Falling Skies (TNT) season 3 premieres 6/09/2013 (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

Wow Lourdes was the mole. Just a few things...-I find it hard to believe that Lourdes and Dr.Glass are the only doctors in Charleston.-While I didn't expect the president (Collins) to live forever. I felt they introduce this pivotal character and then kill him off sow quickly.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I was staring at Cochese last night....I've been trying to figure out how they're pulling off that level of CG character work. Then it hit me: that's a mask! That might be the best alien I've seen on TV, and possibly the movies. His facial expressions and dialog are perfect. It's only when I watch his hands, which are immobile, that I appreciate their budget restraints.

Director/producer had a great blog post that covered how they're pulling off Cochese:http://gregbeeman.blogspot.com/2013/06/season-3-begins-now.html

 

[ChristopherG]

Adam,

Thanks for that link - really interesting to read details behind the scenes like that.

Chris

 

[David Norman]

I would dance my jig from Post 22, but I'm depressed b/c another one is soon to bite the dust. The July 21st show just killed me and I'm still not breathing -- a little ST The Next Generation. The whole Pope/Weaver dynamic it superb.

 

[David Weicker]

I loved Pope the philosopher.

And when Karen showed up as the cop - whoa.

Loved the episode.




One question, when Anthony came in and said everyone had an alibi except the President, I wonder what Lourdes alibi was?

David

 

[mattCR]

I loved Pope the philosopher.

And when Karen showed up as the cop - whoa.

Loved the episode.




One question, when Anthony came in and said everyone had an alibi except the President, I wonder what Lourdes alibi was?

David

I assume they alibi'd her since they had just seen her with the president.

There were some real twists in there.

 

[Jeffery_H]

I wonder if they really killed off Anne and their baby or if it was some sort of ploy and they are really just in a sort of suspended animation? If not and they were killed off, man that is just cold no matter how you look at it. Also, I would say that despite the lack of gore, it would make it worse than a show like The Walking Dead.

 

[David Weicker]

I can't imagine they would reveal their deaths in this manner.Anne is a major character, and the search for her has dominated several episodes. Plus the hybrid baby has been a major plot point this season.If the show reduces their death to just a throwaway, it would be a big miss-step, in an otherwise stellar season

 

[Parker Clack]

I think that showing Tom Anne and child dead was a ploy to get him to tell the location of the weapon just like the rest of the tactics used. I believe they are still alive.

 

[mattCR]

I think that showing Tom Anne and child dead was a ploy toget him to tell the location of the weapon just like the rest ofthe tactics used. I believe they are still alive.

Yeah, I assumed all of that was still in the interrogation.. not real.

 

[Parker Clack]

Adam:

Thanks for the link to the Greg Beeman blog. I would have never guessed Cochese's face was done CGI.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Thanks for that link - really interesting to read details behind the scenes like that.

Thanks for the link to the Greg Beeman blog. I would have never guessed Cochese's face was done CGI.

You guys are very welcome. I love behind-the-scenes stuff like that, I think it's one of the things that first drew me to DVDs thirteen years ago, and I seek it out wherever I can find it.

I think that showing Tom Anne and child dead was a ploy toget him to tell the location of the weapon just like the rest ofthe tactics used. I believe they are still alive.

I agree. The telling thing for me was when Tom shot Karen in the head only for her to be alive in the next level up. The message in that episode seemed to be that nothing is as it seems.What-is-reality episodes like Sunday's always really freak me out. As a child I would often have dreams-inside-dreams-inside-dreams, such that I'd wake up and struggle at first to figure out whether I was really awake or not. "The X Files" did an episode with a hallucinogenic fungus that still creeps me to this day.

 

[DaveF]

Director/producer had a great blog post that covered how they're pulling off Cochese:http://gregbeeman.blogspot.com/2013/06/season-3-begins-now.html

Todd also told us that the design and fabrication of the Volm suit would require 10 weeks. Unfortunately, by the time the machinations of hiring Doug occurred… only 5 weeks were left. Masters and Co. worked 24-7, but we didn’t quite have the face and body ready for episode 301. So in some shots from tonight’s first episode Cochise is fully CGI and in some his body is practical, but his face is CGI.

Wow, so the face is CG. It's impressive. I guessed wrong.

It's exciting to read the Spielberg is an active consultant for the show. (When I see a big name for Exec Prod, I cynically assume they're just a moneyman, and not creatively involved.)

