As of 8/21/06:
From Tonight (Johannesburg, South Africa) (apparently Invasion is JUST starting there!)
By: Sally Scott

The aliens invaded and then left...

The truth may well be "out there", but if the canning of the second season of the much-hyped sci-fi series Invasion is anything to go by, TV viewers stateside have had enough of the alien doings of yawny little grey men.

According to stories at the time, Invasion was earmarked to be one of the TV sci-fi biggies in the US last year, but the series, which launched on M-Net on Friday, has met an nearly demise.

Written and produced by Shaun Cassidy (half-bro to ancient teen idol David Cassidy), the invasion of the body snatchers-styled drama started with a finely tuned "come hither into this creepy plot" pilot episode.

Set in a small town in the Florida Everglades, we watched as two families coped with a hurricane which brought with it some mysterious lights, which settled under water.

The writers then went about scaring the proverbial out of any character who ventured close enough to the water to be grabbed. We were hooked.

But, despite earning some good reviews and picking up a fair fan base in its first season, Invasion has already been canned in the States, although Cassidy has signed with Hollywood's Touchstone Television to make future projects.

The Hollywood Reporter carried a story at the time saying despite the problem with Invasion, Cassidy had signed a seven-figure deal with Touchstone for two years.

So someone's banking on Cassidy still having the golden touch. It went on to say that Cassidy's Invasion had met with praise from critics, but lacklustre ratings caused ABC to cancel the series after only one season.

Commenting on why M-Net would buy a series destined for the kybosh, publicity manager Lanie Lombard said it was initially purchased at a time when it was "flagged" to be one of the big shows that season. "But, it wasn't to be."

SABC2 has had a similar problem with the Geena Davis-helmed political drama Commander in Chief, currently running on Thursdays, which was also canned before a second season.

Meanwhile, if you're already hooked - let's just say you have two choices: give up now and you won't be disappointed by one helluva cliffhanger at the end of the first and only season OR continue to watch and be bloody annoyed when Invasion season one ends and you are left suspended! Then again, you could make up your own ending about the aliens' invasion - "and they all (plus their in-house aliens) lived happily ever after…''

Having watched a three-episode preview, I'm already hooked into this twilight zone family drama.

Whatever it is lurking in the depths, it's a blood thirsty tyke - all the victims have emerged (alive or dead) covered in nasty sucky bites.

We already know the local sheriff is a definite convert to ET-ism (if not one himself) and his wife (found naked in the middle of the lake after the hurricane) has also been drawn into the other side, so to speak. The converts have a fascination with water - they also (as one kid told its mum) "smell funny".

While some TV writers in the US complained about the length of time it took to establish the plot, (somewhat odd as one episode down we already know it's us against aliens), others, including the influential Hollywood Reporter, gave wholehearted support.

On the positive side, according to a fan site, there is already a grassroots movement of Invasion addicts in the US lobbying for a second season.

Whether the powers that be will listen is another thing altogether.

As of 5/10/06:
From Deseret News:
So, you wanna shoot aliens?
By Scott D. Pierce

     Way back last summer, before "Invasion" had premiered, Evan Peters already knew what he wanted to see happen eventually.  "I just want to get a gun and shoot aliens," said the 18-year-old actor, who plays teenager Jesse Varon on the ABC series.
     
     Well, Jesse could use a gun in tonight's episode (9:01 p.m., Ch. 4). A bazooka. A tank. Maybe a cruise missile.

      The aliens are on the march, and things aren't looking good for the humans in Homestead, Fla.

     For those of you who haven't been keeping up, "Invasion" launched last September in the middle of a hurricane. Accompanying the storm were a whole bunch of lights falling from the sky — lights that turned out to be some sort of alien life form. If you happen to be a human and one of those aliens catches you in the water, chances are it will grab you, suck out your life force and DNA and turn into you. Or merge with you. That's a little unclear.

      The "hybrids," as they're called, look altogether human and have the memories of the human they've co-opted. And, as a second hurricane bears down on Homestead, a hybrid army has plans for the humans who remain.

      "Invasion" hasn't lived up to ABC's expectations — it hasn't done a real good job of holding onto the "Lost" audience, so the show's future is up in the air at the moment. And there's been some criticism that the action moved too slowly.

      But, on the other hand, "Invasion" has been a better-than-average sci-fi show that doesn't depend too heavily on special effects. The characters ring true (at least most of the time), and there have been enough surprises to keep things interesting.

      And "Invasion" has actually moved its story forward this season. We don't know everything, but we know a whole lot more than we did when the show began.

      The same cannot be said about "Lost."

      Tonight's second-to-last episode of the season certainly will leave you anxious to see what happens on "Invasion" next week.

As of 5/9/06:
From Groundlings Review
Well, I've stuck with ABC's Invasion all season and now I can say that it's starting to be worth it. I think you can tell from my previous review that I had mixed emotions about it. And while I think they could have done a better, more engaging job at unraveling the mystery, what they’ve built it up to is starting to pay off.

The series started out last fall in the aftermath of a hurricane both on the show and in real-life, so it probably suffered a bit from people being cautious of a show about a fictional hurricane ravaged community.

The tone was very quickly changed, though, to a slow paced mystery about people who are getting pulled into the water by these yellow, glowing water creatures and get changed into what they're calling hybrids—people who believe they are the same people they used to be, but who are essentially clones who share their previous DNA with the creature that replaced them. The mystery is in finding out who has been changed and whether they are still the people they used to be.

The main character on Invasion is Russell Varon, played by Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch), who has to deal with the world once he learns that creatures from the waters are replacing people, and that his ex-wife, Mariel, played by Kari Matchett (Earth: Final Conflict), has become a hybrid as well. To complicate matters, they have kids from their previous marriage who's step father, Sheriff Tom Underlay, played by William Fichtner (Contact, Armageddon), has been a hybrid for a number of years and may have purposely exposed his wife to them and who might also be well aware of the intensions of these creatures and could be helping them along.

