Secret Invasion: Home

 "That's real one-term president stuff!"

So I gather this finale is widely disliked. Well, I loved it. And I think the issue here is that I see Secret Invasion, and I know I keen banging on about this, as Marvel doing John Le Carre style spy stuff- which is very different from James Bond spy stuff. John Le Carre's spies are not glamorousalpha males; they are tired, aging men who have lived too much of their long lives in a world of grubby deceit.

That's what we have here, and why this is such a briulliant little character study of old spy Nick Fury, whose deceptive career has bled into, and interrupted his home life. The moment where he kisses Priscilla wearing her Skrull face is a deep and very much foreshadowed moment between the two of them, yes: but it's also symbolic of Fury's yearning towards truth and reality.

This is a superb finale. Throughout we are given constant misdirection as to where Fury is and where Sonya is. Sonya gets to be the cool one- as I've said before, she's from the Ian Fleming school of spying, gurest starring in a John Le Carre novel.

We get an awesome set piece fight between two Skrulls. We get a bigoted US president outlawing all aliens, a contemptible act, and very Trumpian. Yet we get Sonya establishing an understanding with Gi-ah and the Skrulls. A lot may be being set up here. And Fury, of course, will return in The Marvels.

Don't be put off by the naysayers, I implore you, Think John Le Carre, and watch this.

Secret Invasion: Harvest

 "It's really just a matter of taste. Cake or death."

Oh boy. Not that things have been uneventful so far, but it's all kicking off. Gravik is becoming truly unhinged, not only wanting armageddon for humanity but not caring how many Skrulls die in the process... and, courtesy of his superpowers, he survives an attempted revolt. At this point he commants his underlings by fear alone, not loyalty.

But Gravik appears to be winning, and Fury is on the run again, the footage of someone wearing his face murdering Maria now released to the world, and possibly a bit of a comment on deepfakes. Oh, and I misunderstood last episode: Gi'ah survived her execution via genetic jiggery-pokery.

Sonya continues to be awesome, best James Bond ever. MCU, can we have more Olivia Colman please? I'm so glad that we end, and head into the finale, with Fury and Sonya together. This truly is superb spy drama in the style of John Le Carre, not only in terms of plot but in terms of Fury as a world-weary central character, old and wizened. Nick Fury is... a sort of George Smiley, weird though that sounds.

Apparently this isn't as successful as Marvel would have liked. But it deserves to be.

Secret Invasion: Beloved

 "You are delusional!"

Yes, I know. I'm breaking my rules here, blogging the same series consecutively to catch up. But things have clicked and I'm in love with a show which I believe is misunderstood- it's Marvel does John Le Carre and a tour de force from Samuel L Jackson, an actor of the very first class, in that context. People who don't get it need to see the BBC's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and imagine that Karla is a green alien with pointy ears with a comic book history embracing cows and speakeasies. Anyway...

This is superb, spellbinding telly. We begin with Fury learning, through a carefully planted bug (on his own wife!) that Priscilla is in league with Rhodey… and (quite the bombshell, although something like this was coming) Rhodey is a Skrull, and the mole on the inside who is integral to Gravik’s plot to assassinate the President and blame it on the Russians. Suddenly it makes sense why Rhodey is acting as he is.

The scenes between Fury and Priscilla are exquisite, with Jackson giving us an acting tour de force as he confronts her. There are layers to their conversation, harking back to the flashback earlier. Suddenly, they both shoot, in the world’s most romantic shootout… and both deliberately miss. Ah!

We end with the big set piece as Gravik’s plans are carried out and the President saved. It’s sad to see Talos die, but at least he never knows the heartbreak of knowing Gi’ah is gone. Was he right? Will humanity justify his faith? We shall see.

This continues to be superb, underrated telly.

Secret Invasion: Betrayed

 "Well, I never cared much for golf, so,,, I'm thinking I might as well take up revenge,"

And with that, it suddenly clicks. I can see what Secret Invasion is trying to do, and why not everyone gets it. But I think I do: it's the MCU does the spy genre. But not as in James Bond... well, a bit... but far more in the sense of John Le Carre.

