First of all, it was written by Joshua Jackson, and I think that’s pretty damn cool. (There will be several installments of this comic series, and Jackson will write two more.) His three are about an adventure for Peter–theoretically, the period between when Walter convinced Peter to rewrite time and when Peter reappeared in the machine in the near-final moments of season three. He’s on a journey to drop off the pieces of the machine at predetermined locations in time and space, but it’s not easy. (One word: dinosaurs.)

Although the whole thing feels a little Terra Nova-ish (can I say that, considering it hasn’t even premiered yet?), it’s also grounded in Peter’s love for Olivia, and his grief over her death. He even grows a beard of sadness. Of all the things that happened this summer, Joshua Jackson deciding to embrace Peter and Olivia’s relationship might be my favorite.

I can’t decide if this is supposed to be canon or not, but it’s a fun concept no matter what. Could Peter have shepherded the machine pieces through time? When he returned (ever so briefly) to our reality, he said he thought the First People also included Walter, Ella, and Astrid, but it’s also fun to see Peter all by his lonesome hobnobbing with dinosaurs.

The next issue will be released in two weeks, on October 5.

Listen. I love things like this. It’s like a fun epilogue, one that perpetuates my belief that TV characters have lives beyond their series. I thrilled whenever ER mentioned Doug and Carol after their departure(s), and when the Rosses actually showed up in the farewell season? Be still my beating heart.

But in this cameo, things are apparently not great for the Montgomerys, who contemplate both divorce and suicide in the span of one 46-second drop-in. It just leaves me wanting more context:

1. Why are they moving from San Francisco to Malibu?
2. Didn’t Dharma get pregnant in the series finale? Where is their kid? I Googled [did Dharma get pregnant in the series finale of Dharma and Greg?] and results were inconclusive, but did include a surprising amount of fan fiction. PEOPLE CARE ABOUT THIS.
3. Are Stinky and Nunzio still alive?
4. Why did Dharma get that haircut?
5. Am I really still so Lost­-obsessed that I’ve had to fight the urge to write “DHARMA” five times in just this one post?

I guess what I mean is that it would’ve been nice to check in with them and know that everything turned out okay for those crazy kids. It makes me sad to think that after everything we went through together, they couldn’t work it out. Maybe they still will. Ugh. I am distressed.

Olivia Dunham, my wife, was everything to me.

When we first met, I was a nomad, moving from place to place, job to job. She gave me a purpose; she taught me to believe in something bigger than myself. She taught me to fight to keep our world safe. And more recently, to keep it from dying.

But the truth is–we’re all dying. From the moment we’re born, we are all dying, and the universe is unspeakably cruel. Our one hope is that we can find some purpose, some meaning before that last day comes. Some happiness … and love. Olivia was all of that to me. There was no one like her.

While I will not cease to fight, now that she’s gone, I’m afraid I’m already lost. That we are all lost. The world is a darker place without her.

yay. or something. // tnt promotional photo

After ten episodes, the first season of Falling Skies has concluded. And although the series has been bringing in solid ratings for TNT, it never quite made the jump to watercooler-worthy. So what’s the verdict on this show?

I think it’s fine for fun, summer fare, but let’s face it: this show is no Lost. It’s no Walking Dead. It’s no Torchwood. Throughout the season, I waited for two things. I waited for a reason to really care about these people, and I waited for some risk-taking writing. Neither really came.

In the finale, I didn’t care when Rick sold out the 2nd Mass to the Skittery girl. I didn’t care when Tom kissed Anne. I didn’t even care when Tom let the aliens beam him up into their spaceship. The reason, I believe, has to do with stakes.

They relied on the fact that an alien apocalypse brought high stakes in and of itself. But where shows like The Walking Dead excel is by making the human stakes even higher than the zombie stakes. Falling Skies never sold the Tom/Anne relationship, or that the aliens were actually all that dangerous, considering all the characters of note survived. (Rick’s dad, Mike, is the only good guy whose death I can think of, and he was killed by a human.)

Sure, the whole kids-getting-harnessed thing was pretty scary, but Torchwood did the aliens and children storyline so much better with 2009′s Children of Earth. (Seriously, watch it. It’s on Netflix.) Lost did group dynamics better. Maybe it’s rude to compare, but when this aired two days after Torchwood (SPOILER ALERT!) set a likeable main character on fire, it’s hard not to think that Falling Skies could have taken more risks.

It’s been picked up for a second season, so maybe there’s hope that season two will be a little gutsier.

And, hey, at the very least, it’s better than Dance Moms. September can’t come quickly enough.

Over there, you can get the goods on their teaser videos, long-form trailers, future episode synopses, featurettes, and a fun preview of the first episode. Starting tomorrow, you can also find recaps from yours truly. It’s a party!