. That would at least be interesting.
What happened to this series? It had its moments over the years, especially in the early seasons, and even seemed to come back a few episodes ago. But since then, it's been one trite retread after another.
Somehow, the characters are still pretty interesting, especially Tom and his boys, and Weaver, too. They transcend the tired story lines.
So I'll be watching the series finale next week, if only to see what happens with these characters. And, who knows, maybe Pope survived after all.
Falling Skies has put up some of its best episodes recently, as the series moves towards its ultimate conclusion in three episodes.
My favorite was 5.6, last week, in which Tom gets treated to something akin to what life was a like before the invasion, with a son coming of age who doesn't (yet) know about the aliens, and a grateful kiss on the lips from the boy's mother. It all had a bit of a Herschel's farm from The Walking Dead feel - though there was no evil lurking in a barn in this good place - and there are only so many gambits available in a post-apocalyptic narrative. But this was handled well, and was, against most odds, rather satisfying.
And real, life-changing developments are occurring with our major characters, as befits an ending of a series. Pope breaking bad was a good touch, and my only regret is that Tom didn't kill him in that quick encounter. Maggie getting her spikes removed was welcome, and points to at least one path to a happier future. Ben getting one of his spikes removed, against his will, was not so welcome, and his fate with one or more spikes removed is an interesting, open question.
The human military base pivoting from a safe haven to an instrument of torture and death is something we've seen before, including on Falling Skies. But the relationship between the commander and Weaver is a nice touch, and it will be fun to see how that plays out.
Falling Skies has regained some of its luster, and has a chance to really end on a memorable note in the episodes ahead. I'm looking forward to them.
The fifth and final season of Falling Skies is still looking to be one of its best, judging by where it is now in its second episode. I like the fast, no-nonsense pace of the fighters and fighting, good to see after the over-agonizing in some of the recent previous seasons.
But the big reveal takes place not in a hot battle, but in the insect that landed in Tom's hand at the end of the first episode. We've seen insects put to provocative use in previous story lines in this series, but we learn in 5.2 that this insect is something different: a hybrid not only of at least two alien species, but with human eyes! This means that some advanced species is doing some more gene-splicing, with human DNA part of the mix. The question, of course, is to what end?
This is an enjoyable science fiction trope, with a CSI overlay. Where is Grissom, when you need him, to help make sense of this insect? Anne is better than you might expect with DNA, but she's more of a biologist Jack of all trades than an expert like Grissom - he ended up where, in CSI, in Costa Rica? - and it will be fun to see how our gang can get to the bottom of this bug.
Too bad Roger bled to death last season - he certainly would have been of help in this. We do have a guy who is deft with building flying drones, and perhaps his knowledge of flight patterns will play some role in the decoding of the insect and its meaning. Otherwise, probably the best we can hope for is a revelation at some point that comes to Tom - hey, with any luck, provided by the same aliens who've seemed to have such an enormous impact on him and his spirit.
Falling Skies was back last Sunday for its 5th and final season. I'm only somewhat sorry that the series will be concluding, since the story itself has been falling in the past few seasons, in addition to the skies. Still, the alien invasion narrative has some power.
The most interesting feature in this new season is Tom, who comes back to our people imbued with all kinds of impressive powers, including knowing something of the future, and markers to tell which is best course of action to defeat what's left of the enemy on Earth.
Tom also returns with a fighting spirit - a zest to exterminate the bad aliens - also imbued by the masterful, good aliens. The question remains, as it always does with Tom, is whether these new characteristics change him to the point where he's no longer himself, perhaps no longer human, and whether those changes will be worth the presumed ultimate victory over the bad aliens that the changes will likely bring.
Otherwise, Hal and Ben still both love Margaret, who explains to Hal, after he professes his love for her, that, yes, she does love him, but she also has feelings for Ben that neither she nor Hal can hope to control. That's, of course, because they both now share an alien spine, which they need to be alive. That being the case, it's hard to see how Hal can prevail.
It was good to see our people do well against the bad aliens in this first new episode, though, which raises the question of how far that success can go. Even aside from Tom losing something of his humanity as the price to be paid for such success, it's hard to imagine all of our people surviving - and, indeed, an Earth totally free from baneful alien presence.
Which makes this final season of Falling Skies especially worthy of viewing.
Well, although the two-hour Falling Skies Season 4 finale contained an all-too-obvious long dream sequence in the first hour, it nonetheless concluded with a pretty effective and emotionally moving series of events.
Tom struggles to forgive and trust Lexi for much of the finale, which makes her self-sacrificial destruction of the Espheni moonbase especially effective. His spinning out into space after the moonbase explodes - a needle in an ocean, as one of our heroes back on Earth observes - is a good way to conclude that part of this season's story, with the dessert of Tom finding some kind of alien breathtakingly beautiful a nice touch, too.
But, actually, I thought the best part of the finale was the paralyzing vapor with serpent attack back on Earth, and how our people coped with it. Well, most of that, anyway. Pope, unfortunately, has been reduced to comic relief, which makes him far less interesting than when he was something of a genuine threat.
But Weaver and Matt were good, as they've been most of the season, and Anne put in a good couple of flaming moments, too. It was also encouraging to see Ben and Maggie using their superior powers and connection to save Hal, and the three of them then working together. Tom would have been proud.
But Tom is apparently the furthest he's been from Earth and his family, and it will be interesting in the next and final season to see how he gets back. It looks pretty definite, though you never know with science fiction television, that Lexi will be gone. And that's kind of ironic. She spent most of the season being one of the most irritating characters on the show, only to become a pretty convincing heroine in the end, to the point of sacrificing her life for the greater cause, and making all of us miss her.
And I'll be back with reviews of the final season of Falling Skies in 2015.
Hey, I saw the first episode of Josh Holloway's latest series, Colony, on the USA Network last night, and liked it. Definitely has potential. (I saw it On Demand - the series will premier this Thursday, January 10.)
Fargo concluded its second season earlier this month with a few episodes that were, literally, just out of this world. Well, one was, anyway.
Well, although everything up to the ending in this, the very last episode of Falling Skies, was more of the recent same - which is to say, not very interesting or original - the series managed to pull off a memorable conclusion in its last few minutes.
The fifth and final season of Falling Skies is still looking to be one of its best, judging by where it is now in its second episode. I like the fast, no-nonsense pace of the fighters and fighting, good to see after the over-agonizing in some of the recent previous seasons.
