Invasion: Something's Changed

August 23, 2023 11:12 AM - Season 2, Episode 1

Mitsuki is taken to an alien ship in the Amazon jungle. Aneesha and her children take refuge with a group called the Movement.
posted by ellieBOA (10 comments total)

Back when this was hitting the "hey there's this invasion show coming out" it took my spouse and I while to remember just which wars of which worlds this one was. It's been a busy half decade for them, and pandemic era scheduling hasn't helped things, y'know? But right, right, this was the one that starred Sam Neill for one single episode before going off to other, probably more interesting stories.
posted by Kyol at 6:01 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I recently got AppleTV+ so I watched the whole first season recently, so haven’t had to wait long for the second one, I’ve really enjoyed it, especially the multicultural/global aspect.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

especially the multicultural/global aspect

Yep! Looking forward to the appearance of other people and places soon.
posted by kingless at 4:14 AM on August 25, 2023

i love the fact that they wove Ziggy Stardust into the episode!
posted by tarantula at 4:14 PM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

i love the fact that they wove Ziggy Stardust into the episode!

Yes! Such a heartbreaking love story from the first season, hidden in such a heteronormative society in Japan.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:24 PM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

More happened in this first episode of the second season than happened in the first 4 episodes of the first season, thank goodness. The content is interesting, and I'm glad they've decided to drastically improve the pacing.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:21 PM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Did they make the character Aneesha Malik less annoying? Her and her family's story in Season 1 were generally almost killjoy moments for me as I watched. She should have been an extremely sympathetic character, but when she up and abandoned her kids because she was still pissed off about her husband's infidelity, I pretty much was done with that storyline. It's not her kids' fault he's a jerk, and the appropriate response really isn't, "leave my kids with the jerk." Meh.

So, in short, did they improve on that situation?
posted by Atreides at 7:09 AM on September 1, 2023

I didn't find Aneesha annoying, so I can't answer the question. Sorry. I didn't think she "abandoned" her kids since they were with their father. If that's "abandonment", he had "abandoned" them lots of times to carry on his affair.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:41 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

the characters in this show feel real to me, Aneeka in particular. Its a central
fact of life that circumstances force us to make bad decisions, and our feelings force us into stupid decisions, and that’s all mixed up together with what is going on in larger focus, which happens to be the end if the world. The pleasing by the new world gov for members to fulfill their materiel commitments in S1 felt right. Slouching towards apocalypse.
posted by hwestiii at 8:24 AM on September 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's a really good and well done take on the "let's look at the way different people deal with this - and by different I don't just mean hair colors of white guys - evolving disaster."

A lot of it was, for me who was looking for escapist 'pew! pew!', too realistic and honest until I shifted my expectations. The love story that, really, drives the whole narrative of how humans react, was at times almost too painful.

All the characters are really given the chance to do their thing and I really appreciate that. This season is a bit more 'pew! Whoa, lookaThat!' and that has its charms but the first season's slow, moment by moment evolution on a personal scale was really surprising and a bit of a revelation.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:33 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]