WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE FINAL SEASON
After surprisingly enjoying the first season more than I thought I would, I was eagerly awaiting to see how the show panned out in it’s second and final season. Well to my surprise the producers decided to COMPLETELY CHANGE THE FUCKING SHOW! Seriously I have never seen a show have more of a tonality shift between seasons than with this second season of War of the Worlds. One can easily tell I was not happy with the changes and the proved this was the FINAL season for a reason.
This season begins with a new alien race arriving on Earth
and killing all the previous aliens for their failure to overthrow the human
race. After thanklessly killing two of our main characters from the previous
season our survivors team up with new comer Adrian Paul to hide underground and
take on the new Aliens guerrilla style without government aid.
When the show got renewed for a second season, producer
Frank Marcuso Jr. (Friday the 13th film sequels and TV series) was brought
in to produce. Apparently he never saw, or disliked, the first season so he
revamped EVERYTHING. No longer does the show take place in the late 80s/early
90s but a near dystopian “Blade Runner”-esque future. No longer were we treated
to the threat of grotesque creepy alien monsters mutilating their victims and
taking over their bodies but for yawn inducing Nazi-like villains sleepwalking
through their roles that don’t even feel like aliens. Gone is the gore. Gone
were the biblical episode titles. Gone are the quirky character traits of the
returning cast that we grew to love. Gone are the grim story arcs that are
never concluded and instead rather lifeless standalone stories. Gone is the
feeling of dread that our heroes could die at any moment. Gone is the social
structure and mythos of the Aliens we grew to love to hate. Gone are any
references to the original 1953 film that kick started this sequel series.
Well is there anything good about this season? Well…
the cinematography is better and our female
scientist is given more to do this season but that’s about all I can praise
this season for. Some fans dig the dystopian future approach and I usually like
dystopian future films like Blade Runner but this tone shift just went too much
against the grain of the first season.
Most fans of the first season (like myself) will find this
season completely irritating with its complete and totally disregard for its fan
base with its tonality shifts. Unceremoniously killing off beloved characters
in the opening episode gave the season a rocky start and it never recovered and
if it weren’t for the “War of the Worlds” title this would just feel like a
dystopian TV show with heroes fighting a Nazi-like cult. The first season did well
enough to be renewed so why change the formula so drastically? Well fans
retaliated and the series was cancelled and only ran 20 episodes. Even with a
short season the writers must have gotten wind of their fate and were able to actually
write a conclusion to the series, a haphazard, illogical and contrived ending
but an ending none-the-less.
Written By Eric Reifschneider
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