Falling Skies: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Review)
STARRING: Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton
RATED: NR/Region: A/1:78/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 24
AVAILABLE FROM Warner Home Entertainment
Falling Skies is the kind of sci-fi show that looks you straight in the eye and says, “Yes, the aliens already won—now grab a rifle and your feelings, we’ve got episodes to burn.” It’s earnest, scrappy, and occasionally ridiculous, but it wears its heart on its tattered, post-apocalyptic sleeve, and somehow that makes it work.
At its core, this is less War of the Worlds and more War of the Emotionally Complicated Resistance Group. Noah Wyle leads the charge as a former history professor turned reluctant action dad, which is exactly as charming as it sounds. Watching him juggle guerrilla warfare, moral speeches, and deeply awkward father-son conversations is half the fun. He sells the show’s sincerity so hard you barely notice how often the plot relies on last-minute rescues and convenient alien weaknesses.
The aliens themselves are a mixed bag—some genuinely creepy designs, some that look like they escaped from a mid-budget video game cutscene—but the show wisely focuses on the human cost of invasion rather than just laser beams and explosions. Kids get traumatized, communities fracture, and everyone has opinions about leadership. It’s bleak, but in a “network TV bleak” way, where hope is always waiting just around the next commercial break.
Sure, the dialogue can get a little speechy, the mythology occasionally ties itself in knots, and by later seasons the show is introducing new alien species like it’s trying to upsell a toy line. But there’s something endearing about how seriously Falling Skies takes itself. It genuinely cares about its characters, its themes, and the idea that humanity is worth saving—even when humanity is making some truly questionable tactical decisions.
In the end, Falling Skies isn’t prestige television, and it knows it. It’s comfort-food sci-fi: pulpy, heartfelt, and just smart enough to make you care. You come for the alien invasion, stay for the found family, and leave thinking, “You know what? That was way better than it had any right to be.”
