Corona | Coming Attractions

TNT has finally released its first trailer for Falling Skies, its new sci-fi/action series set in the months following a devastating all-out alien invasion of Earth. Back in March I reviewed the pilot script for the project (which still hadn't found its title) and found it to be a gripping take on a worn out science fiction idea. The last time I was so enthusiastic about a script for a pilot TV series it was for The Walking Dead.

The trailer for Falling Skies doesn't do much to show that there's more to this show than humans vs. aliens but if you read my review of the Falling Skies pilot script you'll soon see that there's a lot of dramatic material that can be mined from the idea. For starters, there's nothing in the trailer that shows how desperate the human survivors are, or how it's the children that are being hardest hit by the invasion. There's one fleeting line that Noah Wyle delivers about how a small armed local resistance force can sometimes make it impossible for the invaders to remain. That's essentially the entire reason why the humans are fighting in the Falling Skies show. The lack of ambiguity about why the aliens are here, where their forces are centered and what plans they have for Earth are left unanswered in the pilot. This is about survival and fighting back with whatever scraps of weapons and courage that you have left. If television can find room for a show about surviving the zombie holocaust and what it means to be a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world, then Falling Skies could be the perfect companion piece to AMC's The Walking Dead.

TNT is scheduling a June 2011 broadcast for Falling Skies. I hope that the end product lives up to the material that I read.