Nerdly » ‘Secret Invasion – Episodes 1 & 2’ Review (Disney+) *SPOILER FREE*

21st Jun2023

‘Secret Invasion – Episodes 1 & 2’ Review (Disney+) SPOILER FREE

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Don Cheadle, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Martin Freeman, Cobie Smulders, Dermot Mulroney | Creator/Showrunner: Kyle Bradstreet

Marvel’s Secret Invasion, streaming in weekly instalments on Disney Plus, is the ninth television series set in the MCU. Consisting of six episodes and created by showrunner Kyle Bradstreet, it is loosely based on a 2008 Marvel Comics event of the same name. However, whereas the comics event involved multiple superheroes, the TV series has been essentially reconfigured as a headlining show for Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.

The show picks up thirty years after the events of Captain Marvel (2019), which introduced the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifting aliens, lead by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who became a close ally of Fury. However, as the show begins, a group of renegade Skrulls have grown tired of waiting three decades for Fury to deliver on his promise of finding them a new planet, so they have decided to take over the Earth.

It turns out the plan is already significantly underway, with Skrulls having attained key positions of power across the world, including – somewhat amusingly – the British Prime Minister. With Talos deposed from his own position of power within the Skrull community, he joins forces with Fury to stop the secret invasion, as the renegades – lead by charismatic Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) step up their plans with a devastating attack.

Comics fans expecting a straightforward adaptation of the source material (as was the case with the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes episodes) are likely to be disappointed, at least on the strength of the first two episodes. The comics exploited a simple premise – what if some of your favourite superheroes actually turned out to be Skrulls in disguise – and pushed that idea to some entertaining places. The comics storyline also generated an effective atmosphere of fear and paranoia. That’s something the show hasn’t managed yet, although there is still time for that to be a feature of later episodes.

So far, the show is strong on ideas of conspiracy and is capable of pulling off some big, shocking moments (the ending of Episode 1 is likely to ruffle a few fan feathers in that regard), but it’s also a little messy and doesn’t seem too sure where it’s going.

It doesn’t help that there are lots of new characters to keep track of. In addition to Gravik, there’s also Talos’ daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke), who’s gone over to Gravik’s side, Gravik’s second-in-command Pagon (Killian Scott) and Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman), a high-ranking MI6 agent who may or may not be a useful ally to Fury.

While the actual invasion part of the storyline hasn’t really kicked into gear yet – so far it’s all about the rebel Skrulls trying to provoke a war – the show is stronger on its character moments, particularly the idea that Fury has been away a long time after the events of the Blip, and that he’s older and trying to see if he can still be useful on the front-line. To that end, one of the best scenes of the opening two episodes is a sharply written, multi-layered chat between Fury and Rhodey (Don Cheadle), who’s now a sort of right-hand man to President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney).

The performances are mostly excellent, although Ben-Adir’s accent is decidedly wobbly and at one point appears to be taking a tour of the United Kingdom, taking in Liverpool and Wales, as well as London. Colman, in particular, makes a welcome addition to the MCU and is clearly enjoying herself as she indulges in a little torturing, while Emilia Clarke proves a promising presence, playing G’iah close to her chest in terms of her true loyalties.

Perhaps the most amusing element of the series so far is the cheeky bit of hand-waving that the show does in order to explain why the Avengers won’t be getting involved. That said, the excuse isn’t entirely convincing, and it also makes it look like the Avengers aren’t really bothered about the whole imminent Skrull invasion thing.

Ultimately, the opening episodes of Secret Invasion are a little messy, but there’s a lot of potential going forward, and the pieces seem to be in place for the stakes to get a lot higher very quickly. At any rate, Jackson is on great form, and the show promises to be worth watching just to see him take centre stage for once.