Parents' Guide to

Falling Water

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Hard-to-understand drama deals with dreams, connections.

TV USA Drama 2016
Falling Water Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

See all
age 15+

Based on 4 parent reviews

Anova
Anova Adult
December 20, 2020
age 18+

Adults only

Good show if you can understand the many mumblings of the actors.
JaJacob
JaJacob Adult
December 4, 2020
age 9+

One of the most interesting show I've ever seen

I'm recommending Sean's Show for people of all ages....Watch and go out of boredom. So interesting!
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

The setup behind FALLING WATER arrives early, in the show's opening narration: "What if your dreams are like tiles in a grand mosaic we're all dreaming together? Now what if a person, that one right person can wander out of their dream and into yours what if that person was you?" All rightie. Corporate security executive Burton (David Ajala), twitchy photographer Tess (Lizzie Brochere) and reserved cop Taka (Will Yun Lee) do seem to be having some dream-related problems. Tess is convinced she had a baby who was taken from her; Taka is plagued by visions of his invalid wife; Burton sees people and places and things that aren't there even while he's awake. How are these people connected, and what do their dreams have to do with the future of humanity? FALLING WATER aims to find out.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4):
Kids say (1):

Intriguing but irritatingly opaque, this drama traffics in dreamy imagery and surreal plot developments that seem cobbled together from other mysteries. People who can connect to others in dreams: hey, we remember that from Inception! Evil corporate plots: inspired by Mr. Robot? A shadowy cult: The Path? Closeups of eyeballs with arcane dramatic symbolism: Lost!

Adding to the problems: the show doesn't make it clear what events have happened in dreams and which in real life; nor are the characters sketched in beyond the barest outlines. We know Tess is searching for a lost child because she shows up at doctor's offices asking to be examined to see if she's given birth; we know Taka has an ailing wife because we see him putting her unmoving feet in a whirlpool spa; we know Burton works for a company that doesn't care if does business with sweatshops. But we don't get a sense of who these characters are, or what kinds of lives they live, just a lot of spooky dream imagery mixed with scenes of characters talking in office buildings and restaurants. If the (lazy!) narration in the show's pilot didn't lay out the premise, it'd be difficult to figure out even that. Falling Water is artful enough to make the viewer want to know the answers to the mysteries the show introduces, but it's so purposefully non-linear plotwise that it may lose you on the way.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Falling Water's premise. Is it realistic or fantastic? How do you know? Do TV shows have to be realistic to be interesting?

  • Families can talk about dreams. Do you have them? What are they like? Do you think the things in Falling Water are possible in real life?

  • How have television standards for strong language changed over time? Does hearing (or not hearing) words such as "s--t" on a show such as Falling Water make you more or less likely to use them in real life?

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended tv lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate