Falling Skies Preview

[heisenberg]

Check out the latest promo from TNT- Falling skies...

http://www.gatefans.net/?p=650

Reckon the CGI sucks?

 

[Backstep]

Check out the latest promo from TNT- Falling skies...

http://www.gatefans.net/?p=650

Reckon the CGI sucks?

Has the same premise as the BBC's show outcasts, A fresh start for human kind and how they will make it work, while under attack. My one big hope for the show is, NO shaky cam!

 

[Bluce Ree]

Check out the latest promo from TNT- Falling skies...

http://www.gatefans.net/?p=650

Reckon the CGI sucks?

First we get AMC's Walking Dead now TNT's Falling Skies. Why are they able to get action/scifi/drama right?

Does anyone else see Syfylys's demise? Those networks are morphing into something better while Syfylys is morphing into the school reject.

All we need is a hit sci-fi series on HBO and we're set.

 

[Illiterati]

I loved Noah Wyle in the "Librarian" movies on TNT.

I enjoyed the tongue in cheek aspect to it all.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I loved Noah Wyle in the "Librarian" movies on TNT.

I enjoyed the tongue in cheek aspect to it all.

I liked those movies, too. TNT has some good original content.

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

Apparently SGU writer and creator/co-creator of The Lyon's Den and Caprica is joining the creative team behind Falling Skies in its second season (should it get one) as an Executive Producer and showrunner.

EXCLUSIVE: TNT's alien-invasion drama Falling Skies, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Noah Wyle, doesn't premiere until June 19 but the network and producer DreamWorks TV are already looking ahead to a potential Season 2 with the hire of Caprica co-creator Remi Aubuchon as executive producer/showrunner. He is in the process of assembling a writing staff with the goal of getting the writers room up and running on June 1. I hear that TNT will wait for Falling Skies to premiere before making a renewal decision but the network is said to be very high on the series and an early pickup is considered very likely. And because of Falling Skies' complicated shoot and laborious post-production process due to the series' elaborate special effects, it makes sense for the writers to get a head start, even without an official green light, so the gap between Seasons 1 and 2 won't be too big. (It took a year and a half between the time TNT picked up the pilot of Falling Skies to series in January 2010 to the show's launch.) "Fingers crossed," Aubuchon said about the prospect of a second season, adding that he doesn't want to jinx things but after seeing all episodes from the first season thinks that "they're pretty awesome." Aubuchon was first approached to join the show for Season 1 but had already made a commitment to Stargate Universe. None of the writers who worked on the first season of Falling Skies will be back as most are no longer available, including Graham Yost, who is busy with his FX drama Justified. Aubuchon admits that trying to put together a writing staff for a cable show is difficult as hiring falls outside of the normal network staffing cycle and not many scribes are available, but he believes that Falling Skies has an extra draw. "Steven (Spielberg) is very involved in the show, which is one of his pet projects; he has a lot of passion for it," he said. "I think it is exciting to work with him, and I think a lot of writers would be looking forward to that." WME-repped Aubuchon started off working on character-driven dramas, including Chicago Hope, 24, Summerland and The Lyon's Den, which he created, before gravitating toward genre shows. "In the last few years, I've been trying to combine my training in character drama and figure out a way to assimilate that into the genre world, and I think I had some success with Caprica," he said.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/tnt...lling-skies-taps-remi-aubuchon-as-showrunner/

 

[shavedape]

Apparently SGU writer and creator/co-creator of The Lyon's Den and Caprica is joining the creative team behind Falling Skies in its second season (should it get one) as an Executive Producer and showrunner.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/tnt...lling-skies-taps-remi-aubuchon-as-showrunner/

I've been trying to combine my training in character drama and figure out a way to assimilate that into the genre world, and I think I had some success with Caprica," he said.

Oh geez, here we go again, sigh... :roll:

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

Oh geez, here we go again, sigh... :roll:

Well to be fair he was only involved in writing the pilot of Caprica. He left before the series itself even started.

 

[Mr. A]

Apparently SGU writer and creator/co-creator of The Lyon's Den and Caprica is joining the creative team behind Falling Skies in its second season (should it get one) as an Executive Producer and showrunner.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/tnt...lling-skies-taps-remi-aubuchon-as-showrunner/

I've been trying to combine my training in character drama and figure out a way to assimilate that into the genre world, and I think I had some success with Caprica," he said.

