Forgotten Television: Invasion

In the pilot episode of Invasion, Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian), an Everglades park ranger is preparing the Florida town of Homestead for the approaching Hurricane Eve. Russell’s pregnant wife, Larkin (Lisa Sheridan) is a television news reporter and is wrapping up coverage of the hurricane, while her brother Dave (Tyler Labine) helps fortify the house in expectations of the coming storm. Russell’s ex-wife, Dr. Mariel Underlay (Kari Matchett) pays an unexpected visit to Russell’s home to check on their kids, Rose (Ariel Gade) and Jesse (Evan Peters).  As the storm is ramping up, Rose disappears, and Jesse and Mariel get into an argument with Mariel leaving. Jesse begins the search for rose, while Dave, Larkin and Jesse barely make it inside the house as the full force of the hurricane makes landfall.  Rose, searching for her cat, sees hundreds of strange lights landing in the water, but before finding out what they were, she is found by Jesse but gets trapped when his truck overturns.  In the aftermath, the family is reunited except for Marial, who we learn from her husband, Sheriff Tom Underlay (William Fichtner) never made it home after leaving Jesse’s house the night before.  Marial is found by Jesse, naked in the swamp having nearly drowned.  Marial seems to be physically unharmed with no scratches or bruises but is confused and disoriented.  Dave, a conspiracy theorist, learning of the strange lights from Rose, goes out into the swamp to find what the source may have been and discovers a human skeleton but deformed from some sort of growth or extraterrestrial parasite. Dave and Russell investigate further, but Dave is attacked by one of the glowing creatures they see under the water and saved by Jesse. Sheriff Tom also seems to know more about the strange occurrences than he is letting on to. As the series continued, we discover that the towns people are slowly being cloned and replaced by the underwater creatures, a unique twist on the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers storyline.

Invasion was created by and produced by Shaun Cassidy, who I feel was ahead of his time with many of his ideas for several series.  It was critically acclaimed with the writing and the music as well as the performances being singled out for praise.  The series did not rely on special effects or strange visuals but instead let the plot be the center point. There was more to the people that were taken over and part of the story is their emotional response to what is happening to them.  The scripts were well written with the dialogue feeling natural and never forced.  A lot is going on in the pilot, and yet all of the information the audience needs to understand who the characters are and their relationships to each other is expertly given.  The original music, composed by Jon Ehrich and Jason Derlatka was especially good, appropriately enhancing the tone of each scene.  The ensemble cast is also expertly chosen with their performances connecting with the audience and helping them emphasis with what the characters are going through.

The series ran for its full first season of 22 episodes, but was cancelled on May 17, 2006, even though it was critically acclaimed. Since then, the show has appeared on many “Cancelled Too Soon” lists including Entertainment Weekly and the Huffington Post and was praised by Stephen King.  I have to agree with the critics, this was a wonderful show that ended far too soon. Many of the actors, including Eddie Cibrian, Kari Matchett, Evan Peters, Nathan Baesal and Tyler Labine, single out Invasion as one of their favorite shows they worked on praising Shaun Cassidy’s writing. This was an amazingly well written and well performed show that should have been given a second season at the least, which had already been mapped out by Shaun Cassidy and had a lot of twists and turns.