An Overview of the TV Show Falling Skies (Watch the Season 2 Premiere for free)

Falling Skies  isn't really an alien invasion story. It doesn't deal with the actual invasion in the same way that movies such as Independence Day or War of the Worlds did. This scifi drama from TNT more closely resembles such shows as Jericho and maybe even The Walking Dead or movies such as those from the Terminator franchise. This is because, in this story, the initial invasion event has already happened and mankind has suffered a devastating blow. We're not quite at the verge of extinction, but we're not far off and the aliens are now effectively carrying out a mopping up exercise in order, it seems, to eradicate mankind from the face of the Earth. Falling Skies  picks up 6 months after the invasion and tells the story of a group of humans who are organizing the resistance. They begin to develop ways to fights back and continue to gather intelligence, in order to do so more effectively.Tom Mason is the lead character in Falling Skies and is played by Noah Wyle, who was Dr John Carter in the long running medical drama, ER. Tom is a history professor by trade and is one of the people who decides to pick up the baton and run with it. His main motivation comes from the fact that his middle son, Ben, was taken by the aliens and Tom will stop at nothing to get him back, especially as Tom's wife was killed during the invasion.A history professor wouldn't normally be your first choice to head up a resistance cell, but Tom's extensive knowledge of military history gives him an insight into tactics that have been seen to work in certain situations in the past and he ends up being 2nd in command of a group of resistance fighters known as the 2nd Massachusetts. The 2nd Massachusetts is charged with protecting a large group of survivors and Tom has to juggle his attention between being a resistance leader and a father to his other two boys, Hal, and Matt. With Steven Spielberg as its executive producer,  Falling Skies  promises much but this is not primarily an alien story, it's a story about a family trying to survive in extraordinary circumstances. The aliens just happen to be creating those circumstances. At the time of writing this, we have seen about half a dozen episode of Falling Skies and it is proving to be a very good show, so good in fact that it has already received the green light for second season.