It's something I noticed in the post-production work of NBC's Grimm pilot episode. A lot of the music and sound effects didn't add up, and it was almost as if it was clumsily put together. They had also inserted a lot of "scary" or sudden music at very inappropriate times. It didn't really make a lot of sense, and I thought that they just had bad sound guys.

However, it's starting to make a lot more sense now.. especially because of the latest episode (#4). It appears that they're using scary mood music and environmental sounds on a show that was probably more of a light-hearted scifi drama initially (more similar to Supernatural). They've gone back and edited the show to try and change it into something more dark, sinister, serious, and more horror oriented.

I think they ripped apart Episode #4, re-shot some new scenes, and put it back together again to tell a different story. It explains why the episode makes no sense at all. (Either that, or they just have really bad writers.)

Here's why:

The episode introduces the Ziegevolk (goat people aka Bluebeards). The Ziegevolk give off pheromones that affect women within close proximity and hypnotize them.

Ziegevolk love being the center of attention, having women around them, they're very social, they never kill ("they're lovers not fighters"), and they're basically players and "Hollywood types" whose natural impulse is to reproduce with select women. That's their purpose.

Remember, they can only seduce and hypnotize women and they have a strong desire to procreate.

Then we're introduced to Billy Capra ("Capra" meaning Goat.. "Billy Goat", get it?)

He's the caretaker of the Bramble House Bed & Breakfast and he's nothing like other Ziegevolk.

He's sensitive, it looks like his Mom dresses him, he has bunny rabbits in his backyard, he's a gardener, he sews and knits, he makes hand made dolls, he bakes biscuits, his house is very neat and tidy, there's glitter, he's into crafts and paper doilies, he's very polite.. did I mention he dresses "really nice" and he's very sensitive? I think you know where I'm going with this, you silly goose.

This is all confirmed right before Billy, the Grimm Detective, and his partner Hank head out into the garden. Billy rubs up against Hank and then you're shown that the pheromones are affecting him. The Grimm detective even has to ask him if he's okay because he suddenly starts acting out of character.

Before Hank was focused, but now suddenly he's hypnotized, walking in a stupor, and in an obvious trance-like state staring at Billy (having strange tingly feelings below his belt) the entire time. You can see that it's the reason why he accidentally stepped on the frog.. it's because he was hypnotized and secretly lusting after Billy the whole time.

Moments earlier though, the "newly wed girl" hugs and kisses Billy on the neck, and it had no effect on her. Billy made sure not to touch the "newly wed male", though.

Because he could seduce any woman he wanted, there was absolutely no reason why he had to kidnap them and rape them to reproduce.

They made it plainly obvious that Billy could only seduce men and that Hank was under his influence. Going by this conclusion, the episode starts to make a lot more sense now. :)

Here's what the episode was supposed to be about before they re-shot everything:

Billy is the exact opposite of his heterosexual brethren. He can only attract men, which he likes, but his species also has a strong natural drive to reproduce. Billy cannot seduce women or hypnotize them, so he's forced to kidnap women, gas them to hypnotize them artificially, and keep them sedated so that he could rape them and procreate. He tries to hold out for as long as possible, but eventually natural instinct kicks in, so he does it in large spurts before moving onto another community.

The '67 "most desirable MG ever made" Roadster was a gift to him by a man he seduced. (It was not explained in the episode, but now you're seeing that it makes more sense now and why they showed that specific scene.)

The "Blue Moon Bar" episode was probably going to be a humorous scene with their comic relief character "Monroe, the Wolfman" entering a gay bar and ending with hilarious results.

And then there's Hank who probably had scenes where he was wrestling with his new "funny" feelings towards Billy.

The producers probably thought it was all too offensive or just too silly/funny for being so early into the series, and they wanted the episode to be more serious and dark. So they re-used old cuts and re-shot new scenes. Voila, you get this masterpiece which makes no sense.

This was definitely not bad writing. They vastly changed the script and created new scenes. This is a very bad sign for the series.. last minute (major) changes, no forward thinking, there's no clear direction for the series, they're changing the tone of the series to make it more serious (trying to match their competition?).. it's chaotic and simply being thrown together.