It’s becoming apparent that Sheriff Underlay has been confused about the nature of the transformation that he went under, and also the intensions of the creatures in the water. At first he was serene about the change was making efforts to keep in secret. But now that he sees how ruthless the hybrids are becoming, and sees that they are ultimately building up to a war with the humans, he’s teaming up with Russell in an effort to thwart their plan.

As of 4/19/06:
from San Jose Mercury News:
"Alias'' returns, "Invasion'' is back and "Lost'' is MIA
by Charlie McCollum
It's also worth noting that "Invasion'' -- the underappreciated but very well-done sci fi drama -- returns tonight (10 p.m., ABC) and will air new episodes through mid-May. I'll admit that the storyline on "Invasion'' was slow in developing but the show really picked up steam just before it went on a month-long hiatus. At the very least, you should check it out for the fine performance by William Fichtner as the very creepy town sheriff.

As of 4/19/06:
from Deseret News:
The 'Invasion' is on again
By Scott D. Pierce

      This was supposed to be the Season of Science Fiction on the major broadcast networks.
      It hasn't quite worked out that way.
      CBS aired nine episodes of "Threshold" before pulling the plug, leaving four unaired hours sitting in its storage vault.
      NBC was so pleased with "Surface" that it upped its original order of 13 episodes to 22. Then it cut that order back to 15 and decided to call that a complete season — complete with a finale that resolved nothing.
      The only one of the three aliens-invade shows that stands a chance of finishing its first season and returning for a second is ABC's "Invasion," and that's not a sure thing. The show airs its first episode in more than a month tonight (9 p.m., Ch. 4), and the plot thickens. More.
      If you missed the first 17 episodes, there are these alien things in the water that have a nasty habit of grabbing humans, sticking big pokey things into them and then turning themselves into replicas of that human. They come complete with the human's memories and feelings, so much so that not all the "hybrids" know they've been, well, alien-ated.
      We don't know exactly what all this means, but we do know sheriff Tom (William Fichtner) and his wife, Mariel (Kari Matchett), are hybrids. And that Mariel's first husband, park ranger Russell (Eddie Cibrian), knows as much about what's going on as anyone who isn't one of the hybrids.
      Tonight, Russell and his brother-in-law, Dave (Tyler Labine), find out about the hybrid army on the secret island; Russell's current wife, Larkin (Lisa Sheridan), has a run-in with a guy she's sure is a hybrid; and Russell and Mariel's teenage son, Jesse (Evan Peters), has a run-in with hybrids at high school.
      Yes, it's sort of weird and convoluted. But the story actually progresses — unlike the show that precedes "Invasion" on ABC, a little thing called "Lost."
      My greatest fear, however, is that "Invasion" will be yet another show that ends without telling us what the heck is going on. And that's growing increasingly tiresome.

As of 4/18/06:
from San Jose Mercury News:
On the Bubble: "Invasion''
Second in a series on shows still on the bubble for renewal:

As of 4/16/06:
from Macon Telegraph:
"Invasion," ABC: CBS prematurely gave up on its own sci-fi alien series, "Threshold." ABC would be advised to show more patience. After a momentum-shattering lengthy hiatus, one of ABC's infuriating specialties, "Invasion," returns April 19 at 10 p.m. William Fichtner, as Sheriff Tom Underlay, and Kari Matchett, as his second wife Mariel, have been turning in performances that are out of this world. And given the story line, for good reason.

As of 4/11/06:
from The Hollywood Reporter:
April 10, 2006
Body snatchers stifle post-'Lost' 'Invasion'
By Andrew Wallenstein

Add one more to the list of mysteries amassing like moss on the island of "Lost."

Forget for a second the true identity of Henry Gale, the black smoke that peered into the eyes of Mr. Eko or the map that appeared to Locke on the hatch door. Here's what's truly puzzling: Why can't ABC move the massive audience that tunes in Wednesday at 9 p.m. to the 10 p.m. slot?

Perhaps it's apropos that a show about people stranded on an island has a viewership that is an island unto itself. "Lost" has little problem drawing a top 10 audience each week, but too few of them manage to stick around to see what's on next.

In recent weeks, those viewers are only demonstrating good taste. ABC gave a midseason trial to a ho-hum procedural crime drama titled "The Evidence." Perhaps The Hollywood Reporter TV critic Barry Garron said it best when he described its unconventional storytelling technique as nothing more than "a case of pouring old crime into new bottles."

But what to make of the series that has occupied the 10 p.m. slot for most of the season: "Invasion," from writer/executive producer Shaun Cassidy and Warner Bros. Television. It's a terrifically creepy serialized saga that chronicles the extraterrestrial infestation of a Florida town.

Its otherworldly trappings and mystery-filled story lines would suggest that "Invasion" is tailor made as a "Lost" companion piece. And yet the Nielsen ratings suggest otherwise. In the 13 instances an original episode of "Lost" has led into an original episode of "Invasion," the latter program retained a lackluster 50% of the former's audience in the 18-49 demographic.

Last season, "Lost's" first, the series occupied the 8 p.m. slot and led in to "Alias," which didn't get much of a boost, either.

Now "Invasion" finds itself on the bubble, that precarious midseason purgatory where its fate might hinge less on its own merit than what ABC has in development for the 2006-07 season. With a development slate chock-full of serialized dramas, ABC may be eyeing new post-"Lost" material. That's sound strategy, no question.

But it's difficult to understand why the pairing of "Lost" and "Invasion" didn't work. Anyone who has sat glued to their couch between 9-11 p.m. on Wednesday has to marvel at how similar in sensibility these shows are, from their eerie tone to the plot puzzles that are carefully strewn like a breadcrumb trail leading viewers from episode to episode.

You would think all "Lost" fans would love "Invasion," but that's the black magic of primetime scheduling for you. The practice of maintaining audience flow is equal parts art and science -- always unpredictable, even when it seems a textbook example of how to develop and schedule around hit lead-ins.

