Sci-Fi Invasion

[Alias_Gay]

Title: Invasion

Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Drama

First aired: 2005-09-19

Creator: Thomas Schlamme, Michael Dinner

Cast: Eddie Cibrian, Lisa Sheridan, Alexis Dziena, Evan Peters, William Fichtner, Ariel Gade, Tyler Labine, Kari Matchett

Overview: In the aftermath of a hurricane the Florida Park Ranger and his family deal with strange occurrences, including luminescent creatures in the water. People in the town start to act different, who can you trust?

 

[Alias_Gay]

The promo's have been pretty good so far ... and I am definitely gonna watch ... has anyone think about watching this show???

 

[verdantheart]

As usual for this sort of series, I will check it out and see if I like it.

I've heard some good things about this one and Threshold. The other one (NBC), Surface (formerly Fathom), not so much.

 

[GarnerForEmmy]

I have heard some promising reviews about this new series. I am definitely going to check this show out.

 

[yendySwotsirB]

I will check it out, I just wonder if they can keep a show like this alive - seems like it would be better as a movie.

 

[verdantheart]

Biggest problem this season is 3 series with similar themes. shish.

 

[Alias_Gay]

Biggest problem this season is 3 series with similar themes. shish.

[post="1415194"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

I know ... but I am sticking with ABC

 

[Alias_Gay]

the promo's are awesome ... especially the part where the little kid says:

"Mom ... u smell different" and the mother looks to her ina strange way ... very creepy

 

[verdantheart]

From USA Today Online:

'Invasion' follows on 'Lost' trail
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — ABC downplays comparisons with Lost, but its new Wednesday companion series, Invasion, owes a debt of gratitude to the trail blazed by last season's hit mystery thriller.

"Lost changed the climate for shows that don't answer questions at the end of every episode," says Shaun Cassidy, the singer-turned-producer behind Invasion. The series is about the aftermath of a hurricane in a small Florida town.

Like Lost, Invasion focuses on its characters — a sheriff (William Fichtner), a park ranger (Eddie Cibrian), his ex-wife, a TV reporter — but adds a backdrop about unexplained phenomena that afflict the townsfolk and their response to it.

Cassidy won't confirm the alien angle — "the world we're exploring is much bigger than people initially believe"- but views the show as an allegory.

"We're living in an aftermath world," he says. "We're living in a society where a lot of things have been taken away from us for our own protection. Who's the good guy, and who's the bad guy? If we're doing our job right, the audience may not know the answer."

Fichtner has questions of his own. "At this point now, I'm just wondering why I have webbed feet."

 

[agent hidden eyes]

ads look pretty good

 

[Alias_Gay]

can't wait for the series premiere ...

from ABC.com

Invasion
Premieres Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 10/9c

From famed writer/producer Shaun Cassidy (Cold Case, American Gothic, Cover Me) comes a suspenseful tale of a blended family trying to recover from a devastating hurricane and its mysterious aftermath.

For centuries man has searched the skies for signs of intelligent life forms. What if those life forms were already here? And what if some of the natural disasters we've been experiencing of late were merely smokescreens to mask something far more ominous?

For dedicated park ranger Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian, Third Watch), a divorced father of two who is expecting a third child with his new wife, local television reporter Larkin Groves (Lisa Sheridan), the hurricane proves to be merely the beginning of a long journey into the unknown.

Always skeptical about the paranoid conspiracy theories of his wayward brother-in-law, Dave (Tyler Labine, ABC's That Was Then), Russell may have to revise his thinking when a number of bizarre occurrences start taking place in his community.

Though Russell's young daughter, Rose (Ariel Gade), claims to have seen hundreds of lights floating towards the water during the storm, Russell initially dismisses her claim - until he begins to suspect that something is very wrong with his ex-wife, Dr. Mariel Underlay (Kari Matchett, Angel Eyes).

The morning after the storm, Mariel is found naked in the water -- with no memory of what transpired the night before.

As the tiny town of Homestead, Florida struggles to rebuild itself, Sheriff Tom Underlay (William Fichtner, 2005's The Longest Yard, Black Hawk Down, Armageddon, Go, Contact) -- who is married to Russell's ex-wife -- suspiciously orders the entire area quarantined. Russell starts to investigate the strange goings on and unknowingly begins a fight for the survival of his family, his community, and what might ultimately be the whole human race.

Shaun Cassidy created the series and serves as executive producer. Lawrence Trilling (director -- Alias, Nip/Tuck, Scrubs) is co-executive producer and multiple Emmy Award-winning director Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing, ER, Sports Night) is executive consultant. Invasion is from Shaun Cassidy Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Production Inc.

 

[boyscout4747]

Looks creepy. I'll probably watch, but I don't see how it'll keep my interest for long.

