Tonight in HD: December 28

Series Premiere: Falling Skies (TV2, 8.30) The world is left in tatters after a sudden, unprovoked invasion by aliens, leaving the planet’s remaining human population to fight for survival against the occupiers. TV2 is airing this eight-part Steven Spielberg production, which has been renewed for a second season, in four two-hour instalments. Said The Hollywood Reporter: “The entertainment value and suspense of Falling Skies is paced just right. You get the sense that we’ll get those answers eventually. And yet, you want to devour the next episode immediately.” “It’s the spectacle of humans versus aliens that draws you in,” Entertainment Weekly argued while the Los Angles Times observed: “Serious without being grim, uplifting without being saccharine, Falling Skies dares to imagine what feature films will not — a world in which Will Smith or Aaron Eckhart did not bring down the mother ship in time.” However, less impressed were Variety (“has its moments action-wise, but the soapier elements mostly fall flat”) and the New York Times (“despite the high stakes of the story and the frequent violence, the tone is placid and slightly monotonous, as if we were watching the Walton family at the end of the world”). ✭✭✭

Friends (TV2, 6.30, R) Chandler starts dating a beautiful woman, who is not only married, but has another boyfriend, and Joey gets cast as Al Pacino’s bottom double, but is fired for overacting. ✭✭✭

Modern Family (TV3, 7.00, 5.1, R) In one of season two’s funniest episodes, Claire and Haley have quality girl-time while stuck at home sick; while helping them to recuperate, errand boy Phil is preoccupied by the taunts of a chirping smoke detector; and Cam signs up Lily for a commercial against Mitchell’s objections (when Cam complains Mitchell doesn’t understand “theatre folk” like him and Lily, Mitchell replies: “You did one production of Godspell in a barn. You’re barn folk!”). ✭✭✭✭✭

Movie: Speed (TV3, 9.05, 5.1, R) Dynamite Die Hard-on-a-bus blockbuster that keeps you on the edge of your seat long before the last stop. Directed with breakneck gusto by Jan De Bont, it stars Keanu Reeves as an LA SWAT cop trapped in rush hour traffic on a bus that’s rigged to explode if its speed slips below 80 kmph. Dennis Hopper co-stars as the explosive psycho who sends him and passenger Sandra Bullock on the bus trip from hell. (1994) ✭✭✭✭

The Walking Dead (TV2, 10.30, R) On the eve of season two’s premiere, TV2 resurrects the first (albeit still with the edited pilot). It stars Andrew Lincoln as an Atlanta sheriff searching for his family after emerging from a coma into a world terrorised by zombies. ✭✭✭✭

CSI (TV3, 11.25, 5.1, R) When the CSI team investigate the brutal murder of a family, they trace the killer to the house next door, which might belong to the ‘Dr Jekyll’ serial killer. ✭✭

Sky Movies Premiere: Skyline (Sky 20, 8.30, 5.1) This alien invasion thriller stands out for novel creature effects that are all the more remarkable given the rest of the movie is so abysmally low budget, from the derivative screenplay to the perfunctory performances. It’s the kind of sci-fi tosh that makes Independence Day look like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson and Scrubs’ Donald Faison star. ✭✭