Fallen

Internal Gal's Entertainment Review

"Based on the hit books by Tom Sniegoski, starring Paul Wesley and Tom Skerritt. FALLEN tells the story of a recently adopted teenage orphan, Aaron, and his search for his identity. On Aaron’s 18th birthday he begins to experience strange phenomena—animals talking to him, terrifyingly real nightmares—and begins to realize that he may have a destiny greater than he ever imagined."

I don't usually watch ABC Family Channel, but this show caught my eye for the subject matter, which is along the same lines as my paranormals. I give it a grade of "B", mostly 'cause a thirty-five-year-old single superhero isn't their target audience.

The bad: I was confused about who was who in the heavenly order--and I understand this misunderstanding was integral to the plot. Still distracting. The old trick of "white hat= good, black hat = bad" didn't work either. You got me! I thought the lead was a little stiff, and too old to play a high school senior. His anguish seemed very cerebral, where I would have like more emotion [go figure].

The good: Tom Skerritt! His performance was awesome, as was that of the child who played the autistic son. The writers/producers did two things very well. First, the tension was broken up with humor, mostly by the talking dog named Gabriel. Second, the juxtaposition of Aaron's normal life against his new reality was touching and real, very Buffyesque.

As a side note, it IS possible to write a piece about angels without a character named Gabriel, just as it IS possible to write a historical where the scoundrel-hero doesn't ride a black horse named Diablo.

Check out the website, there's some cool stuff there; it appears that if this goes over well, there will be more. Which would be awesome, 'cause there were some holes in the backstory I'd like filled in!