 

[DaveF]

The interrogation episode: I liked it. But it wasn't a particularly taut false-reality episode. There are a few flavors that I think of. The first is where the scenario is completely believable (in the story's context) and you don't know it's a setup initially (ST:TNG's Frame of Mind, I find with some googling). The second is where it creates a highly appealing alternate reality that explores the character's inner desires and fears, perhaps presenting a choice to take the easy route and live a delusion forever or return to the real, but messy world (Buffy in the insane asylum). And of course there's the hallucination for the sake of telling a story that's not otherwise tellable ("The Inner Light").

This episode we know isn't real at first (though I thought it was flashback initially), since it's not real. But it didn't reveal anything novel about Tom's character: of course we know that he wants nothing more than a normal life for his kids, and that he mourns the loss of his wife. So I didn't find it fraught. And these episodes tend to be dream in a dream, so good twist, but not too shocking. It was paced quickly, as well. It didn't linger on the uncertainty, so didn't allow the stress of the "is it real or not" build up.

But it did work as an effective bit of storytelling in this universe. I believe the Eshfeni have such interrogation methods. We've seen they can literally get inside someone's head, take them over, manipulate their personality. So the revelation that they can manipulate in a more sophisticated manner of creating a delusional world for interrogation makes sense. It fit well and propelled the narrative of Falling Skies in a way that "hallucination" episodes often don't for a show.

And I give them credit for completing the entire sequence in about half the run time, because this wasn't really a mind-bender episode. Or, because they've only got 10 episodes to work with, they can't spend a full episode twisting reality. So the story moves into the activation of the Grid, the return of the Mason kids to Charlottesville, and whether to activate the Volm weapon. And we got more story on the excellent mole story, which could do more damage to Charlottesville indirectly than overt attacks have done. This bit continues to impress in its quality of storytelling.


I'm not happy with the Pope / Weaver dynamic. With Tom gone, suddenly Weaver has lost his foundation. I can buy this, but it's pushing my view of this character in Season 3. But Pope I understand as a hothead, reactionary, and not a planner. His sudden conversion into a non-violent political protestor (with a work slowdown), doesn't feel right to me. Am I wrong? Is this within his character?

I do like that Pope's advice to Weaver is completely wrong, and he's playing the dupe to the Eshfeni's mole. If Pope realized that, he'd die an inner death. I don't know if this will come out as explicit piece of story telling, but it's a nicely done line of obvious but implicit narrative.


I continue to be impressed by S3. Referencing the "mini series" thread, this show makes me want more half-season, strongly-planned shows.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Pretty serviceable pre-finale episode. I cringed a little when they fell back on the cliché where a supporting character echoes the exact words that were spoken by someone else earlier in the episode, and it jogs the memory of the protagonist. I think it would have been a lot more interesting if Tom had picked up on Lourdes's slip immediately, but played it cool and then immediately took action.

 

[David Norman]

Man it seems like there's a lot of ground to cover in the last hour.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I was kind of hoping when Lourdes planted the thing and they came around the corner that Cochise would have been with them and they had set her up to see if she was the mole.

 

[Jeffery_H]

I was kind of hoping when Lourdes planted the thing and they came around the corner that Cochise would have been with them and they had set her up to see if she was the mole.

No, he was too injured at that point and had to go into a state of healing that his race can do. That would not have made sense.

 

[Jeffery_H]

Wow, so the face is CG. It's impressive. I guessed wrong.

It's exciting to read the Spielberg is an active consultant for the show. (When I see a big name for Exec Prod, I cynically assume they're just a moneyman, and not creatively involved.)

It's not that impressive if you know some of how CG effects are done. As a 3D artist, I can tell the face is where it fall apart. You don't see any real muscles move, flex, etc. or where they should. There are specific skull structures that you follow, even when developing a mythical race where things have to work. Looking at the alien head, it's very stiff and robotic in nature and the natural lines along the skull where the muscle tissue covers does not work.

Of course, this is due to limited budget and time for the show. All this can be fixed given the resouces and time to do it properly.

 

[Jeffery_H]

So far, all signs point to both Anne and their child being REALLY dead. Maybe the finale will reveal different, but it seems like they are staying with that plot and writing them both out in a dramatic way. If true, it would be VERY cruel indeed and quite cold for any show.