Between his acting stints in the ER, Noah Wyle headlined this TNT series about humans battling an alien invasion. While the series was previously released as a complete Blu-ray set almost exactly a decade ago, it has now been reissued in a new space-saving design with the same archival bonus features, but minus the digital copy.
Buy Falling Skies: The Complete SeriesWyle stars as Tom Mason, a history professor from Boston University whose family is torn apart by the alien invasion, resulting in him joining the paramilitary resistance of remaining survivors called the 2nd Mass. We join the action six months after the initial alien invasion, an event that wiped out 90% of the world’s population, as well as all armies and power grids. It’s a grim time for our ragtag group of rebels, and it doesn’t get much easier for them as the seasons progress.
The aliens are known as the Espheni, and when they’re not terrorizing the surviving adults, they’re rounding up the kids aged 8-18 to implant them with mind-control harnesses that will allow them to use the kids as frontline soldiers in war with another alien species. At the end of the second season, another conquered alien species called the Volm is introduced, with a small band fighting on the side of the humans for the rest of the series. It’s all a bit silly and repetitive, but held together by Wyle’s earnest humanity as he keeps hope alive for mankind’s survival.
The star wattage of the rest of the cast is rather weak, with Moon Bloodgood and Will Patton nabbing notable costarring roles as a medic and a resistance leader. Sci-fi royalty Doug Jones shows up for the later seasons as the principal Volm compatriot, but for the most part, Wyle does the heavy lifting for the cast and makes the most of his shot.
If you have the prior box set or individual season Blu-ray releases, there’s really no reason to spring for this set aside from space savings. The entire series is spread across ten discs housed in two slightly oversized standard Blu-ray cases, with Seasons 1-3 on six discs in one case and seasons 4-5 on four discs in the second case. It’s an attractive, compact design, with the total depth just slightly more than a VHS tape. There are no booklets, but unlike most recent series releases from Warner Bros., episode listings are printed on the interior covers.
The 1080p transfers are good, not great, looking a bit dated in the HDR era due to the quality of the source material. There’s likely some enhancement that could be performed with updated remastering to boost the overall dull tones, but again, these discs are identical to the ones released during the series broadcast run. Sound has held up better, presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 for decent immersive scope. The archival bonus features total up to “over 11 hours,” including audio commentaries, character and cast interviews, and typical behind-the-scenes featurettes.
