Falling Skies Recap: “Brazil”

by Merrill Barr:

Falling Skies Recap: “Brazil”
Original Air Date (TNT): August 4, 2013
Season 3 Episode 10

One word comes to mind when I think about this past season of Falling Skies: rushed. This season was horribly rushed. I understand that because of the effects work necessary to create the show’s world that going beyond a ten episode order is not feasible, but because of this fact the writers should be focused on limiting the amount of arcs that run through a given season.

• Tom, Anne and their alien daughter.
• The Volm and their secret weapon.
• The Espheni defense grid.
• The living U.S. administration.
• The political unrest within Charleston.
• The “death” of Karen and Lexi.
• Karen’s new position as Espheni overlord.
• Tom’s worm problem.
• Lourdis’ worm problem.

See what I’m getting at? This is simply too much story for ten episodes at forty-two minutes apiece. TNT isn’t HBO, they don’t have a full hour (and thus an extra 200 minutes) of air-time to tell their story. There’s no reason this episode couldn’t have ended with the landing of the Volm leaders and the whole Brazil thing happening in the premiere of season four. It also would have been far more compelling to watch the Second Mass spend the whole episode taking down the Boston tower as opposed to having it happen in the first five minutes.

The reveal that Anne and Lexi are alive also could have been held over for next season, or at the very least could have served as a perfect end point for the season. The Volm land just as Tom kills Karen and boom, Anne is alive. But is it Anne? Is it Lexi? These would have been great question to linger on until summer 2014, but alas, the writer once again went left when they should have gone right.

What annoys me most is I actually like the idea of having three warring species on Earth. I like the idea of there being conflict for the Second Mass as they take out Espheni targets the Volm might want to leave standing for a given reason. I’m honestly looking forward to next season, I just don’t want it to be a repeat of this one.

Season three had so much potential when it began. Remember that Saving Private Ryanesc opening fight against the mega-mechs? Remember how awesome that was? That’s the kind of awesome I was from Falling Skies. Forward momentum and plot development are not the same thing. That’s the biggest take away from this season. In an attempt to truly progress the character and politics of post-invasion Earth, the writers let “development” trump character. What I didn’t get enough of this season were character moments, and when I did get them, them sucked (see my review for Search & Recover).

I’m a defender of Falling Skies. I really do enjoy watching Tom and his band of merry men go on missions and take down aliens. But the stuff that we got in between the action this season was sub-par for what I expect from the show, and while I would love nothing more than to give season three a high grade of quality, I simply cannot with what I was given to work with.

But I – like the Second Mass – will hold out hope for the future. Hold out hope that, that dim light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a return to the quality I expect from this show.

See y’all in 2014.