Well, good on Shaun if he wants to/manages it. Matt's slightly askew in the belief that DVD sales prompted Serenity -- I think it more helped ebb it along during/after production. (I'm surprised how common that misconception actually is - Serenity was being written before the Firefly DVD set even went on sale).

If Shaun wants to motion picture* Invasion, he needs to take it to somewhere like Paramount (like, now) and pitch it as a movie finale or some such.

Invasion is probably more suited to movies, anyway, as you can loose weekly audiences quite quickly with a mystery if they don't tune in every week -- you don't have that with movies. You have the (rough) audience attention for 90 minutes or so.

* Excuse my shit grammar.

[ edited by gossi on 2006-05-29 17:38 ]

gossi | May 29, 19:37 CET

I thought Invasion started off quite badly and somehow managed to improve ten-fold by the end of it's run. With that said, I felt some sense of satisfaction with the way it all ended. It was kind of a cliffhanger.. but a lot of the threads were wrapped up and the mystery was mostly resolved.

rabid | May 29, 20:15 CET

gossi, I think you are right about the misconception. Firefly DVDs were released 12/9/03 and the movie was greenlit per Variety less than 3 months later on 3/2/04. Hardly enough time to impact the decision by Universal unless they were selling spectacularly from the first week.

jaynelovesvera | May 29, 20:36 CET

I gave up on Invasion right at the beginning, like rabid, my friends told me that it got better, but by then I wasn't that interested on getting into it.

Numfar PTB | May 29, 20:38 CET

I still have 9 episodes sitting in my TIVO....I guess I should get on that

Charmuse | May 29, 20:56 CET

Get the DVDs and watch at least until the 3rd disc. The season picked up amazingly before the mid-season hiatus.

eddy | May 29, 20:57 CET

I watched the first couple of Invasion and with all the will in the world I could not bring myself to watch anymore. They were so incredibly dull.

Simon | May 29, 21:49 CET

I was a bit unsure about the first couple of episodes, but it really got much better as it went on.

I'm not too optimistic, but I hope they do find a way to finish off the Invasion story.

whosflyingthisthing? | May 29, 23:28 CET

I watched it from the start, and enjoyed it all the way through. I only missed one episode. It was very slow moving but rewarding if you had the patience to follow it. I think with shows like Alias, 24, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives or The OC, where plots appear and are resolved at a startling speed, audiences are becoming used to having a lot of very dramatic plots which aren't really developed over a long period of time. Of course a few of those shows do have long running arcs but they also have a lot happening in one episode and frequent cliffhangers.

Of course you also have Lost which does have many unresolved mysteries and long running arcs, so I think Invasion is more comparable to it. I just like the idea that they didn't end the first episode by outlining exactly what happened, setting up the "good" guys and the "bad" guys, and spending the rest of the season with a shooting match between the two. Which is fairly refreshing, that they decide to build up an intriguing story.

I really thought the direction and atmosphere was intense, very foreboding, even though we weren't constantly seeing shocking events. But that's not to say it was without excitement, and every episode there was more unravelling of the story. The performances were always pretty good, if usually understated compared to some of the hysterics we are used to seeing actors perform.

I definitely think Invasion had a lot of longetivity, and certainly could sustain several seasons just as the producers of Lost intend to, whereas something like The OC has become so repetitive that it is hard to be interested in certain characters and instead there are only a few elements of the show which hold any appeal.

I only just saw the season/series finale of Invasion last night, and I was impressed. The scene on the wharf was very reminiscent of the Tom Cruise remake of War of the Worlds, and in a good way. I also thought the scene with the pregnant women going into the water with what I assume were aquatic aliens was very surreal and haunting, kind of beautiful in a way. The cliffhanger was also an extremely interesting one, which deserves to be resolved at some point in the future. I'd love to see Russell's reaction to Tom putting Larkin in the water to save her life. And of course to see whether she survives, and if she becomes a hybrid, and what happens to the baby.

I really believe that Invasion could have sustained several great seasons, and I think it probably could reinvent itself quite successfully á la Angel. It's just a shame that its future isn't looking good. I will definitely be picking up the DVD set when it's released and I hope it follows in Firefly's footsteps. I don't think it was quite at the level of any of Joss' shows, but any show that has the bravery to be different, to be interesting, to confound expectations, and to do things its own way, deserved success. I think it's another case like Firefly, a relatively expensive show which has a concept that isn't dumb enough for a mass audience. I'm not sure of the scheduling situation with Invasion and I don't think it was the same, but still, it's a potentially successful show that could benefit from support rather than the plug being pulled. At least we got a full season, I suppose.

Razor | May 30, 00:34 CET

I strongly suggest that people who didn't like the first couple episode give the series a second chance on DVD. After the first few extremely slow-moving episodes that series picks up so much speed that you almost won't believe you're watching the same series. I'm betting you'll also become pretty attached to the characters.

I think that Invasion ended with an okay resolution, but there's still a lot of potential storylines for future seasons. I'm sad that it's over- I doubt it will ever get made into a movie.

vampire dan | May 30, 00:43 CET

"Invasion" started out so slowly that I considered blowing it off, and I am sooooo glad I decided to stay with it. For me, it went from "Invasion" being something to do after "Lost" was over to "Lost" being something to do while waiting for to "Invasion" to start. And William Fitchner was outstanding; I just love Sheriff Tom.

