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Invasion was a show that I quite liked and was sorry to see cancelled. Created by former teen idol Shaun Cassidy, it debuted in the fall of 2005 in the plum slot following ABC’s big hit LOST. It told the story of an alien invastion in the aftermath of a hurricane in a Florida town, which was a little hard for ABC to promote after the devastation of Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita just prior to the opening of the television season. They had to rethink their marketing campaign and focused solely on the alien aspect of the show, rather than the hurricane.

Despite the changes made in promotion of the show, it opened big with 17 million viewers, but viewership quickly dropped off and ABC lost confidence in the show. They pulled the show twice during the season for extended hiatus which damaged viewership even more.

The story focused on park ranger Russell Varon and his family. His wife, Larkin, was a television reporter. Her brother, Dave, was a deadbeat conspiracy theorist living in their barn. Russell’s kids, Jesse and Rose, split their time between him and his ex-wife, Dr. Mariel Underlay and her husband, creepy Sheriff Tom Underlay. Tom’s daughter, Kira, was also a big part of the story. During the hurricane Rose had seen hundreds of lights entering the water. Mariel disappeared, only to later turn up naked in the swamp - but she was different. She had a strange affinity for water and didn’t seem quite herself. Tom shut down the city and placed them under quarantine and none of this seemed right to Russell. He and Dave begin investigating all the strange occurrences and find that they are dealing with much more than just the effects of a hurricane.

The cast included Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch) as Russell Varon, William Fichtner (Prison Break) as Sheriff Tom Underlay, Kari Matchett (24) as Dr. Mariel Underlay, Lisa Sheridan as Larkin Groves, Tyler Labine (Reaper) as Dave Groves, Alexis Dziena as Kira Underlay, Evan Peters as Jesse Varon, and Ariel Gade as Rose Varon.

I thought this show had some great character development and moved along at a nice pace. Many other fans loved it as well and started a Save Invasion campaign after it was cancelled. It was rumored that CW might pick it up, but that didn’t come to pass. Unfortunately, the show ended with a cliffhanger that we’ll never have reconciled making this DVD a bittersweet recommendation.

Included on the DVD release are all 22 episodes plus 50 minutes of extras including 12 deleted scenes, a gag reel and a documentary, Invading the Mind of Shaun Cassidy.