Marvel's Secret Invasion
Based on: Marvel comic story of the same name
Created by: Kyle Bradstreet
Directed by: Ali Selim
Written by: Kyle Bradstreet, Brian Tucker, Brant Englestein, Roxanne Paredes, Michael Bhim
Well this show was honestly disappointing :-/
I had an idea of what it would be like going in: Nick fury and his team dealing with a covert invasion of aliens who look like people. I imagined something like The Bourne Identity, with Nick investigating a clandestine plot with a network of allies and cryptic communication systems, with occasional betrayals and enemies becoming good.
The area where I think it mostly lacked was a sense of stakes and a sense of Nick's real mission. The vague, grand scheme idea of both was there: the stakes are extinction for either humans or Skrulls (the invading aliens), and Nick trying to... stop them. (More specifically, stop Gravik, the Skrull rebel leader.) That stake is certainly high, but it's not at all tangible or personal. Additionally, Fury was effectively on his own the whole time. He had some tentative allies like Sonya, Talos, and Priscilla, but they weren't regular or reliable, and for the purposes of the series, he felt alone.
Much of the show felt like Fury navigating a world where anyone could be human or Skrull, with some unknown goal that seemed to change each episode based on the needs of the moment, exploring whether he was the same person in this series as he was during the first Avengers movie--a question voiced once or twice within the show itself (in different words). After the first episode, that frankly got... old. It was boring not knowing what Nick was doing in the moment or, therefore, how much it mattered. I didn't know how much to care, I didn't know how much weight his next interaction or achievement held. I also didn't know what he was ultimately trying to achieve; I knew he was trying to stop the Skrulls from human genocide and taking over the earth, but I didn't know how we was going to do that or what steps he needed to take. The fact that this tone dominated most of the show made it feel sluggish. It felt like major, important things were happening, but I didn't know or understand any of them.
Sadly, I have to say the same of the final episode. There's a rather scathing Forbes article that I have to agree with which basically states that the series' entire budget was poured into one fantastical battle at the end in which both the hero and bad guy are given all the Avengers' powers and duke it out like gods. While that was certainly eye-candy to watch, it still had the same emotional impact as the rest of the series: none. Neither of the characters battling were significant to me, nor was the consequence of the battle.
But I certainly don't want to completely tear down this series. It had plenty of merits. It was casual fun to watch and nice to see Nick get some spotlight time, even if the material wasn't riveting. It was cool to see Nick throwing his influence around, using personality and experience to work his way around society and get things done. It was very nice to see Priscilla, his wife, and watch them interact--that made for some of the show's best and most compelling scenes.
Yet by far, the most entertaining aspect of the show was the character Sonya, played by Olivia Colman. A high-ranking MI6 agent, Sonya had as much experience, pull, skill, and confidence as Nick himself. To sum her up quickly, in any given scene, she knew what needed to get done and she would get it done. She didn't give explanations or wait to make decisions; she'd simply take what she needed to take, kill who she needed to kill, and then leave. As much as I appreciated this, it's Sonya's attitude that I especially loved. She had this cheery, confident demeanor that spoke volumes about the power she commanded, both in personal skill and in sway over the organization. She wasn't just skilled and powerful; she knew she was skilled and powerful and exercised these traits naturally.
In one scene, she shows up unannounced to a foreign location, breaks the door open, and when the bouncer questions who she is she simply says "I'm above your pay grade" in a sweet tone like a parent explaining to a child who just didn't know. She sweeps right by him and to a locked room in the back where a person is being interrogated. The operatives outside let her in and leave her alone. The person spits defiant words and she responds matter-of-factly, "Oh, I can be very persuasive." After cutting off a finger which transforms back into a Skrull limb, proving his real identity, she whips out a syringe and immediately injects him with a serum, which compels him to cooperate. When things get hairy, she swiftly kicks him out of the way and slips out through a tunnel, information in hand.
Her complicated moral code made Sonya even more compelling. She had less compassion for Skrulls than Nick, with her primary objective being for humans and, as an MI6 agent, for England. Yet, she certainly wasn't cold-blooded and was perfectly happy to ally with Skrulls when it was reasonable. This made her interactions with Nick especially juicy; often times, their conversations involved swapping information and live updates and determining between-the-lines whether their objectives aligned or if they were going to be enemies for a moment.
I really hope that Colman's Sonya carries forward beyond Secret Invasion. I'll be thrilled to see her again, even though the series itself wasn't spectacular.
Comments
Post a Comment