Summary
In theory, Marvel’sSecret Invasionhad everything going for it. The show was set up to be an adaptation of one of the comics’ most impactful storylines with a big enough budget to do the premise justice. The cast is stacked, with huge names like Olivia Coleman, Emilia Clarke, and Don Cheadle joining Samuel L. Jackson in supporting roles. In addition to these powerhouse actors bringing the Secret Invasion arc to life in a spy-thriller miniseries,Secret Invasionpromised a story that was supposed to show the deeply personal impact that the events ofAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgamehad on individual people in a way that audiences haven’t seen yet in any of the other Marvel/Disney Plus shows.Secret Invasioncould have been one of the most significant projects in recentMCUhistory, but it quickly fell short.
With each episode ofSecret Invasionreleased, fan excitement for the series has steadily dwindled. The first episode, titled “Resurrection”, held so much promise for the rest of the series. It set up the world that these ground-level heroes had to operate in with much success and was a great re-introduction toMarvel’s political spy-thriller genre for fans who have been wanting to see stories like this after years of space operas and multiversal shenanigans. However, all of the hype aroundSecret Invasionseemed to dissipate after its pilot episode. With one episode left, it seems as though this seriesmight abandon all of its promiseand finish its run on a lackluster note.
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How hasSecret Invasionmissed the mark so far?
Secret Invasionlacks the necessary tension that a show of this proposed magnitude needs to thrive. The setup for dramatic tension is ripe within its premise: a group of shape-shifting aliens has infiltrated the most powerful positions on Earth to terraform the planet and live in the wreckage they seek to create. In the comics, the Skrulls begin this plan because of a warped sense of manifest destiny. However, the show (acting as somewhat of a sequel to the events of 2019’sCaptain Marvel) paints this group as refugees from a lost planet who have been stranded on Earth since the 90s, waiting for Fury and Carol Danvers to find them a new home planet.
The show is successful in separating the intentions of this group from its villainous, one-dimensional comic origin and giving them a sympathetic motivation. Still, the amount of time spent showing the difference between Good Skrulls and Bad Skrulls takes necessary screen time away from the show’s good parts. Every character who knows about the Skrull threat should be grappling with horrific paranoia. However, no one really seems to be that worried thatanyone around them could be a Skrull. There’s a strange air of disinterest in the more terrifying aspects of the story. While this is understandable to an extent for someone like Fury, who has spent half of his life with Skrulls, there are plenty of other characters who should be.
Secret Invasiondoes a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. Characters frequently stress how devastating of a threat Gravik (played byBarbieactor Kingsley Ben-Adir) and his Skrull faction are, and how society, as they know it, will cease to exist should Gravik win, but viewers hardly see how harsh of a threat Gravik really is. The most audiences get to the contrary are the deaths of Maria Hill and Talos, which in themselves are huge missteps.
Hill and Talos should never have been killed off, at the very least not killed off as early as they were.Maria Hill was fridged at the end of the first episode, both as a way to demonstrate how much of a threat this new villain is and to prompt Fury to action. Maria Hill was the last female hero remaining from Phase 1, having been introduced in 2012’sThe Avengers, and to be killed off as a plot device for Old Man Fury and a villain created for this show was a huge narrative misstep, especially since Hill is confirmed to appear with Fury inThe Marvelsthis fall. She should have never been killed off, at least not like this.
Talos’ death happened too early. Being killed by Gravik at the end of the fourth episode, any emotional resonance that came from this death was gone pretty quickly. Samuel L. Jackson gave an impeccable performance during this scene, but the way he shrugs off the death of his lifelong best friend seems too easy. Audiences aren’t seeing the toll these losses are taking on Fury as he moves from partner to partner (now working with Olivia Coleman’s character after Talos’ death).
How could the finale change the audience’s perception of the show?
Withonly one episode ofSecret Invasionleft, not much seems like it can be done to redeem what seems to be a failing spy-thriller. Whatever tension that should have been building to this point needs to have a massive payoff in order to change the minds of the viewers that have toughed out the first five episodes. That is not to say thatSecret Invasiondoesn’t have any good qualities, though. A cast this stacked is bound to give impeccable performances, although this mostly shows through in the more human moments in the show (Fury and Priscilla’s interactions, Talos’ Skrull funeral, and theFury/Rhodey battle of wits, for example). Olivia Coleman gives a standout performance, offering levity to a show that has been dragging on since the second episode. The visual effects for the Skrulls are some of the best of recent MCU projects (albeit, thisdoes not extend to the Super Skrulls). However, this is not enough to save a show that seemed to throw in the towel with its narrative after the first episode.
The best thing that theSecret Invasionfinale can do is let the heroes lose. At the end of the fifth episode, Fury makes a mysterious phone call, telling whoever is on the other end that it’s time to come in. Whether this is a mysteriously alive Maria Hill or Talos, or a setup tointroduce fan-favorite Daisy Johnson into the MCUas a surprise heavy-hitter, Fury still needs to lose. Not to say that Gravik should succeed in eradicating the human race after starting a nuclear war, but he needs to get close enough that Fury can’t fix his mess in the span of a 45-minute runtime.
