Falling Skies

What Conservative storytelling could be.

Recently, I rewatched the show Falling Skies. Unlike some shows and movies that I watch, these days, I did not watch this one to look back at the cultural zeitgeist of the ostensibly pre-Woke era. It wasn’t an attempt to spark an idea for a Substack piece (even if that was the unexpected result). I just wanted something entertaining to have going on in the background while working on art pieces. Still, as I watched the show, I was struck by a thought: this is what conservative storytelling should be.

If you are unfamiliar with it, Falling Skies is a TNT sci-fi show that ran for five seasons, from 2011 to 2015. It was created by Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot), produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Noah Wyle. Set in a post-alien invasion Earth, the plot revolves around a small group of survivors, the 2nd Massachusetts (often simply called the 2nd Mass), who are determined to fight back and reclaim their home. In particular, the story follows the Mason family.

I had watched the early seasons of Falling Skies when they first aired and then watched the whole series later via streaming, but that was years ago. As is often the case, returning to a story at a different stage in life and with a different perspective on the world changes one’s view of that story. Things (both good and bad) that seemed inconsequential before now stand out.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the strong family message. As I said, the show centers around the Mason family, a father, Tom Mason (played by Noah Wyle) and his three sons, Hal, Ben, and Matt, who, at the start of the show, are 17, 14, and 7 years old, respectively. While the show does fall into the dead spouse/parent trope (the boys’ mother, Tom’s wife, was killed in the initial alien invasion, before the start of the show), it otherwise does a really good job of portraying fairly healthy family dynamics.

These characters all act like they are actually family members and not just a handful of characters who happen to be related (as often happens in shows featuring families). They don’t only interact when there is a need to move the plot or a desire to introduce pointless drama. Nor does any one of them serve the sole purpose of giving another character a reason to grow or change. They are each fully fleshed out characters — even the 7-year-old — who interact like they are really siblings, sons, and a father.

For example, the brothers. So often in shows, siblings, especially teenage siblings, are depicted as more or less hating each other. In a best-case scenario, one sibling is pitted against the other two, who get along. But that isn’t really the case in this show. These three brothers love each other. Of course, they fight and tease each other as well (as real siblings do), but those moments never overshadow the genuine care that they have for each other. They all would (and at points in the story, do) put their lives on the line for each other and for their father. At a later point in the show, when Tom and another character, Anne, become romantically involved and have a daughter together, the brothers immediately love and protect their new sister.

Tom is also portrayed as a good father. He’s attentive to his sons’ needs and puts them first in his life, even in the midst of a greater battle to save the world. At the same time, he has to struggle with when it is time to protect his sons and when it is time to let go and let them do difficult and dangerous things. These grounded, realistic characters and their actions make a scenario that is quite ludicrous (apocalyptic alien invasion) feel real.

The male/female romantic dynamics are also well written. In romances such as Tom and Anne’s or Hal and Maggie’s, the couples truly love and support each other sacrificially. They respect each other and treat each other as loving couples should. Like with the Mason family dynamic, there isn’t pointless pettiness and drama. At least there isn’t when one of the characters isn’t being brainwashed and controlled by an alien. But barring alien interference, they treat each other well. Even when there is an argument, it doesn’t get blown out of proportion.

For example, at one point, Tom and Anne have an argument and Tom accidentally calls Anne by his late wife’s name. Instead of making it some overblown tragedy with Anne getting overly hurt, as would happen in many other shows, Anne (who also lost her first husband before the show started) says something along the lines of, “It was bound to happen sooner or later to either one of us.” A reasonable, respectful response that is said in love and commitment to her current spouse.

Time and time again, the story and characters honor family and the different roles within a family.

The show is also full of good, masculine men. The men are allowed to be brave and to be heroes. Men lay their lives on the line for each other and for the women in their lives. Yet at the same time, the women aren’t treated as weak and helpless; they are also allowed to be strong and do their part, but without losing their femininity. Watching this show was a refreshing balance. The women were neither girl bosses nor helpless damsels in distress. The men were neither macho men nor were they demasculated soy boys. Each have something to offer and are seen as valuable members of their community.

