Secret Invasion

Let me start with what this series isn't. It isn't exciting, original or in the least bit interesting. The path it treads is well worn and has been done better so many times before. The majority of the characters are immediately forgotten due to their sheer blandness and similarity to one another. I don't think it understands what it's trying to be. Is it a superhero series or or a tepid spy thriller? It presents as yet another hodgepodge of cliches and tropes, packaged under the Disney/Marvel banner. The character of Nick Fury and his tired quips is now at the point of being a parody of who he used to be.

...there IS a "but" (more on that later)

• This review is based off the first 5 episodes.

First the criticism.

In a universe so full of extraordinary superheroes and alien technology, it makes absolutely no sense that "good old Fury" is running around on his own, with a normal run of the mill pistol, to try to "save" earth from being taken over by aliens.

It's just unbelievable dumb in its premise, and despite excellent production quality (as is the norm for the MCU) the show is on track to get a 3.

BUT (and here is the kicker)... then enters Olivia Colman.

Her character lifts the entire show by 3 points, all by herself.

That understated, witty, stiff upper lip character just makes it all worth while.

More or less every time she is on screen you chuckle, if not laugh out loud.

Imagine taking her from "The Crown", with a few (obvious) changes, and then making her a much funnier stone cold killer, with absolutely no boundaries.

I'd happily watch an entire show based off just her character.

It takes the show from a waste of time, in an already overcrowded universe, to being something you find yourself grudgingly continuing to watch, despite all the illogical poorly thought out BS going on around her, just to watch what she does next.

I dearly hope they expand her character and give it a bigger part as the show develops, and I hope they are not dumb enough to kill her off, as that would instantly make me lose interest in this otherwise senseless drivel.

I don't understand the low ratings. But then again maybe I do. Some Marvel fans have gotten used to a certain kind of formula, but to be honest I am ready for some maturing and alternative perspectives on a Marvel UNIVERSE. This is a timely work, where people are at war, each with their own reason. But mostly to fight for a placed called home. No one group's hands are clean. This series, more than any in the MCU, felt the most human...where we see a man broken by fighting and trying his best to take responsibility for the collateral damage done. And as a side note, Ben Mendelsohn's acting is a revelation, as an alien who seems to have the best of humanity.

With the Marvel Phase 5 arriving, they could've made a sort of a come back after the mess Phase 4 was, but they continue to be stuck, in this particular time around it seems they are making the old Marvel stages irrelevant.

There is a limit to the amount of super heroes and villains that exist in Marvel where it just become senseless, even with the Multiverse, in this story they are still facing threats on Earth (actually USA as always) and none of the major super heroes appear which makes no sense specially when the threat is as big as the antagonists on Secret Invasion, a shape shifting alien race that can infiltrate to the highest level of governments a destroy a world from within... Nonetheless I was actually expecting this show to be good, it started nice but the first problem started with lack of context, Fury has been away for a long time and now he comes back as a shadow version of his former self, a beat down man and we have no context as to why, throughout the series they try to give this context but it doesn't make too much of an impact. We follow along just for the character to do a full circle...

More bad decisions, killing off a character that has been present in MCU for quite some time and this character's death was as underwhelming as the character participation on the franchise as a whole, we had a moment of USA military arrogance which always annoys me personally, but I am getting side tracked... This all could've been overlooked but then the last episode arrives and I cannot stress how absurd that final battle was and how much of a middle finger it is for every single super hero movie that came before... really, all powers each with a particular explanation, they are given just like that? I don't want to give away to much, it reminded me of a particular scene on the old Fantastic 4, just laughable.

I am becoming hopeless to a recovery from the hit Phase 4 took on Marvel, I see mediocrity going forward.

What an absolute waste. Samuel L Jackson seriously must have had a clause written into his contract that states he must be seated 75% of the time on set. Watch these episodes again and notice every excuse in the world for him to be sitting in a chair. They even made a Louie 14th chair joke in the first episode to cover for him having to sit down while they filmed an action sequence around him. He is old the character is old and it just doesn't work. Add the fact that the writing is incredibly shallow and predictable and it makes you wonder why anybody is praising this garbage.

It's great to be a fan but to put blinders on and to blindly support things hurts actual fans. They will just keep delivering nonsense if you keep eating it up we'll get more trash. Stop ruining it for everyone.