Here is my Secret Invasion Episode 4 review and, I’m really still enjoying this show. That may not be so dramatic in that I’ve liked Episodes 1-3 so far. However, this is a 6 Episode series and we are now only two from the end. In other words, this was the place where I’d expect to find that mid-season slog which has plagued so many other Marvel series. Thankfully, that is not to be seen and Episode 4 maintains the high standard of quality of the series so far.
This is an NO SPOILER review folks, so I’m not getting into the weeds of the plot here.
Will You like This?
I’ll keep this as simple as I did last week, simpler even. If you have enjoyed Episodes 1-3 so far, then you’re going to enjoy Episode 4. If you did not enjoy the first three, then nothing here will suddenly bring you in. Secret Invasion is now firmly established as to the kind of show it’s going to be. It seems highly unlikely the Avengers will come in for a big cameo appearance at the end or anything of that ilk. Thank goodness.
Instead, it seems we are veering towards an inevitable climax between Fury and Gravik. At some point it’s going to be all or nothing and my bet is on Fury, given this is a Marvel show and not the Breaking Bad universe.
I’m not yet sure who the story will be resolved in a satisfying manner? However, that is a good place to be, the best place perhaps. Some shows you can see the writing on the wall leading up to a finale. You know roughly what’s going down before you see it. Other shows you may struggle to see how they can make an ending which works because it feels unearned. I don’t think we are going to get either of those options with Secret Invasion. Instead, I think it will come down to whether it worked for you personally or not.
There are certainly a few plot points I’d like to see further explored and possibly resolved by the Season finale, Though for now I’ll keep those to myself. If there are some annoying plot threads left hanging I’ll call them out in my finale review.
What Works And Spoiler FREE Surprises
Treading the waters of the set up’s of each week and what happens next, without discussing spoilers, is tricky. I’ll do my best, but I am being intentionally vague on some details here.
Each episode of Secret Invasion so far has had some surprise moments, whether that be characters revealed to be Skrulls, deaths, or betrayals. You could argue that perhaps they’ve tried to fool us or shock us a little too much and they haven’t all paid off though. For example some events that happened last week had the fans going, ‘nah, this isn’t legit’ and true enough it wasn’t. That’s not always an awful thing to do, in fact it sometimes makes an audience feel smart for spotting the clues. Though in this instance, I’d genuinely worry for anyone who has been taken aback and shocked at every turn of events.
So we are left with a very similar situation this week and I’m loathe to call it anything other than a bad decisions to make, so far. There be reasons in later episodes as to why this was set up, however, I suspect it was added for shocks. If that is the case, then it didn’t come across like that. Don’t give me a fake out moment one week and then expect me to fall for another the week after Marvel.
RELATED: Secret Invasion Episode 3 Review: Still Enjoying!
More important for me are the surprises that are naturally built into the plot. Not the ones that are designed to shock you. If you’ve been watching along you are likely aware Fury is married and that marriage plays a key theme of the show. The drama within this side story gets ramped up this week. Luckily, I was genuinely pleased with how it was written, shot and acted by those involved.
There are many unsaid conclusions to take away as viewer and I like that we are respected enough to be allowed this freedom to read between the lines. We’ve spent enough time with Fury now to anticipate both his reactions as seen in action, but also the thought process he must be going through as me makes tough decisions. It ramps up a level of tension and human drama which is just exiting to see played out by top performers.
Secret Invasion is the show which reminds us what a brilliant actor Samuel L. Jackson really is. Jackson is a top, top talent, who has also chosen projects for fun. So far Nick Fury has been a fun project. However, in Secret Invasion Jackson the actor is really getting his teeth into other sides of this character and he’s brilliant. There is a lot of body language acting going on with Fury. It’s in these quiet moments of reflection where we really see Jackson’s skill. It genuinely reminds me of Al Pacino in his iconic role of Michael Corleone. A performance criminally overlooked for Oscars in my opinion. Pacino finds a way to convey every unsaid thought in Michael’s head through his acting and his eyes. Jackson pulls that same skill off here, and you have to call it for what it is, top acting.
Gripes
Not too many gripes this week to be fair. I already talked about one too many surprises of the same kind above. I guess though I did have some others. There is an attack this week on some important figures, the attack is a joint air/ground operation. All I’m going to say is, there is no way a helicopter, never mind two could get that close to this specific target without having already been shot down for failing to turn back. You’ll know the part when you see it and all I’ll say is. You try flying a helicopter towards that target and see what happens. You’ll wish you hadn’t.
The annoying thing about that is, that a more clandestine attack would have been very easy to pull off. Now, the show does explain why this loud approach was chosen, and that part actually makes sense. However, the methodology, just doesn’t happen outside of Hollywood.
I’m also not so sure the action scenes were that well put together. I don’t have any military training, but I’m sure that’s not what is supposed to happen. It’s one of those situations where it’s on the director and not the writers. You can write a great action scene. However, whether it works is based on how the director shoots it, frames it and edits it. For me there was some issues here which should have been spotted on the dailies and rejigged. It’s not awful, it’s just not as good as the rest of the show we are watching.
Wrap it up
Ultimately I enjoyed Secret Invasion Episode 4 and I’m looking forward to the final two episodes. I hope we get a satisfying solution, but I;m not banking on it. This is where it’s up to the shows writers to prove to me they had an idea how to wrap this all up neatly all the time. A show like this could easily just have an anti-climactic ending. In fact, that’s a bad analogy, because some of the best spy movies and stories have anti-climactic endings. That can make the movie/story powerful by what you’ve seen happen already. However, that takes skill to pull off and I don’t expect that from a Marvel show.
The climax is coming, so how the hell is fury going to resolve this. I’m guessing Fury may have a very powerful ally on his side from next week. At this point Fury needs resources to fight this threat. Ultimately though, as proved by the conversation between two Skrulls this week, there really can’t be any going back to the way things were before. To be honest I like that there is no easy answer, as said above. However, the writers still have to find one.
As for Episode 4 though, quality remains high for this fan. Let’s just see if Marvel can pull, off a series without some stand out rubbish episodes, only two more to go.
GRADE: B+
As always, let me know what you thought of my Secret Invasion Episode 4 review or leave your own in the usual place below.
FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS
Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube!
Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play
