'Falling Skies' on TNT HD - Page 5

I find it interesting that the posters here are so negative about this show. There are so few decent programs on these days that anything that's fairly well done, which this is, is better than 95% of the shows available to us. I'd say that if there are more than two or three weekly dramas that you think are better than this one, I don't trust your taste. This is not groundbreaking stuff, but a lot of the characters are memorable, the acting is good, the dialog ain't bad, and the show is ambitious and pretty well done.

Agreed... they have two ways out of the EMP scenario...

1. Anything that would be unaffected (old cars, old flashlights, etc.) doesn't need explaining.

2. It was said to be targeted attacks... so there could have been technology underground, or outside the field of the attack that people eventually found.

Of greater significance in these apocalypse scenarios, however, is locating fuel.. Since no more oil is being pumped and refined... gasoline for those care would become scarce in a hurry.


Not necessarily... and I think we had a variation of this discussion in the "V" thread.

People (and we can assume aliens might be the same) tend to be focused... "necessity is the mother of invention" and all that... so an alien race could have been VERY motivated to find a way to leave their planet and have interstellar space travel in order to survive... and the drive/focus necessary to achieve that could have left other developments lacking.

We discover all kinds of things by accident... when otherwise we would not discover them because they are not a priority. So it is entirely possible for a race of aliens to be ahead of us in some things and behind us in others.

That's part of why the old War of the Worlds plot of them being susceptible to our virii is valid... we have bugs here that they might not have been exposed to... that would be deadly... and if they had time, they could develop a cure perhaps... but they won't have time.

Weapons and space travel don't necessarily go hand-in hand...

What a ridiculous statement. If you can't find three shows on television with better writing, acting or creativity then you don't pay enough attention ... Thrones just finished, Justified, FNL, The Good Wife, Fringe and those are just the ones I watched recently. When you get into other shows that I haven't kept up with like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, True Blood, Dexter et al. I think you'll find a lot of people will be able to come up with a far greater list.

Look at the recent TCA noms for some inspiration.

Can't believe all the hate for this show. I loved it, thought it was amazing, entertaining, and a cool take on alien invasion. Didn't find anything wrong with it and thought it was one heck of a ride.

The EMP thing was done in Jericho as well and it was handled exactly the same way. They drive around in 1960 and 70s vehicles so at least writers from show to show are consistent.

The only hook to the show is why they want the kids with those devices on them. Other then that it's bland.

just wasted 13 weeks on The Killing and will not be doing that again with this POS!

I thought it was worth watching a few more times, at least. I think there are explanations for some of the seeming plot holes - for example, it seems the aliens are more active at night, so that is why they were able to move during the day. It was also mentioned that the aliens were only going after groups of more than 300 people, so that is why there are able to stay together in the open. Finally, the EMP fried anything with extensive electronics in it, so that's why they had to use old vehicles like the "GTO."

I think what we're seen here is a residual affect of being bombarded with a steady diet of crappy shows, or at least leading us to a big let down at the very end ( Lost). So most avid show watch will dissect it a check for holes, leaks, etc..I'm with another poster here, I hardy watch much TV, I keep hearing Walking Dead is pretty good, I missed it everything they show the entire series consecutively, the Throne I can't watch because it's on a premium channel. But I'll give this one a chance before it takes off, or really blows,( Heros )


DJoel

You honestly think this is one of the top 3 dramas on tv??

Well then I don't trust your taste either.

I don't know about my taste (I liked "V" .. ), but there are more than 3 good series on TV that are not "How I met Your Mother" ..

For me, I know it's all been done before and that anything like this requires some degree of suspension of disbelief .. some more than others ..

So, I don't try and pick it apart, I try to concentate on the plot and the acting .. if I could come up with something groundbreaking, I'd move to Hollywood and try and peddle a script ..

Keep in mind it's easy to be a critic .. we love to complain more so than we love to praise ..

I'm sticking with it in hopes we've seen the worst ..

I'll give it a shot because I'm a sucker for SciFi, but you'd be hard pressed to make a case that this show is even one of the top 3 dramas on TNT.

I am always amazed at the talents of some around this forum that can judge an entire series by watching the first episode.

I thought the show was okay, but has some potential. It had its share of plot holes. But the acting and the special effects are better than what we saw in "V" and "The Event". I'll hang with it to see how and where it goes.

