Info:
DVD Release Date: August 22, 2006 (Warner Home Video)
Color/2005-06
MSRP: $59.98
Number of Discs: 6
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 907 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 54 minutes
Video: Widescreen
Audio: English Stereo
Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Espanola; Closed
Captioned
Special Features:
• Invading the Mind of Shaun Cassidy - featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
Introduction:
The town of Homestead, Florida has just been struck by
Hurricane Eve but could there be some sort of an
Invasion in the aftermath? Warner Home Video presents
the suspenseful, critically-acclaimed drama series
Invasion for the first time on DVD, featuring a
collectible six-disc set with all 22 thrilling
episodes plus special features! It is unfortunate we
won’t see more episodes of this show, because it
clearly was the best new show from this past season.
It was well written, well acted and so suspenseful and
thrilling. No, we won’t have any more new episodes on
ABC next season, but we can own this DVD and relive
the wonderful 22 episodes in a nice widescreen format!
Invasion is a suspenseful tale from famed
writer/producer Shaun Cassidy that follows a blended
family trying to recover from a devastating hurricane
and its mysterious aftermath. Invasion stars William
Fichtner as Sheriff Tom Underlay, who suspiciously
orders the entire area quarantined. Then we have park
ranger Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian), a divorced
father of two who is expecting a third child with his
new wife, local television reporter Larkin Graves
(Lisa Sheridan). Sheriff Underlay is married to
Russell’s ex-wife, Dr. Mariel Underlay (Kari
Matchett). Russell and Larkin’s brother Dave (Tyler
Labine) start to investigate the strange goings on and
unknowingly begins a fight for survival of his family,
his community, and what might ultimately be the whole
human race. The kids are Kira Underlay (Alexis
Dziena), Tom’s daughter and Russell & Mariel’s kids
Jesse (Evan Peters) and Rose (Ariel Gade).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Invasion is a show you must watch from start to finish
in order to grasp every detail. It is just a well
written show and very intense. It makes you want to
keep watching because the mystery is so compelling.
Some say the season starts out very slow and there are
no answers, but it does pick-up from about episode 9
and on. I think some of the later episodes were even
better than what lead-in Lost had to offer. The
“Pilot episode is where it all started with Hurricane
Eve hitting and the aftermath is mysterious. All the
episodes Shaun Cassidy writes are so good. He writes
a lot of the episodes and the quality is so first-rate
when he writes. He writes or co-writes the following:
“Pilot,” “Lights Out,” “Watershed,” “Unnatural
Selection,” “The Hunt,” “Origin of Species,” “Us or
Them,” “Redemption,” “The Nest,” “The Son Also Rises,”
“The Round Up,” and “The Last Wave Goodbye.”
Recurring characters are Mona Gomez (Aisha Hinds),
Father Scanlon (Ivar Brogger), Deputy Lewis Sirk
(Nathan Basesel), Derek (Michael Mitchell), Christina
(Elizabeth Moss), Healy (Rocky Carroll), and the
spooky Eli Szura (James Frain).
Packaging:
The packaging is quite neat. It is a nice digipak box
set. The box’s front cover has a photo of the lights
with a girl looking (maybe Rose?) with the Invasion
logo in the background. The Complete Series noting is
also present. A nice red/orange/yellow color scheme is
there. The back of the box has a blue background and
has a nice cast photo along with a snapshot from an
episode. The back also has a brief synopsis of the
show. On the right side there is a little space that
contains info on the special features.
The case’s front cover is the same as the box cover.
The back of the case has the credits with character
name and actor name, as well a nice quote from
Philadelphia Daily News, and a nice cast photo. The
background is red/black. When we open the case once,
we get to the disc one breakdown on the left and a
discs two & three breakdown on the right. The disc
breakdowns have episode numbers, episode titles,
writer, director, original air date, and a brief
synopsis. There are little scissors next to most
episodes, which means deleted scenes are available for
that episode. And special features, if any. There are
nice photos in the background on each side of a
breakdown. Opening the case a second time, Disc four’s
breakdown is on the fast left, with the first four
discs in the middle spaces, and disc five’s breakdown
on the far right. When we open the case a third, we
see disc six’s breakdown now on the far right.
The discs are on top of each other. For example, disc
one is on top of disc two; disc three on top of four;
and disc 5 on top of six. Again, I hate that! It is
hard to take out and easily can be scratched, so be
careful! Warner keeps doing this on their dramas. The
sitcoms are getting better now with slim cases. Disc
one has a photo of the Sheriff, disc two has Russell,
disc three has Mariel, disc four has Larkin, disc five
has Dave, and disc six has the three kids. There is a
spooky photo on the case when you take out each disc.
