First Wave...

First Wave was a little disappointing. We missed the show the first time it aired but read and heard positive reviews. And at first, the show was promising. While admittedly somewhat silly since it attempted to pair prophecies of Nostradamus and an alien invasion with "cases of the week" modeled on that of The X-Files, Chris Brancato at least was capable of writing a decent episode of that latter show. Indeed, "Eve" in the first season of The X-Files does a decent job subverting audience expectations and creating a compelling narrative. To its credit, First Wave usually succeeded or at least "worked" in terms of its usual formula. The main problem with the first two seasons is that, unlike The X-Files, the show often relied on heavily on Eddie and Cade (with occasional appearances from Joshua, the Gua ally) to carry the show. 

Unlike Scully and Mulder, whose differing perspectives on the paranormal and the addition of romantic tension could make its formulaic approach to storytelling work, sometimes First Wave became a chore to sit through. Sure, Cade often meets attractive women in various episodes and the show probably relied more heavily on that than X-Files, but it was difficult to stay as invested in the "experiment of the week" formula of this program. Sometimes the show's writers also crafted episodes that lacked clear or logical resolution. This becomes a bigger problem in the show's final season, with Jordan joining the main characters...

Finally, the show tries to expand its main characters beyond Cade and Eddie (and sometimes Joshua), but the actress playing Jordan is not the best performer. Then, inexplicably, the show's final season has Joshua, who had already risked his life multiple times to assist Cade, part ways with our heroes about the best way to halt the Gua invasion (the Second Wave). So, now that the third season has established a main Big Bad leader of the Gua, one who threatens Gua and humankind, Joshua becomes a questionable ally. The writers did not know quite what to do with him and the Raven Nation of Jordan are rather foolishly removed from the equation through a series of narrative moves by the writers to hasten the final confrontation. Mabus as the Big Bad never made much sense and the climax and resolution of the third season is, to put it frankly, a mess. It's quite a shame, since it would have been nice to see First Wave build upon some of the plot developments in the first and second season. For instance, Joshua's ally among the Gua who occupied a position of leadership is never brought back. A lot of loose ends are never addressed and questionable or unexplained things happen in the final half of the third season. So, alas, yet another okay science fiction show was canceled before its time.