Why Falling Skies is too 'family-friendly'

And why is there little to no swearing.

This was in reply to a Falling Skies IMDb thread posing just these questions.

Well, people do swear in real life, but it's probably very difficult to make that balance right on television.

If you'll ever see an episode of "The Borgias" (a historical tv series produced in Canada and filmed mostly in Hungary), then people there don't swear either, but you'll see everything else: death, murder, battles, intrigue, sex, whores, flogging (torture), subterfuge and politics. Even urination.

Most of the time, people don't swear and generally discourage swearing (in public) in a prude, vain, and hopeless attempt to instill polite (aka more 'cultured') language in children, while in real life all it amounts to is just procrastinating the use of such verbiage by young people.

One of the reasons swearing is not used on American tv is that it would turn off many older/prude/conservative viewers, who would then prohibit their children from watching a show. That would result in dismal ratings from those with Nielsen boxes, no matter how flawed that system is (I have a suspicion these boxes aren't distributed all that evenly, either).

On the other hand, Falling Skies seems to be meant for a slightly younger audience than your average teenager who already knows foul language.

So, for example, if you want to know which is the youngest demographic a show is catering to, see who's the youngest major character (babies don't count). In Star Trek: The Next Generation, that was "Wesley Crusher" (played by writer and actor Wil Wheaton, who now has over two million followers on twitter). So, the older the youngest character in a show, the greater likelihood there is to encounter more mature themes.

And if suddenly the characters in "Falling Skies" started swearing as they actually would in real life, then by now it would be very out of character of them to do so. In a way, they should have done that from the outset, but now it's most likely far too late, because we all know now that they are coincidentally a very polite lot.

In conclusion, the only recourse to actual people with children would be not to swear themselves, or at all — just in case them kids accidentally overhear something — and suggest the youth not to use such language in polite company. This would basically ensure the kids learn by example. (Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary.)