TV: Finally, ABC’s “Invasion”
By stephanie - Wednesday, September 21st, 2005
Shaun Cassidy has been near and dear to my heart since…oh, I was 6 years old and he was a major 70s teenthrob.
I used to own his record and sang along with the “Do Ron Ron.” So imagine my surprise when pretty boy Shaun went beyond his cute feathered hair and started creating television shows. “American Gothic,” which premiered almost 10 years ago, was a fantastic, creepy show that was way before its time. Now he’s at it again with “Invasion,” ABC’s answer to this year’s alien theme.
“Invasion” starts off in a very timely manner, with a hurricane on its way to hitting Florida. (As I write this, Hurricane Rita has just strengthened into a killer Category 5 storm.) In the midst of all the hurricane chaos, we’ve got kids getting lost (trying to find the cat), family dramas (divorces and such), and strange lights falling into the everglades (spooky!).
“Invasion,” like NBC’s “Surface,” involves more kids and family drama than CBS’s alien show “Threshold.” Fortunately, “Invasion” somehow manages to exploit the broken family stereotypes without being too cloying or annoying.
Not a whole lot happens in the first episode of “Invasion” alien-wise…mostly it’s about the hurricane and some possibly creepy thing the geek brother found in the swamp. With only one truly scary moment but a lot of innuendo, “Invasion” seems to be paced more like ABC’s “Lost” than “Alias.”
Slow and steady pacing isn’t necessarily a bad thing…if Shaun’s previous works are any indication, there’s more weirdness to come.
Overall, I give “Invasion” a B+. “Threshold” tops of the list of the new shows, with “Surface” trailing way behind both. Ah well, two out of three ain’t bad.
September 22nd, 2005 at 6:02 pm
Invasion seems to be turning into a remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but with light-blobs instead of pods.
Like “Surface”, I’ll give it another episode before I chalk it up to another failed “Lost.”
But I will agree that this one is better than “Surface”.