Even the episodes are being aired out of order. "Three Bad Wolves" was originally supposed to be aired as #3 or #4 (or both), but it was moved to #6.

Without the inappropriate horror music, though, the other episodes are pretty funny. I actually like Grimm as a comedy drama.

If you're looking for a new TV show to watch, I'd recommend Sky 1's "SPY".

Not the greatest title for a show these days, but it's a pretty good spy spoof and shows some really excellent potential. They are 3 episodes in, and each episode is 30 minutes long (incl. commercials, so roughly 22 minutes without).. I just discovered it today by accident.

Sadly, the show will be mostly overlooked in North America, but if you appreciate well written dialogue, verbal humor, and something that's not over the top, you'll really like this show.

Tim is in a custody battle with his ex-wife, when he quits his job. He applies for a job as a civil servant doing data entry, but discovers during the job interview that he has been offered a job as a trainee spy for MI5.

I usually have a problem with a couple cast members on most American TV shows, but I think you'll like all of the characters on SPY, even the annoying bratty son.

You might not like the show, but atleast someone is making you aware of it. :) You should give the first 3 episodes a shot, at least. (I have different tastes, and most of my friends think I'm crazy for enjoying films like Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, Red Dwarf, Monty Python, Dr. Strangelove or TV shows like Arrested Development. They're more into sitcoms and reality series, which I can't stand.)

I'm not sure if you watch "The Adventures of Merlin" (aka "Merlin"), but I've been watching the BBC series since it first came out. I don't really like the series mind you, and I'm surprised it's gone on for so long, but I guess the only reason I watch it is because there's really nothing else on that day. :)

The other reason I watch it is really to see the production value increase over time. During the first couple seasons, they had to keep using the same sets, scenery and props over and over. As it became more popular, they had more money to spend, and suddenly there were new locations, new sets, and much improved special effects.

The TV series is still much better than "Camelot" though. "Camelot" had a great first episode.. and the rest was rubbish. Everyone really needs to stop rebooting the King Arthur and Robin Hood franchises.. just leave them alone for a couple decades for heavens sake.

So anyways, I was watching "The Wicked Day" the other day and it pissed me off a little. In the beginning, Merlin had plenty of opportunities to expose Morgana, but I can understand that the writers wanted him to foolish, young, and naive. But now he's supposed to be smarter, more clever dealing with Morgana's tricks, and you'd figure he would clue in now that they're 4 whole seasons in. It's just plain bad writing, and it would have made much more common sense if the episode happened like this:

Plus, he's supposed to be able to "sense magic" in the first place.. he just gave a long speech about magic being "all around them". And yet, he doesn't even notice evil magic charms and auras on the King.

It's a fun show and I will definitely continue to watch it (the first 20 minutes were the best). I couldn't help but pick apart the show as I watched it though, it had a high cheese factor, many cliches and annoying bits, and they borrowed a little too many things from the Jurassic Park films unfortunately.

• They have the "brainy daughter" who needs to explain everything. When a narrative isn't available, writers do this to explain things to the audience. Unfortunately, they're treating the audience like stupid children, and they're assuming that no one has watched scifi before. But, that's who the targeted demographic for this show already is.. so it makes no sense.


• They explained way too soon about the "separate time stream". Most people would have figured that out already, and it was completely unnecessary.


• They had too many mixed signals. In the future, it's shown as an extremely dangerous dystopia where overpopulation means death. So, ultra-violent overpopulation control stormtroopers break into homes armed with guns, completely destroy and rip apart the place hunting for children. They're about to take a child for presumably disposal purposes when the father intervenes to protect his child. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, you find out later that he could have just paid a fine. That's it.. a small fine, and he could have avoided prison. Where the hell did that come from? At first, it was a very cruel future, with everyone selfishly escaping the the past and destroying the timeline. After they leave the future, they suddenly start making it sound like a nice place and everyone was kind.


