Matt, I love your column and ...
Question: Matt, I love your column and this question is written with nothing but respect for you. Do you stand behind your original
Invasion review? Before the new season started, you described
Invasion as the best new drama of the year. When I read your opinion I was sure that
Invasion was going to be a must-see show, but the premiere was far from fantastic. Since I think you are a serious professional, I was ready to give
Invasion another chance. The second episode was even worse. I thought I was watching
Clue, but with a supernatural twist. The characters were boring, the story was silly and the family element you described with so much passion was MIA. I don't understand how a show with so many good reviews was so bad. I thought it was just me, but when I looked at
Invasion's ratings, the answer was obvious: It is not that good. From a strong premiere with 16 million viewers, it went south on its second week to just 12 million viewers. Because of your opinion, I am going to give
Invasion another shot. Maybe it needs time, but I am wondering, what you thought about
Invasion's second episode. Will
Invasion see the end of the season?
Answer: First off:
Clue? Second, ratings are rarely a barometer of a show's quality. It's nice when they coexist, but you can't count on it. Yes, I'm relatively certain
Invasion will get a full-season order, and I do stand behind my published enthusiasm toward
Invasion's pilot. The only amendment I would make, which I noted in an earlier column, is that if I had been able to see the full two-hour
Threshold pilot before putting Fall Preview to bed, I would have ranked that over
Invasion as my favorite drama of the new season. But clearly this show isn't clicking with you — nor with others, including many
Lost fans who sampled it the first week and were unimpressed. That didn't surprise me. A show like
Lost, which is appealing on so many levels, is a truly rare event, and
Invasion, as I began to explain in my last answer, is much more subtle and slow to develop, which could hurt it in the short and maybe long run. If you don't like the characters and premise, that can't be fixed. I happen to like them very much, and in the second week, I watched the show (coming down off my
Lost high) mesmerized by its sustained tone of menace and mystery. At the same time, I can understand why others would find it a dull and contrived turnoff, and I am concerned that the show loses audience from the first to the second half hour (again, losing those
Lost viewers). To be honest, I haven't entirely figured this show out yet, which is an interesting situation for me. But to classify the show as a failure at this point — when it's holding even 12 million viewers against franchise monsters like
Law & Order and
CSI: NY — is way premature.
