It is what it is. Another take on War of the Worlds, but at least this one has the decency not to lean on the credibility of the original work by using the title. It also borrows from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Threshold with regard to the mental connection some humans are able to establish with the invaders.

It follows the usual tropes of everything breaking down overnight and people turning into animals as a result. Like War of the Worlds we have a solitary soldier, a military that finds everything they do is useless, a disillusioned man of religion, and scientists who are confounded. Similarly, the resolution, if it can be called that since it leaves open a second series, seems to rest on an entirely random happenstance. And of course, hostile terraforming.

None of this is actually bad. New ideas in SF are rare things indeed. The trick is to at least keep it interesting, and I think, despite the poor critical reviews, Invasion does a competent job.

There are some cringeworthy moments tho. A bus going over a 50m or so cliff and only one person being seriously injured. Space Oddity working its way into the story. The time frames can be unsynced too. The CGI is not particularly well done.

I don't know whether the OP stayed for the entire 1st season, but after a slow burn it held together pretty well imo.

Trying to stick with it. Get a bit of whiplash going from story to story. Going to stick it out. So far 3 eps into season 1

Decided to give it a try. I think if I had to watch this week to week I would've given up, but since I had access to both seasons I decided to push through it. Ended up having to fast-forward through some of the more boring parts.

There are 4 main stories going on and really only 2 of them see worthy of focus. The woman with the husband and kids storyline is by far the worst and the series would be better off without it. The JASA plot with the Japanese woman is kinda interesting, but her entire motivation is she has a dead girlfriend who we never get to know and she's the only one who can do anything in the JASA so she gets away with being disobedient and even being fired, only to be brought back because no one else is smarter than she is. It's not the actress's fault, but that plot gets really predictable.

The two most interesting plots are the American soldier plot and the British kids plot, and the kids plot is dragged down by forced teen angst drama. The aliens do not make any sense. Some kids can telepathically communicate with them, even before the aliens show up, but how or why the aliens would allow this makes no sense. The fact the aliens have cloaking devices and choose to be sneaky some times, then be out in the open other times makes no sense. They all seem to die at the end of season 1, then come right back with no explanation. The writing is largely not good.

The only time I was fully onboard with the show is when the two British kids find the soldier and convince him to help them. In season 2, the solider going to the town that appears to be the center of activity and doing his own investigation is the only time I actually care about anything, with the kids trekking to Paris to find Casper is decent. I doubt I will continue with season 3, but if I do it will be after it's all been released and I can skip through to the parts I actually care about.

Interesting, I'll watch it.