DVD Corner

Falling Skies Season 3 DVD Review

The third season of “Falling Skies” is the best to date, but that’s not saying much.

In the 10 episode season 3, the 2^nd Mass not only takes up residence in Charleston, but they are continuing their fight against the Skitters and Espheni with their new alien alliance partners (the Volm and the Skitters rebels). The rest of the season contains story arcs about elections for the President of the New United States, a murderous mole/spy, Anne and Tom’s new baby Alexis (who is a key part of this season), a nuclear power planet that is helping the enemy forces, the REAL President of the United States (in this series), an energy weapon, Anne and Alexis missing, the now villainous harnessed Overlord Karen. The season concludes with the 2nd Mass plotting a massive attack against the Espheni.

With the previous two seasons, “Falling Skies” offered up very little originality, bland characters, ghastly dialogue, endless irritating human conflicts, and more clichés than you can count. The show never reached its true potential which is immensely frustrating for sci-fi fans like myself. With season 3, all of these issues still remains, but the show is at least somewhat tolerable this time around. What’s improved you ask? Two things: 1. The new human-alien alliance definitely spices up the series. 2. The new Volm character Cochise (played by sci-fi fan favorite Doug Jones) is a breath of fresh air to the wretched cast of characters. It’s just a shame the show didn’t revolve around Cochise instead! Not to be forgotten here are the continually impressive practical and CGI FX (especially in the explosive season finale “Brazil”). The alien suits and the ships are particularly noteworthy here.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: Widescreen. How does it look? This is a solid transfer, but it should be noted that this season is available on Blu-ray as well.

Audio Track: Dolby Digital 5.1. How does it sound? A lively track that will put your speakers to work.

Extras:
* 4 Second Watch episodes which is essentially like “The Talking Dead” for “Falling Skies.” The series, which is hosted by uber nerd Wil Wheaton, contains interviews with cast and crew members about the series, characters, plots, and episodes.
* 6 behind the scenes featurettes titled “Pope Town,” “The New Charleston,” “Gloria Reuben,” “Doug Jones,” “Shout Out: Two Popes,” and “Sunt Man Bradley.”
* 2 featurettes titled “Warrior Poet: Creating The Character and Emotion of Cochise” and “Karen: The Overlord Next Door.”

Overall Thoughts: Fans of “Falling Skies” will no doubt eat up this third season set. If you’ve never seen the series, however, I’d suggest getting your sci-fi fix elsewhere. Note: For those interested, season 4 premieres June 22, 2014.

May 31, 2014 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Doug Jones, Falling Skies Season 3 DVD Review, Falling Skies Season 4