Alien Nation, Episode Five

It was another short episode of Secret Invasion last night, only 39 minutes, including credits, and yet it felt like it had a lit of filler. I was reminded that a lot of these MCU shows were originally conceived as movies that were turned into mini-series and I bet that's what happened with Secret Invasion.

So Talos is really dead and the wonderful Ben Mendelsohn never even got a chance to work with a decent script. Well, he still has Star Wars and hopefully he'll be turning up on Andor season two.

I guess the episode wasn't truly filler, a lot of important plot points did occur, as I see now from reading the synopsis. Why was it so hard to care about them when I was watching them? I guess the main reason is the show has never managed to convey a sense of threat. Maybe it's due to a poor sense of the potential victims of Gravik's crimes. I think back to the best Marvel shows, like Daredevil and Luke Cage, and how their villains were cleverly woven into an environment, so you could see how they could do some damage. Considering the Skrull's power is shapeshifting and infiltration, maybe what the show really needed was to show how Skrulls were manipulating humans into harming themselves. That would be a great use of Skrull Rhodey, who continues to be my favourite part of the series due entirely to Don Cheadle's performance.

Olivia Colman is also pretty fun as Sonya Falsworth. I kind of want to see her square off with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina.

Secret Invasion is available on Disney+.

Twitter Sonnet #1719

A judge's query twists the purse and coins.
With morning gone, the girl's routine was sunk.
Between embattled sheets were tender loins.
So dinner gathered late could choke a monk.
A lonely apple robbed a shaded room.
Becoming ice behooved the journal's ink.
To meet a mangled knife, the core would bloom.
And still the ghost is stirring round the rink.
We turned a millipede and made the grass.
With wavy hair, the creature took a page.
A hazy thunder scared the razor lass.
'Twas something gained for lost and lonely age.
Inventing pink and gold was metal girl.
No black or white but bronze became the pearl.