Let me join the cacophony of praise and give Apple TV its flowers for becoming the hub of today’s greatest science fiction on television. Severance and For All Mankind are excellent, while Silo is probably my favorite series currently on the air, so to speak, in general. Invasion is another offering from the streamer that recently caught my eye and, after a few episodes, had me completely captivated, leading to an embarrassingly quick binge of both seasons. This intense, breathtaking, and fascinating story begins just as a horde of monstrous aliens commences their attempt to claim Earth for themselves, following a variety of characters from around the globe and detailing how the aliens’ arrival forever changes the world, both on individual and collective levels. (Spoilers ahead.)
What Invasion gets right from the jump is placing the focus where it belongs. Instead of focusing heavily on the aliens and going in-depth regarding the complexities of what they are, the series takes its time crafting this world before rewarding the audience with more than a momentary glimpse of the invaders. An ensemble of rich, beautifully created characters around the globe guides us into this nightmarish world, and thus we traverse this frightening new normal alongside them. Additionally, for many of the main characters, their worlds are turned upside down (or have already been) before the alien threat is realized and upon them. So, in a way, the aliens are a further complication to already life-altering developments for the characters, which creates opportunities for the audience to connect with and understand them on a deeper level, but also provides some much-needed perspective on the entire situation and how they’re able to cope in the face of this incredible threat.
Credit: Apple TV+
For instance, during the first season of Invasion, stay-at-home mother Aneesha Malik (Golshifteh Farahani) discovers her husband, Ahmed (Firas Nassar), is cheating on her just as the alien attacks begin. Despite this relationship-ending twist in her life, Aneesha and Ahmed are forced to stay together (proximity-wise) and work alongside one another to keep their children Luke (Azhy Robertson) and Sarah (Tara Moayedi) safe. As the danger grows, and to keep themselves sane and working as a unit, Aneesha and Ahmed are forced to reckon with the impending death of their marriage and where it all went wrong long before the affair. Similarly, over in Oklahoma, Sheriff Jim Bell Tyson (Sam Neill) wakes up on the day he’s meant to (reluctantly) retire, feeling lost and generally dissatisfied with his life. When a couple of locals go missing, he discovers the strange (alien-like) goings-on around the area and believes his entire life and career have been building to this moment, as he lacks the defining moment/case that other so-called lawmen have.
Across the world, Mitsuki Yamato (Shioli Kutsuna), an engineer and scientist working for Japan’s space agency, goes to work expecting an above-average day as a team of astronauts, including her secret girlfriend Hinata (Rinko Kikuchi), are set to launch the longest space mission ever to document how it will affect the human body. Without going into detail, the aliens play a role in the launch going awry, causing the agency to lose contact with the team and miss their mayday calls, then resulting in an investigation into what happened and whether the team—and, specifically for Mitsuki, whether the love of her life—is still alive. In Kandahar, Trevante Cole (Shamier Anderson) is one of the first to make contact with the aliens, separating him from his fellow soldiers and, ultimately, leaving him stranded and alone without a clue as to what’s going on. Will he make it home to his wife and have a chance to repair their estranged relationship before it’s too late? Meanwhile, a group of teenagers from London, including Caspar (Billy Barratt) who is mysteriously connected to the aliens, are on a bus in the countryside when fiery materials raining down from the sky causes their teacher to lose control of the bus and drive straight off a cliff, leaving the students stranded with few resources and no phone service.
Credit: Apple TV+
The mythology of the aliens builds with each episode, especially during Invasion’s second season. It begins to delve into things that were brilliantly teased throughout the first, culminating in several unbelievable twists and revelations. Further, it explores why the aliens have come to Earth and how they are working to claim it, including their efforts to make the environment uninhabitable for humans. All the while, continuing to test the characters and putting them through the emotional wringer. (Though there is a great deal that differentiates the two, Invasion reminds me a bit of Manifest, one of my favorites. I won’t elaborate now as such elaboration would be filled with far too many spoilers.)
With the third season of Invasion premiering in late August, now is the perfect time to catch up and experience this thrilling journey. One of my unusual comforts to deal with the absolutely hellish reality we’re in is to watch or read things where the world is farther along a much darker path. This perfectly scratched that itch, allowing me to fully immerse myself in a terrifying world of aliens that are seemingly unstoppable. That said, it’s also intriguing and a bit mystifying to see a world in which people come together—well, mostly—in the face of a common enemy, beginning to break through the things that separate them and focus on what really matters. Likewise, the entire world in Invasion comes together to an extent, with countries jointly strategizing and using their resources to face the impending doom for all of humanity — something that is nice to imagine for the real world, though it seems ever unlikely.