I won’t give that away though; think nude (as in from
the pilot episode). Disc one holds episodes 1-4, disc
two holds episodes 5-8, disc three holds episodes
9-11, disc four holds episodes 12-15; disc five holds
episodes 16-19 and disc six holds episodes 20-22 & the
special features. Inside the case we also have a
Warner Home Video catalog listing various TV DVD
titles, such as ER Season 6 (coming in December) and
Full House Season 5 (also in December). The back of
the book has an ad for The CW.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menu screen has the sky with the lights
background, like the cover art. Sound effects are
playing in the background. The menu options are: Play,
Episodes, Features, & Languages. Play is
self-explanatory…yeah it plays every episode at once.
Episodes takes you to the episode list for the given
disc and you can choose which episode you want to
view. When chosen, you get to the episode menu which
has scene selections. Features list the special
features on each disc. Each disc has deleted scenes
and the last disc has that and also the gag reel and
featurette. The Languages option tells us that the
only spoken language on this set in English, but you
can have subtitles in French, Portuguese and Espanola
as well.
There is a scene selection screen, like I mentioned,
and there are chapters present on each episode if you
like that better, which you can access through your
remote. The navigation on each sub-menu and the main
menu is very easy. The design is also quite nice and
creative.
Video and Audio Quality:
The show is from this past season, obviously the video
and audio are PERFECT. The video is in widescreen,
which I’ve never watched an Invasion episode in, so it
is cool! The audio is very good and in a good stereo.
The runtimes for each episode vary; with the pilot
have the highest runtime at over 45 minutes and the
shortest episode (“The Nest”) at just less than 39
minutes. They are not edited I’m sure, because TV
shows these days have low run times. The following are
the episode runtimes:
Disc one:
1. “Pilot” (45:01)
2. “Lights Out” (42:02)
3. “Watershed” (41:17)
4. “Alpha Male” (40:37)
Disc two:
5. “Unnatural Selection” (42:50)
6. “The Hunt” (40:46)
7. “Fish Story” (41:37)
8. “The Cradle” (41:18)
Disc three:
9. “The Dredge” (42:02)
10. “Origin of Species” (40:03)
11. “Us or Them” (41:48)
Disc four:
12. “Power” (40:21)
13. “Redemption” (43:03)
14. “All God’s Creatures” (39:39)
15. “The Nest” (38:48)
Disc five:
16. “The Fittest” (41:06)
17. “The Key” (41:21)
18. “Re-Evolution” (39:28)
19. “The Son Also Rises” (40:38)
Disc six:
20. “Run and Gun” (39:44)
21. “Round Up” (39:12)
22. “The Last Wave Goodbye” (39:18)
Special Features:
The extras are good! We get a featurette and gag
reel on the last disc along with lots and lots of
deleted scenes on each disc! Deleted scenes are from:
“Pilot” (2:50), “Lights Out” (2:19), “The Hunt”
(1:21), “Fish Story” (0:43), “The Cradle” (1:03) &
(1:41), “The Dredge” (1:06), “Origin of Species”
(0:39), “Redemption” (3:09), “All God’s Creatures”
(2:18), “The Fittest” (1:13), “The Key” (1:25),
“Re-Evolution” (0:27), and “Round-Up” (0:55).
The gag reel is on disc six and is very fun to watch.
William Fichtner seems like a very nice and funny man.
Tyler Labine looks fun and wild and he is just that
here. The gag reel runs 10:36. Then we have the
featurette also on disc six. It is titled “Invading
the Mind of Shaun Cassidy.” The cast and crew talk
about Shaun, the show, how mysterious and suspenseful
the show is and how great it is working on the set.
Interviewed are: creator/writer/producer Shaun
Cassidy, stars William Fichtner, Eddie Cibrian, Kari
Matchett, Lisa Sheridan, Tyler Labine, Alexis Dziena,
Evan Peters, Ariel Gade, along with recurring stars
James Frain, Nathan Basesel, Ivan Brogger, and the
crew Thomas Schlamme (executive producer), Juan Carlos
Coto (consulting producer), Timothy Marx (producer),
and Lawrence Trilling (director, co-exec. producer).
It runs 23:35 and is full of great information and
thoughts.
Final Comments:
Wonderful show, wonderful writing, wonderful actors, and
wonderful DVD! The cast and crew of Invasion brought
us such a wonderful drama. It is too bad the ratings
were not high enough, but I think they were high
enough for a second season at least. If it meant
moving to another night, then that would be fine. I
was saddened by the cancellation of the show, but I
had a smile on when I relived this series again on DVD
on crisp video and wonderful extras. While the show is canceled, the three main stars have moved on rather quickly.
William Fitchtner is going to join Fox's Prison Break. Eddie Cibrian will
be on the new drama Vanished on Fox as well (same night too!). And Kari Matchett
has signed on for a TNT "in consideration" drama pilot called Heartland that will also star
Treat Williams. If you have not
seen this show, you are missing something good. I
suggest you buy this set and watch it from start to
finish. You won’t regret it. If you are a fan, then
of course you better run to your local DVD store or
online retailer (like the link below) and buy it
TODAY! You better hurry before something in the water
snatches you and makes you smell different. Did you
see the lights?
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 3.5/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
-- Reviewed by pavanbadal on 08/15/06
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