The war is over.

We didn’t have a chance.

From executive producer Steven Spielberg and Cambridge screenwriter Robert Rodat (“Saving Private Ryan”) comes “Falling Skies,” a post-apocalyptic thriller set in the Boston area.

Six months earlier, hideous extraterrestrials invaded and decimated most of the world’s population.

A ragtag group of resistance fighters struggles for survival and searches for a way to take back the planet.

At a time when teachers seem to be under attack in the court of public opinion, “Falling Skies” happens to be the best stealth PR for academics. Hero Tom Mason (Noah Wyle, “ER”) was a Boston University professor of history who specialized in the American Revolution. His knowledge of military tactics just happens to be crucial in the war against the “Skitters” — so named for their insectlike limbs and reptilian skins. (The prosthetics work is creatively disturbing.)

Mysteries? Sure. Why are the Skitters here? Why do they kidnap children (including one of Tom’s three sons) and attach biomechanical harnesses to their backs to enslave them? Why do their “mechs” — armored warriors — look so different from their own forms?

Much like the AMC zombie thriller “The Walking Dead,” the questions are a bonus to the story, they’re not crucial to your enjoyment of the show. You’re free to obsess — or to just enjoy the dark ride.

Moon Bloodgood (“Terminator: Salvation”) plays Anne Glass, a pediatrician whose family was killed in the invasion. She might be a romantic interest for Tom, but the real love story here is between Tom and youngest son Matt (Maxim Knight), to the detriment of the show. Tom is determined to give the 8-year-old as normal a life as possible, but the moments of bonding seem cribbed from a Hallmark Channel film, ripened with schmaltzy music.

The pilot’s second hour strays with the introduction of an ex-con (Colin Cunningham) who is either a psychopath or comic relief. The show can’t make up its mind.

Still, there were a couple of moments in which I jolted up in my seat; the show is that good executing its scares.

I haven’t heard more references to Boston-area locations since the late, great “St. Elsewhere.”

Thankfully, no one attempts a “Bawston” accent.

So what if a part of what is supposed to be Somerville in an upcoming episode looks as if it were filmed in the backwoods of Georgia?

TNT sent the two-hour pilot and two regular one-hour episodes. Once I started watching, I couldn’t stop.

Don’t look now, but “Falling Skies” could be a summer obsession.