Episode 8: Death March
In episodic stories, there are two approaches that are generally used to tell the story. One is to create a formula that will be used for the majority of the episodes and create a variation for most of the others allowing for a second formula to be used for special occasions like holiday episodes. This is what sitcoms do and most procedural law enforcement and court shows. It is a time tested way of creating a certain caliber of show, and if you're lucky that caliber is high. The other method is to mix it up with every episode, where some things might stay the same, while the style changes. This works best for stories of a limited span, like television shows with a short season - that way every episode can seem fresh - or comic book mini and maxi series (4 to 12 issues). I like both formats just fine, each has it's own pros and cons, but if the latter kind can be pulled off well, it keeps me more engaged in the story.
Earlier I mentioned the suspense/thriller technique of allowing the audience to remain a half-step ahead of the characters so that we can worry longer over what will befall them. Related to that technique is taking that half-step away so that we know what they know which the audience to have its emotions manipulated at the same time as the characters are having theirs manipulated. This kind of story works particularly well when the end of the arc is the opposite emotion from the one we've been herded towards for most of the episode, and for it to work properly, it must be a surprise to the audience. Sometimes you build them up just to knock them down, but the opposite, like they used in this episode, works well, too - you tear them down and step on them just to come through at the end.
Episode 9: The Price of Greatness
With the main character being a professor of American history, I expected that sooner or later there would be an overtly political episode, drawing corollaries between the situation in the show, the American Revolution and the cu rent political environment. I kind of assumed that the current political environment would be that of the U.S. which they have by showing us a situation more similar to what is happening in Egypt or Libya.
The leader of Charleston is Tom's mentor, a published and well respected historian, Manchester< that wants to build up the new country away from the eyes of the alien which is achieved by never confronting them. Opposed to him is General Max Headroom, ok not really his name it's just that he's played by the same actor, Matt Frewer, who wants to take the fight to the aliens. Add a kid into the mix who purports to be representing the leader of the Skitter rebellion (I'm pretty sure I just used a racist term against the aliens there) and we're set up with all kinds of grabbing for power that intentionally or not shows Manchester to be more interested in retaining power than ruling the Charlestonians well, while the gung ho General is kind of afraid to be gung ho.
To me it clearly seems that Manchester is being set up to be the bad guy as we see him bribing, or more accurately attempting to bribe, members of the 2nd Mass to get dirt on Tom. Manchester's answer is that he must preserve the state at all costs, even when it comes to rounding up all so-called dissidents, "just in case". This is a thought that crosses my mind all of the time - what happens if Occupy Wall Street movement gets going again and an over-zealous police force cracks down hard and someone loses their life? How long before the political parties, on both sides, mobilize their people and we have rallies and counter rallies exacerbated by issues of racial and economic inequality? How long before the rally is a riot and people start dying? Does the military step in at that point, just like in one after another country in the Middle East and Eastern Europe before it? If it does, will the military be acting on behalf of the civilian government or will it have taken over the civilian government? I'm not too worried about this scenario, most Americans are far too lazy to attend rallies, not to mention apathetic. Yay laziness and apathy???
Episode 10: A More Perfect Union
Knowing the personal relationships between certain characters in the show, I expected title of the season finale was going to be a double entendre about settling the political issues in Charleston and one of the couples getting married. Well, I was wrong. I'm actually not sure where things stand on either one of those fronts, as this was predominately an action episode and they covered as much ground in the war against alien invaders as they have in the rest of the season put together.
While the seasonal arc and the Charleston arc both reached conclusion, many of the character arcs are setting up for next season. The powers that be decided to end this season in as big of, if not bugger than cliffhanger than they did season 1. They went to great effort with a large number of F/X shots for this episode and we got to see some cool stuff that we hadn't seen before. But, there was a trade-off of less time spent on the dramatic and emotional stories. I guess that can be a drawback of using different storytelling mechanisms in each episode, that I might not like one or more, whereas I realize that other members of the audience may have felt this was the best yet. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but to leave so much hanging for another year or whenever it is I get a chance to watch the third season...well, I guess that is the point of a cliffhanger to make sure that the audience will return.
Falling Skies on IMDb
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