Another way in which this show reflects conservative values is through a strong pro-gun message. Of course, it’s an alien invasion, people are fighting back with guns. But it goes further than that. The older kids and teenagers all have guns and know how to use them. In the first season, Anne, who is a doctor, is attacked by looters looking for medical supplies. After that, another character, Maggie, takes the time to teach Anne how to shoot. At three different points in the series, the 2nd Mass is disarmed by so-called allies, and each time, there are varying negative consequences to them giving up their guns.

This isn’t just an action sci-fi show where the characters have guns because characters in action sci-fi shows have guns. This is a show that portrays having guns to protect oneself and family as a positive thing. Not only shows that, it also reiterates the dangers of giving up your guns. Whether it meant to be or not, this show is actively and continually pro-2A.

Not only is the show pro-2A, it is pro-America in general. Tom Mason, before the invasion, was an American history professor, so he often makes references to American history and draws upon it for lessons (both practical and philosophical) that can be applied to their current circumstances. America is rarely bashed (with one notable exception that I’ll get to in a bit), but is instead seen as an ideal to aspire towards, even as these Americans face unprecedented challenges.

There is American flag imagery everywhere, but not in an in-your-face way. It’s subtly in the background and used to, almost subconsciously, reinforce the idea that this particular group of survivors are Americans and proud to be so. The Americana imagery, though rarely, if ever, pointed out by the characters in the show, feels like it is something that grounds and roots the survivors. It’s a reminder of what they once were and what they can be again.

Christianity is also portrayed in a fairly decent light. While most of the characters don’t overtly discuss faith, of any sort, there is one character, Lourdes, who is portrayed as a Christian. She does receive some pushback and mocking for maintaining her faith; however, the overall tone of the show doesn’t degrade her for her faith. Those who mock her do so because they’ve been through tragedy and can’t fathom believing in God through that. It’s an understandable position, but not one that the show necessarily portrays as the correct position.

On the whole, as with the Americana imagery, Christianity is treated rather nonchalantly. It is simply recognized as something that is a part of certain characters’ lives. It’s done in a way that once again makes this show with an unrealistic premise feel quite realistic. This is how people would act in a crisis such as this. Some would throw away their past, but more would hold to the things that provided them with identity, comfort, and purpose in their former lives.

I’ve stated multiple times, in the past, that the things we see coming out of Hollywood that seem like they support conservative and/or Christian values are nothing more than crumbs to make us complacent. Lest I seem like a hypocrite, I want to clarify that I do not think this was an intentionally conservative show. Nor do I believe any of the major players involved are secret Hollywood conservatives.

It’s not perfect. Some weird things happen.

For example, Hal and Maggie’s relationship is fine, except for the fact that he may be a minor at the beginning of it while she’s in her 20s. It could be they didn’t start becoming romantically involved until he was 18, but it’s never spelled out, one way or another. It was an odd and completely unnecessary dynamic that could have been easily avoided by the writers by simply aging Hal up or Maggie down.

It gets weirder when Ben, Hal’s younger brother, begins to develop feelings for Maggie and, through a ridiculous series of events, they end up having a brief, convoluted romantic relationship in Season Four. Aside from it being an awful storyline with no point other than drama for the sake of drama, it’s a weird relationship, once again due to the age gap. Ben was 14 at the beginning of the series. Like, Hal, it’s probable that he’s over 18 by the time this strange storyline rolls around (though this is never stated), but that only makes any romantic relationship that develops legal, not less creepy.

Given Hollywood’s history with sexual abuse of children, these age-gap romantic storylines, that either involve minors or just-barely-legal adults, are concerning.

As is often the case with shows that have an intriguing start, as the seasons go on, the storylines start to get a bit silly and dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. The first two seasons are solid and where I saw most of the positive things that I listed above. The third season is ok, but it definitely is not as strong as the first two and you can start to see things unravelling. However, when Season Four rolls around, the show goes completely off the rails.

World-building inconsistencies start to pop up whenever something previously established doesn’t work for the current drama of the storyline. Characters, particularly Anne and Lourdes, have personalities that shift in ways that are not terribly believable, even with the in-story pressures exerted upon them. Relationship dynamics become increasingly dramatic and ridiculous. A physicist suddenly has the knowledge of both a medical doctor and a psychiatrist (and is also no longer agoraphobic…I guess the writers forgot about that quirk of his character). The aliens now have powers and abilities that they never seemed to have before. You know, all the usual silliness that comes from lazily written sci-fi, but something the show had largely been devoid of at the beginning.

