Spielberg's sci-fi TV venture 'Falling Skies' disappointing

When it's announced that Steven Spielberg is at the helm of a post-apocalyptic/alien project, one automatically thinks of "Jurassic Park," "War of the Worlds" and, of course, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."

But then viewers learn it's for episodic TV.

Although TNT is promising its first foray into original sci-fi programming will be the "television event of 2011," there's no big budget to compete with big-screen earth-invasion ventures. So a series must have a unique premise and compelling characters to make it a success, but there's so much about "Falling Skies" that viewers have seen before.

The two-hour premiere, which airs Sunday at 7 p.m., opens in a very Spielbergian fashion with a child's voiceover explaining the alien invasion.

The narrator's father is Tom Mason (Noah Wyle of "ER" fame), a military history academic incessantly spouting comparisons to battles from his textbooks.

He once led students in a class, and he now leads a ragtag army against extraterrestrials intent on the demise of the world's remaining population.

The multi-generational and multi-abled resistance fighters scramble for food, weapons and shelter while avoiding the multi-legged "skitters," as the outer-space bad guys are known. The group is also under constant attack from the all-powerful "mechs." These mechanized robots want to kill all adults, while the skitters want to enslave teenagers. Why? It's never quite explained. Mason's middle son has been transformed into a zombie-like worker and his oldest teenager is a gun-toting fighter.

There are a few glimpses of the aliens and the towering spaceship, but they are mostly seen in the dark shadows of evening. The action and special effects are on the TV level of "Stargate," and the tone wavers between a focus on action sequences and drama.

The series seems tailor-made for Wyle, a TNT favorite after "The Librarian" series, and his character is very similar to the nerdish bookworm previously called upon to save the world. Wyle's responsibility is to appear mildly concerned, mildly vexed or mildly engaged. His character, which has already lost his wife on the battlefield, says calmly, "My son may die. I understand."

Mason is at constant odds with the commanding officer, the fiercely military Weaver (Will Patton of "Remember the Titans" and TV's "24"). Weaver commands the soldiers, while Mason watches over the "eaters," as the militiamen call the non-fighters who teach in the makeshift school and prepare meals. The unintentionally hilarious dialogue includes the competing concepts of "run, hide and survive" or "retreat, regroup and revenge."