Perhaps the problem is that "Invasion" is a lot like its story's alien clones -- the show is a bit too much like "Lost." That's how tricky scheduling can get; on the one hand, you want a show to exhibit the same traits that appeal to the lead-in audience but, on the other hand, provide enough twists to the formula that make it feel fresh and distinctive.

ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson has suggested that the viewing experience of "Lost" is so sui generis that its audience is going to stick around for just any show. He may be right, but ABC can't give up on spreading the wealth to another time slot.

"Invasion" returns to the schedule April 19; ABC's cable cousin ABC Family is treating the series to a 10-hour marathon Saturday to get the uninitiated up to speed.

As of 3/16/06:
from TVGuide.com (The Watercooler)
Invasion
I thought I saw Christina in a trailer for The Hills Have Eyes. When they ran the trailer for the second time, I was almost convinced. So I had it all figured out: If you see a TV actress in a horror-movie trailer, during the TV show in which she stars, she will soon die on said TV show. Pretty sweet. Except when I went to the trusty Internet to confirm the stars of the film, I found an entirely different actress, Emilie de Ravin. And so Claire's gonna die on Lost. Great theory. Now I know what you're saying: "But dude, Christina did die," and then I can say, "the show got canceled," and you'll believe me because I work here. Don't believe anything you read, or anything, ever. What you can believe is me when I say: Never get an ultrasound if you think you're alien and don't like squirmy things all up in your uterus. Gross.

I really did like parts of this episode. Jesse is still cool and still stealing the comic relief from Dave. If you're gonna ask a person in this town if they're ok, they're probably gonna say no. And who was the first to actually consider (duh) leaving the alien-infested town? Jesse. Then the cafeteria scene. I liked the possibility that he could have just been a normal teen feeling uncomfortable at the school cafeteria. Alas, and ew, all those other kids were Humalien. Ladies, if you ever have kids, then remarry, and if your kids call your new husband "Daddy" followed by his first name, kill him. No, I'm not even sure these hybrid beings are bad. But who didn't love Mariel laying down the law with Tom? Upon hearing that she wouldn't bare his freak offspring, William Fichtner proceeded to rock the best acting of the series. That was not part of his plan when he brought Mariel to the water, and in one facial expression he basically said: "Look for Kari Matchett in a horror-movie trailer soon!" — Darren Sirkin

As of 3/9/06:
from TVGuide.com (The Watercooler)
Invasion
Um, wow. Did I miss an episode, or a whole season? Whatever it was, I feel like I just watched a film, and the DVD was all scratched and kept jumping all over the place, but I somehow think I saw the whole thing. Kind of like those migrant workers emerging slowly from the swamps, with their eerie calm, mustaches and countenances that put the fear of Chuck Norris in us all. They knew. Knew about us — knew us as humans. Russ and Tom should have arrested them, but they were like animals, beings, souls — something to respect for one reason or another. Why would you arrest them? They're just doing their thing... catching fish and surviving. Who cares what they are? How cool was that? Very Discovery Channel. Very "big picture" for a show that's only been giving us glimpses. I can think of a hundred things implied by that scene alone. The family issues of this episode further inspire me to think positively. If it weren't for the name of the show, I wouldn't be talking about invasions. I think the Varones and the Underlays are going to figure out how to coexist and teach the world that if we ever get visitors, it could be for the best. Even Jesse's wisecracks are really quite wise. Rose seems to be handling it well, trying to simply understand. We could be on the verge of an unhostile takeover — if that exists — where maybe somebody is trying to help us. Of all the reasons we have been invaded over the years, this show sure is dangerously close to using human bonding and emotions as part of something bigger. Man, I got sucked in there. Don't worry, I didn't forget about Christina and how evolution sometimes ain't so pretty. No offense, Elisabeth Moss, but you may be America's easy way out of this show. 

As of 1/25/06:
from The Boston Globe:
Schlocky 'Invasion' takes some baby steps in the right direction
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff  |  January 25, 2006

As of 1/11/06:
from USAToday.com:
What to watch Wednesday
by Robert Bianco
If any show could have used a refresher episode, it's Invasion (ABC, 10 p.m. ET/PT), which exited in November with lots of strings hanging. Thanks to the deputy, we now know how the sea creatures take human form (very cool) and we know how far the sheriff (William Fichtner) will go to keep his secret: all the way to cutting off the deputy's new arm. If you left the show because you felt it was moving too slowly, trust me, it has sped up. (*just a note from me...the writer, in talking about a refresher episode, is referring to the fact that Lost is getting 2 hours programming tonight.  The first episode at 8:00 will be a "catch-up" [insert collective groan here].

As of 1/10/06:
from TVGuide.com:
by Matt Rousch
Status report on the networks' attempts to bring sci-fi/fantasy back to prime time: CBS's Threshold is, sadly, history. NBC's Surface will be history soon enough (at least for this season), with only a handful of episodes to go. But ABC's Invasion, which triggered an outpouring of confused and worried letters to my mailbag when it disappeared in early December to be replaced by a couple of Alias episodes, is finally returning this week (Jan. 11, 10 pm/ET) and is expected to play out a full season's worth of episodes.

As of 1/4/06:
from Eclipse Magazine: (Only Invasion related material is here.  For the full article, please click on the link.)
Television 2005: The Best Series on TV
2005 was a very interesting year for television as the multiple-arc series began to dominate. “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” begat “Invasion,” “Threshold” and “Surface.” “Battlestar Galactic” and “Stargate SG-1” continued to make Fridays “SciFi Night.” “Everybody Hates Chris” and “My Name Is Earl” proved that the sitcom is not dead, either – than you very much! And both CBS and the Sci Fi Channel produced made-for-TV b-movies that kept alive the madcap [even goofy] spirit of low-budget howlers, while getting more than decent ratings bang for their limited bucks. What was the best of the year? Read on…

As always, there are a number of quality series that didn’t quite make the top ten list. So, herewith, the honorable mentions: NUMB3RS, Bones, Supernatural, Everybody Loves Chris, CSI, Stargate: Atlantis, and NCIS. And now, the top ten...

