Distributor: Warner Home Video
Episodes: 12
Duration: 42 min (per episode)
Falling Skies: Season 4 (Blu-ray) – Series Review
The last pockets of the human resistance are slowly growing weary, but even so, the ‘second mass’ bravely soldiers on, hoping one day to get rid of the Espheni threat who are rapidly claiming the Earth as their own. Nonetheless, losses occur each day, but small victories as well and the latter is what keeps Tom Mason, captain Weaver and their followers afloat. Perhaps the tables will start turning in their favor for once during this fourth season.
When the second mass is close to the ravaged city they call home, the overall joy is immediately spoiled after the group gets ambushed by an Espheni war party. Due to the chaos of the battle, everyone scatters off into different directions, splitting up the group, creating the fear that friends and families might never be reunited again. Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) ends up in an internment camp, in solitary confinement and is ‘soon’ joined by captain Weaver (Will Patton), who seems to be acting rather funny. Luckily the camp consists out of different members of the second mass, such as one of Tom’s sons, Hal Mason (Drew Roy) and a very annoying John Pope (Colin Cunningham), who is hoarding all of the supplies, making himself have a comfortable life in the camp. Nonetheless, escape is the foremost goal for many, as it’s clear that the Espheni are up to something. When a stranger named Dingaan (Treva Etienne) claims he has escaped from prison camps such as this one in the past, it seems the team has a fighting chance of getting out of there.
In the meanwhile Ben Mason (Connor Jessup) slowly comes to his senses in a human settlement that has many familiar faces, but more importantly his little sister Lexi (Scarlett Byrne). While he is happy to see Maggie (Sarah Carter) and Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel) again, he can’t wait to see how Lexi is doing. But it seems Lexi isn’t who she was before Ben was knocked out, as she underwent yet another metamorphosis going from a young child to a girl that resembles the age of 21. Not only has Lexi changed, she has received powers akin to those of superheroes and thanks to this, the colony is able to live in a peaceful manner, without Espheni attacks. Nonetheless, something feels very off.
Matt Mason (Maxim Knight) finds himself in a reeducation camp, getting indoctrinated believing the rest of the human race needs to be ‘saved’ by the Espheni, in order to reach their goal of attaining world peace. Of course, it’s clear that peace isn’t their foremost goal, but rather eliminating all the pockets of resistance. Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) is desperately trying to find Lexi and Tom, hoping they are still alive. Her followers gladly follow her, but it seems she is not only putting her own body to the test, but also that of the supporting ‘troops’.
With the fourth season only being twelve episodes in length, things move at a rather fast pace, yet a very pleasant one. Even though there is still some time for drama, which enhances the atmosphere at times, there are no redundant scenes throughout the season. Even those who haven’t watched the first three seasons can still trot along, understanding pretty much everything that has occurred during the first three seasons.
Acting performances are still very enjoyable in this fourth season of Falling Skies and it’s fair to say that Noah Wyle has come a long way since he starred in movies such as The Librarian, which of course had their own sense of charm, albeit with rather flawed acting performances. Will Patton does a great job in portraying Weaver, even when his mind seems to be wandering off during this season. ‘New’ members such as Treva and Scarlett play out their roles superbly, adding extra value to an already great cast.
Something that seems to be constant throughout the series are the differences in CGI quality. Certain times things will look rather amazing, or even realistic, while at other times things look that cheaply done they nearly make you wonder if you should laugh or cry. It’s rather unconvincing when a race that is pestering the entire galaxy has a radar in their vessels that looks crappier than the original Space Invaders on the Atari 2600.
This Blu-ray release comes with a lot of pleasing extras. You’ll be treated to lots of character ‘interviews’, extra making of scenes of each episode, an extra feature about Tom Mason and video journals that show a ‘documentary’ of the second mass with the actual characters. The latter adds some extra content to the overall story by showing the thoughts of different characters, instead of the actors talking about their personas. Extras like these create a vast amount of extra value for this Blu-ray release, as you’ll be treated to actual ‘extra’ story value, rather than only making of content.
Conclusion
This penultimate season of Falling Skies proves to be a great buildup towards a (hopefully) grand finale. There are enough things going on throughout the course of this one that will keep you entertained during the twelve episodes this season has to offer. Victory and defeat, it’s all in a day’s work, now it’s a matter of time to see if the human race can withstand the oppressors or not.
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