Last year’s surprise summer hit ‘Falling Skies‘ is finally back, and naturally, the action is bigger than ever along with some new characters, including Brandon Jay McLaren who provides some love interest for Lourdes (Sychelle Gabriel).
When I first saw ‘Falling Skies‘ last season, I wasn’t expecting much. I think it was more because I’d gotten used to Noah Wylie playing that action-geek librarian so much so hearing that he’d be playing a hero type leader in a sci-fi action series just sounded odd. So I don’t know if it was just lowered expectations or what, but I really got hooked on the show. You can definitely tell that Steven Spielberghas a hand in it as those aliens have quite the familiar look from his ‘War Of the Worlds‘, but this show is way more interesting. Plus Noah Wylie is actually more believable in this role than Tom Cruise was. (naturally his couch bouncing at the time made it harder to watch him play this type of role).
Fans of the show, and even those that still aren’t purely sold on it will have a pleasant surprise with the first four episodes of this season. The great ending for last season had Tom Mason (Wylie) getting onboard the spaceship with Karen (Jessy Schram) against his better judgement leaving us wondering where in the world would this show go from there. The Season Two premiere, ‘Worlds Apart‘, kicks off three months later with the 2nd Mass, weary and ragged but still kicking alien butt. Tom’s son Ben (Jessup Connor) will definitely have the spotlight on him as he’s gone from last years walking zombie to action hero style and he takes a lot of aggression out on those aliens. If you recall, he was once taken by them and given that special back clamp to phone home.
Captain Weaver (Will Patton) is still the Alpha Male in charge, and then one night, Tom comes back only to get shot. Just like in ‘The Walking Dead’, the 2nd Mass’ safe haven of the school is history, and they’re forced to be constantly on the move, but they’re getting more pissed than angry and fighting back hard. The aliens aren’t always the brightest, but they adjust which always forces the team to reconfigure and then someone else gets a chance to take over and be Alpha Dog until Weaver goes crazy again like last season.
While Mason is recovering, we begin to learn some of what the aliens did to him. He also is faced with some doubts about where he stands with the group since he doesn’t remember everything that was done to him on the ship. I don’t think we have to worry about anal probe talk on this show at least! The premiere is actually two episodes back to back, but they always love to say ‘a 2-hour season premiere’ anyway.
The second hour lets Pope (Colin Cunningham) get some spotlight as he plants seeds of doubt about Tom and why he was allowed to even come back after communing with the aliens. At this point, even Tom isn’t sure whether to trust himself. Pope is that character every show like this needs who just cares about his own safety and has not problem saying things that everyone is thinking privately but afraid to admit. Ben’s hatred of the aliens grows to seething proportions, and he’s like a little human supremacist now as he and older brother Hal (Drew Roy) grow further apart. It’s almost like after knowing that the aliens had controlled him last season, he’s taking out all his pre-teen anger and anxiety out on them.
Lourdes (Sychelle Gabriel) finally gets some loving this season as ‘The Killing’s‘ breakout star, Brandon Jay McLaren, comes on the show to play Jamil, the 2nd Mass’ engineer whose career was just about to explode before the aliens changed everything for him. McLaren has become quite the actor who brings so much to every role he takes on (even that dreadful ‘Harper’s Island‘) so Lourdes should not be so lonely this season.
Episodes 3 & 4 will be introducing some new characters along with a new location for the 2 Mass to finally settle in, but naturally there’s problems as usual. Everyone hoping for some Hal and Maggie action will get their wishes fulfilled this season too. She’ll talk more about her past so naturally that always leads to some bonding. Season 2 will definitely be grittier and darker as the 2nd Mass has noticeably dwindled down, but they still have that fighting spirit!