And yes, that mom is CREEPY. lol

 

[verdantheart]

Katrina has widespread effects . . . from IMDb:

ABC Halts Publicity for New Series
ABC on Wednesday suspended marketing and promotional efforts on behalf of its upcoming series Invasion, which centers on the lives of a park ranger and his family after their hometown is devastated by a hurricane. The network said that it was also considering delaying the launch of the series, which had been scheduled for Sept. 21. In a statement, the network said, "As with anything as serious as this, we are taking great efforts to assess sensitivities with regard to our series." Today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times quoted Shari Anne Brill of the ad firm Carat USA as saying, "They're in a tough spot. ... Maybe if they delayed for a couple of weeks, it might be all right."

 

[verdantheart]

An "Ask Matt" (TV Guide Online) question about the possible postponement of Invasion's debut (2005/09/09):

Question: I saw that ABC has removed promotions for Invasion as a result of Hurricane Katrina. How do you think it will affect the show? Will it premiere on Sept. 21, if at all? Will people be willing to watch it, or will it fall victim to bad timing? Before this, it was the show I most looked forward to Now that friends of mine have lost everything.... — Sean

Matt Roush: As of this week, ABC is still planning to premiere Invasion on Sept. 21, after the second-season opener of Lost. (Earlier this week, ABC issued an official premiere-date release about the show, which is a pretty good sign.) As you noted, the promos have been taken off the air for now, out of respect to the enormity and sensitivity of the Katrina aftermath, and that was the right thing to do. It's not as if ABC hadn't already blanketed the airwaves with ads for the show, which is clearly a high priority for the network, given the post-Lost time period. But how the tragedy of Katrina will impact the show in its crucial early weeks is impossible to guess.

It reminds me of the situation in the fall of 2001, when 24 premiered less than two months after the horror of 9/11. The pilot of 24 included a scene in which a commercial airliner was blown up by a terrorist, and while Fox edited the sequence so the explosion was only implied but not seen, it was still a very touchy issue at the time, and the early ratings for 24 were far lower than I expected, perhaps as a result. Invasion is a terrific pilot — in fact, we name the show "best new drama" in our Fall Preview issue (on sale now) — but there's no question that it's more difficult right now to recommend a series that kicks off with a hurricane and proceeds to dramatize the aftermath, including supernatural events that occur in this ravaged Florida community. It's kind of hard to edit around this material, too.

As Vera e-mailed, "It's supposed to be escapist TV, and right now, I don't think anybody in America is looking at hurricane aftermath as escapist entertainment." She's right, and it puts Invasion in an unenviable position. But ABC, like the rest of the networks, has a fall season to get up and running in the next few weeks, and the launching pad of Lost's highly anticipated second-season premiere is too valuable for ABC to give up.

Most people are going to be able to separate the fantasy of Invasion from the reality of Katrina, but I'm sure ABC will take some shots from those who will be understandably upset at what they'll perceive as exploitative entertainment.

 

[verdantheart]

From Sci Fi Wire:

Invasion Strikes Close To Home

Shaun Cassidy, creator and executive producer of ABC's new SF series Invasion—which kicks off with a hurricane in Florida— told SCI FI Wire that he has a unique perspective on living through a hurricane, thanks to someone close to him. "There have been numerous disasters of late, and yet a lot of us are still here, and we don't know what the ramifications really are yet," Cassidy (American Gothic) said in an interview. "That's the universe our show is set in. ... And it's also personal for me. My wife is from Homestead, Fla. She went through Hurricane Andrew," the real-life 1992 storm that helped inspire Invasion, well before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

Cassidy said that his wife was a senior in high school at the time and had to live for months without electricity. He said her perception of what happens to a community when a hurricane hits has helped color his approach to Invasion.

Cassidy's description of the series sounds eerily similar to the real-life drama that is playing out on CNN in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Invasion is "a show about a family and community in recovery, post-hurricane, and a lot of people are traumatized by the initial event," Cassidy said. "It's really the aftermath that is the breeding ground for ongoing mysteries. Aberrant behavior in the population, changes in the population that initially are attributed to the trauma as a result of the hurricane."

According to Cassidy, the show's hurricane will lead to the quarantine of the small Florida town in the series "because of the stuff released from the hospital, and there are bodies missing. They don't know what the state of the water is. It serves to isolate a lot of these people, and there may be darker forces at work here. The sheriff seems to have another agenda beyond just protecting this community. He may want his community and the people to survive, but he may want certain things to survive more than others."

Cassidy said that he plans to keep his "suspense thriller" series as grounded in science fact as possible. "If at the end of the season it doesn't come off as science fiction at all, that would be fantastic," he said. After Hurricane Katrina, ABC initially pulled all on-air promotion of the show, a companion to ABC's hit SF series Lost. But the network plans to go forward with Invasion's premiere, as planned, on Sept. 21; the show will air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, immediately after Lost.

