Independence Day, E.T., Escape from Planet Earth, Planet 51, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Predator, Valerian, and of course, Aliens, are all part of a genre that, over the years, has accumulated a massive fanbase and contributed to many conspiracy theories. This genre is a subgroup of Science Fiction, centered around extraterrestrials and how they interact with civilization. Every production company has their alien staple, from Disney’s Treasure Planet or Avatar to Hulu’s Futurama to HBO’s Rick and Morty. One of the newer additions to the streaming craze has been Apple+, which is now releasing their own alien show called Invasion. 

Invasion, releasing weekly episodes, is taking a different approach to aliens, showing how Earth and the balance of nature react when aliens arrive. Throughout the series, Invasion centers on a series of different stories that have not yet come together, but foreshadowing suggests that they will soon. These stories include a family in Rhode Island, a school boy in England, a U.S soldier in Afghanistan, and a Sheriff in a small town in the southern U.S. The one thing that binds them all together is that they are going through rough spots in life, such as being bullied, retiring from a job that they love, or going through a difficult relationship.

As all of them try to push through these hard times, strange anomalies begin to occur.

For the family in Rhode Island, these things start in a peculiar manner. One day in the middle of school, all the students start to have nose bleeds – except for one. Then, they get home and there are large earthquakes, explosions, fires, and a high pitched frequency that breaks glass. At the same time, the matriarch of the family realizes that her husband has been cheating on her and is planning to leave her. He even tries to desert his family to try to avoid the area where the anomaly hits. Unfortunately, through all the chaos, and for the well being of her kids, the mother doesn’t have time to contemplate what happened with her husband and ends up driving them all to safety.

For the boy in London, he experiences periods of bullying as he needs to take medication to stop his seizures. On the bus ride to a field trip, he starts to have a seizure and small meteors begin to fall from the sky. This causes the bus driver to swerve and unfortunately leads them to fall off of a cliff. 

For the small-town sheriff, he has never fully felt fulfilled being a sheriff all his life. Therefore, on the day of his retirement, when two boys go missing, he tries to make that the case of his career. It doesn’t work, however, as he is poked in the neck with a leg of an alien shooting from the ground up. This is the first time we get to see what these creatures look like. 

Finally, there is the soldier who, while stationed in Afghanistan, is having problems with his girlfriend. He goes on a mission to retrieve a missing team of troops, but they get caught in a sand storm where the sand is flowing up, defying gravity. Here, the audience gets the first glimpse of what the alien ‘ship’ looks like.

Overall, Apple has made this a very suspense-oriented series, combining thriller and science fiction into one packed show. If you don’t like intense shows, then it might be a bit much, especially considering each episode ends with a cliffhanger. One thing that Apple did very well is revealing the true personalities of characters very quickly. I was able to get emotionally attached to certain characters by the end of the first episode. I personally am curious to see how the rest of the series is going to play out and how the stories are going to intertwine, especially as they all come from different corners of the world.

I would rate the show around a seven, but I am not finished yet. I would recommend this show if you are interested in the genre. Aliens and suspense are one of the most classic and iconic combos of cinema, and Invasion is a fascinating new spin on it.