Item: Invasion
Rating: 5
Author: Alex Maidy

Plot: Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens humanity’s existence. Events unfold in real-time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unraveling around them.

Review: AppleTV+ has had some pretty impressive series since the debut of the streaming service. From the epic See and Foundation to the dramatic For All Mankind, Lisey’s Story, and The Mosquito Coast, Apple has invested in top-notch talent in front of and behind the camera. Their latest offering is the global series Invasion featuring an international cast and a reported budget of $200 million. Premiering with three episodes, there is a lot to unpack in these multiple narratives that all hinge on a slowly developing alien invasion. Despite a shocking opening scene in the premiere episode, Invasion is a very slow burn of a series that teases out small moments of bizarre, otherworldly phenomenon while focusing more on character development across the ensemble of solid performances.

The first three episodes of the season (all ten first season episodes were made available for this review) approach the alien invasion very differently than you may expect. Small moments begin to reveal the presence of the extraterrestrial presence on Earth through several geo-centric storylines. In New York, Aneesha Malik (Golshifteh Farahani) and her family cope with strife at home while Oklahoma sheriff John Bell Tyson (Sam Neill) investigates something odd on his last day before retirement. In Japan, technician Mitsuki (Shiori Kutsuna) aids in the launch of a new spacecraft while in Afghanistan, Trevante Ward (Shamier Anderson) and his platoon search for some missing soldiers. We also have a group of British students on a field trip where shy Casper Morrow (Billy Barratt) deals with a bully.

Each episode shifts between these stories from scene to scene with some episodes skipping entire narratives here and there. The focus tends to move between these tales which unfold simultaneously. That means that it takes almost half of the season before the world realizes that these seemingly random events are actually part of a major interplanetary event. I expected that Apple’s decision to premiere three episodes to start the series was a bold way to build an audience, but it is more so a tactic to try and bypass the fact that not a whole lot happens early in this series. There are a lot of scenes of characters walking, talking, and dealing with issues that feel tangential to the big picture alien invasion and that is likely due to the fact none of them really know what is going on.

The trailers will definitely feel misleading for many viewers since it makes Invasion look it starts with the aliens arriving and chaos ensuing. In fact, most viewers may end up hate-watching this just to see what happens in the end. I found myself engaged thanks to the performances from everyone involved, especially Shamier Anderson and Golshifteh Farahani. Both of their characters go through very different types of trauma (trauma seems to be a consistent theme for each of these main characters) and both embody their journeys with subtle as well as intense moments. Shiori Kutsuna, known to most audiences as Yukio in Deadpool 2, is also an untapped talent but is saddled with the weakest storyline in this series. The England-set plot feels like a cool twist on Lord of the Flies which would have been an interesting series all its own.

Of the ten-episode series, Simon Kinberg had a hand in scripting nine chapters. Kinberg was initially set to direct but commitments to his action thriller The 355 resulted in Jacob Verbruggen, Jamie Payne, and Amanda Marsalis helming this season. The resulting series is beautifully shot with full advantage of the international locations which look tangible and lend a dash of realism to this production. The special effects, used sparingly, look as high quality as any big-screen endeavor, but over the first five episodes, this is limited to a handful of shots of outer space, sand moving, explosions, and fleeting glimpses of the aliens and their spacecraft. This series looks really good, it just doesn’t get there fast enough.

The press materials for this show describe it as an alien invasion story told from a unique perspective. To be fair, I liked all of these characters and wanted to learn more about them. But, I also found myself growing impatient and bored with how long it takes for them to get where they are going. The interconnected stories often feel abrupt when edited together which made me think this series could have worked better if each episode focused on one storyline. But, as you get through the show it becomes apparent that the endgame of this invasion relies on all of the narratives discovering the truth simultaneously. Invasion has the inverse problem that a lot of contemporary dramas have: great characters who are richly drawn but suffer from a lack of an engaging overall story. Each of these stories has the potential to have been the main narrative and each ends up feeling compromised into becoming a science fiction tale. There is a lot of potential here that fails to be cohesively executed.

Invasion premieres on October 22nd on AppleTV+ with three episodes followed by weekly premieres for the rest of the season.