Review by: Nick Jobe

Background: I’m a pretty big Marvel/MCU fan. Though I definitely find faults in some of their works, I’m not nearly as negative or fatigued as many others, though I get it (the fatigue, anyway). Sometimes I feel people just like being negative because they’re tired of it, not because of the actual quality of the work itself. It is, also, a lot to keep up with, and I do spend way too much time digging into theories, reactions, and how everything works together. That being said, let’s get into my thoughts on Secret Invasion. (And yes, there will be major spoilers! You have been warned!)

Nick Fury finally gets his own story here, and it’s unfortunately a bit of a mixed bag. After the Blip, where everyone returned from Thanos’ snap, Fury (Sam Jackson) has spent his time in a space station, “dealing” with his trauma. But Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a rogue Skrull mad at Fury’s inability to rehome his people after the events of Captain Marvel, has his attention and brings him back to Earth. Fury teams back up with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), as well as Sonya (Olivia Colman), who is essentially the more charming, British, female version of Fury. There’s also Talos’ daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke), who rides the grey area between following Gravik and Fury/Talos.

There’s of course more to it than that, but that is the gist of it. The acting in this show is definitely the highlight, as 99% of the cast is on their A-Game. The best scenes in the show involve these powerhouse performers just sitting in a room talking (or just Olivia Colman interacting with literally anyone). You can say a lot of things about this show, but a knock on the performances and dialogue is not one of them.

But that doesn’t mean the script is necessarily a strong one. The common complaint for the Disney+ MCU shows is they start strong, falter in the middle, have a huge moment usually at the end of episode 4, and then struggle to end it well. This remains the case with this show, as well, to a degree. I enjoyed the first few episodes quite a bit, mostly thanks to the aforementioned performances and strong scenes. But then it starts to sag a little. Episodes 4 and 5 feel like a repeat of what’s already come before but without the powerhouse moments or cool looking cinematography. The big moment at the end of episode 4, Talos’ death, feels both unearned and uneffective. The very first episode begins with the shock of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) not only being a skrull but also dying–though probably not, due to learning skrulls put their originals in pods, essentially (and confirmed in the finale). The same episode ends with Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) not being a skrull but also dying. Another episode ends with G’iah dying… which is shown to be a fake-out at the start of the very next episode. By the time Talos is killed, the impact is lost. Add in my next, and biggest, issue, and we have what is basically where the show falters most.

Each episode shrinks in length considerably, starting the series off at close to an hour and then quickly dipping into the 38ish minute territory (and that includes the recap as well as opening and closing credits). Yet director Ali Selim continues to call it a 6-hour show. It was initially announced as a 6-hour special event that was going to be the next big crossover event, neither of which came true and makes me wonder what was changed or cut between the initial conception and now. And while it’s neither here nor there, Selim’s interviews came off as if he didn’t particularly know or care about much within the confines of the MCU, its characters, stories, or much of anything outside those handful of scenes where the actors just talk to each other (at least one of which, he admitted, was written by Sam Jackson himself). All of this makes it feel as if they had other plans that were changed and were stuck with a director who didn’t quite “get” it.

Due to all this, we end up with a weird pacing where we don’t get enough time to connect with the characters, the story, motivations, or anything. And that, I feel, is the show’s biggest issue: there’s no emotional connection. I feel for Fury because he’s been around for about 15 years, but there’s a dissonance with him and what’s going on that could and should have been more deeply explored. His ultimate response for behaving the way he has and doing the things he does might not even be true because these things aren’t explained by him. Maria Hill’s death is supposed to be a huge, significant moment for Fury–similar to Caulson’s death in The Avengers–yet it doesn’t quite come off that way, and she becomes more or less a footnote to the rest of the events. Talos could have still died in the show, but the way it came about left his character arc unfulfilled (and ultimately proving G’iah correct by the end, which makes it even more pointless). There just wasn’t enough time to fully connect with him or his beliefs, nor was there any resolution for any of his relationships except maybe Fury.

