TV Review: ‘Secret Invasion’ Season 1, Episode 3
by Frank Martin
It’s easy watching a show where the majority of it is either bad or good. It’s harder when a program has many things to like and enjoy while also having many things that just do not work. This happens because the potential for the show’s greatness is there, but for one reason or another, it leans back into some of its weaker parts. That’s where Secret Invasion is at. The show has a lot to like about it. It’s strengths deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe mythology and the science fiction nature of the Skrulls. Unfortunately, the show just can’t seem to figure out how to translate that into meaningful obstacles for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to overcome. Instead, he faces generic spy thriller plots such as stopping bombs and thwarting a nuke. Other action and spy thrillers have done these things better, so the show should embrace more of its MCU trappings than it has so far.
This week’s episode reveals more about Gravik’s (Kingsley Ben-Adir) plan to use DNA to create Super Skrulls. He also intends to use a high-ranking member in Britain’s military to launch a nuclear strike that will trigger a World War. Fury returns to Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) so that they can stop the nuke together. When Talos kills the high-ranking Skrull, he is forced to call G’iah (Emilia Clarke) for help. She gets him what he needs and they stop the nuke in time, but this allows Gravik to flush her out as the traitor and he shoots her in the episode’s closing moments.
There have been tons of spy thrillers about the good guys trying to stop the bad guys from launching bombs. The MCU became as successful as it has by not falling into these generic plot traps. The studio’s other big spy thriller, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, had a fresh and compelling plot that involved a different kind of secret invasion. The MCU definitely should have tapped into the spirit of that kind of storyline for this show. There’s a lot that could have been taken from the source material that was completely ignored. Also, there are some great scenes involving past MCU characters and its mythology. If the show is to be successful in its second half, it needs to lean more into these areas and develop plots that focus on that side rather than trying to do something as simple as merely stopping a bomb.
Secret Invasion streams Wednesdays on Disney+.