9. INVASION

Shaun Cassidy’s stylish, atmospheric science fiction series has managed something that is almost impossible in series television – it had developed a sense of growing dread that is almost palpable. Characters evolve and/or devolve in such perfectly paced increments that it’s never quite clear if/when they become something “other.”

When special effects are required, they are well done, but the two most important aspects of the show are the incredible writing, and the superb performances from the cast, including: Eddie Cibrian, Kari Matchett, Alexis Dziena, Tyler Labine, and especially William Fichtner.

As of 12/29/05:
from the Nashville City Paper: (Only Invasion related material is here.  For the full article, please click on the link.)
Surprises
NBC's Surface and CBS's Ghost Whisperer got bludgeoned by virtually every television writer in America out of the gate, but both have become early-evening staples. Surface has outdistanced ABC's more respected Invasion and CBS's now canceled Threshold. The general consensus was that CBS's Criminal Minds was just one more dreary procedural, but it's proven a solid No. 2 to ABC's blockbuster Lost on Wednesdays.

Next the network might want to take another look at Invasion, a program that got off to a fine start, but now seems confused about whether it's a character-driven show or a sci-fi suspense epic. They should learn from the Sci-Fi Network's fantastic Battlestar Galactica, a marvelous show that doesn't neglect the fantasy elements, yet also excels at narrative exposition and character development.

As of 12/16/05:
from the Chicago Tribune: (Only Invasion related material is here.  For the full article, please click on the link.)
2005's most memorable TV moments, people and trends
By Sid Smith and Maureen Ryan
5. Most memorable moments: The stunning reunion of various couples, with varying degrees of separation, loss, pain and love, on a recent episode of "Lost." For one, brief shining moment (especially when Rose and Bernard embraced), the show could have been renamed "Found." Other "holy-cow moments": John O'Hurley and his partner losing on "Dancing With the Stars"; computer nerd Chloe blowing away bad guys on "24"; a Cylon shooting Commander Adama in the "Battlestar Galactica" Season 1 finale; the bad guys kidnapping Walt from the raft on "Lost"; columnist Robert Novak storming off a CNN talk show in a huff; fan favorite Austin Scarlett getting cut from "Project Runway"; the one-armed sheriff's deputy on "Invasion" miraculously getting a new arm that he's then forced to saw off; and Ken Jennings finally losing after an epic run on "Jeopardy!"

As of 12/9/05:
from The Seattle Times:
With midseason nigh, it's time for an update on how the new fall shows have fared, from hits to flops.

As of 12/8/05:
from CNN.com and Entertainment Weekly:
Entertainment Weekly: The Must List
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Fairy tales, puffy shirts, and eight other things we recommend this week:
1. "Invasion" Something fishy is going on in a sleepy South Florida town (and no, it's not the fish). Quirky and ominous, the ABC show is a worthy follow-up to "Lost."

As of 12/4/05:
from Adrants:
ABC's Invasion finally moved the plot along a bit this week with an episode that revealed a bit more behind the alien assimilation thing and the lead characters long involvement with it. It's the better of the several alien shows airing right now. The show has a blog which is nice but they do a terrible job of referring to it on the show misusing the terms blogs when they mean posts on a blog. Does anyone else think the actress playing the Sherrif's daughter, Alexis Dziena, is oddly attractive

As of 11/29/05:
from TV Guide-Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2005
under "Wed. 11/30 Highlights" p. 73
Invasion - ABC, 10pm/ET
Get ready to have some, um, holes poked in a few theories.  There's more than one "What?!" moment in this powerful hour, which opens as conspiracy spokesperson Dave is abducted, and closes as Sheriff Underlay extends his long arm of the law in a bone-chilling final scene.
(ooooo...I can't WAIT!!!!! *shiver*)

from St. Paul Pioneer Press: (just a snippet...for the full article, click on the link)
...'Sparked in part by the popularity of "Lost," television this fall delivered "Surface" (NBC), "Invasion" (ABC) and "Threshold." The trio of hourlong "creeps from the deep" series had TV critics confused during a summer press gathering. Each show promised mystery, monsters and the sea.

As of 11/26/05:
from E!Online: (just a snippet...for the full article, click on the link)
ABC moved Alias to Thursday nights on the heels of its most successful season ever airing on Wednesday nights after Lost. And so a show that averaged more than 10 million viewers became a show that averages about 7 million viewers. Not that ABC didn't have its reasons for throwing Alias to the sharks. For one, Invasion is pulling slightly bigger numbers in its freshman year on Wednesday nights than Alias was pulling in its fourth year. And for another, Alias just looked like a show that was about done with its mission.

As of 11/15/05
from Medialife Magazine: (just a snippet of the article...for the full article, click on the link)
When six supernatural shows debuted to strong ratings this season, following the path tread by ABC’s “Lost,” it seemed doubtful that viewers would sustain their interest in all six.

Now the casualties have begun.

As of 11/14/05:
from the Boston Globe:
Use of Spanish booms on network programs
Hablas español?

from East Valley Tribune: (I will not be printing the entire article...only pertaining to Invasion.  Please click on the link for the full article)
Cue the "Twilight Zone" music: The supernatural has taken over television.

• ABC’s "Invasion," CBS’ "Threshold" and NBC’s "Surface" all deal with extraterrestrials.

So what’s with the supernatural invasion?

TV writer Rick Porter of Web site Zap2it.com credits "Lost," ABC’s sophomore hit drama about plane-crash survivors dealing with a variety of unknown forces, with creating the trend.