(Side Note: As-is, the show could easily be shortened into a movie without losing much of anything and have gotten the same emotions and points across (people say the same of many of the shows, but this is the first one I feel could legitimately be edited into 2.5 hours and still work with what we’ve been given). It would still have the same emotional issues, likely, but it would be tighter and probably have stronger pacing.)

And then there’s G’iah. We know from Game of Thrones alone that Emilia Clarke can act, so I’m not quite sure why the performance here was so subdued and–dare I say–bland. There was nothing exciting or interesting or charismatic or even vaguely intriguing about her character outside the conflict with Talos, which was barely explored. If Fury is the soul of the show, she is presented as essentially the heart of the story. Except the heart is barely beating, and I truthfully had very little interest in her character the more the show went on. She barely has an arc, she shows minimal emotion, and she starts having her “maybe I’m on the wrong side” moment from the very first episode, leaving no room for real growth or change. A random character named Beto who barely speaks and is maybe in 5 total minutes of the show over multiple episodes has a better emotional arc than G’iah. So ultimately, when G’iah becomes one of the most powerful beings in the entire MCU by the end of the show, I thought it was a cool concept that was wasted on a character I didn’t really care about (though she does have some cool moments there). But because the show relies so heavily on connecting with G’iah and her connected stories, especially for the finale payoff to fully work, and they simultaneously make it so tricky to actually do so, the show ultimately doesn’t quite come together.

(Side Side Note: G’iah’s Super Skrull might also set up a plot hole in the upcoming The Marvels with her new power set and how the movie has been promoted to work. But I won’t make that a knock on the show until after the film comes out and is given a chance to explain.)

Though it could be argued that G’iah isn’t the heart of the show–Varra/Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard) is. Varra and her relationship with Fury is complex, heartbreaking, and lovely. The performances between Jackson and Woodard are top notch, culminating in yet another one of the best scenes in the show that plays like a tense Tarantino moment. She not only makes Fury a more complex character, but she works well in her own regard, as well. She and Olivia Colman mark the best new characters introduced to the MCU in this show, and I’m excited how both are going to be utilized moving forward (though it is more likely the latter will continue on far more than the former, particularly due to how both characters leave off).

And what about Gravik? The MCU has a tendency to give us dull villains (with some notable exceptions), and Gravik isn’t half bad. This is largely due to Ben-Adir giving a strong performance, especially in the final episode. He does with the material what he can. He’s ruthless, for sure, though his ultimate plan is a little wonky and never quite flows well. Some of it feels as if he’s making it up as he goes along despite the fact he reacts as if it were his plan all along. And… it’s essentially Falcon and the Winter Soldier all over again. I’ll be honest, that’s one of my least favorite of the Disney+ shows, and it didn’t exactly learn its lesson here. And both are vital to the upcoming Captain America 4, which I truly hope is better than the material leading up to it (which also includes The Incredible Hulk and possibly She-Hulk, both of which I liked more than most, though both of which are arguably pretty far down in most fans’ lists).

I also have yet to talk about one of the biggest things to happen in this show: the Rhodey reveal. The comic run revealed major characters having been skrulls all along, which is done here in the guise (pun mildly intended) of Rhodey. Don Cheadle gives, much like everyone else, a great performance in this show. We learn, of course, that he’s a skrull, but we don’t learn until the finale for just how long–and that gives some serious implications not only for what’s already happened but for Armor Wars and what’s still to come. There are some seriously upsetting realizations that hit when you realize just how long he’s been a skrull and the things he doesn’t know happened. I know some people are not going to like those implications, but they honestly do make me a little more excited about Armor Wars.

(Side side side note: What happened during the snap and the pod people situation? Some skrulls had to disappear and leave behind their originals, but even more curious are the people who disappeared while the skrulls stayed behind. There are a lot of questions that come up between the skrulls and the snap that would be interesting to explore.)

The show isn’t bad; it just could have been better. It needed to take more time to flesh out the characters, the story, and the overall emotion throughout, or at least have new or alternate scenes that help. See it for the performances, the powerhouse scenes, the cinematography (of at least half the episodes), and a couple major things that you’ll likely need to know moving forward in the MCU. It’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though both better and worse than that sounds.