A Writer's Love

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Falling Skies

So I got hooked on TNT’s Falling Skies by Steven Spielberg. I’m not a big Space Aliens attack earth type of viewer, but I do love Spielberg. I decided to check out the first episode, ready to roll my eyes over the same old alien attacks earth, earth fights back, earth wins speel. Instead I found a great show with engaging characters and some serious writing techniques.


What caught my eye right away was how Spielberg created this alien occupied world. Instead of the same old run into the battle routine, he slowly took us into the new occupied culture through the characters’ eyes. Each character has been carefully crafted, bringing in small things like religion, music, dancing, books, tempers, loves, etc. Each actor isn’t just handed a script and told to run around and kill aliens but to embrace this character and live as if he or she were alive.

Spielberg also does what most writers forget, that when tragedy strikes, humans will try desperately to find, what I call, center. That means we try to find normal, get back to our lives, try to remember our humanity. We don’t just run off into the wild blue yonder, guns ablazing, ready to start a new, our dead families left to turn into dust. No, we grieve, we cry, we get mad, we want revenge, we sit with strangers that we now call family at unfamiliar tables eating dinner together, we read books, we try to find our center. We hate change to the fact we’re dragged kicking and screaming into an unknown future. Most writers forget this and once the loved one is dead, then character seems to forget parents, spouse, significant other is now gone, murdered by the enemy. There are no trinkets, books, memory items, nope, nothing. Person never existed. Spielberg takes another route. As a result, the story becomes ‘human’, instead of just a story. It’s now about us, not about a character in a story. We become a part of it instead of a spectator.

Tom Mason, played by Noah Wyle, is a sort of platoon leader. He leads his team on various missions through out the New England cities. Tom was a High School history teacher and often brings in past military strategies into various missions, which keeps him alive. In Episode three, Tom’s son finds a Harry Potter book and mentions to his dad that his brother was reading the book and wished he could wear glasses like Harry’s. Tom laughs about it and says that was the book his son, Ben, was reading before the aliens attacked. Tom kept it because he felt he could read it to Ben when he comes back. A memento of sorts. It brings depth to the story and shows a father’s love.

There are other small things: A young man who is on guard duty who sings a rap song to his fellow guard and does a little hip hop. Tom, who comes across a stack of books, takes A Tale of Two Cities to read later. Tom’s oldest son, Hal, gives his younger brother a kind of skate board for his birthday. The boy rides it in the ‘community’ and everyone stands around and watches him. They are coming back to their ‘center’ and are enjoying watching a child play. Other kids get a turn at the board and it’s a very touching but effective scene. He also brings in the Catholic Religion with candles burning in front of the pictures of the kids and a girl who prays for the kids and prays before eating. (And she prays In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thanks, Steven, for not making the Christian girl a nut job.)

I highly encourage writers to watch Falling Skies and try to pick up Spielberg’s writing techniques. It will help to see them on the screen and then try to incorporate them into your writings. I’m going to start to show the shows to my writer’s group and see how we can incorporate those same techniques. Happy writings!!