" ‘Invasion’ is the best of the aliens-among-us shows because of its emphasis on character, and ‘Supernatural’ is not bad either,’’ he says. "I’m really down on ‘Ghost Whisperer.’ It’s doing well in the ratings, but I find it really manipulative and schmaltzy. In general, I’d say emphasizing the premise over the people makes for bad sci-fi.’’

With the current TV lineup oozing supernatural shows, Porter says he’ll be surprised if many more pop up next year. "Watching a serialized show takes more effort than something like ‘CSI,’ ’’ he says. "There comes a point when there’s just not enough time.’’

As of 11/7/05:
from SignonSanDiego.com:
One species of shows, curiously, has failed to produce a major hit. Those are the half-dozen science fiction and fantasy programs that debuted in September to so much fanfare.

As of 11/6/05:
from Cleveland Plain Dealer: (the full article -- dealing with the tv movie "Category 7"-- can be accessed by clicking on the link)
...'Well, how about ABC's "Invasion"? It opened on Sept. 21 with scenes of a hurricane crashing through a small Florida town. Its ratings have been stagnant since that premiere, and the rookie drama routinely loses 40 percent of the lead-in audience provided by "Lost." Is that a grim sign of what's in store for "Category 7"?

As of 11/3/05:
from Newsday:
"INVASION" CONTINUING AT ABC. On the heels of its first pickup of a new series this fall, "Commander in Chief," ABC has given the full-season reward to another of its new dramas, the sci-fi-tinged "Invasion." The series, which follows the odd occurrences in a South Florida town following a hurricane, earned its pickup on the basis making ABC more competitive at 10 p.m. Wednesdays than it's been in several years. And though part of that credit may go to the show's lead-in, "Lost," "Invasion" has managed to hold up well against CBS' "CSI: NY" and NBC's "Law & Order."

As of 11/2/05:
from USA Today:
Fall's best new drama, Invasion (ABC, 10 p.m. ET/PT), repeats the excellent episode that set up the creepy lights-in-the-water scenario. Of all the season's new sci-fi/suspense hours, none has been better than Invasion at developing its characters or maintaining an air of mystery and foreboding.

As of 10/30/05:
from The Globe and Mail:
Here's a look at the best -- and the rest -- of Fall 2005:

Winner: Invasion (Wednesdays, ABC, 10 p.m., and CTV, 8 p.m.). The top-rated of the three new alien-themed shows -- having Lost as your lead-in obviously helps -- is the best of the bunch. Invasion concerns a suspected alien encroachment on a small Florida community. The ensemble cast is top-notch, particularly Eddie Cibrian as the park ranger who's slowly starting to believe, and veteran character actor William Fichtner as the oddly behaving town sheriff who may be part of a military cover-up. Canadian Kari Matchett is also quite good as a woman whose body may have been taken over by the extraterrestrials. Blissfully, there are no scenes of alien ships blasting their death rays or terrified humans running through the streets, only occasional scary moments. Mostly, the story progresses patiently toward what we hope is a big payoff.

from The Arizona Republic:
Generally speaking, this is always a good time of year for horror fans.

Halloween approaches, so the scare factor on television is high. Usually that means a Halloween marathon on cable or the odd showing of The Exorcist or The Omen here and there.

But this year is different. Oh, there are still plenty of chances to scare yourself by watching television. Only this season, the scares are there every week.

Or they're supposed to be, anyway. The promise isn't always delivered upon, not by all the shows, certainly, and sometimes not even consistently by the shows that do manage a fright. Even the WB's Supernatural, which is consistently the scariest show on television right now, has its weaknesses.

Horror's hard, particularly in a medium with built-in filters on blood and guts. Combine that with a premium on appealing to the largest-possible audience, instead of the cult crowds horror films can cater to, and it's a wonder anyone on TV bothers to say boo.

They're saying boo this season. But it doesn't always make you jump.

"It's not the scares that are hard - it's the stuff in between the scares that really pulls you into a horror movie," said Stuart Gordon, who directed the cult hit Re-Animator and is one of the directors for Masters of Horror, a 13-part series of one-hour horror films on Showtime.

He's right about that, and the première episode of Masters of Horror, which debuted Friday, is proof. Called Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, it was directed by Don Coscarelli, who directed Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep, and it was awful. Bree Turner starred as a would-be victim of a garden-variety deformed psycho - remember, we're talking about horror here, so such a creature can rightfully be described as garden-variety - who is in fact the abused ex-wife of a survivalist, who turns the tables on Moonface, as he is known. At one point she hits him with the skeleton of a baby he had displayed in a crib. Nice touch.

All gore, no story, in other words.

This is not to say that if later that night you happened to, say, wander downstairs in the dark to get a bottle for a crying baby or something - purely hypothetical here - that you wouldn't be seeing monsters in the shadows. It's that you wouldn't like seeing monsters in the shadows, which is the neat trick good horror accomplishes: it makes you enjoy being scared.

No show currently does that better than Supernatural. The tale of two brothers hunting their father and the source of various urban legends, it delivers more chills - Bloody Mary jumping out of a mirror and whatnot - than any other show on the air. Where it falls short is in the solving of the urban legends. (The finding-the-father part is a non-starter so far.) It's all scary build-up and blah payoff, if that's any kind of payoff at all.

At least some of it is scary. A show like Ghost Whisperer, in which Jennifer Love Hewitt sees dead people, isn't really scary at all. It's more of a romantic kind of drama, only with some animate dead people in some of the roles.

Surface, in which a new breed of sea creature is taking hold, is less a scary show than a sort of Disney version of same. There have been chills, of a sort - mostly when the super-gigantic version swallowed a boat whole, leading you to wonder just how big the little pet version the kids are keeping will become. But nothing truly frightening.

Threshold and Invasion, both shows that presumably deal with alien invasion (Invasion is playing close to the vest on that front, but it seems the only logical explanation for the weirdo behavior of the townsfolk), are scarier. They're also better. Threshold relies on sudden cuts and jumps to get you out of your seat. Invasion is creepier, its only problem being that it doles out the story in such . . . a . . . slow . . . fashion.

