Thanks for your support of ...
Question: Thanks for your support of
Invasion this season. I was a little sad but not surprised to see that it had been canceled. I consider it a fascinating experiment that yielded some wonderful results, like
Shaun Cassidy's other series,
American Gothic, although it certainly wasn't for all tastes. Best of all, it brought the talents of
William Fichtner, who was able to simultaneously convey both menacing and sympathetic qualities, to my attention. I will miss Sheriff Underlay most of all. I don't consider it a "waste of time" to have taken a chance on a series that had a high chance of failure. It was worth it to see something interesting and a little different. So tell us what you think now that the decision's in. What do you think about
Invasion and about investing time and love in low-chance shows?
Answer: I couldn't agree more with the praise for William Fichtner, one of the more original villains-turned-heros I've ever witnessed. I liked
Invasion when it was too slow for many, and I liked it once it really picked up steam. I'm glad I got a full season to enjoy it, and no, I don't consider it a waste of time any more than I felt I wasted my time when shows like
Freaks and Geeks,
Sons & Daughters or
My So-Called Life (the list is too long) were cut off prematurely. More to the point, I wish ABC, Shaun Cassidy et al had worked out an arrangement to tell
Invasion's story within a single season once it was clear that there wasn't enough of a public appetite to merit a second year. Every time I watch a pilot and recognize a potential lost cause, my impulse is not to give up or to stop watching but to rally behind it, savoring each episode while extolling its virtues as loudly as I can. It's part of what keeps the job interesting and satisfying, no matter how often we're disappointed in the outcome. I have no regrets for watching
Invasion, that's for sure. (Now — having stuck with
Surface to the end because of the mail it generated, that's another story. Won't miss that one at all.)
From Nick: "It's sad, pathetic and desperate of me, but I have to ask: Any chance of an Invasion movie, à la those (admittedly wretched) Pretender movies a while back on TNT? Or, since DVD wasn't around back then, how about a direct-to-DVD something-or-other for the five to six million fans the show still pulled in by the end? I know it's not going to happen, but say something nice to me to make my week a little better."
"Something nice to me." (Sorry, old joke.) Haven't heard anything about an Invasion sequel. The odds probably aren't in its favor. But given that there was some preliminary talk about moving the show to CW (due to the Warner Bros. studio connection), you never know. Just don't count on it. (Guess that wasn't "something nice" after all, was it?)
