Good news for fans of the Steven Spielberg executive produced sci-fi drama Falling Skies, with TNT renewing the show for another ten episode season which will air next year. The show has already been picked up by television markets around the world and is garnering record ratings, not to mention the growing buzz on the net.
Michael Write, executive vice president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies had this to say about the shows renewal:
Falling Skies is a true standout series, from its ambitious storytelling, high-profile cast and production team to its phenomenal success when it comes to international and time-shifted viewing. We’re reaching new audiences with Falling Skies and look forward to seeing where this fascinating and exciting series takes us next.
After the pilot episode, the show quickly established it’s tone with a realistic approach to the possibility of such an event, without the over the top story twists of commercial shows, instead on a par with AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’.
At first the alien presence seemed similar to other sci-fi’s, though they’ve quickly proved to be more than just the unknown enemy but a threat and has yet to be fully understood. What makes the show work is the believability of the aliens and their motivations for taking over the planet and the strange need for the slave labour imposed over the children, as well as the day to day struggles that the survivors encounter in their battle for freedom.
Mark Verheiden serves as co-executive producer / writer and has worked on some big name shows including three seasons of ‘Battlestar Galactica’, plus features films and various graphic novels. Verheiden stepped in for Graham Yost who had to return to the FX series ‘Justified’ after the pilot had been shot.
Verheiden spoke about what it was like to take over the reigns:
The business side of it basically started with a call. Graham Yost was on the show, at that point, but he was going to have to go back to Justified. So, they needed someone to come in that would work with Graham for awhile, and then when Graham left, take over the show. DreamWorks asked me to come in, and it was like a CIA thing. I had to go into a locked room and watch the DVD with a guard outside, so I wouldn’t film it or whatever. Basically, I watched the pilot and my jaw hit the floor, and I said, “Wow, I want to be involved in this!” So, I met with Graham and we were off.
Verheiden talked about the themes he then wanted to bring to the show:
… my mandate going in, for me, was that we did not want to tell a bleak story about humanity on the ragged edge. This is a story about a man with three kids, who he’s trying to protect more than anything on this earth. He’s trying to retrieve one of them from the Skitters and protect the others. And, it’s about six months after an invasion that’s turned their whole lives upside down and taken away everything that they used to take for granted, and finding that hope in humanity within yourself, gathering and becoming that resistance, the Second Mass. Then, the show that TNT wanted was one that had a sense of hopefulness to it. It’s about these people that are thrust together, who had never met, and now are finding ways to not only fight back against the aliens, but who are also reconstituting themselves after this terrible event and making a life that’s not just a life but is one that’s worth living, not just for Tom but for his kids. That, to me, was its core. It was trying to find and make sure that we held onto those emotional values, at the core of it.
Noah Wyle plays Tom Mason, a history professor who uses his knowledge of military warfare to fight against the occupying force. He turns out to be a strong leader, striving to rescue his son Ben (Connor Jessup) enslaved by the aliens, with his eldest son Hal (Drew Roy) fighting along side him and his youngest son Matt played by Maxim Knight.
For a show of this genre, the FX are a big part of the believability of the drama, Noah Wyle was asked what he thought about the show’s alien threat:
We didn’t really see what they looked like, through most of the shooting of the pilot. We saw some renderings and some drawings. By the time we were in the final week of production on the pilot, there were some digital mock-ups of a Skitter climbing a wall and how they would move, and that they were spider-like creatures, but the final design wasn’t done until they were in post-production on the pilot. When I watched the final cut, that was when I really saw them for the first time and I thought they looked great. They’re pretty creepy. I’m told that good science fiction writing often involves peeling the onion, layer by layer, and releasing new pieces of information about the character that the audience wasn’t quite aware of, that creates a completely different picture at the end than the one you think you’re going to get, and that’s very much what we did with this season. What we think the aliens are, what they want and what their hierarchy is turns out to be radically wrong, by the end of the season, and affords us an opportunity to then explore this other side of it in Season 2.
Actress Moon Bloodgood plays Anne Glass, a paediatrician who lost her child during the invasions, and now helps the remaining survivors cope both physically and emotionally. She admits to being concerned with the look of the aliens for such an FX driven show:
… I was worried. Loving science fiction, that is so important. We said, “Please make the aliens look good. That is so important.” As soon as that looks bad, everything becomes just not as good. Everything becomes silly. The only one who could get away with that was Star Trek. They would sometimes look bad, but you’d be like, “Okay, I love these characters so much that I’m just going to pretend that I don’t see how bad that looks right now.” But, when I saw the Mechs and the Skitters, I thought they looked fantastic. The Skitters moved like they were octopuses and were very slimy in their movements, and their heads cocked to the side. They were very spider-like and creepy. I need all of that. The Mechs were very robotic, like they just take orders. The Skitters are the brains and the Mechs are the brawn. I loved it. I thought it was dark. It was good. You’ve got to get scared, or you’re just not going to buy it.
With this latest sci-fi renewed so early, it raises expectations for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming prehistoric series ‘Terra Nova’, which airs later this year.
Falling Skies currently airs Sundays on TNT.
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