Who watches an entire series before forming an opinion?

Opinions may change as more episodes air, but everybody forms some sort of opinion based on what is presented.

Is this what became of the sequel to Terminator Salvation?

Not bad so far. Let's see if we can have an alien invasion series that doesn't get cancelled.

Which is why viewership either goes up or down as time passes .. and should cause the network to put their best foot forward at the get go ..

One interesting point on the show for me was the idea that "The more uncomfortable we make it for them, the better the chance is they will leave" .. which pretty much means mankind has definitely thrown the towel in on beating them ..

Resistance / guerrilla warfare .. obvious Spiebergism as well as the family scenes ..

True.
But space travel and TECHNOLOGY do.

Humans build the most advanced weaponry our technology can provide.

Thinkin' too small ... I'm betting the "harness" is actually a "Skitter Larva" that eventually forms a symbiotic hybrid with the human child. Then again, maybe I just spent too much time playing "Resistance:FOM"

Or the B5 solution of using human teeps as "central proccessors."

...time will tell,I suppose.

Thanks for letting me know he's on Falling Skies. I didn't realize that. I love his blog.

+1:d

I didn't have a lot of gripes... but this one still bugs me.

The older son stumbled on a parade of aliens, ships, and enslaved kids during the daytime while scouting... so clearly they are out in the daytime... it is literally a miracle (or bad writing) that the two groups weren't hiking down the same open road at the same time.


Yes... but technology not necessarily = weapons... and while we keep trying to make better and better weapons, we put less and less money into NASA and space exploration.

Real life on earth seems to almost prove that advanced weaponry and space travel development are at odds with each other, since both require lots of time and money to develop.

Clearly our priority is on weapons... but if our planet was about to crack open and we had to leave within a generation... then I bet we shift our focus in a hurry and weapons technology would fall by the wayside while we attempted to escape a dying planet.

Not sure of his name either....we were just calling him "Sawyer".

You obviously are misinformed about what an EMP does.

First, let's take the name: EMP: Electro-Magnetic Pulse. The simple explanation is, it's a giant magnetic field. It's like the biggest junkyard crane magnet ever.

What is does, is erase things like chips, drives and other storage media that contains instructional information to operate a device. It doesn't "fry" anything, though certain devices might overheat if they remain running when their control or cooling circuits have failed. It just erases information necessary to control or operate an electronic device. So, an electronically controlled ignition found on a fuel injected car won't work because the computer won't operate. Solid state radios won't work, because the tuners are digital. LED lighting likely won't work because the voltage circuits might be affected. Rechargeable batteries won't work because they have chips in them that tell a charger how drained they are - and the chargers won't work, anyway. The power grid is controlled by computers and landline and cell phones use digital technology to distribute calls. A telegraph would work, though, if you could connect it up, as would an older manual phone line from the rotary days (if you can find one). Older tube-style ham radios would work if you had power. Crystal radios would also work. No digital ones, though. So, leave those FRS units behind.

Alkaline and lead acid batteries are simply a chemical reaction. A flashlight is a simple circuit with a switch to make a connection to battery. Most generators with a pull start are carbureted with a simple stator connected to the motor that generates the electricity, while burning off excess current through a rectifier. Spark plugs are just that: a plug with an open end (like a cut, bare wire) to allow an electrical arc to take place. Early 80's and older carbureted cars would operate because the fuel system is mechanical: throttle lets more fuel enter the cylinder, butterfly valve opens to let more air in, spark from the generator ignites it on the up stroke, driving the piston down. The valves open and close mechanically with camshafts. Even the electric cooling fan would work: it's a simple electric motor controlled by a temperature controlled valve: heat opens the value, sends power to fan. Once cool, the valve closes and the current is cut off.

Your best bet would be 70's and 80's era motorcycles, or any 2-cycle dirt bike with a kick start. Even an electric ignition on an older motorcycle would be fine, since it's merely a simple electrical circuit with no chips. So, my 30 year old motorcycle would be unaffected, but my modern truck would be dead to the world. The truck has a manual transmission, but bump starting it wouldn't work since the computer wouldn't work to be able to send fuel to the injectors.

