Secret Invasion Sucked the Fun Out of the MCU

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the season finale of Secret Invasion, “Home.”]

So, as one of many critics, I gave Marvel’s latest TV event Secret Invasion a pretty positive review based on the first two episodes provided. Two of the biggest reasons were the cast (Olivia Colman doing spy shit! Kingsley Ben-Adir doing bad guy shit! Ben Mendelsohn doing literally anything!), as well as how it embraced one of my favorite facets of the franchise: Its ability to tell stories in genres outside of the blockbuster action realm, in this case a good ol’ fashioned spy thriller á la John LeCarré.

MCU, but make it Le Carré, is a grand slam idea. A backboard-shattering concept. Especially if you have a character like Samuel L. Jackson’s iconic Nick Fury to anchor it, a character who has seemingly been waiting for this opportunity since his original film introduction in 2008.

Le Carré, however, would probably have some notes about the Drax Arm.

Secret Invasion (Disney+)

It’s not just that the writing of Secret Invasion failed to deliver on the promise of its early episodes by the end — in the process of petering towards its conclusion, the season also delivered a finale that throws around massive developments that somehow manage to feel like they don’t matter.

There were plenty of red flags throughout the Disney+ season, despite its strong beginning. The fact that the writing leaned too hard towards ending many episodes with a “shocking” death, for one thing: The word “shocking” is in quotes because Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders)’s Episode 1 death is a little expected, G’iah (Emilia Clarke)’s Episode 3 death is a fakeout, and Talos (Mendelsohn)’s Episode 4 death… hits like a limp noodle, coming towards the end of an already lackluster action sequence. (Nick Fury blows up a helicopter and it’s boring. That’s pretty unforgivable.)

Yet it’s one of many emotional beats that fail to make an impact by the end. On paper, it’s nice to think about Nick Fury getting to blast off into space with his Skrull wife — and frankly, given the problems he’s leaving behind on Earth, it might be the smartest choice a single character makes over the course of the series.

The messiness of the finale’s reveals is another huge issue, because Secret Invasion should feel like a massive deal in the canon, and yet its impact feels relatively trivial. There’s President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney)’s bold declaration that all “off-world-born species” are now “enemy combatants,” with vigilantes now running around empowered to shoot suspected Skrulls on sight. (Hopefully, the Guardians of the Galaxy aren’t planning to pay any visits to Hollywood in the future, and the residents of New Valhalla know better than to vacation at Disney World.) Ritson, as fictional Presidents go, is kind of a messy bitch in terms of his politics and his reactions — maybe he’s also secretly a Skrull? What an exhausting thought.