The Regularly Scheduled TV Show Blog

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Invasion 1.01: First Impressions

In the aftermath of being Lost, there was an Invasion of the extraterrestial kind. First impressions of the show were met with reluctance. If I were to make a commitment to watch another hour of Invasion next week, it would require a solid show with an impressive storyline.

It took awhile before the show could reach this burden, as the show started off with a weather plane entering the eye of a hurricane to take measurements when a giant light comes from the ocean destroying the plane. The scene after is with Florida locals making preparations for the hurricane. The center of the show is Russell Varon, Eddie Cibrian (the star from Tilt), the local Park Ranger. He has recently remarried to Larkin, a local reporter for the news and is constantly at odds with ex-wife Doctor Mariel Underlay, Kari Matchett. From the way events played out, it seems she was the reason the marriage went to hell and it appears she remarried first to the town's Sheriff Tom underlay, William Fichtner (the Captain from Armageddon). After Russell takes care of the locals and returns home he is met with a fight from his ex-wife over her "intrusive" nature when it comes to him and the time he spends with their two children, Rose(7) and Jesse(15). During the fighting, Dave Grove (brother-in-law of Russell), Tyler Labine, tells them Rose has gone missing looking for her cat.

Cutting to Rose, we see her in the woods looking for her cat when she sees lights flying in the air from the hurricane, falling into the water, and start swimming. The Invasion has begun. In the morning, they learn that Dr. Underlay never reached home during the hurricane and is missing. They find her car with the door open, they start to search the area and find her naked by the side of a lake, dazed and confused. She is the first infected/convert/mind-controlled(?) of the show. After her release from the hospital she acts in a very strange manner, mainly she has an obsessive desire to keep smiling. Meanwhile at the homestead, Rose(y) tells Dave about the lights he saw and grows interested, Dave is a conspiracy theorist. They investigate the water where Rosey said the lights fell into and started to swim in. They find a piece of metal from the plane that was destroyed in the first scene, and then Dave sees a skeleton, at which point he turns the boat around to head home. Later that night, Dave shows Russell the skeleton that he got during a 2nd trip back to the water without Rosey and asks him to come with him to investigate further.

Returning to the lake once more, they spot a large light source under the water and get closer. Dave leans over to get an even closer look and pays the price of curiosity when he gets pulled into the water by the light. Russell jumps in afterwards to save him and is able to pull him out. At the hospital, Dave gets treated by our doctor convert, and the wounds are bad but not horrible and are considered made from an alligator bite. Once at home, the good Doctor sits with Rosey in her bed, when Rosey remarks how her mom smells different. I guess Rosey has some master smelling skills allowing her to notice the difference. The show plays like a TV version of the movie "Puppet Masters", a very good alien flick involving aliens' mind-controlling of humans. The main puppet master appears to be the Sheriff as he seems to know and expect the changing attitude of his misses. The show warrants a second viewing, at the least to elaborate on the aliens and their plan with humans.




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