I’ve made a few videos recently about the flimsiness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in its current state, including increasingly negative reviews about that OTHER Disney Plus show from last year. On that topic, the Disney Plus shows in particular, most of which were previously planned to become movies before the great mouse defective forced Marvel to convert them into streaming shows, have been topsy turvy in their quality output. Some shows, like Wandavision, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye have been pretty great apart from a few forgettable final battles, while others like Moon Knight, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and She-Hulk have been pretty dull altogether, despite having some PRETTY OUT THERE finales. For that reason, part of me wasn’t surprised that the latest of these shows, Secret Invasion, has been devoid of word of mouth, let alone positive word of mouth, up until, even I have to admit, a drastically weak finale that was essentially Wandavision’s final battle with She-Hulk’s effects. Up until then and even partially after that, though, I found myself pretty engaged throughout the whole thing. I’m not familiar with the source material myself, so I’m mostly speaking as an outsider apart from just being a long-time fan of the MCU, but Secret Invasion, for me, was a riveting, thought–provoking, and, as rarely as it is for an MCU property to be (especially a Disney Plus show), kind of essential piece of the legacy.
The show follows Nick Fury, played again by Samuel L. Jackson, returning back to Earth from what we find out to be a mission to find a home planet for the Skrulls… Which he’s been spending thirty years trying to pull off. For this reason, a revolutionist Skrull named Gravik, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, leads a rebellion of Skrulls to disguise themselves as the world’s top leaders and invade the Earth, making it entirely theirs so they don’t have to live in hiding anymore.
So, right off the bat, you have an obvious good guy and an obvious bad guy, but the tension throughout the rest of the series comes from both Fury and Gravik trying to figure out who they can trust. Ben Mendelsohn returns as Talos from Captain Marvel, Don Cheadle returns as Rhodey, Emilia Clarke plays Talos’ daughter, G’iah, and Olivia Colman plays… Well, I don’t know how else to describe it, kind of a badass version of M from the James Bond movies, and both Gravik and Fury are essentially in situations where their plans rely heavily on the trust of others, which is also how they get backstabbed later on. I won’t give anything away, as I do recommend the series (by the looks of it, moreso than most other people), but every time Fury starts to trust someone, they either die or turn on him. Since the Skrulls can disguise themselves down to the DNA of someone, any one of Fury’s allies could be a Skrull, but because Fury is trying so hard to help the Skrulls and just hasn’t been successful, any one of them could still have faith in him and easily turn on Gravik as well. Both Fury and Gravik are simple, down-to-Earth beings with simple, down-to-Earth limitations, with, apart from Gravik’s ability to disguise himself and Fury’s ability to recognize when someone might be a Skrull in disguise, their only advantage being their allies, putting both cooking on the skillet, so to speak.
This is Jackson’s first solo outing in the MCU, and he knocks it out of the park. It’s so engaging and dramatic to see the guy who’s usually the one cracking wise, confident and cocky, just letting things play out as he knows the Avengers will save the day…. suddenly be stripped of all his previous allies (again, no spoilers) and just trying to figure out who would be the best person to turn to. He cracks a joke every once in a while, but for the most part, he plays the part straight and stays aware of just how heavy the situation is. You end up learning so much about why he is the way he is and realizing that, as much as he may talk sometimes about having flimsy trust in people, he actually holds more trust in more people than probably even he realized. He thought he knew who would be good and evil in these scenarios, but after realizing that people that he loved and cared about could potentially be Skrulls and that those Skrulls could have bad intentions and that Talos was lying to him about it, suddenly, his whole perspective shifts. It truly says a lot about who we sometimes blindly trust and how much we, without even realizing it, may put trust in more people than we give ourselves credit for.
And, again, Gravik goes through the exact same arc with people he thought he could trust, but while Gravik takes the route of taking matters into his own hands, that ends up backfiring, as some of his allies end up taking Fury’s side and striking against him, which, at first, he doesn’t have any problems with until the numbers, as well as the developments of some of his previous allies, become too much to bear. I absolutely love dual arcs like this, and to see it in a hero and villain dynamic, especially with the relatable villain that Marvel’s always been awesome at handling, makes for a refreshing experience, and how often do you get to say that a Marvel property in Phase 5 is refreshing, and not just one that was written during Phase 3 (i.e. Guardians Vol. 3)?
Is it perfect? No. The effects, though the majority of the show doesn’t rely too heavily on them, are pretty flimsy, there’s a twist villain that I’m sure you’ve already heard of that falls under Disney’s usual twist villain cliches, and the final battle, while it doesn’t kill the entire finale as much as I thought it would, is, uh…. Pretty bad. But it is a drastic improvement over the previous Marvel Disney Plus shows, keeping the tension going throughout the whole series, and showing some drastic developments in its characters that I really wasn’t expecting. If you’ve seen the show and didn’t like it, all I can say is I’m sorry the show disappointed you. However, if you haven’t seen the show and the negative reviews have you skeptical, I’d say give it a chance, especially since Fury and I’m guessing the Skrulls are most likely going to play a part in The Marvels in November, but also because it may just end up surprising you as it did me.
In fact, let me put it this way: If you’re already looking at this review and comparing it with all the negative reviews you’ve heard, maybe even eyeballing that literal split-down-the-middle Rotten Tomatoes percentage, and you’re asking yourself “Who do I trust?”, you may be able to grasp the point of this series better than you think.
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