That's not a problem with Night Stalker, in which downbeat Stuart Townsend's Kolchak chases monsters and X-Files-inspired bad guys. It's a mess, really, with a badly misused Gabrielle Union tossed in as the resident skeptic. Lose her and the show might improve; more likely, with truly scary ratings, ABC will lose the whole show.

Of all the shows, Night Stalker is the goriest, with disgusting crimes (fetuses torn from women's bodies, that kind of thing) and plenty of disturbing evidence. Certainly the Showtime series is filled with gruesome stuff - in the debut, Moonface used a drill press to bore through his victims' eyes. Yuck. Where does that come from?

"We're telling horrific stories," said Mick Garris, who directed Riding the Bullet and other horror films and is part of the Showtime series. "And over the years there has indeed been a trend toward more sensational, more graphic depictions of horror, because if you watch the Twilight Zone or One Step Beyond today, it will be entertaining, but it will not necessarily scare an audience that has been brought up on things that have been more graphically presented. I don't think any of us are doing gore for the sake of gore, but we're also not avoiding it because we don't have a reason that we have to."

But it doesn't make it scary, it just makes it gross. It all goes back to Gordan's take - gore isn't what makes a scary show good. There is a little gore in Supernatural, less in Invasion and Threshold, and they're the best of the bunch. What makes them good shows is the stories they tell, not the disembowelments they could show if they chose to.

The truth is, they don't need to. And if there is good news here among sometimes-spotty results: at least they're trying. At least this season's burst of horror is something different from what was rapidly becoming a nearly non-stop parade of cop shows and reality fare.

"We have a lot of shows about serial killers and, you know, those guys are real and they're scary because they're real," said John Landis, part of the Showtime project and director of Animal House and An American Werewolf in London, among other films. "But for me, as a filmmaker, if I'm going to do a genre piece, I want to do something about something that is not real. That's much more difficult to make you accept that it's real, because we know there are murderous people. We sort of suspect there are not werewolves and things. So to me that's the challenge: Make it real."

And while you're at it, try to make it real scary.

As of 10/27/05:
from Canada.com:
Invasion
CTV and ABC, 8 p.m.

As of 10/26/05:
from the Mercury News:
There has been all kinds of grumbling about the new "Invasion'' from some ABC executives (who don't like the fact it loses half of the lead-in audience from "Lost'') and from some viewers (who think its storyline is moving way too slowly.)

But of the new sci-fi series, "Threshold'' may be more consistent and have some characters that are more memorable. "Supernatural'' may be scarier. But "Invasion'' is the creepiest, the richest in texture and the most unique in tone.

Last week's episode was the series' best yet. If the scene where Sheriff Tom Underlay (the scary William Fichtner) gave his little sermon about being a survivor didn't make your skin crawl, nothing will. And speaking of creepy: Tonight's hour (10 p.m., ABC) includes a sexual tango involving Stepmommy-
From-Space Mariel Underlay (Kari Matchett, above, who manages to be sexy
and chilling at the same time) and her stepdaughter's transformed boyfriend.

Yikes!

Oh, one piece of good news: Even though some executives may grumble about the ratings, ABC has picked up "Invasion'' for a full season.

from USAToday:
They're both newcomers in their early 20s, starring in two big-ticket prime-time shows. They're both on hiatus from college. And both, coincidentally, appear in the 2005 drama Havoc, about L.A.'s Latino gang culture (on DVD Nov. 29). USA TODAY shines the spotlight on Related's Laura Breckenridge and Invasion's Alexis Dziena.

Alexis Dziena, 21

Let's get one thing straight: Alexis Dziena is no Lolita.

Before acting in the new ABC series Invasion (Wednesday, 10 ET/PT), Dziena raised eyebrows as the aptly named, sexually uninhibited teenager who flaunted her unclothed bod in front of a flustered Bill Murray in Broken Flowers.

The newcomer exudes a sultry maturity beyond her years.

"I'm nude right now!" jokes Dziena (pronounced Da-zeena) in a phone interview as she relaxes in her Los Angeles apartment on a day off from shooting. "I have a lot of the free-spirited thing that Lolita does, but I wouldn't say that I take it to that extreme."

She has more in common with Kira Underlay, the smoky-eyed sheriff's daughter she plays in Invasion, a tale of a Florida town that gets hit by a hurricane and subsequently has to deal with alien visitors.

Airing after the smash hit Lost, the series is averaging 12.6 million viewers, trailing Law & Order and CSI: NY. ABC has picked it up for a full season.

Dziena isn't quite sure if she believes in otherworldly life forms. "The idea of other things existing out there is something that I think is a possibility, but I can't say I spent too much time researching it," she says. "Anything's possible. But the show is more mystery than sci-fi."

Right now, Dziena has more practical concerns, such as negotiating L.A. traffic. The native New Yorker, who briefly studied acting at NYU before dropping out to work, relocated from Manhattan when she landed the Invasion role.

When she's not working, Dziena reads, writes and plays music. "I read a lot of autobiographical stories, and I write plays and prose. And I play piano and cello. A lot of my downtime is devoted to that."

And as befits the sister of musician/DJ older brother named Alex — "very original, right?" — she also is "learning drums" when she is back in Manhattan. "My neighbors are not happy," she says with a laugh.

As of 10/24/05:
from Zap2it: (I am once again including only the information regarding "Invasion".  To read the full article, click on the link.)
TV Gal Steals Some Second Looks
By Amy Amatangelo

Sure, we all know I continue to be in love with "My Name Is Earl," "How I Met Your Mother," and "Everybody Hates Chris." (I heart Barney), but it made me think what other shows did I perhaps dismiss too quickly? What other series deserve a second look? Here's two I've paid more attention to since my original review.

