I'm kind of miffed tonight. Falling Skies managed to craft a plot arc that has potential, only to dispense with it as an afterthought in order to stumble around with yet another incompetent Espheni overlord. Oh, well. At least they're promising to leave the current dramatically strip-mined locale behind by the end. I never thought I'd say this, but hooray for Fayetteville!

North Carolina, that is. Sorry Arkansas.  

There's being low on gas. There's running on fumes, and there's also being out of gas. Then there's trying to remember what gas is as you stare at a junked out hunk of metal that might once have been a car. Welcome to "Falling Skies: The Final Battle."

That grandiose title for the final season becomes laughable by the time this episode is over. The budget is down, and the scale of this show has never felt smaller. But look at it this way--there's nowhere to go but up.

Right?

Not bad. This one was a little ridiculous in places, but had enough action, special effects and movement to make for a nicely watchable hour of television. Shakespeare it ain’t, but it held its narrative balance better than the more recent episodes. This is the best this show has been since the ghetto escape.

Well, that was… an oddly sedate sort of massacre. It was basically a lot of unintentional violence, most of which happened off screen. It might have been a reasonably realistic depiction of how chaotic things happen, but it didn’t make for the most scintillating hour of television. Compared to the escape from the ghetto a few episodes back it felt small.

First things first. I admit the preview from the last episode had me expecting a battle royale, so perhaps my expectations were unfair. Nonetheless, I do believe the sequence of events felt rushed.