More to the point, I will *never* forget him.

When this series DVD comes out, give it that second chance.

wissxwe | May 30, 01:39 CET

Invasion is an amazing show. It's to bad that so many great shows are canceled after thier first season.

angelusiredspike | May 30, 02:36 CET

gossi, I think you are right about the misconception. Firefly DVDs were released 12/9/03 and the movie was greenlit per Variety less than 3 months later on 3/2/04. Hardly enough time to impact the decision by Universal unless they were selling spectacularly from the first week.

jaynelovesvera | May 29, 18:36 CET

Check out the Serenity Visual Companion interview with Joss Whedon. In there, it's stated work began on the Serenity script in something like March 2003, and it was due to begin shooting in October 2003 as a penciled in date originally (before the Firefly DVDs had even come out).

To be honest, if Invasion was to do something similar, it would need Shaun to make a several year commitment to it, and very understanding and willing people at studios. I consider Serenity a special case, and the reason for that special case was both Joss' feature film experience, his vision, and Firefly itself. I don't think it'll be repeated for another 30 years.

gossi | May 30, 03:28 CET

Add to the "special case" (which I agree it was, gossi) the willingness of the cast to remain available and affordable for the movie. If anyone had run off to do a supporting role in MI3 or star in a new TV series or bang coconuts together on Broadway ;-) before Joss was ready to shoot the film -- or, for that matter, if Joss had decided to throw his energy into WW or Goners first before coming back to the 'Verse, there would have been no way to do Serenity. Yep. Once in a lifetime, yo. You don't find that kind of passion for a project very often. :-(

BTW, I was one of those people who was just bored to death after the first few eps of Invasion and quit watching. By time I heard it got better, there was no way I could have caught up on the story. I'll have to wait for DVD.

billz | May 30, 03:43 CET

Gossi, yes I see you got to the answer before me: here at Whedonesque they posted that Universal was going to do a film based on Firefly in September 2003:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/1987
and here:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/1963
almost four months before the release of the DVD set. However I do think that Universal may have budgeted more for the film because of the DVD sales.

embers | May 30, 04:40 CET

I have not checked out Invasion, yet, but I shall now.

More Amusing:
I am hoping the the phrase "pullng a Joss Whedon" shall continute.

Jack | May 30, 05:30 CET

Was this a proposed date of shooting, or was it actually green-lighted before the DVDs were even out? It seems awfully odd, seeming that it was a good long time after the DVDs were out that we actually started seeing production. I suppose "shooting" meant pre-production things such as building and set designing?

YellowBear | May 30, 06:37 CET

Universal officially greenlit the movie quite late on, as they waited to sign all the cast first (those around at the time will remember there being a gap with Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass signing up). Also, the script development went on for a long, long time.

I definitely think the DVD sales helped push the project along in terms of momentum at the studio -- plus it gave a wicked marketing pitch to press -- but were they a requirement for the movie to be made? Nope. Certainly, billz is also right about the cast actually signing for the film was a major help -- it would have been so easy for them to completely move on and not want/be able to do it.

gossi | May 30, 13:34 CET

(those around at the time will remember there being a gap with Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass signing up)

Hmmm. And which two characters got the "free lumber" in Serenity, so to speak? Coincidence? I think not! ;-)

billz | May 30, 14:23 CET

I have to say that while I glanced in on the first set of episode for Invasion , I didnt follow along(I kept onreminding myself to follow it, but forgot each time, I am not used to "following" a show on tv). But after the winter break, it really picked up speed, and I was able to follow along. It was a roller coaster ride, with some heart-wrenching stories, and some interesting points made.

Along with others on this thread(Razor I love your spiel!), I highly encourage people to check out the show on DVD. It may have a bit of a slow and rough beginning, but its soo worth it, and so much better then alot of the shit on television these days.

Obviously it takes a bit of patience(I would NOT recommend people with attention spans of 30 seconds or have ADD to watch the show), but it pays off. And the finale.. oh man, once you are attached to those characters the finale is so much more painful and beautiful(sounds familiar, doesnt it?).

And while it may not continue, Joss Whedon's trailblazing attempt has set a precedent, so maybe it can be done again, I will remain optimisitic, and feel that others can follow in that pattern.

ETA: I just want to second Razor's thoughts that shows like Alias, 24, Desperate Hosuewives, have that break neck speed in terms of so much happeneing and so much drama that must be maintained an story line shave to resolve in each epsiode, that I am a bit turned off by that. I could never get into those shows. Whereas a show like Invasion, takes it time, set up a complicated world, where the good guys and the bad guys are not defined right away, where we as the audiance must constantly question the motives of all of the cast. A show like Invasion is indeed a breath of fresh air.

And in terms of understated performances, I totally agree. The performances were not cartoonish, and when times called for it where not overblown. And the evolution of each of the characters over the season is quite satisfying.

[ edited by kurya on 2006-05-30 17:18 ]

kurya | May 30, 19:11 CET

Thanks, kurya. I totally agree. And to think I only watched Invasion to begin with because I had caught a brief glimpse of the trailer and I thought that Kira was played by Summer Glau. The actresses do look a little similar, although I feel foolish admitting this. When I actually watched it, I just found it really compelling. I hope we do see some form of resolution in the future.

Razor | May 31, 00:01 CET