"Invasion" (Wednesday, ABC, 10 p.m.): This alien invasion show gets better every week and it was just picked up for a full season. But the best part of the show is William Fichtner's brilliantly evasive performance as the town's sheriff. Is Tom good, bad, evil or just drawn that way? In cahoots with the light thingies in the water or just as clueless as the rest of the town? Every time I think I've figured him out, the show throws me in another direction. The speech Tom gave at the end of last week's episode was a perfect example of that. I definitely dismissed this show too quickly and I heard from executive producer Shaun Cassidy himself that we'll get the answers to many of the questions posed in the pilot during November sweeps. How can we not stick around to watch?

As of 10/22/05:
from Broadcasting & Cable:

As of 10/21/05:
from Newsday: (due to the length of the article, I am only putting in the parts about Invasion.  To see the full article, click on the link)
...'In ABC's bluntly titled "Invasion," an extraterrestrial life form has sneaked onto our planet under cover of a hurricane. Only a handful of humans in Homestead, Fla., saw the things cascade into the ocean like a meteor shower. Now, some of those folks are changing. No one in authority can be trusted, not even cops and doctors.'...

...'The thing to remember is, "Surface" is a lot more complicated than "It Came From Beneath the Sea" or "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms." Similarly, "Invasion" is more complex and subtle than "Body Snatchers" or "The Invaders," the late-'60s network series in the same mode remembered for its space-alien infiltrators' telltale imperfection: a crooked pinky finger.

"A lot of people have assumed from the very beginning we were doing a remake of 'Body Snatchers,'" said "Invasion" creator and executive producer Shaun Cassidy. "There are certainly elements there. The 'Who do you trust?' element basically is the same. Is there a conspiracy afoot? All of that is there. But whatever process is occurring here is, I think, very different. The audience, right or wrong, has already made a lot of assumptions. You know, the sheriff's the bad guy, Mariel's been taken by someone or something, bring on the pod people. I hear that. Our job is to say, 'Well, audience, you're right and you're wrong,' and to take their expectations and spin them in a new way."

Parallels between two eras

Cassidy nonetheless understands why someone might see parallels between these times and the '50s. "There was a great deal of uncertainty," he said. "For another generation now, I suspect there's equal uncertainty. Writers and artists always try to process what's going on through their work."

Cassidy said he sees hope as the driving force in his series - hope that people work out family differences, hope that they can put their lives and community back after a hurricane, hope that they can stand up to an extraterrestrial threat.

from SyFyPortal:
Hot on the heels of NBC's ordering a full season of "Surface," ABC has requested a complete year of 22 episodes for its Earth-based science-fiction show, "Invasion," according to scifi.com.

from Reuters:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - ABC has ordered a full season of new, alien-themed series "Invasion."

As of 10/20/05:
from OCWeekly:
Even more so than the perpetual pre-empting of Arrested Development and the anemic decline of Alias, the biggest disappointment in the fall TV season so far is Invasion, the sci-fi series on ABC from creator Shaun Cassidy. (Yes, that Shaun Cassidy. Yeah, I secretly hum “Hey, Deanie” when his name comes on screen, too . . .) Despite a fine cast, so far the moody alien takeover tale has hardly gelled; the characters aren’t terribly compelling, their fear somehow lacking in urgency. Or something. It’s hard to pinpoint, just as it was difficult to put into words why Cassidy’s previous outing -- the 1995 CBS outing American Gothic, co-produced by Sam Raimi—was such a masterpiece.

We may yet get a chance to find the right words: After much fan clamoring and 10 years since its debut, American Gothic’s one and only season hits DVD shelves this week. At first glance, there are similarities to Invasion: strange goings on in a small town, a creepy sheriff whose motives are unclear and a youngster at the center of the action. Yet where the new show looks to the skies for its menace, the far more unsettling American Gothic is more introspective. A rich Southern morality tale rife with spirits, vengeance, and murder, it unravels as a series of nightmarish events in the life of 10-year-old Caleb (the miraculous Lucas Black, just before his turn in Sling Blade), his family and friends, and the domineering devil-incarnate Sheriff Lucas Buck (a charming, debonair, and entirely sinister Gary Cole; Cole has managed something of a cult-hero trifecta with his roles here, as the boss in Office Space and as the voice of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law).

Masterfully achieving a slow-burn up to its unexpected finale, American Gothic is addictively original television that richly deserves a second look. Included in the box set are four episodes which went unaired in the show’s first run, plus a number of deleted and extended scenes.

from Variety.com:
ABC is going forward with its primetime "Invasion."

As of 10/15/05:
from Broadcasting & Cable: (I have included the full article, for those looking only for Invasion information see the highlight)
This time last year, the television industry was agog over ABC’s breakout monster hits Desperate Housewivesand Lost. As the new fall season unfolded this year, anticipation of another splashy debut or two was palpable, even though veteran TV hands know that instant mega-success is a rarity. And sure enough, this fall’s big story is the middling success of the networks’ slates of new shows.

As of 10/13/05:
from LAWeekly: (I have only included Invasion in this.  To see the whole article, click on the link)
In the wake of ABC’s Lost, the show that not only stranded characters on a mysteriously inhabited island but also rescued a lonely network from its own marooned ratings exile, a newfound thirst for post–X-Files otherworldly insinuation has developed in programming land. Hence, CBS has Threshold, NBC has Surface, and ABC doubled up, giving its Wednesday-night Lost viewers a full night of jitters with another creepy series, Invasion.

With the season in full swing now, you may need a little help discerning which of the three new creatures-from-beyond dramas is which: Threshold is the one about an alien invasion that starts at sea. Surface is the one about an alien invasion that starts at sea. Invasion is the one about an alien invasion that starts at sea.

Maybe I should try that again.

