Tag Archives: Falling Skies

TV: What I’m watching, given up on and looking forward to

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When I was a kid, besides going back to school and the run-up to Halloween, this time of year was a big deal for me because of the new fall TV season.

Yes, I was a TV geek.

I eagerly anticipated the fall season, which usually had at least one or two shows that I wanted to see. Besides, who could guess just how great “The Night Stalker” or “Planet of the Apes” (the TV series) might make the fall of 1974?

There’s less anticipation about the fall TV season nowadays because the TV year is so fractured – worthwhile series debut throughout the calendar year – and, speaking only for myself, I watch less TV.

Because I watch less TV, I try to make every random hour and half-hour count.

So here’s what I’m watching right now as well as what I’m anticipating, what I’ve given up on and what I’m worried about.

“Copper” is a BBC America series – the channel’s first original production – that just debuted last Sunday. It’s about cops in New York City in 1864. The city was a lawless place, full of casual cruelty to children and others who couldn’t defend themselves, and the police department wasn’t much better. Into the mix comes Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War who has come back to the city to find his wife missing and his child dead. The series, which has a nice gritty tone, follows Corcoran as he investigates crimes – the murder of a child prostitute in the first episodes, for example – and patrols the grimy streets and brothels of the city.

“Justified” is returning for a fourth season sometime in early 2013 and it’s likely that our favorite Kentucky-born-and-bred U.S. marshal, Raylan Givens, and his longtime friend and sometimes antagonist, Boyd Crowder, will find themselves up against some new lowlife. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins lead a great cast.

We don’t have to wait until next year to see “The Walking Dead.” The AMC series returns on Oct. 14 for its third season. The series will be split between the prison the survivors were near in the final episode of last season and the town of Woodbury, presided over by the Governor. The first eight episodes air this year, with eight more beginning in February.

I’m not sure when “Mad Men” and “Falling Skies” will be back – hopefully early in 2013 – but I’ll be watching the two very different series. Both came off solid seasons this year.

Few series have been as enjoyable in the past three years as NBC’s “Community,” an odd and offbeat show about a group of misfits who become friends in a study group at a second-rate community college. But I’m worried about “Community” this year after the departure of creator Dan Harmon. By most accounts a genius with people skills issues, Harmon got fired at the end of last season. The cast is great and the stories – complete with blanket forts, paintball apocalypses and genuinely nice character moments – are wonderful. But can the show survive without Harmon? Or will it become another kooky sitcom like “Scrubs?”

I’m not sure I’ll be around for a second season of “Longmire,” the A&E series based on Craig Johnson’s enjoyable series of mystery novels about a Wyoming sheriff. The show looked pretty good and the cast was fine, but the mysteries were mediocre. When the show did take a page from one of Johnson’s stories, as it did in the season finale, it didn’t bring the author’s charms.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to anything on TV quite as much as a live-action Marvel Comics series set in the “Avengers” movie universe. Luke Cage? Daredevil? S.H.I.E.L.D? Where will creative genius and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” mastermind Joss Whedon take this series? Wherever it is, I’m following.

The best part about TV is that, in any given season, some really terrific show can suddenly appear and make you glad you gave it a try. I’ve felt that way about every show on this list at one time or another.

Sci-fi alive and well in ‘Alphas,’ ‘Falling Skies’

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It’s been a long while since I’ve expected the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi to give us much more than a lot of cheap and cheesy ghost hunting shows. Yes, the now-monikered SyFy has a few actual scripted science fiction shows. But from the channel that once aired “Battlestar Galactica,” the pickings are pretty slim.

So I’m happy to note one good sci-fi show currently airing on SyFy and, as a bonus, another that’s wrapping up its season on TNT.

The show approaching the end of its second season is “Falling Skies,” TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama about a group of survivors in the wake of an alien invasion of the Earth.

The first season showed the survivors, led by a history professor (Noah Wylie) and a military man (Will Patton) learning how to work together and avoid the spider-like alien invaders and their “Robocop”-type mech droids. The greatest threat they faced was the aliens’ aims to harness human youth, including one of Wylie’s sons.

This second season the humans have been journeying from New England to Charleston, South Carolina, where the U.S. government has been reforming.

In tonight’s episode, the travelers reach Charleston and find one of Wylie’s mentors in a pivotal role. The mentor is played by Terry O’Quinn of “Lost” fame and if you have a feeling he’s more than what he seems … I’m right there with you.

“Falling Skies” airs tonight and then wraps up its second season on Aug. 19.

On SyFy, “Alphas” is one of the most entertaining sci-fi dramas airing right now. Almost a TV version of “X-Men,” the Monday night show features a group of people with special abilities – super strength, heightened senses, the ability to persuade others to do anything – under the direction of human doctor Lee Rosen (David Straitham).

The teams of Alphas is a diverse bunch, often conflicting with each other like the teams from the best comic book stories. Among the most intriguing: Gary (Ryan Cartwright), a young man with autism who can “read” electronic signals from cell phones and computers in the air; Bill Harken (Malik Yoba) a cop whose super strength takes a toll on his body; and – new to the series as of last week – Kat (Erin Way), a young woman who can quickly absorb knowledge and become expert on any subject or technique.

“Alphas” tells interesting “small” stories – including one about a man whose super-speed abilities made him grow old quickly; be was played by 1980s star C. Thomas Howell as a college-age kid who unfortunately looked middle-aged – against a backdrop of a bigger story: The government’s concerns about and control of the Alphas and a rival team of Alphas with leanings that will remind “X-Men” fans of Magneto and his brotherhood.

“Falling Skies” has a fairly dense history that will make the most sense if you seek out and watch past episodes, but “Alphas” is a fun series that you can jump into at virtually any point. They’re both recommended.