Falling Skies, which premiered on June 19th, is a science fiction drama about human beings are fighting to survive on Earth in a pretty classical alien invasion story, but what really caught my attention was the fact that they had entirely created a small version of a stereotypical American populace setting. On top of that, the Asian, portrayed by Peter Shinkoda, seems like he’s a supporting role consistently throughout the series which makes me happy to see more Asian faces in bigger hit series even if they aren’t leads.
The show’s premise features the main character, a history professor turned resistance fighter, leading a bunch of young adults to fight the aliens known as the Skitters. While I’m unsure of whether this was done on purpose or some funny underlying subconscious, the majority of the people are white, two Black guys, and an Asian guy (Peter Shinkoda). Sounds like your typical suburb distribution, doesn’t it? Also in a very typical bad science fiction way, one of the Black guys gets killed first (if you watch enough movies, you tend to see the racial minority supporting roles die first).
If Peter Shinkoda, who plays Dai, should a familiar face if you’re a big sci-fi buff. He’s been in several Stephen King adaptations as well as Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary, and Mortal Kombat: Legacy. In viewing the episode list, I also found out that he doesn’t die off like you’d usually find with supporting roles. Dai survives all the way to the season finale!
Falling Skies airs on TNT Sundays at 10PM Eastern/9PM Central.
