Falling Skies returns to our screens for its third season beginning with a two-hour premiere this Sunday at 9/8c on TNT. I’ve screened the first four hours of the season, and I’m telling you, it’s like a brand new show. It. Is. Excellent.

Honestly, it is just so much better than it was before. The first season was relatively quiet and contemplative and a bit whiny for my taste, and while the second season was much more action oriented with some great episodes, it ultimately was still frustratingly uneven, with some very clunky dialogue.

This new season rocks. Tight writing, much better dialogue, and a multitude of interesting storylines means that Season 3 even has a fighting chance of making my elite “A” List. Congratulations to all involved in the production.

I spoke with star Noah Wyle and showrunner Remi Aubuchon recently about the new season, to get their perspective on the improvements and the storylines.

First up was Noah Wyle, and I asked him how he felt about the new season.

SciFiMafia.com: I’ve been watching the new season and for me as a viewer, it feels like this is the season when the show really comes into its own. I’m really enjoying it just so much. What are you most proud of about this new season?

Noah Wyle: Well I’m happy to say that it’s an interesting thing. I’ve never experienced a show that got better, and better, and better. I’ve been on a couple that started off great and dipped, but this one I think for some reason the first year we didn’t know quite what we wanted to do. We had a really good idea and implementing it – we just sort of took a scatter-gun approach, and that was a really good learning experience for us. We learned what worked well and what didn’t work well.

Second season I think we really built on that knowledge and momentum and delivered a pretty solid season and came out the other side realizing, “Okay, now that we’ve introduced these characters, and now that we’ve established this world, now we’re going to have some fun. Now we can start talking about the bigger themes that we thought this show would be about and we can really start to peel away the layers of these characters and get to what’s underneath.

And as hard as it was to shoot this season, and it was the toughest one yet, I’m really gratified at the outcome.

SciFiMafia.com: Do you have a favorite storyline or a scene from this season that you can tell us anything about?

Noah Wyle: Yes. There’s an episode that’s coming up the latter half of the season, latter third part of the season. I’m not sure which number it’s going to air in because we shot it out of sequence. We shot it as the last episode of the season, but it won’t air as the last episode.

Written by a guy named John Worth called “Strange Brew” that I think is the best show we’ve done yet.

SciFiMafia.com: Great! Can you tell us any more or is it too much of a spoiler?

Noah Wyle: It’s the first time that we really play with the concept of time within the body of an episode, and it’s just a very clever show. It’s a break with the traditional narrative form for us and it worked really, really well. I don’t know that it will go this particular well very often, but for one episode this season, it’s terrific.

Intriguing! Next up was Remi Aubuchon, showrunner. After mentioning one particular storyline that I won’t spoil for you here, I asked him about the Season 3 storylines in general:

SciFiMafia.com: Were this season’s main story lines always in the pipeline or did some come up between 2 and 3?

Remi Aubuchon: Well, television is always a dynamic collaboration, and while we had some very specific ideas even at the beginning of season 2, where we wanted to be in season 3, things change and the actors bring us stuff… you know suddenly, there’s something that you hadn’t anticipated in a character that an actor brings out that you go, “Oh, my gosh. I didn’t think about that, but that’s a great way to bring this about.”

So, I think we had the basic building blocks of the story for season 3 in hand – well, certainly between season 2 and season 3, but even at the end of season 2 we had sort of set out the goals we wanted to accomplish in season 3, and I think we pretty much got there.

How we got there, that was a little bit more of a twisty-turney journey, but I think the results are pretty awesome.

I am thrilled to be able to agree with him, for those results really are awesome. Thanks so much to Noah Wyle and Remi Aubuchon for taking the time to speak with SciFiMafia.com about the new season.

Falling Skies Season 3, starring Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Connor Jessup, Seychelle Gabriel, Sarah Sanguin Carter, Colin Cunningham, Gloria Reuben, Ryan Robbins, and Maxim Knight, will air its two hour premiere on Sunday, June 9 at 9/8c, taking its regular slot of Sundays at 10/9c  the following week, on TNT.