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During the 2004-2005 television season, two programs took the country by storm - Desperate Housewives and Lost. These shows were heralded as saviors, not just for their struggling network, but also for television at large. With sitcoms in the midst of a ten-year rut, reality shows beginning to lose their appeal, and crime dramas dominating the landscape, Desperate Housewives and Lost marked a return to the sort of serialized dramas that had not been prevalent since the 1980s. When it came time for the networks to pitch their 2005-2006 programming slates, a lot of copycats were in evidence, but strangely, both of these instant hits were not mimicked. Only Lost, which actually trailed its more established sibling in the ratings, managed to inspire a wave of new “supernatural” shows, one of which is ABC’s hit drama Invasion.

During its season premiere, Invasion gave its audience an close-up view of a hurricane ripping through a tiny Florida community. Deep in the Florida everglades, this small town is immediately cut off from the outside world, with little aid making its way to a people in need. The true extent of the hurricane’s impact is not known, but some begin to wonder if its destruction is hiding something far worse. It seems that more than a few townspeople have been acting rather strangely after the natural disaster, with others displaying some most unusual abilities. (Is breathing underwater considered to be normal?!) Most of the residents seem content to try to put their lives back together, but a handful of survivors are beginning to question what really happened.

Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian) is a local park ranger juggling the realities of an ex-wife, shared custody, and a new marriage – not to mention a baby on the way! His young wife Larkin (Lise Sheridan) is a television reporter, eager to chase any hot story and wary of those things she cannot explain. These two find themselves continually butting heads with town sheriff Tom Underlay (William Fichtner), who just so happens to be married to Russell’s ex-wife, Dr. Mariel Underlay (Kari Matchett). An unexplained military presence and some mysterious dead bodies begin to add to the excitement, and a chilling possibility comes to light. Is this town simply reeling from a terrible disaster? Is there a government conspiracy enveloping this secluded community? Worse still, is the hurricane masking the real problem – an otherworldly invasion?!

What has helped to make Invasion such a compelling program is also what irks a great many of its critics. The show builds its mysteries slowly, gradually offering its audience scattered pieces of its larger vision. In a world of instant gratification – as evidenced by the enduring popularity of wrapped-up-in-an-hour dramas like CSI and the Law & Order franchises – the delayed payoff is difficult for some to accept. Ironically, these same criticisms have been directed at Lost, which has tried to juggle the vagaries of the unknown with the audience’s need for answers. This is the challenge that confronts show creator Shaun Cassidy, as Invasion’s success or failure will ultimately be judged by how well – and, in some cases, how soon – these mysteries are resolved.

The show’s overriding intent has been maintaining a balance between the unexplained phenomena affecting this town and the interpersonal struggles that drive the main characters. This is best exemplified by Kari Matchett’s portrayal of the troubled Mariel Underlay, a working mother who has not felt “normal” since the hurricane. However, the show’s true standout performances belong to William Fichtner and Tyler Labine. Fichtner has just the right amount of creepiness for the town’s shadowy sheriff, always hinting at an alternate purpose but doing just enough to keep us guessing. Labine is either comic relief or an overlooked voice of reason, one whose outlandish theories about recent events just might be more correct than anyone is willing to admit. Together, these two give fans of Invasion more than enough reason to keep coming back each week.

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