• The father (Jim) was only in prison for about 2 years.. that's it. And yet, somehow the family had to fend for themselves and survive while he was away. That made no sense at all. The mother (Elizabeth) was the breadwinner in the family.. her husband hardly made anything on a cops salary. She was a doctor, the family had MILLIONS, they had wealthy and influential connections, she was the best and brightest in her field, and she was personally selected by the government to travel back in time (out of 0.000001% of the population.) How in the hell did they need to "survive" after dad went to prison?


• I didn't have a problem with any of the characters except for the annoying teenage son (Josh). This character is all over the place, and his existence makes no sense.
  
  First, he couldn't wait to leave the terrible future, then he does nothing but complain about paradise and talk about how great the future was.
  
  Next, he's on a brand new world with sights he's never seen before in his entire lifetime, amazing new plants and animals, non-poisonous fresh air, real food.. and he's apathetic towards all of it. (Although, all of the pilgrims were guilty of this too.. they freak out over seeing a real orange in the future, but when they're surrounded by paradise and unlimited food it doesn't affect them in any way.)
  
  In the future, he tells his girlfriend he'll "find a way to come back and get her." Is this how teenagers really talk? Shortly after he complains about leaving his one true love behind, it only takes him ONE DAY to start dating a new girl. Guess this proves that he never cared about "future girl" at all.
  
  Then, he blows off his mandatory duties, orientation, and survival training. Apparently, the future was so easy going that he was expecting the same on Terra Nova. The new girlfriend (who is supposed to be bright and have leadership qualities) doesn't seem to be concerned about this at all.. she also doesn't seem to care when he flips out and acts crazy around his father.
  
  He also constantly risks his own life to impress the new girl. And, he reveals himself to be a totally incompetent and useless coward with no common sense.
  
  My opinion? They seriously need to remove all of this soap opera drama from the show, it's a tragedy, and I hope "Josh" dies painfully.


• There were also no stars in the sky during nighttime. Terra Nova has a Hollywood sky. If you ever lived in the country, you'd know what the sky really looks like when you're away from city lights. And this entire planet has no artificial lighting emanating from Earth.


• The muzzle-flash-strobe-light-effect-on-dinosaur-scales-and-eyes was borrowed way too much from Jurassic Park. Most of the scenes were recreated from the films.


• Dinosaurs are apparently completely immune to thousands of bullets, sonic blasters, and laser cannons.


• I'm happy that they introduced some mystery into the show. The mathematical equations and geometry by the waterfalls (that looked like they had been there for a while) was a very nice touch. But then they ruined it at the end of the episode, when they revealed who wrote them and pretty much why. They were "the real reason for Terra Nova's existence."


• I hope they show more scenes from the future, or have new characters but shown from the future. They should have flash forward sequences that show different activities taking place in the future. But, they probably won't.


• It would be very cool, and redeeming for the show, if they introduce more mystery and scifi elements. More time travel, but possibly ancient civilizations from even before them. I doubt they'll ever bring aliens into the show..

Speculation Time

• The mathematical equations by the waterfalls were either a timeline chart showing divergence or the creation of a paradox (e.g. it wasn't actually a separate timestream they were in, but rather the same one and they have destroyed the future or it's simply part of the timeline) or he was analyzing star charts and orbital drift, and determined that they weren't in the past but in fact transported to the far future (e.g. long after their old advanced civilization was destroyed and nature recovered without human intervention.)


• They had to explain the different time stream, so I wonder if they'll revisit that sometime later. If selfish bastards from a cruel society in the future traveled back in time to destroy their old future, they would be viewed as evil human beings. But the audience would be left sympathizing for them if they had no idea of the damage they caused.


• They also dropped a lot of hints about the locations of celestial bodies, and how everything in the sky looked wrong (even though they had never seen the sky before amazingly). If "brainy daughter" does the math, like she said, then she might come to the same conclusions as Nathaniel's crazy son.

More Speculation: Future Episodes

• Much of the production budget was spent building the compound set and buildings. So, get used to it. It will be in every episode in S1, and it will never change. If you were expecting a Swiss Family Robinson thing to happen, it definitely won't happen in the first season.


