Invasion Season 1 is the first season of an American science fiction television series created by Simon Kinberg and David Weil. The series features a high concept premise but fails miserably in terms of plot and characterisation – poor execution truly let down the intriguing premise. Yet, similar to the flawed adaptation of Foundation, Invasion has been renewed for a second season!
S P O I L E R S
The premise of Invasion Season 1 is probably one of the best bits of the series. Essentially, the series is about an alien invasion that is seen through the different perspectives of various people on different continents across the world. Thus, the series is more about how the key characters are impacted by this event, after than trying to explain anything about the aliens themselves. Which, of course, is a refreshing perspective to present an alien invasion story.
And for the most part of the early episodes of Invasion Season 1, this interesting premise seems to have worked as the audience is introduced to Sheriff John Bell Tyson (Sam Neill), Arab-American mother Aneesha Malik (Golshifteh Farahani), JASA communications expert Mitsuki Yamato (Shioli Kutsuna), Marine soldier Trevante Ward (Shamier Anderson) and English teenager (Casper Morrow). Thus, the strange phenomena experienced by these characters provides us with an insightful treatment of the stereotypical alien invasion event.
All of which works up to a point. As one episode slowly plods into the next one, the ponderous pacing and the utter lack of actual alien sightings, turns a smart premise into extremely boring TV viewing! Nothing much really happens in the first half of this series. But then, suddenly within two episodes, the alien threat is clearly seen and summarily dispatched with – all much too easy!
The aliens themselves are not much to look at – black blobs with limb extensions whenever required – without conventional facial features, it’s impossible to attach any character to the aliens whatsoever. There’s hardly any meaningful exposition in the series. Then suddenly in the blink of an eye, it seems the invasion is over. But of course, it isn’t – and there’s no explanation whatsoever as why that is the case.
READ OUR REVIEWS OF FOUNDATION SEASON 1.
It must be said, that when we realised that Simon Kinberg was one of the creative forces behind Invasion Season 1, we had our doubts. Kinberg was responsible for some of the worst X-Men movies of all time, especially Dark Phoenix. Sadly, that suspicion has been justified. Invasion is one of the worst scifi TV shows ever. While the production values are high the plot and characterisation are unable to match in terms of quality. Will definitely avoid Season 2. Ugh.
… still there’s more …