Oh geez, here we go again, sigh... :roll:

Oh no! Fail... fail... fail...

 

[shavedape]

Well to be fair he was only involved in writing the pilot of Caprica. He left before the series itself even started.

I don't want this to devolve into an argument but I have to point out this guy was pretty clear in what he said. He described as a "success" the exact thing that was the demise of "Caprica" (and SGU also). Genre-based character drama obviously doesn't work, yet this guy seems to think it does. The genre always seems to get pushed to the background and then you're left with simply a character drama.

 

[mzzz]

Seems a more realistic approach to an alien invasion. Looking forward to it. Nice to see my favourite doctor from ER back on screen. Bunch of scrappy humans try to survive, it seems sorta like The Walking Dead but with aliens. Wasn't Spielberg involved at some point?

 

[YoshiKart64]

I've enjoyed his previous work so I guess that's good news. Falling Skies looks a bit naff though so I'll have to see how that goes.

Personally speaking I've enjoyed the effort to put character drama into sci-fi shows. I've found the best shows to be the ones where the characters are the dominant force of the story and where the actors are encouraged to add layers to the performance. While Caprica might not have resonated on Syfy, it did get a lot of critical acclaim so I guess I'm not the only one interested in that avenue of storytelling.

It would be pretty sad to be in an environment where sci-fi and drama are never allowed to mix because then all that's left is the same type of shows.

 

[mzzz]

I've enjoyed his previous work so I guess that's good news. Falling Skies looks a bit naff though so I'll have to see how that goes.

Personally speaking I've enjoyed the effort to put character drama into sci-fi shows. I've found the best shows to be the ones where the characters are the dominant force of the story and where the actors are encouraged to add layers to the performance. While Caprica might not have resonated on Syfy, it did get a lot of critical acclaim so I guess I'm not the only one interested in that avenue of storytelling.

It would be pretty sad to be in an environment where sci-fi and drama are never allowed to mix because then all that's left is the same type of shows.

There's drama and there's melodrama.

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

I don't want this to devolve into an argument but I have to point out this guy was pretty clear in what he said. He described as a "success" the exact thing that was the demise of "Caprica" (and SGU also). Genre-based character drama obviously doesn't work, yet this guy seems to think it does. The genre always seems to get pushed to the background and then you're left with simply a character drama.

Well the problem with Caprica was more that the first half of the season was poorly plotted, lacked much of a direction, and the writers didn't really seem to know where they wanted to go (personally, I'd put some blame on Jane Espenson since she was the showrunner during season 1.0). Of course it had a change of direction and was improved greatly in the second half but by then it was already too late. I really don't think it was the character drama's fault alone, the main problem was actually more in the execution.

 

[YoshiKart64]

Well the problem with Caprica was more that the first half of the season was poorly plotted, lacked much of a direction, and the writers didn't really seem to know where they wanted to go (personally, I'd put some blame on Jane Espenson since she was the showrunner during season 1.0). Of course it had a change of direction and was improved greatly in the second half but by then it was already too late. I really don't think it was the character drama's fault alone, the main problem was actually more in the execution.

Really, I didn't think the show was direction-less, just very slow. I think people expected traditional sci-fi when in fact this was a study of how a fictional culture in an alien universe operated. It was interesting things like how, in this cut-throat (literally at times) gang, homosexuality was a complete non issue and how controlling ones own death was significant to another culture. I just found the whole thing quite compelling as it hasn't really been done like that on TV before.

 

[shavedape]

Well the problem with Caprica was more that the first half of the season was poorly plotted, lacked much of a direction, and the writers didn't really seem to know where they wanted to go (personally, I'd put some blame on Jane Espenson since she was the showrunner during season 1.0). Of course it had a change of direction and was improved greatly in the second half but by then it was already too late. I really don't think it was the character drama's fault alone, the main problem was actually more in the execution.

To answer you (and Yoshi) no, the element of character drama wasn't the sole reason for the failures of Caprica and SGU, but a case can be made for it being the main reason. Production costs can definitely have an effect but they can be offset by having a successful story, etc.

