You would think with Steven Speilberg...

On the contrary I like my viewing experience with ANY genre to be EVERYTHING this show wasn't! I like my actors to act, dialogue to inspire and not make me fall to the floor convulsing. But most importantly I like a story that is actually developed on something other than a cocktail napkin (Casablanca being the ONLY exception). Hence my disbelief in SS's "involvement with the show.

BTW, I like my $..t blowing up every 10 seconds!

"...obviously you're not a golfer."

jperez_58 & WildThingRightHere: Please tell me you don't think good acting is when you can tell the actor is acting. That was some of the BEST acting I've ever seen. As far as the story itself goes, I thought it was very well thought out and well written. Particularly the meshing of what believers in the U.F.O. crash at Roswell believe & the government's version of what happened. I mean having in the story that the spaceship crashed into the Project Mogul balloon, resulting in both crashing to the ground. I also thought the alien's motives for the abductions & repeated visitations to earth was pretty original. Not the typical invasion scenario from so many works of scifi. But what I think impressed me most about the story is how all of the "logical" explanations for why people believe they've been abducted by aliens, was worked into the story without it seeming like they were just listing them one by one. For example: Jesse's first abduction as a child occuring just after he fell asleep and the alien appearing as the title character in his favorite bedtime story, which his mom was reading to him when he fell asleep. So the logical explanation for that abduction, would be that he had a dream. Maybe you have to have knowledge of U.F.O. folklore to appreciate this miniseries. I mean maybe people without a knowledge of the folklore don't realize thousands of people really do believe they have been abducted by aliens. The "abductees" aren't a product of Hollywood. Although Hollywood may be, inadvertently, largely responsible for their beliefs

I agree. I believe the further on the episodes go, the actors' cluelessness and lack of conviction behind anything really drags on. The acting seemed to wrong about the entry of Dr. Kreutz (the actor trying his best at a Dr Strangelove impersonation) in the second episode. As much as I like his character, I grew to hate Willie Garson's performance of him between his overused 'waving a cigarette around as I talk' gesture and his abhorrent attempt at a German accent/language. If you want a German character, maybe you should hire an actor who speaks the language. Even sci-fi veteran Matt Frewer has his moments of "I'm not even sure what I'm doing, but I'll smile and act like I know what's going on in this so-called script." Now, it is very possible that Spielberg simply found the worst actors lying around, but considering the abundance of terrible performances ranging from a dozen secondary stereotyped characters to the dozen blase leads, it's also possible they were written/directed so badly that they were damned before they called, "action." In the end, I give the bad actors a pass. You can't polish a turd.

The only standout actors of consideration, I believe, were those who played Colonel Crawford, his two lackey assistants (good comic relief), and Anton Yelchin as Young Jacob. So with the exit of pretty much Owen, 1/2 of the lackeys and Anton after the 3rd episode, it's nearly unwatchable. "Acid Tests" was interesting because it felt like an X-Files episode, but between Sam Crawford being such a sloppily written character (within 5 minutes of the story we learn that Sam is the favored son, he just came home to visit his favorite dad, but he hates him, calls him a liar and deserves no pity, finds some alien hardware, gets excited, is IN Alaska) and his little development serve no purpose to the arch of the storyline. Actually, this entire episode has no purpose except to illustrate that Eric takes over from Owen, following Sam's death. Why the half-breed, Lester, decorates his cabin ceiling with a dead man he "accidentally" killed by looking at him is never explained, nor why only the girl gets to live after the experience, yet the professor never even gets a death scene. None of the events that happen in this episode are ever rediscussed, or revisited, nor have any gravity on the future characters not yet born. And after this episode, it only gets worse, slower and completely uninteresting. STOP. WATCHING. Spare yourself of the 6 more hours you might not have wasted yet.

The lack of intellect present in this episode is the evidence forewarning audiences that all complex, interesting, three-dimensional characters, story-lines and intelligence--ITSELF--is bum-rushing out the door, never to be seen again in the series. STOP after the third episode and make up your own ending as to what happened. The truth is out there, but it's so stupid and it sucks to the end. Ignorance is bliss.