• There will be "raptors chasing the kids" scenes. "Raptors" meaning any kind of vicious small creature.


• There won't be any more future scenes, unless it's an old flashback showing the family's life while Dad was in prison or while he was a cop on the beat. Actually.. I'm going to upgrade this to "not sure". They had some really decent sets and props, and it would be complete shame to waste them.


• There will be family conflict episodes. Teenage son does even more jackass things, he will betray the family and seriously screw them over, he'll put others in danger, or he'll run away.


• Before watching Terra Nova, I pretty much knew there would be different factions outside the compound. But this was already revealed in the first episode. The "Sixers" are just one group.. there will be more.


• The "Sixers" will at first be the evil enemies, but eventually they will all become friends and work together against a "new enemy" once the "Sixers" get boring. They will commit very evil acts, and then just one day, they will totally be forgiven.


• There will be internal conflict and strife within the family, and within the Terra Nova main group.


• A secret hidden faction will be discovered.. possibly time travelers from the future that came even longer before Nathaniel. There might even be a time traveling group from the very far future (when things get even worse) made up of criminals who killed for the technology.


• She acts very distant from her husband, so the wife (Elizabeth) probably had an affair while Dad was away in prison for (only) 2 years. She had to do it to "survive", because her millions weren't enough I guess. An early S1 episode will reveal one of her ex-boyfriends on Terra Nova too. He won't be around long though. (Probably gets killed by dinosaurs.)


• There will be viral outbreak episode. Some strange new disease, bodies aren't used to new parasites, different immunities, etc. etc.


• There will be a bottle episode where main characters will be trapped in a sunken vehicle or a cave. They can't leave the cave due to predators.


• The compound will run low on a desperately needed resource, so a strike team is created (with a couple scientists) to sneak out and get the resource.


• Many extras (adult soldiers & scientists - but no children) will be eaten by dinosaurs. Adults will get eaten whole, teenagers will be scratched and cut but survive.


• There will be super smart dinosaurs.

Community, Parks and Rec, and The Office all returned last night.. the episodes sort of felt like they never really left though. Even though they were pretty good, I think I was expecting something more out of them. I'm just glad the Community musical number was kept really short, however.

I had forgotten all about The Mentalist, but it made a return as well. And apparently, it came as a big surprise to many that Red John was still alive. I was a little disappointed by the episode, and it looks like the writers just wanted to rush through it so that they could get back to the "usual formula".

They should have left Jane in jail for a couple episodes or so, it could have given the writers something fun to work with. But instead, the writers just came up with a non-clever (and heavily contrived) idea to get him out of his predicament.

And they've also totally closed the investigations into J.J. LaRoche/Gupta and Fake RJ.. the writers found a brilliant way to justify it too: "They found nothing in their investigation!" Amazing!

"Person of Interest" was "meh", but I didn't actually expect much. Surprisingly, it had "received the highest test ratings of any pilot in 15 years", and the first episode drew in 13.2 million viewers. [Source]

I found it a lot like Human Target (which opened with 10 million viewers), and I won't be surprised if it's popularity and cancellation ends up being identical. It seems that everyone is really hurting for fresh ideas and decent shows.

I hate that backseat car cliche so much though.. Det. Fusco (the corrupt cop) walks right towards his car in daylight, can clearly see into his backseat, and yet doesn't notice John Reese (the hero) sitting in his backseat with a gun. This does not happen in real life. Similarly, he taps her cell phone and listens in to all of her conversations (ie, using it as a microphone), and yet it doesn't cause a terrible drain on her battery and she never needs to recharge it. She cellphones are tapped in real life, even dumb criminals know that dead batteries are a dead giveaway.

