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BRING ON THE "INVASION"
November 11, 2005
At the beginning of the fall TV season, the networks dropped a whole gaggle of new sci-fi/fantasy shows on us, and we pondered thoughtfully about which one would be best. Two months have passed, and I've sampled and passed on almost the entire crop. All except one - ABC's "Invasion," a twisty supernatural thriller that, on paper, doesn't sound much different than "Threshold" and some of the other new series trying to scare up viewers.
Nope, it's not the setup that makes "Invasion" compelling. It's the execution. Six episodes in, I'm hooked. Airing Wednesdays at 10, most people probably know it as that alien show that comes on after "Lost." It deserves more. "Invasion" is very good genre TV that may soon become great genre TV.
Here's the story: A small town located near the Florida Everglades is torn apart by a raging hurricane. Once the storm has passed, the community attempts to rebuild, but stories start to spread about strange lights that fell from the sky to the water during the tragic event. Not only that, a handful of local residents survive a close personal encounter with the hurricane, some washing up on local beaches dazed, naked … and somehow different. A rotting skeleton is found with otherworldly biomaterial growing through and around the bones. Government conspirators comb the Everglades at night. And those darn lights continue to pop up from the murky deep to attack swimmers and boaters.
Despite all these fantastical elements, the show engages the viewer thanks to a strong focus on its human characters (or mostly human characters, anyway). At the center of the story is Park Ranger Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian), a man of science who starts to suspect that all is not what it seems in the wake of Hurricane Eve but quickly decides that discovering the truth must take a back seat to protecting his family - teenage son Jesse, adorable daughter Rose and new wife Larkin Groves, an investigative TV reporter.
Early on, Varon finds himself at odds with Tom Underlay (William Fichtner), the local sheriff who, for some strange reason, wants the hurricane-ravaged community to be cordoned off from surrounding areas, even if it means turning much-needed supplies away at the gate. Underlay also happens to be married to Varon's ex-wife Mariel (Kari Matchett), who is one of the miraculous hurricane survivors. Like the others who should have died in the storm, Mariel hasn't felt quite the same since. She ignores her own children and develops an unhealthy affection for nice, long baths during which she soaks under the water for more minutes than should be humanly possible. Good thing she's married to good old Tom because, by episode six, it's clear that he's not altogether human either, thanks to a plane crash some years back that he alone survived.
The relationship between Russell and Mariel, their new spouses and the kids could almost play like a straight family drama … and a good one at that. These are people who have long, complicated histories with one another. The fact that two of them have apparently been "Body Snatched" only makes the brittle personal relationships fracture that much faster.
The hurricane-recovery subplot, scripted out months before Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit the U.S., could be off-putting to some (and with reason), but it also brings a sense of immediacy and all-too-real dread to the series - not necessarily a bad thing when putting together a thriller.
All in all, this tale is wonderfully textured. "Invasion" is light years ahead of the other freshman sci-fi series and has more in common with a really good Stephen King novel, maybe "It" or one of the books that take place in the fictional city of Castle Rock. In a only a handful of hours, executive producer Shaun Cassidy (the former actor who also created the short-lived though well-regarded "American Gothic") has provided his audience with a good many reasons to care about these characters. And like "Lost," the mysteries of "Invasion" are being rolled out at a leisurely pace, giving the more earthly storylines room to breathe without cramming each episode full of big sci-fi ideas. When bad things start to happen to Russell and the people he cares about, the viewer is going to feel it.
And bad things are going to happen. The show is called "Invasion," after all. Larkin has begun investigating the military cover-up and finds herself being followed. The mysterious glowing water creatures are snaring more human hosts to subjugate. And Tom (played to wicked perfection by Fichtner, the show's standout actor) continues to put that sheriff's badge and gun to use in a variety of nefarious ways. The invasion, it seems, has only just begun.
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