Falling Skies - Review

TNT is a frontwards-thinking network. Outset they picked up the sci-fi serial Falling Skies, which comes from executive producer Stephen Spielberg. Science fiction can be expensive to produce so nosotros don't come across nigh enough of it on idiot box. Only a few episodes of the prove have aired so far, just it's already been picked upwards for a second season. Farther showing support for the show, TNT has also released a companion app for Windows Telephone. It comes to us from Chaotic Moon Studios, the developers of numerous official apps similar All-time Purchase and FlightAware.

Earlier we talk near the app, let's touch the show itself. Falling Skies takes place half dozen months after a malevolent alien race has conquered the globe, killing about of the human population. A group of freedom fighters, the Second Massachusetts, struggles to push back the invaders while protecting as many civilians as possible. These defenders include the protagonist Tom Mason, a former history professor (played by Noah Wyle); his teenage son Hal Mason (Drew Roy); Captain Weaver (Will Patton) – the war machine leader of the group; and Anne Glass (the always attractive Moon Bloodgood), a pediatrician-turned-medic. The testify features enough of action and intrigue. Occasional sappy moments, mostly involving Tom'southward youngest son Matt (Maxim Knight) may induce groans, but they're largely overshadowed past the meliorate bits.

Head past the bound for our total review.

The Falling Skies app, like you might look, is designed to evangelize content from the bear witness's website in mobile-friendly form. As a result, the app requires an internet connexion to use. This has several advantages: it keeps the file size of the awarding downward, and it allows for the improver of new content without updating the app itself. That doesn't mean the app shouldn't be updated, simply we'll get to that in a moment.

Falling Skies on Windows Phone contains the following sections: Almost the show, Episodes, Bios, Comics, Photos, Videos, and Customs. Let'southward look at the contents of each section.

• About the bear witness, Episodes, and Bios: Each of these pages includes a single photograph and text for fans looking to larn more almost the show. The Episode descriptions are updated every bit new episodes air. They tend to be brief, but do help readers keep rails of what episodes they've seen or missed. Bios describe the master characters (eleven then far) and name the actors who play them. Filmographies would have been appreciated, only aren't really necessary.
• Comics: Read the 64-page webcomic on your phone. Given that the serial pilot starts 6 months after the showtime conflicting attack, in that location's a fair amount of prequel ground to cover. The webcomic tells part of the story, with the rest supplied exterior of the app via a merchandise paperback. Only don't expect to learn anything new nearly the skitterers (aliens), as that data will exist slowly baste-fed within the show itself. Reading the comic on the phone is a painless process – swiping left or correct advances panels, while taping the lower-left corner of the screen toggles between ii levels of zoom.
• Photos: An assortment of 18 images from the show. The app has some catching up to practice with the series website, which has many more images sorted by episode. Photos can't be saved from inside the app, either.
• Videos: Ii videos are available at the moment: a special effects featurette and a "sneak peek" at this calendar week's upcoming episode. Like Photos, the real website contains several more than videos than the app. The other content isn't really missed though.
• Community: Opens the series' Twitter page in the telephone's web browser.

Metro-tastic

The app has a nice, make clean await that fits perfectly with the Windows Phone Metro UI. Swiping left or right from the primary carte du jour and within some sub-menus switches to other pages, every bit with many apps that are well-optimized for the platform. When the user taps an image from within the Photos section, there's a dainty zooming blitheness as the photograph fills the screen.

On the downside, the menus can be a bit convoluted. The chief menu lists several options for users to jump into, but others (like Bios) tin can only be reached by swiping left or correct. Comics are presented in a peculiarly awkward way. If yous tap on the words "mobile comic" from the principal menu, it simply opens upwards the first chapter of the webcomic. The stop of the chapter doesn't lead to the next chapter, and then one could hands retrieve the app doesn't take the other chapters. The chapter menu does actually exist, but you have to swipe left or right from the main menu to get to it. Information technology would make much more than sense for the main menu link to go direct to the affiliate listing instead of the first comic.

Finally, the text portions of the app could use some refinement. Every such page displays a photograph at the height of the screen, with text relegated to the bottom third of the screen. Scrolling the text doesn't move the photo out of the way, and so the bodily readable surface area is annoyingly minor. Hopefully this issue is stock-still with an update.

Overall Impression

The Falling Skies app does most everything series fans could desire in a mobile app. It's a convenient fashion to read the prequel webcomic, episode synopses, and grapheme bios, as well every bit view teasers of upcoming episodes. The only content from the series website that is sorely missed is the ability to stream total episodes of the show. Perhaps the omission is due to a rights consequence? If we could sentinel the show directly from the app, I would easily recommend information technology to anyone who likes episodic science fiction. Equally it stands, the app is just a useful tool for people who picket the show elsewhere to learn more than about it on the get. Those who don't watch the show won't get as much out of information technology, just mayhap it'll inspire them to check it out on TV or the spider web.

Falling Skies is a costless app. You lot'll find it here (Zune link) on the Market.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/falling-skies-review

Posted by: mangrumwillart88.blogspot.com

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