 

[Alias_Gay]

Did anyone watch the premiere???

I thought it was done very well and I cant wait to find out whats with the sherriff???

One step at a time ... wife acting strange ... those lights ...

It did pretty well ratings wise for ABC too ...

From Zap2it.com

More than 23 million people tuned into the season premiere of "Lost" Wednesday, giving ABC a dominant ratings win for the night.

ABC, which also got a strong opening from new series "Invasion," averaged an 11.1 rating/17 share in primetime. NBC was a distant second at 6.9/11, and CBS, 6.4/10, took third. UPN and FOX tied for fourth at 3.1/5 (with UPN holding a small advantage in total viewers), while The WB, airing repeats, managed only a 1.0/2.
 
Among adults 18-49, ABC's 7.5 rating more than doubled the 3.4 for second-place CBS. NBC was third at 3.1, and UPN grabbed fourth with a 2.3. FOX averaged 1.9 in the demographic and The WB 0.6.

The catch-up special "Destination: Lost" won the 8 p.m. hour for ABC with a 9.2/15. "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" got off to a mediocre start for NBC, averaging 5.5/9. CBS was third with the season premieres of "Still Standing," 4.8/8, and "Yes, Dear," 4.9/8. "So You Think You Can Dance" was fourth for FOX. The first half of "America's Next Top Model's" season premiere drew a 2.8/5 for UPN. The WB aired a "One Tree Hill" repeat.

"Lost" began its season at 9 p.m. with a 13.7/20 -- among the show's best ratings ever. NBC stayed in second, barely, with the premiere of "E-Ring," 6.3/9, edging out a repeat of last season's "CSI" finale. "Top Model" moved into fourth with a 3.4/5 in its second hour. FOX's "Head Cases" did a faceplant in its second week, coming in at a meager 2.3/3. The WB re-aired the "Just Legal" premiere.

At 10 p.m., ABC's "Invasion" did a serviceable job of holding onto the "Lost" audience, winning the hour with a 10.4/16. The season premiere of "Law & Order" averaged 9.0/14 for NBC, while the second hour of "CSI" came in at 8.0/13 on CBS.

Cant wait for next week ...

 

[boyscout4747]

Um....I thought it was terrible. Just empty special effects. The only interesting parts were the beginning with the plane blowing up and the VERY ending.

Everything else was just...boring, and didn't make sense.

The drunk brother just PICKS UP some skeleton thing and brings it back and then is all of a sudden acting like a hero and wants to go back WHEN IT'S DARK (WTF?) and look around?! And he thinks it's a government conspiracy? It just doesn't make sense. It's like it's fumbling around the in the dark, trying to create these big secrets. When really, it's empty.

The acting was all terrible, except for the blonde lady who was creepy, yet held back.

I dunno. It was really disappointing for me.

And in other news:

"This Ratings Report points out that whilst ABC's new scifi show "Invasion" didn't slouch in the Neilsens - that it was actually down on the figures Alias produced in its debut in January post Lost.

Viewer Retention
Invasion held onto 71% of viewers from Lost for just one hour - whilst Alias held onto 74% over its two hours back in January [and an estimated 82% in its first hour]. Furthermore comparing the overnight data....

Overnight Retention
Invasion held 73% of Lost's audience in the overnights.
Alias held onto 90% of Lost's audience in the overnights.


So really, Alias even did better than Invasion.

PS - Sorry to those who really liked it. LOL I'm like ranting about the show and bringing up News Articles about how it didn't do so well.

 

[verdantheart]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but did Alias top 16 million viewers? Really? I don't remember it doing much more than 10 or 11 many times last season. (Per Sci Fi: "Invasion followed with a 6.8 rating or 16.43 million viewers, which racked up the best series score in the hour for ABC in the five years it has aired dramas there." Did Variety do a poor job checking its facts?) "Best" is generally considered size of audience, not how much you hold onto; that's a good thing, yes, but it's a secondary factor. If Alias held onto a larger proportion of the audience last January, remember that this audience (last Wed) was also the biggest ever for Lost. Would Alias have held onto as much of this monster audience as a new show with a high curiosity factor? I wonder. I'm not saying I like Invasion better than Alias and I'd just as soon have kept the Lost-Alias combo, but I'm realistic. ABC is probably smart to use Lost to try to launch a new franchise.

 

[boyscout4747]

Well maybe they thought that "Invasion" was the worst of their new shows, so put it in the BEST time slot to get some Lost ratings spill.

 

[verdantheart]

:lol: From the buzz, it's probably The Night Stalker, sad to say.