And to top the day off, I found out that Dexter 06x01 was leaked online. I was genuinely pleased with the episode and I hope it's a sign of a really good season. Seasons 1 and 2 were awesome, but I wasn't much of a fan as it progressed from Seasons 3 to 5 (they had no real direction or character development). I'm glad that they finally killed off Rita, but I wish that they had gotten rid of LaGuerta instead of Doakes (who was my favorite character). Maybe there's still time for her. :) Anyways, I hope they don't go too overboard with the new religious direction otherwise it could become a slobbering mess.

My speculation, at this time, is that Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) and his young protege Travis (Colin Hanks) are probably trying to kickstart armageddon or The Second Coming. Gellar might try to "maintain innocence" throughout the season, and he just gets his pupil to do all the dirty work. I'm hoping they take a different approach, and let the bad guy escape in the end (e.g. he moves to different town and finds another easily influenced pupil after the death of Travis.) Travis himself probably isn't helping the Professor purely because of his charisma either, but maybe because something bad happened in his life. For example, the death of his wife and children, and he wants to be with them again (suicide is a sin, so that's out) or punish the world (believing he can end it by starting the end of days).

You can be certain, though, that the writers are going to randomly pull passages from the Bible and make it fit into the story. Rather than re-enacting Revelations in order (they started with Revelations 13 by the way), they'll just jump around to different verses that they have the budget for and can reproduce.

It also appears that the Lieutenants promotion that was intended for Angel Batista (he shouldn't have sprung for the champagne until it was confirmed) will be going to Deb Morgan instead for her heroics in that restaurant shoot out. She'll probably become an internet sensation in the next episode, which is what prompts that specific PR move.

Just some random stuff over the past couple weeks that don't deserve their own posts.

• I just noticed an article called "Diablo 3 Beta Server Hacked - Playable Games Are A Reality". What is this madness?? The beta server has hacked? Anyways, I checked it out and it was just old news about the D3 emulator project. It was through a news aggregator and if I had known it was a N4G article I would have avoided it (they're terrible). I'm not interested at all in the emulator until they actually get some actual gameplay though (e.g. quests, mobs, NPCs, etc.)


• All of the Diablo 3 videos are still looking the same. It's unfortunate that the Media NDA took so long to lift.. by the time it happened, everyone had already watched a hundred full playthroughs. But, it's even more disappointing that the media sites, knowing this, still created the same recycled demonstrations. I have to give mad credits to TotalBiscuit though, he already knew this was going to happen, so he took a completely different approach and focused on lore instead.
• Rumor is that D3 beta invites were slowed due to technical problems with the beta servers. Apparently, they were breaking under the stress of some 400-900 concurrent users. They're in the small beta invite release phase right now, but once they work out the technical problems, many more invites will be sent out to ramp up stress testing. It'll just be very quiet for a bit, which is why it seems that no one is getting beta keys. That's the rumor anyways, but you can check out current beta users logged in here. These reports are submitted by other players, but they're very accurate.


• The class rush videos were pretty awesome, those were my favorites. With a little bit of luck, and a shared stash, almost any player should be able to beat the beta in about 20-25 minutes. The best I've seen so far was 24 minutes, and that was with no stashed gear. Different reports say that the beta is 1/2 or 1/3 of the full Act 1.


• Since the Monk has a team healing ability, I'm wondering if Blizzard will be implementing any other kind of team healing dynamics but through items instead. For example, an item Lifesteal ability, that effects yourself and other team members for example (or maybe just "everyone else"). Would be pretty fun to have a heavy long-range damage dealing Wizard healing the party during difficult Inferno encounters. And, with all of the heavy PVP implementation in the future (and expansion packs), I wonder if they'll eventually create a large scale PVE experience.. Diablo 3 Raids maybe?


• Have there been many complaints about the lack of skills in Diablo 3? Most players would have been spoiled by all of the abilities in WoW, and might find themselves using the exact same 2 or 3 abilities from level 20 to 60. I can see a lot of players complaining about this come retail.


