La nouvelle guerre des mondes

War of the Worlds season one was my favorite television series. I was only nine when it came out, but I was amazed from the first episode. The characters were complex and very different from each other. The storyline kept me hooked wondering just who would win in the next episode. I was, however, very disappointed with season two. I couldn't really follow what had happened to make the series so different from the first and it was very dark. As for the first season, I haven't found a series on television since that has topped it. I remember it so well after 16 years and really want to see it again. I truly hope that it will be released on DVD someday. If you ever get the chance to see it, I know you'll really enjoy it.

First of all. Season 1: 10/10 Season 2: 1/10

This must be the creepiest sci-fi horror show/movie ever. I was 10 years old when I first saw it. Now, 21 years later, I still have nightmares.

The reason may be the complete lack of human emotions within the aliens. No empathy whatsoever for human life. The aliens are portrayed as total different from us - not "almost human/American" like in other sci-fi shows. These ones cannot be reasoned with. You cannot negotiate with them.

Three episodes moved me deeply.

1.Quinn. "no Harrison...you are the alien".

2.The abducted woman. The end scene when Harrison just being to late to rescue her. It gave me an incredible parallel with my own life. Being to late to save the most loved one person in my life.

3.The strong drug. The scene with humans collecting drugs from the floor. Acting as animals.

The only flaw with the show is its low budget. Imagine what it could have been with a modern show's budget.

And one more thing. WOW is no predecessor to "X-files". X-files is a cheesy, unrealistic show with vampires, werewolves, and baseball-loving aliens. YES! Baseball-loving aliens. Give me a break...

WOW is the real deal. With real human emotions. With real characters. With a real nightmare-plot. Great job! GREAT!

The first season of War of the Worlds was groundbreaking and refreshingly innovative. In many ways, it was the predecessor of shows like "The X-Files". The first season was very much like a game of chess between the Blackwood Project and the aliens- led the triumvirate Advocacy (featuring the underrated actress, Ilse Von Glatz- who was chilling as an Advocate). Towards the end of the season, there was a mythology carefully being built with the introductions of new characters such as the renegade alien/human hybrid- Quinn and the Qar'To Synth, Katara. Also, the show was blessed with creative writing, excellent direction- and casting Ann Robinson as Sylvia Van Buren was a nice coup for the producers.

However, Paramount had plans to assassinate the show and installed Frank Mancuso Jr. as the new executive producer. He obliterated the first season storyline, continuity, most of the characters and killed the show in the process. But to many fans, the only real season of WOTW was 1988-1989.

This is one of those series that I caught in second run, and had to see all of. Rather than being cliched and boring, War of the Worlds managed to be trendy and dark, attempting to deal with mature themes and violence in an intelligent fashion all too rare today.

Perhaps the best season was the second, when the war becomes a drawn-out war of attrition, culminating in one of the most thought-provoking finales I have seen this side of Babylon 5. It is currently airing on Space in Canada, and is definitely worth seeing if you can.

The best thing about this series was that, in the first half of the first season, you never knew who was going to win the battles. An example plot would have the aliens trying to acquire a list of the locations of their canned (literally) comrades. The humans try to stop them but fail.

That's what I loved about the series: EVERYTHING was unexpected. Then late in the first season, you started having plots that were too obvious. (On TV in the 80s, there was no way aliens were going to detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of the USA--especially with our heroes in the same city!) From that point on, the show settled for standard science fiction. It was still interesting, but it had lost its spark and never got it back.