So many lies, so many games, so many betrayals, as per the title. Indeed, so many layers of betrayal. Gi'ah to Gravik. The rebel Skrulls to humanity. Priscilla to Fury, as we suspect from early on and is confirmed at the end. Yet... didn't he betray her through neglect, too? Heartbreakingly, we get to see them young and in love in 1998.

But what's so very Le Carre is how sordid it all seems, despite Sonya being there, on purpose, to represent a more fun side of the genre. What Fury and Talos do is not fun or glamorous; it grinds them down right into old age. And the scene in which Talos points out how him and his mates have guided Fury's career is quietly devastating... but not as devastating as Gravik catching and shooting Gi'ah, having suspected her all along. It was all a trap. Yes, Gravik want to engineer human nuclear extinction while a new race of "Super Skrulls" (hah, of course- harbinger of a certain quartet?) takes over what's left... but today's nuclear gambit was all to flush out Gi'ah. So she gives her life, on her father's say so, to save humanity. Has Talos thus been betrayed?

Brilliant telly.

Secret Invasion: Promises

 "I'm Nick Fury. Even when I'm out, I'm in."

This isn't really a Nick Fury show, but more of an ensemble. The different factions of Skrulls get a lot of screen time, with Emilia Clarke excelling as pressured double agent G'iah and Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik. Olivia Colman sparkles as Sonya who, it's now clear, is basically a female James Bond. This episode is pretty damn good, more so than the first.

But there's a lot of Fury, the once-lregendary old man who may have lost his mojo, as everyone keeps musing. There's some great character stuff for him, performed to excellence by Samuel L Jackson, an actor of the very first class. We learn that there are a million Skrulls on Earth(!) via his reminiscences of Jim Crow era Alabama. The scene with hiom and Rhodey is superb. There's a lot of fascinating musing, echoing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, on what it means to be Black in America.

The Skrull plot deepens. The council of Skrulls seems to fall in behind Gravik... and the British Prime Minister, among others, is a Skrull! This is cool. If only people could tell screenwriters across the pond that prime ministers are addressed as just "prime minister". No "Mr" or "Madam". 

There's little else to whinge about, though. I'm enjoying the wit and intrigue. Even the torture scene was amusing. And, so far, the potentially dodgy premise of refugees as baddies hasn't crossed any blatantly unfortunate lines. Here's hoping the quality continues.

Secret Invasion: Resurrection

 "Take his face. Now take his mind."

So it begins, a one-off mini-series for which I'm thoroughly unspoiled: I'm fairly familiar with Marvil comics up to about 1993-94, hardly at all after that. I'm aware of the general premise of the storyline- Invasion pf the Body Snatchers, but worldwide, with Skrulls- but no more than that.

So Talos, mourning his wife, is still on the side of the humans, but younger Skrulls, led by young hothead Gravik, seek to take over the Earth- naturally- by seemingly causing a nuclear apocalypse that will destroy all human life but which they can survive. Gulp. And they certainly succeed in detonating a dirty bomb in Moscow.

This is what brings Nick Fury literally down to Earth, but as we're told by several of his old friends- Maria Hill, his old friend Sonya of MI6, an awesomely charismatic performance from the wonderful Olivia Colman- he's seen to have lodst his mojo after Thanos' snap, no longer the Fury who was always three steps ahead. It's a great little character stufdy, and a superb performance from Samuel L. Jackson as a septuagenarian Fury, still the witty spy of old but with a newfound vulnerability.

There's a superbly generated sense of uncertainty and paranoia throughout: trust no one. Talos' daughter Gi'ah has divided loyalties, and my gut reaction is she's likely to die Everett Ross is a Skrull... for how lomg, I wonder? Shockingly, though, Fury kills Maria Hill, deciding she's a Skrull... and she isn't. ouch. It's a moment that packs a punch.

I'm not sure this is quite first rank stuff yet, but I'm enjoying it. Interesting to set something like this in Russia these days, mind, even if it was filmed in Czechia..