Apple TV+ has made a very interesting choice for the first trailer for its 10-part alien invasion sci-fi drama, simply — ever so simply — titled Invasion. Instead of showing anything about the titular extraterrestrial attack, the trailer is mostly focused on people almost entirely going about their individual lives, which seem to be taking place before something gets invaded?
Sure, there are a few hints of trouble to come, I guess — there’s the crop circle, the kids’ mysterious nosebleeds, and the weird shadow of what I have to presume is one of the alien invaders at the end, but that’s about three seconds of a two-minute trailer that otherwise just shows a bunch of people who don’t seem to be invaded by much of anything:
Look, Apple TV+ has been making some really good shows, and trailer aside, there’s no real reason at this point to suspect Invasion won’t be as well. But even the official synopsis is detail-free: “Set across multiple continents, Invasion follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world.” Look, it’s just that there is a lot of alien invasion entertainment out there, and the only distinct thing about this show so far looks to be how much it seems the aliens aren’t going to be in it.
Invasion comes to Apple TV+ on October 22, and stars Shamier Anderson, Golshifteh Farahani, Sam Neill, Firas Nassar, and Shioli Kutsuna. The Martian producer the trailer mentions is Simon Kinberg, who also did the X-Men movies and Deadpool, which don’t seem to have any bearing here, but the show’s director is Jakob Verbruggen, who was nominated for an Emmy for his work on The Alienist series, which didn’t actually feature aliens.
I apologise that you’ve had to read the word “invasion” several hundred times in a row.