Such an unusual series. Putatively about an alien invasion but it focuses on the characters so much it’s really about how they react to and deal with the events.

It has a strange “generic atmospheric sci-fi horror possibly-trying-too-hard-to-be-realistic” feeling to it ala Cloverfield etc, but it’s also fairly unique in that the characterisation is REALLY deep and believable. I was sad when Casp went into the coma

The comparisons to The War of the Worlds are pretty obvious. It also reminds me sometimes of a sci-fi novel series called The War Against the Chtorr

the problems with the first season were multitudinous. there were so many storylines to follow, none of which made any sense. most of the characters reacted to the invasion with a mixed sense of absolute panic and an attempt to reason their way through the situation with mixed results, which is reasonable, but not nearly as entertaining to watch as you’d think. most characters made a lot of stupid decisions that got lots of people hurt and/or killed, and many of the characters turned out to be very unlikable and their stories both uninteresting and futile. the vast majority of characters ended up in a desperate struggle to get from A to B for no real reason in particular and failed, which ended up not mattering because they either died in the attempt, got stranded, or destination B was destroyed/abandoned/occupied by aliens.

another huge problem was the aliens. we didn’t even see them until the end of the penultimate episode, so they weren’t even a real threat until then. for a show titled Invasion, we never really saw any invasion, just a couple of small attacks! all that happened for every episode until then was no internet, power, or digital payment systems, and all of the governments freaking out while people were stranded and scared. but no aliens. maybe that would make sense for a couple of episodes, but not for the whole damned season. that really pissed me off.

then there’s the whole dream/flashback bullshit with the japanese scientist trying to figure out their language in this massive ripoff from Arrival, but not nearly as clever and which makes hardly any sense. and this doesn’t really amount to much, anyway.

and, of course, there’s the kids in the show, and, as everyone knows, kids ruin everything. whenever a kid shows up on screen, we know they’re going to say or do some stupid-ass shit that’s probably going to get someone killed because they’re stupid and annoying and selfish and dumb as dog shit.

the whole show was a clusterfuck, and I can’t believe it got renewed for another season.