Now, obviously every genre story has elements of drama, as it should. In the case of sci-fi if it was only about the hardware that would get boring too. The human element is integral to attracting an audience. We want to see ourselves in those stories. So, yes, drama is important but the issue here seems to be that of overt melodrama. That was the problem with both SGU and Caprica -- they had an imbalance weighed more heavily in the direction of melodrama.

To give a good contrast I'd offer up a show like Firefly as comparison. It had drama, sci-fi and damn good story telling. In this case I'd say that the high production costs verses return on investment killed it off, not the elements of character drama. So when I hear the guy you quoted say that he writes in the vein of "character drama" that pretty much tells me he prefers melodrama, which is not the way to go when writing a TV show right now. Neither is pissing away tons of money on production either obviously, but combining the two -- character drama and high production costs and you have a recipe for disaster.

Hopefully this guy can strike a healthy balance with Falling Skies.

 

[YoshiKart64]

To answer you (and Yoshi) no, the element of character drama wasn't the sole reason for the failures of Caprica and SGU, but a case can be made for it being the main reason. Production costs can definitely have an effect but they can be offset by having a successful story, etc.

Now, obviously every genre story has elements of drama, as it should. In the case of sci-fi if it was only about the hardware that would get boring too. The human element is integral to attracting an audience. We want to see ourselves in those stories. So, yes, drama is important but the issue here seems to be that of overt melodrama. That was the problem with both SGU and Caprica -- they had an imbalance weighed more heavily in the direction of melodrama.

To give a good contrast I'd offer up a show like Firefly as comparison. It had drama, sci-fi and damn good story telling. In this case I'd say that the high production costs verses return on investment killed it off, not the elements of character drama. So when I hear the guy you quoted say that he writes in the vein of "character drama" that pretty much tells me he prefers melodrama, which is not the way to go when writing a TV show right now. Neither is pissing away tons of money on production either obviously, but combining the two -- character drama and high production costs and you have a recipe for disaster.

Hopefully this guy can strike a healthy balance with Falling Skies.

Yes Firefly was great, but it was going for a completely different type of thing to Caprica. The latter was for all intent and purposes a drama but the sci-fi setting was crucial to to the story it was trying to tell - after all the central idea was the effect of robotics and electronics on these diverse and new cultures. I'm not trying to access this type of show in terms of the economic climate but purely in terms of originality and quality.

 

[shavedape]

Yes Firefly was great, but it was going for a completely different type of thing to Caprica. The latter was for all intent and purposes a drama but the sci-fi setting was crucial to to the story it was trying to tell - after all the central idea was the effect of robotics and electronics on these diverse and new cultures. I'm not trying to access this type of show in terms of the economic climate but purely in terms of originality and quality.

I think this message was pushed to the back when they focused on the whole "lost teen angsty girl" thing. The meshing of robotics and humanity is a really great idea (When does AI become sentient?, etc.) but Caprica really got too 90210-ish with the teen girl story lines. I think they had at least three teenage girls they were focusing on and that just became way too much of an irritating distraction.

Personally as a fan of BSG the last thing I wanted to discover was that the Cylon race evolved from "Gossip Girl". This story could have been done much, much better. I will admit the production values were quite good though. Strong cast of elder statesmen so to speak. Shame they were stuck with such a weird, slow mess of story telling.

 

[Mr. A]

I think this message was pushed to the back when they focused on the whole "lost teen angsty girl" thing. The meshing of robotics and humanity is a really great idea (When does AI become sentient?, etc.) but Caprica really got too 90210-ish with the teen girl story lines. I think they had at least three teenage girls they were focusing on and that just became way too much of an irritating distraction.

Personally as a fan of BSG the last thing I wanted to discover was that the Cylon race evolved from "Gossip Girl". This story could have been done much, much better. I will admit the production values were quite good though. Strong cast of elder statesmen so to speak. Shame they were stuck with such a weird, slow mess of story telling.

Too bad I can't green you!

 

[shavedape]

Too bad I can't green you!

Thanks. It's the thought that counts.

And I really did mean that line, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I remember watching Caprica because it was supposed to be the story of how the Cylons were created, evolved and rose to power. The whole tone and feel of the "lost girl" story line was such a let down because it mirrored all those teen angst shows on the CW. It really could have been much, much better than it was.