1x01 Resurrection

[7.5/10] I like what Secret Invasion is going for here. Trying to do Homeland by way of the MCU is an interesting approach, and the sci-fi twist of shape-shifting aliens only adds to the paranoid thriller aspects of the project.

I appreciate how the episode establishes three centers of interest/power. Naturally, you have Nick Fury’s contingent, representing the good guys from The Avengers and Captain Marvel as we know them, more or less. You have the ostensible bad guys, a group of Skrull rebels lead by Gravik who wants to set off global conflict and possible annihilation to be able to inherit the Earth. And you have Sonya and MI:6 as an alternate intelligence agency pursuing the same case as Fury, but unwilling to collaborate.

The pieces on the board are strong, as Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s chess game portends. I also appreciate the fundamentals of the setup. A Skrull invasion where anyone could be an alien working against you adds a particular kind of menace and terror. (Hello fellow Deep Space NIne fans!) And it’s a particularly good fit for a spy show.

I also like the philosophical element of it. Despite the fact that the Skrull rebels are doing some objectively bad stuff, there’s not mustache-twirling baddies who simply love evil. They are dissidents who feel betrayed by the fact that it’s been decades and they still don’t have a home despite some big promises. I’m sure there’s some recency bias from my recently having watch the 1990s X-Men series, but it’s not hard to read Talos as Professor X, wanting to take a gentler approach to the issue, and Gravik as Magneto, thinking the time for patience is over and the time for action is now. We only get hints so far, but the ideological side of this one is strong.

I also appreciate the character explorations. It’s basic, but I appreciate the idea that Nick Fury was changed by the Blip and has been trying to figure out who he is since then. May of the best post-Endgame MCU stories have followed that same tack, functioning as post-scripts and examinations of what moving forward means in the wake of such cataclysmic events. While the whole “YOu’ve lost a step, Fury!” game is a little tired, the idea that he was affected by what happened and is still trying to recover from a long absence is a good note to play.

I like where they go with Talos as well. The idea that he is a friend and partner who wants to show mercy to other Skrulls is an interesting throughline for him. It earns him flak from both Fury and his daughter, out of a sense that he’s unwilling to be forceful enough to make a difference. The twist that his daughter is in fact, a member of the Skrull rebellion adds an interesting dimension to the proceedings, and roots the political in the personal, which is a good tack for any television show.

Along the way, there’s plenty of interesting ideas floating around. The shape-shifting conceit allows for cameos from the likes of Martin Freeman without having to disrupt the canon. Maria Hill’s death is a bit unceremonious for my tastes, but shows that there are stakes to this fight. ANd I especially like the idea of Skrulls having sanctuaries where they can reform their culture at the same time they’re staging their attacks, as it too adds character to the villains. And hey, Olivia Coleman is an absolute cheat code, so more of her please.

The presentation is a little generic, but you can see the show mirroring the aesthetic that spy projects as varied as The Bourne Identity and Homeland and The Americans have pulled off. There’s definitely a more grounded tenseness to the proceedings borne out by that, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Overall, this is a strong, if not overwhelming start for the series, which ably establishes the premise, sets up the conflict and themes, and reintroduces the characters to this new setting. I don’t know if Secret Invasion can hit the “prestige spy drama” target it appears to be aiming for, but I’m intrigued to see the creative team try.

Finally getting started on this, and oof was I unexpectedly underwhelmed. I loved the ads, promising a Nick Fury-centered slick and twisty conspiracy thriller, but while this debut episode definitely sets the stage for things, it's a far less interesting and captivating stage that I hoped it would be. I was wondering how they'd make the Skrulls the villains again after I so enjoyed their turn in Captain Marvel as both war refugees and heroes, and Carol Danvers failing to find a new planet for them to move to makes absolutely no sense given that the Guardians of the Galaxy could probably name a dozen off the top of their heads. Why not give them Thanos' retirement garden! Surely nobody else is using it at the moment. Instead, they're having an overwhelming fracturing of the Skrulls who decide to not only settle in on Earth, but take it over for themselves. Which I understand the rationale for, but the flaws of setting such an extreme goal are that their immunity to radiation means there's some big areas for this presently small population to flourish in isolation, or easy ways for them to integrate into the population, depending on what they chose. Because they're unknown outside clandestine circles, they're also not currently facing any mass amounts of bigotry or persecution to rebel again. There's more ways they could make this interesting, like them getting outed publicly and everything spiraling out of that, or have them be infiltrated by Dire Wraiths to add the interesting layer of shapeshifters infiltrated by shapeshifters. Instead, it just feels like a watered down and less motivated rehash of the Flag Smasher plot from Falcon & Winter Soldier. Even worse, it feels like it's delivering a very anti-refugee and immigrant message, which I sincerely doubt the creators intended for.

Other than a few nice trailer shots, the direction is also pretty bland and uninvolving. The writing is very clunky and obvious with no naturalism or nuance. Worst of all, the great Samuel L Jackson feels so phoned in. They're making quite a point about Fury being old and tired and at the end of his run, but beyond that, Jackson feels like he's struggling to get out lines, and just isn't bringing the same magnetism we're used to. Mendelson is also a bit all over the place in his role as Talos, though at least he has the most interesting character thread: discovering that his daughter (well played by Emilia Clarke) is working for the very same terrorist group who killed her mother, and he's trying to stop all this antagonism and find peace, even as he sees his own people getting gunned down by his ally, Fury. Smulders makes a striking return as Maria Hill, but I'm really deflated by the decision to kill her given how far too underutilized she's been in this franchise. It's not a dramatic or impactful death, it's just a cheap one, and fits with how obvious and bland most of the episode is.

Sorry. I remain a fan of the MCU and am still eager to see where this series goes, but this was not a good beginning for me.