Invasion: Last Day

October 29, 2021 11:17 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

Across the globe, strange and unexplainable events begin to unfold. A small-town sheriff senses something bigger is at play.

I hope you like build-up. Because this episode (and the next) is alllll build-up.

posted by Happy Dave (11 comments total)

Having watched 4 episodes now, this show seems to be make up of 4 disconnected stories and it really is moving too slow to really care for any of them. I'll probably watch the season through, but it'd be nicer if I could just binge watch them all at once.
posted by Catblack at 3:40 PM on October 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I read a review that said this series spent so much time avoiding getting to the point that it should be called Evasion.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:56 PM on October 29, 2021 [9 favorites]

Yes, the first actual plot with things actually somewhat happening isn’t until episode 4. It’s kind of frustrating. It’s definitely a fine line between creeping dread and disconnected boredom.

Especially when the aliens appear to be Standard Issue Tentacled Horrors rather than anything new.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:21 AM on October 30, 2021

I can only hope that I would be cool enough to go home and just make dinner. Brutal.
posted by librarianamy at 6:15 PM on November 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Languorously paced, switching between the stories kept it interesting but looks like two of them reached their terminus. I chose this because I like Sam Neill but discovered I don’t care for Sam Neill as a grizzled Oklahoma sheriff with a god complex. Turns out that’s not going to be a problem.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:58 PM on November 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Without spoiling anything, I will say that I watched the entire season while almost continuously hitting the "+15 seconds" button (I probably watched 5 minutes of real-time video per episode, once I understood what game I was playing) and I don't think my experience was diminished in any way. It's really impossible to convey how slow things move. It's also maddeningly dark, visually, in a way that "complements" its Tantric approach to narrative in general. I nearly rage quit the whole thing in episode 8 or 9 when someone turns around a laptop to show a revelatory image and what we see is GLARE FROM OVERHEAD LIGHTS and not what's on the screen.

This Vulture review is fair, I think, and doesn't spoil much beyond the first episode.
posted by range at 6:38 AM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I ... I _think_ I'm still enjoying it after the first three episodes? Yeah, I kind of want there to be a little bit more motion, and I think they're being a little inconsistent in finding the line between creeping dread versus plodding along, but nothing too insurmountable.

That said, I'm enjoying the Canal+ War of the Worlds, and that was similarly slow paced.
posted by Kyol at 6:24 AM on January 10, 2022

This Is Us: Alien Edition
posted by fairmettle at 9:36 PM on January 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

So, trying to be spoiler-free because I can't be bothered to make a whole-season post for last year's show, but - I think I actually sort of liked the first 7 episodes more than the last 3? When it was still sort of mystery badness and hiding from the plot and all that, I think I enjoyed it more, and I don't think the writers really stuck the landing in episodes 8 and 9, and it almost feels like the last episode came about when they were told they'd get a second season from early reviews. I mean, it's not _un_necessary? They're hinting at more to come? But I don't think they managed to make the transition from the (spooky, chaotic, nobody knows what's happening) early days of an alien attack to everybody knows what's happening to oh and here's what we're gonna do _next_ season!

Frustrating.
posted by Kyol at 11:58 AM on January 24, 2022

I'm glad others are frustrated with the pacing of this; my wife and I are watching it and she's enjoying it, while I'm incredibly frustrated with how slow it is, the constant close ups on people's faces while they angst over everything. Normally she complains about pacing, while I enjoy the character development. But here...gah. I like the concept of a more personal focus on what happens during an alien invasion, and that personal dramas don't always stop in the midst of big catastrophe, but a little bit more forward motion please.
posted by nubs at 9:50 AM on September 5, 2023

I couldn't make it past 23 minutes. Against my better judgement, I even kept watching after I realized that the narrative seems to think it's 11am on the entire planet.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:05 AM on December 13, 2023