With this onset of poor writing came contradictions to the values we had seen portrayed in the earlier seasons. One example is Lourdes and her Christianity.

Lourdes is the singular, obviously Christian character in the show. And while, as I said, the show treats her and her faith respectfully in the beginning (which was refreshing), that changes in Season Four when she more or less turns into a cult leader serving an alien-human hybrid (I told you it gets stupid). Because all faith in a higher power is interchangeable, right?

To be fair, as far as I can recall, the show never connects her former Christian beliefs to her newfound belief. And while her faith was a prominent part of her character in the first season, it wasn’t highlighted as much in subsequent seasons. In fact, at one point, another character questions her devotion to this cult as strange since she’s a doctor and a woman of science, and everyone knows that scientific people don’t believe in the fairy tale of religion. This is an odd thing for someone to say to her when she was an open Christian before. So perhaps the writers simply forgot about her Christian faith. However, it seems too much of a coincidence that the one explicitly Christian character is the one who becomes the most ardent believer in this new cult.

Season Five brings things back around a bit, but it still pales in comparison to the first few seasons and it still has its moments of contradicting the earlier seasons’ established values. It is in this season that we get the series’ first overtly anti-American sentiment.

When the 2nd Mass finds a functioning US military base, the soldiers there are portrayed the way soldiers often are on TV (especially TV that doesn’t revolve around the military): dim-witted, arrogant, short-sighted brutes.

I’m not one to think that the US military should be universally portrayed as honorable and beyond reprimand. People in the military are still flawed people. They do not need to be, nor should they be, idolized. However, the portrayal of the military in Season Five was cartoonishly brutish. Not only was it, in my estimation, unfair to the military, it also didn’t fit with the tone of the rest of the series.

One could argue that this wasn’t entirely inconsistent with things seen previously in the show. At the end of the second season, the 2nd Mass joins up with a larger, more established settlement in Charleston, South Carolina. Here they encounter a military contingent and have conflict with them. However, this was portrayed less as “military bad” and more as a conflict between two autonomous groups coming together and learning to trust each other.

In general, the show portrays military-associated characters well. They’re not put up on a pedestal, but neither are they demonized. On balance, I would say military characters are treated in more of a positive light than they are in a negative one. So when this series of episodes appeared in Season Five, it was a bit jarring.

This was also the point when we get what I believe was the show’s first (and possibly only) overtly derisive comment about both America and Christians when a Latina character makes a comment, in Spanish, about Americans only bringing guns and Bibles to other countries. To be fair, this character isn’t portrayed in the best light, but neither is she meant to be a character that the audience views negatively.

Even with this bit, Season Five was better than Season Four and seemed to be making an attempt to get back to the original tone of the series. In fact, there is one episode, from Season Five, that I think was one of the better episodes of the whole series and did a good job of encapsulating that earlier tone.

In the episode “Respite,” Tom is injured and taken in by a family who lives out in the country and has somehow avoided and survived the war. The normalcy shocks him at first. The kids playing in the yard. Praying before eating dinner. The peace and calm. Here he is reminded of what it is he is truly fighting for. When the fifteen-year-old son of this family wants to run off and join the war against the aliens, Tom tells him,

“We’re gonna win this war. We’re gonna rebuild America. There’s gonna be a lot of battles yet to come, and they’re gonna need to be fought by strong families led by strong men.”

This is perhaps the most conservative-sounding line in the whole series.

Again, I’m not saying that this show set out to espouse conservative ideals (the above episode was before the military bashing episodes). All I’m saying is that this is the type of story that Conservatives and Christians could be and should be creating.

As I’ve often stated, I believe the reason modern Conservative and Christian storytelling often fails is not because the entertainment industry is against us and won’t give us a fighting chance (or at least that is not the sole reason). It’s because we fail to tell good stories. The message is always the priority with the story — the artistry — on the back burner.

The reason Falling Skies can stand as a conservative story (even if unintentionally so) is not because it puts messaging first and foremost. Instead, it puts storytelling first. When it honors the story it is telling, those values of family, God, and country are subtly and naturally woven into its fabric.

I’m reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis, when he was asked about the morality people saw within his Space Trilogy:

“I’ve never started from a message or moral…The story itself should force its moral on you. You find out what the moral is by writing the story.”

That is how we should create good stories that reflect our values. Start with the story and let the story force its moral onto you.