• I probably won't get into the D3 beta, so I'm hoping that I'll get a random invite for the Path of Exile Beta. Trying to get into the PoE beta, though, is the worst kind of tease.. even worse than Diablo 3. Atleast in D3, you have no idea if you're getting a beta key or not. But, PoE has been having multiple competitions, random give-aways on various forums, and the PoE website has a "Beta Invite Timer" showing randomly selected users. You die a little on the inside every time 4 players in a row win a beta key, and they just registered on the forum 2 days ago with 0 posts (when you've had a PoE account since 2010 hoping for an invite). :)
  
  I tried out one of TalesOfLumin's Twitter contests too. He posted a beta key that needed to be unscrambled. For this contest, I was fully prepared. :) I started the exact instant he tweeted the key (which no one knew when), had an scramble app ready, and started to work on the 120 permutations possible. There's a limit on the number of beta keys you can register and you can get locked out for "Too many key attempts". Took me about 15 minutes to get about 3/4 of the way through the 120 possibilities, and using 3 different proxy servers to avoid the key lock out. Then, I discovered someone had already won it in under 5 minutes of the release. Seriously, that's some crazy luck.
  
  TalesOfLumin held another YouTube contest for 6 beta keys, which I didn't find out until too late. This time, though, it was for game development ideas in the categories of Most Helpful, Most Creative, and Most Funny.
  
  The winning ideas were:
  
  Helpful / mattuo: Queuing up skill points, like in other RPGs.
  Helpful / BogusMeatFactory: Traps or puzzles that require 2 or more players, like in other RPGs.
  Creative / dmlayton1984: Implement the "Lethal Decoy" skill from Diablo 3, but call it "dopplebomb".
  Creative / Cexial: Find a hidden scout, he gives you a quest to fight pirates, the boss is the Ships Captain. You know, like in other RPGs.
  Funny / Spinaltouch: A boss named "COLD SNAP", who is an ice elemental. When you kill him, the loot includes "Rare Sharktooth Maul, 1 Portal Scroll, and a free subscription to the Tales of Lumin Adventure Series."
  Funny / Smackdo: Pokemon reference.
  
  So yeah, a little disappointed. Out of the 400 posts, there were some really bad ones and there were some really good and creative ideas. I was really surprised that the above ones were chosen.. I mean, there were some really good ones out there that should have won.


• Wait.. True Blood is over? I just discovered that this past weekend. I had no idea that this last episode was in fact the last episode of the season. It felt just like a mid-season episode. The show basically went nowhere, and it really worries me that the writers produced such drivel. Running out of ideas.. boring storylines.. last minute changes and rushes. Talk about disappointing.
  
  The only "cliffhanger" for the season was the surprise visit by Reverend Steve Newlin. So.. let me spoil that for you: he's going to be the comic relief for next season. He's also a newly turned vampire, who knows nothing about being a vampire, and doesn't realize that he can't enter Jason's house. It'll become a running joke next season.
  
  And, the escape of Russell Edgington shouldn't be a big surprise.. it was talked about for months leading up to the season finale (ie, how he'll be making a return next season.) He can't kill the main characters whom he hates, of course, so the writers will need to find a new direction and purpose for him..
• New episode of Community starts tonight, can't wait! It's unfortunate that they're opening the new episode with a long musical number though.. I hate it when TV shows use this type of filler to extend show length (like in Family Guy). It's really just a way to give writers a break when they can't think of anything clever. What Community really needs to avoid is musicals, flashback episodes, breaking through the 4th wall, and animated episodes. They make a truly great show start to look desperate, and I hope this isn't a sign of writer fatigue.
• I checked out "The Secret Circle". First and last time mind you. Looks like that show is going to be renewed.. high production value and bad acting, but it targets a key demographic of young females, housewives, and androgynous males who will be gobbling this stuff up. An attractive young girl moves into a new town populated with only attractive people and starts going to a new school with attractive and mysterious men who also have superpowers. Yes, it's the exact same plot as every other vampire and magic novel/series/film. It's weird seeing Thomas Dekker as a high school student.. that guy has been forever playing a high school student (Terminator SCC, Heroes, 7th Heaven). He has a weird "Andrea Zuckerman 90210" type situation going on (Gabrielle Carteris was 29, but portraying a 16 year old high school student).. and it's quite creepy seeing fully grown men still in high school.