In Invasion, we see the aliens through the eyes of average folk trying to make sense of their disjointed lives. This gives the show a character-driven Lost sheen, but avoids being a copycat. It’s easily the most interesting of the three, taking the emotional chill and confusion that accompany a family divorce — between a sweet-faced park-ranger father (Eddie Cibrian) and a mother who’s a local doctor (Kari Matchett) — and lacing them with a narratively complementary dose of body-snatching paranoia. In the pilot, Mommy vents her anger at Daddy over what she perceives as a disregard for their young daughter Rose’s welfare during the hurricane, but the mood changes after Mommy has been found naked and weirdly unscratched after disappearing in the storm. Now Rose thinks Mommy “smells different,” and Daddy is becoming convinced by his wife’s conspiracy-addled brother that the natural disaster was a cover for a mass visitation. Creator Shaun Cassidy’s way with the kind of queasy human drama that slides niftily into a larger arena of enveloping horror is on fine display here, with none of the ramrod effects or overblown fright cues or pointless fake-tech jargon that can mar other series with designs on freezing your blood. You only need the fabulously sinister William Fichtner (Go, Crash) as Mommy’s new sheriff husband, comforting his alien-altered bride at the end of the first hour with an eerily reassuring, “Baby steps, honey, baby steps,” to know that Invasion intends to work in shades of dread. And it thankfully doesn’t appear likely to play its hand too soon.

As of 10/11/05:
from WFAA.com:
Network scare tactics
The concepts of fear vary from series to series
By MANUEL MENDOZA / The Dallas Morning News

Surface solved its central mystery almost instantly. And Invasion executive producer Shaun Cassidy says he plans to answer most of the questions raised in his show's pilot within a few episodes. That alone makes two of the new sci-fi shows markedly different from Lost, the hit series that made them possible.

It was only last week – a year-plus into its run – that Lost first laid out a potential explanation (or two) for the strange happenings on the island. "Did they reveal that Invasion is on after them?" Mr. Cassidy jokes. Invasion follows Lost Wednesday nights on ABC.

"Our show came about in the climate of Lost, and I understand people wanting to make analogies," he says. "I actually think our show is more different from Lost than people realize."

He explains that even the names of the shows conjure contrasting images, his perhaps a bit misleading. "Lost is a metaphysical title. If they wanted to be more specific, they would have called it Monster on the Island or Weird Things Going On. Our show is the opposite. It's called Invasion, and people think they're going to see little Martians popping out of spaceships. We're just not doing that show."

But while Invasion may not be metaphysical, it is, like Lost , metaphorical. Mr. Cassidy was interested in the idea of an "aftermath" world in the wake of Sept. 11. The show follows a group of public servants through a devastating hurricane that may also herald the arrival of body-snatching aliens.

"Post-9-11, this country had a lot of different choices it could've made, and it made some very specific ones that some people agreed with and a lot of people didn't," Mr. Cassidy says. "The consequences of those choices remain to be seen, and I'm interested in that. The instability of our time, the instability of community and family, all those things are in the show. But what's also in the show is that I'm hopeful we can pull it together."

Threshold, CBS' sci-fi entry, is less coy about its alien invasion. The spaceship was fully revealed in the first episode, and its effects are immediately apparent: Humans exposed to it die or turn murderous. Night Stalker, another ABC show, may be the least forthcoming, but that's OK – it's not designed for reveals. Its metaphor comes down to fear of the dark, and you can't really see the boogeyman in the closet.

Which leaves Surface, the one new fright-fest free of metaphor. The NBC series doesn't have anything more on its mind than to be big family entertainment. Its main touchstones are the early blockbusters of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

A boy tries to raise an infant version of the sea monster in his playhouse, à la E.T., while the brother of a man killed by the creature is strangely drawn to it in the vein of Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

With the big fish quickly identified as a new mammalian vertebrate, the only mystery is where it came from. Even the government coverup is toothless; the spooks are just looking to prevent a panic.

"There's so few shows that you don't have to send your kids out of the room to watch," says Surface co-creator Jonas Pate. "We have this cult of death on television where so many shows start off with a body of the week that's been eviscerated in some spectacularly gross or newfangled way. Or if it's a sitcom, it's so broad and sexually risqué. We just wanted to make something a little bit more old-fashioned."

Mr. Pate doesn't even like to call Surface science fiction. "We try to tell the stories as realistically as possible. That type of story is my favorite kind – the fantastic into the familiar. If you look at the biggest films of all time," he says, citing Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars, "they tend to fall in that category. But it hasn't really been done on television."

from the A.V.Club.com:
Last week, The A.V. Club looked at a handful of the more widely hyped shows on this fall's TV calendar, and considered how many of them might be worth adding to our permanent TiVo schedule. This week, we do it again.

Invasion (ABC)

The premise: In the aftermath of a hurricane, mysterious lights appear in a Florida swamp, and the people in a nearby community begin acting strangely. Could they be... aliens?

from USAToday:
Five Rising Stars To Watch Closely
A new TV year always brings new TV faces.

Kari Matchett

Who she is: Well, that's the $64,000 question. All we know for sure is that she's the possibly possessed mom on the season's best new series, ABC's Invasion (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET/PT).The networks' star-making machinery worked for Eva Longoria, Hugh Laurie and Kristen Bell. And it's bound to happen again this fall. With the season now in full swing, USA TODAY picks the year's five faces to watch.

Why you might know her: Unless you get Canadian TV, you probably don't. She's had a number of successful series in Canada, but her American TV work is mostly limited to guest shots on shows such as Earth: Final Conflict and Wonderfalls.

Why you will know her: In another age, Matchett might have been one of Alfred Hitchcock's blond goddesses. As it is, this classically beautiful actress's combination of chill and warmth is ideal for her role as Dr. Mariel Underlay, the woman at the center of Invasion's secret. Something is wrong with Mariel, and Matchett has done a wonderful job of conveying Mariel's disquiet without overplaying the change. Matchett keeps us guessing and keeps us interested in the answer.

As of 10/9/05:
from Fredericksburg.com:
ABC'S eerie new super- natural thriller, "Inva- sion," has several things going for it that many of the season's other alien/ghost stories don't: