Invasion (2005 TV series)
Jan. 25th, 2013 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWhen Hurricane Eve hits Homestead, Florida, it brings destruction, devastation, and mysterious lights that leave the people who come in contact with them …changed.
On the face of it, this is a sci-fi show based loosely on the horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But really, it’s a drama about people—specifically a family, but also a community in general—that happens to have a sci-fi premise and some necessary horror themes. There’s some foray into the world-building, and teases about the greater mysteries at work, but the show as a whole isn’t about the world-changing issues or the greater effect on society that the premise implies. The show is about a specific five adults and three children who are in the midst of all of it.
The show is about people who are monsters, monsters who are people, and what happens to an already-uprooted family when a seismic change to society hits.
Russell is the closest thing to the main character, but it’s really an ensemble show. Tom is the closest thing to a villain for much of the run, but he’s the kind of villain who thinks he’s a hero and wants to do what’s right—and while that’s the best kind of villain overall, it’s even more important on a small-stakes people-centric show. And I think his redemption (in the episode of the same name, to both the rest of the cast and to the audience) works very well.
These are particularly well-written characters, and most of their actions make sense (and when they don’t necessarily make sense to the audience, usually they don’t make sense to the characters, too, and they struggle to find their own motivations. “How much of this is my choice, versus what my new body is making me do?” The fact that Shaun Cassidy did much of the writing and had a very clear idea of what the point of the series was and where he wanted it to go helped a lot; as opposed to shows with multiple writers that have constantly-changing personalities and themes.
Russell is a hot-head with a tendency to be taciturn and not ask for help. When we get Jesse-centric episodes, he acts pretty much the same way—like father, like son. And that works. They don’t try to write it off as “Oh, well, he’s a teenager.” Mariel doesn’t take Russell’s shit and she doesn’t take Tom’s; and how each of them react to that tells you a lot about how relationships have settled out the way they have.
Content warning: This isn’t really a happy show. It opens with a hurricane hitting a small town, constantly deals with the realities of a broken family, plus both real and sci-fi-style murder, pregnancy, groupthink, alienation and attempted genocide. (It occurred to me that Cassidy’s big fears aren’t that far off from Lovecraft’s classic big three: Water, women/sex, and foreigners.)
I suspect it was just as well that this only had one season, despite ending on a down note/semi-cliffhanger. It holds together nicely as a single story within a rapidly-changing world, but the kind of story that doesn’t really “end” regardless. I suspect that further seasons would have been forced to either strain the bounds of credibility for how much this family could be involved in, or expand to cover a greater scope of the changes within this world; both of which would likely have been weaker than the original concept.
Overall: This deals with some weighty topics, but deals with them well and the series holds together well. I’m glad it was recommended to me.
On the face of it, this is a sci-fi show based loosely on the horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But really, it’s a drama about people—specifically a family, but also a community in general—that happens to have a sci-fi premise and some necessary horror themes. There’s some foray into the world-building, and teases about the greater mysteries at work, but the show as a whole isn’t about the world-changing issues or the greater effect on society that the premise implies. The show is about a specific five adults and three children who are in the midst of all of it.
The show is about people who are monsters, monsters who are people, and what happens to an already-uprooted family when a seismic change to society hits.
Russell is the closest thing to the main character, but it’s really an ensemble show. Tom is the closest thing to a villain for much of the run, but he’s the kind of villain who thinks he’s a hero and wants to do what’s right—and while that’s the best kind of villain overall, it’s even more important on a small-stakes people-centric show. And I think his redemption (in the episode of the same name, to both the rest of the cast and to the audience) works very well.
These are particularly well-written characters, and most of their actions make sense (and when they don’t necessarily make sense to the audience, usually they don’t make sense to the characters, too, and they struggle to find their own motivations. “How much of this is my choice, versus what my new body is making me do?” The fact that Shaun Cassidy did much of the writing and had a very clear idea of what the point of the series was and where he wanted it to go helped a lot; as opposed to shows with multiple writers that have constantly-changing personalities and themes.
Russell is a hot-head with a tendency to be taciturn and not ask for help. When we get Jesse-centric episodes, he acts pretty much the same way—like father, like son. And that works. They don’t try to write it off as “Oh, well, he’s a teenager.” Mariel doesn’t take Russell’s shit and she doesn’t take Tom’s; and how each of them react to that tells you a lot about how relationships have settled out the way they have.
Content warning: This isn’t really a happy show. It opens with a hurricane hitting a small town, constantly deals with the realities of a broken family, plus both real and sci-fi-style murder, pregnancy, groupthink, alienation and attempted genocide. (It occurred to me that Cassidy’s big fears aren’t that far off from Lovecraft’s classic big three: Water, women/sex, and foreigners.)
I suspect it was just as well that this only had one season, despite ending on a down note/semi-cliffhanger. It holds together nicely as a single story within a rapidly-changing world, but the kind of story that doesn’t really “end” regardless. I suspect that further seasons would have been forced to either strain the bounds of credibility for how much this family could be involved in, or expand to cover a greater scope of the changes within this world; both of which would likely have been weaker than the original concept.
Overall: This deals with some weighty topics, but deals with them well and the series holds together well. I’m glad it was recommended to me.
