Invasion Episode 6 Review: Surviving Is No Longer A Choice History So Far Kept In The Shadows

Director: Jakob Verbruggen, Amanda Marsalis

Cast: Shamier Anderson, Golshifteh Farahani, Sam Neill, Firas Nassar, Shioli Kutsuna, Billy Barratt

Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+

Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

This review of the sixth episode of Invasion can only start from how we finished the one of the previous episodes. Now entered the second half of the season series license plate Apple TV+ she underwent that long-awaited change, staying true to herself on the one hand, but pushing a little more on the accelerator on the other, looking for a consensus from the public that could have reached the limit of patience. Because the main feature of Invasion, its cross and delight, is to tell an alien invasion through an unusual perspective, focusing on the human and intimate dimension of the protagonists and leaving only a few clues about what is happening, challenging the viewer to connect the events, but showing little. In this sixth episode titled Home invasion, the series created by Simon Kinberg and David Weil seems to want to reward the audience, while remaining faithful to the premises but giving life to a short episode full of tension and adrenaline. It will be the major merit, but also a first major imbalance that could cause fear for the future of history.

Invasion Episode 6 Story and Review

Episode totally centered on the character of Aneesha, played by Golshifteh Farahani, who we left in the last episode struggling with a group of volunteer doctors. The episode picks up directly from that situation, while Aneesha is in the back of a direct ambulance along with other volunteers. The news on the radio, reporting an attack in a school, quickly changes her mind. Maybe his children are in danger. He will quickly leave the ambulance and head to the house where his family members are staying to find that someone is inside. We do not want to tell further, because this sixth episode is based above all on a struggle for survival within the four walls, between alien and even human threats (as often happens during apocalyptic stories).

If there is one thing that Invasion manages to do continuously, keeping the viewer’s interest alive, it is to be able to tell the tragic events without showing too much. A few messages via radio are enough, a few dead bodies poured out on the street, but above all the disorientation of the characters, which denotes a certain dose of realism in the reactions and behaviors, to be able to transport the viewer into a dangerous and extraordinary climate (in the sense outside the norm). The character of Aneesha – and consequently the viewer – does not need to see the attack on the school: the story is enough to immediately perceive the gravity of the situation and it is enough to follow the character along the path of returning home to understand that the world is changing and the alien invasion has really begun. Likewise, they don’t really care about showing the threat inside the house or dwelling on gory details. He takes the best rules of tension cinema, where the danger is greatest when it is not seen, and he makes it his own.

We perceive an attention paid above all to the sound that contributes in the best way to the construction of an atmosphere. Like the scales of a scale, however, giving spectacle and entertainment means giving up that originality which until now, albeit with the risk of putting the spectator’s patience to the test, had characterized the series. This sixth episode seems at times too derivative of a certain horror cinema (and in particular the sub-genre interior of the house or dwell on rough details. He takes the best rules of tension cinema, where the danger is greatest when it is not seen, and he makes it his own.

We perceive an attention paid above all to the sound that contributes in the best way to the construction of an atmosphere. Like the scales of a scale, however, giving spectacle and entertainment means giving up that originality which until now, albeit with the risk of putting the spectator’s patience to the test, had characterized the series. This sixth episode seems at times too derivative of a certain horror cinema (and in particular the sub-genre interior of the house or dwell on rough details. He takes the best rules of tension cinema, where the danger is greatest when it is not seen, and he makes it his own. We perceive an attention paid above all to the sound that contributes in the best way to the construction of an atmosphere.

Like the scales of a scale, however, giving spectacle and entertainment means giving up that originality which until now, albeit with the risk of putting the spectator’s patience to the test, had characterized the series. This sixth episode seems at times too derivative of a certain horror cinema (and in particular the sub-genre attention paid above all to the sound that contributes in the best way to the construction of an atmosphere. Like the scales of a scale, however, giving spectacle and entertainment means giving up that originality which until now, albeit with the risk of putting the spectator’s patience to the test, had characterized the series. This sixth episode seems at times too derivative of a certain horror cinema (and in particular the sub-genre attention paid above all to the sound that contributes in the best way to the construction of an atmosphere. Like the scales of a scale, however, giving spectacle and entertainment means giving up that originality which until now, albeit with the risk of putting the spectator’s patience to the test, had characterized the series. This sixth episode seems at times too derivative of a certain horror cinema (and in particular the sub-genre home invasion) winking a lot at one of the greatest cinema hits of recent years: A Quiet Place. Not that John Krasinski’s film was not derivative itself, but here the feeling, between the obligation to move in silence and the attention given to noises, is that an approach that is all too similar has been attempted, although not reaching the same quality.

The episode runs fast and knows how to entertain, but especially in the finale highlights perhaps the biggest change the series is facing. We are talking about writing. To satisfy the audience, in this sixth episode one gets the impression that the writers have taken a few narrative shortcuts too many, moving the characters as needed and giving importance only to certain elements, intermittently. It certainly gains entertainment but sacrificing that slightly higher tone that had characterized the series up to now. The impression is that the series is embracing a certain degree of naivety that takes the sci-fi tale back to the 1950s. In particular the ending of the episode, which requires a great suspension of disbelief on the part of the spectator.

The Final Words

At the end of our review of the sixth episode of Invasion we can say that we have generally enjoyed these 34 minutes full of tension and healthy entertainment. Focusing on a particular situation, the viewer will be captured by the events that, in the best of cases, know how to tell an entire situation with little. However, the originality of the work is sacrificed, which begins to resemble a classic sci-fi tale, with slightly derivative features, and taking too many shortcuts from the point of view of writing that will require an effort to suspend disbelief from part of the viewer to the detriment of the realism shown so far.