What won't work are computers, MP3 players or anything else that requires EPROM memory. If it has a drive, it won't operate, even if the data is stored on non magnetic media - it's the chips that allow it to be read that would prevent it since they'd be erased. Even fluorescent lights with electronic ballasts won't work. TV screens would be functional, but there would be no way to turn them on without replacing the electronics that operate them.

The exceptions to the above would be any device that was someplace that shielded it from the pulse. You'd have to be well underground or well shielded with something like lead. In other words, the same protection the EMP device had so it wouldn't kill itself immediately upon activation.

Now, the issue would be gasoline. Gas stored in tanks at a gas station would last for quite a while in those tanks, unlike gas in cans or in car fuel tanks. If you had a good supply of Stabil or Seafoam from the local Autozone, you could extend the life for months or longer. Eventually, you'll run out of gas that will actually fire, though. You could likely eek out a bit more by throwing some ethanol in there, but eventually it will eat your carburetors and you'll be constantly replacing the gaskets and floats as they degrade. Fuel for a 2-cycle engine would give you more time, too. Diesel would be worthless once it absorbs too much moisture - not that the motor would operate since I believe the glow plugs and other systems in a diesel engine are electronically controlled (I'm not versed on diesel engines, so I'm not sure).

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At any rate, the show itself was average. Not great, but not bad. I'll stick with it for a bit longer.

If it gets worse, I'll bail. If it gets better, than I have a new series to watch.

I don't normally use this but .. LOL .. Nice Post ..

+2 Ditto.

I think i'm just going to stop reading this forum. To much analyzing and not enough just enjoying the entertainment. It just reminds me how much I disagree with the loud minority. I just hope the neilsen families like it, so I can continue to enjoy it for seasons to come. The rest of the people who don't like it don't really matter.

Thanks for taking the time to lay that out for folks that may not know the basis of the problems caused by an emp. A couple of additional points, if I may.

First - Electronics with transistors and integrated cirtuits would indeed be fried. The huge magnetic field would induce a current in the ic that far exceeds it's capabilities. That current would in-turn fry/heat the circiut to failure even if it was at rest, i.e. turned off. As for erasing memory, the mechanism that does the erasing is the physical damage to the millions of transistors containing the instructions.

Second - Unless we're talking some kind of exotic specialty battery (Honda Insight, Prius) most rechargable (non-automotive) batteries are "dry" chemical batteries. All the logic for charging them without damaging the chemicals inside are contained within the charger. The charger monitors voltage directly and varies the charge cycle by using pulses. Old trickle chargers just applied a constant low voltage. A trickle charger will generally destroy NiMH or Lithium batteries. Either way there'd be no power to operate the charger anyway so thats a mute point.

Anyway if power is what they're after they need to open a yellowpages and find small engine supply shop and raid it for generators. Boston is a city of what 3-4mil metro? So figure there's at least a million cars, trucks, semis, & trains all parked with fuel. Assuming the population has been cut by 90-95% and that's more than enough fuel to last years. I'm thinking 5-10 and that's the above ground fuel not stored in tanks at gas stations. Imo it won't go bad that quick. EPA regulations mandate that most cars currently have gas tanks that seal. Heck, part of my yearly car inspection requires my city to confirm the integrity of that seal.

The real problem is food. Once dry and canned foods are exhausted it's gonna be hard to provide food for all the refugees without planting crops. IIRC they're 3 or more months into the invasion. People should be slimming down "Survivor-style" by now.

But honestly I can't wait for the next Ep. Seriously. I have a feeling it'll be better...

Like I said...it was decent for mindless summer fun.

I just don't get the amazing/cool take angle. It's a complete rip off of everything that has come before, while not really introducing anything new, nor doing the "rip-off" particularly well.

But what isn't these days .. ??

But an alien race bent on taking over another planet would have focus on weapons as well as space travel.


I wasn't blown away by the show, but did enjoy it. It gets a ride on my DVR express until further notice.

You mean SciFi-wise? That's a good question. That's probably why I gave up on the most recent SciFi tv shows (V, FlashForward, The Event etc).

I was hoping that Caprica would be the new BSG, but that didn't happen. And the new BSG spin-off could be hit or miss. I'm still holding out hope that AMC eventually picks up The Voyage. O_o

Falling Skies probably fits with that first group of shows I listed thus far, but that could change.