• Ringer, on the other hand, opened up with ratings that were pretty much equivalent to The CW's other last season (drying up) veteran shows. Not a lot of interest in the show, the acting is bad, and cancellation is quite probable. However, the production costs on the show seem very low (they sure saved a ton of money on the green screen boating adventure), so it might be really cheap to produce. Maintaining 1 million viewers might be "adequate" to keep it afloat.

Making some changes to improve formatting and brevity. :)

True Blood 04x07

* A pretty good episode, I actually enjoyed it more than most of the season even with all of the new supernatural ghost stuff.
* I skip past all of the adult oriented scenes, so I hope I didn't miss any important dialogue that advanced the story.. I probably didn't though.
* Spoilers for Jessica, if you wanted to know if she survives or not. She was left out of the Episode 8 promo on purpose but she's scheduled to appear in the next 5 episodes leading up to the finale, so yeah - she lives. I'm none too fond of True Blood's cliff hangers that they insist on putting into every episode.. "oh man, Pam is going to kill Tara!"
* In the next episode, Jason will probably run towards the door and throw himself onto her, thereby pushing her back into the house. Of course, Jessica will be too strong for him and vampires can't be knocked unconscious so the only way to stop her is if the spell suddenly stops. Unless the writers get stupid. Anyways, Jason will save her life and Bill will forever be grateful to him.

Falling Skies 01x09

* A filler episode where they suddenly find the aliens weakness (as expected) right before the final episode.
* I was hoping that they would delay this discovery until next season when they'll finally take down a tower or find out what it's really for.
* The first entire season should have been more about survival and hiding, rather than all of the internal domestic matters.
* There was also the sudden introduction of a "stereotypical solder who only follows blind orders" storyline.

Falling Skies 01x10

* The season finale was very disappointing.
* Rick was clinging to the walls like Spiderman, but they did something a little smart in this scene. They made sure that the ceiling was cement tiled to show that it was a solid surface. If for example, he had been clinging from a suspended ceiling.. it would have been quite an amazing feat.

One thing they missed though. The ceiling in the room was actually drywall, but they changed it to cement tiling for the Spiderman scene. Oops. :)


* To further exacerbate Rick's "clingy" nature, he suddenly breaks down into fake tears and bad acting when he's rejected by the aliens. Now he suddenly misses his father? They really need to get rid of Rick, he can't possibly make it more obvious he'll betray everyone again.
* I was disappointed to learn that the harness is actually mutating the humans. I was hoping they wouldn't make it into a cliche, but they did. Maybe some improvement to the human form, mostly internal.. but they're taking it too far like every other scifi story. The reason the harness is used on the younger generation is because their minds are more malleable at a younger age. Older harnessed humans require more direct mental control and concentration (which is where those new aliens come into play.)
* There was more and more preaching about past history from the professor, and more stories about successful tactics from history. This was after the same writers also explained that the aliens were different and not anything like humans, so normal human tactics would not work.
* The drug abusing Captain Weaver goes off on a suicide mission, everyone follows along for some reason knowing that it's a trap and heavily fortified and knowing their outmatched, and they let all of the soldiers get killed so that there's no one left protecting the civilians. Not a very effective strategy.
* The reason for this? They couldn't live with themselves if they didn't try. Come. On.
* They also found a silly way to defeat their enemies... radio signals. They had a scene straight out of "Mars Attacks!". It was difficult to watch.
* The final ending was even more ridiculous and a very bad cliffhanger. It demonstrated to me that the writers have no direction whatsoever and that really concerns me for next season. It's like every episode was written on the seat of their pants.
* The aliens apparently have no concept of resistance or don't understand why the humans are resisting. If that was the case, why did they attack, destroy key cities, strategically target certain locations and groups, and use standard war tactics? For heavens sake, all of their strategies were used in the anticipation of heavy resistance!
* Tom just walks off with the evil enemy for no good reason.
* They revealed way too much too soon and it was just shoddy and lazy writing.