My take on TNT's Falling Skies

A drama focusing on a post-apocalyptic United States six months after aliens initially visit then violently kill and incapacitate the military and leadership network of Earth and take over the major cities around the planet. That's the basic outline of TNT's first foray outside of police and lawyer procedurals and it's probably the cable channel's best series to date and proves that while the networks cater to the lowest common denominator and continue to cast a wide net and appeal to everyone, quality actually has a place and it's increasingly on cable.

Starring Noah Wyle as as sort-of second-in-command of the human resistance after large groups are forced to split up due to the advancing detection methods of the aliens, referred to as Skitters, the show definitely has a dark theme to it. The series definitely does not lack action as I only found myself waiting for things to pick up the pace a couple time throughout the 90 minutes of the 2 hour series premiere I was able to watch.

If you like edge-of-your-seat drama that leaves you wondering what kind of fresh hell awaits you in the next scene, this is just the show for you. It's the kind of series that would never stand a chance on one of the big four networks as was proven in the past year with both The Event and ABC's reboot of V being cancelled at the end of the season.

It's also the sort of series that would have been a perfect fit for Sci-Fi back when it was still Sci-Fi and not SyFy.

I have a feeling that the remaining episodes of Falling Skies will continue along the vein of human interaction and cooperation as they battle against both the child slavery aspect of the alien takeover and fight against the further demise of society in general. It's a common theme when anyone imagines a post-apocalyptic scenario -- society goes straight to shit as everyone fends for themselves instead of being civilized and banding together to reform some semblance of a society.

That will obviously be the b-plot of the series in the coming weeks but I can't wait to see what happens when the resistance captures one of the aliens and am crazy curious to find out just why the aliens chose Earth and what their ultimate purpose is with the planet.

Check out Falling Skies Sundays at 9 PM C/T on TNT.