Life on Planet Hoth

The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell

The Reapers Are the Angels is a beautifully written book about faith and survival. Fifteen year-old Temple can barely remember a world without “the slugs,” her nickname for the undead. She wanders a decaying and fractured landscape, her mind haunted by those she has killed in order to survive and those she was unable to save. Along the way she finds pockets of civilization, but she is unable to adapt to a society of which she has never been a part.  Through it all, she holds a spirit of optimism for the future and a wonder for the natural world.

Bell is an incredible writer. The internal and external dialog of Temple draws a true feeling of empathy from the reader for her and her struggles. The author is able to paint a vivid picture of a world in collapse.  Part Western and part Southern Gothic, Bell’s work is the perfect zombie book for non-horror readers.

Falling Skies

So I watched the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Falling Skies last night. For the most part I liked it, but I kept thinking about the failed CBS series Jericho. I was a big fan of Jericho, but it had several flaws that are being repeated in Spielberg’s attempt to take Sci Fi and post apocalyptic story lines to the smaller screen.

The biggest mistake for so many of these shows is the casting. I hate Noah Wyle. He plays the main character Tom Mason. He is one of those “actors” that plays the same character in every part he is given, the edgy prep school graduate who reluctantly channels his inner alpha male. The entire show I was hoping for an untidy death, knowing full well we are stuck with him until the show is cancelled (I predict one and a half seasons).  It isn’t just Tom Mason; I dislike every poorly acted shallow character on the show. I only hated about half the caste of Jericho, which did suffer from some C rated actors sprinkled through out the story arch.

Casting directors who work on post apocalyptic and Sci Fi shows insist on hiring actors of the soap opera ilk. I guess the only people who survive a civilization crushing event are individuals who are marginally attractive in that personal trainer type way. Not attractive enough for the big screen, but with just enough looks to get them work so they don’t have to dabble in porn or local news anchoring (equally degrading.)  

I just feel like the actors are channeling the loss of a family pet, not the in evitable end of their civilization. There are no signs of malnutrition or exhaustion; everyone is suffering in that “I am stuck at DMV” kind of way. They sprinkle some badly maimed individuals wrapped in badges just out of focus in the background, but that is it. 

You would expect some PSD symptoms from a bunch of people under the stress of an alien invasion which brought on the wholesale death of friends and family. Weeks of malnutrition, lack of showers, combat, nuclear fallout, and other sudden changes in life style (you know marching hundreds of miles and sleeping outside) just seem like a minor nuisance.

Maybe it is Hollywood’s inability to project that down trodden image on Americans or the fact that that realism really shook people in the early 80’s with TV movies like the Morning After (still have those images burned into my head) make TV producers squeamish. While I don’t think the effects are that great, they are way more believable than the human actors.

Last but not least every closing scene does not need to center around Wyle’s character playing with his son. I know we are only two episodes in but Jericho would sprinkle in these happy feel good prime time TV moments and it always killed any possible realism. I also think the writers of Falling Skies were pandering to the pseudo survivalist tea baggers with their constant referencing to the American Revolution, which irks me on a whole different level. Jericho actually did a bit of the opposite.

While Falling Skies is a lot better than the V reboot, I am still not completely sold on it.