As mentioned in my review of episode 3, It was very likely that we'd get the kids on a road trip in episode 4 and that's exactly what we got after the remake of Independence Day we saw in episode 3.
The problem with this sub-story is it isn't much more serious in tone and urgency than an episode of Dr Who, which is trademark cheesy and tongue-in-cheek. This would be ok if that was the intention, but sadly it's not and we're left then with just abject disappointment and frustration at the naff acting and daft writing. For example, the little girl warns that the aliens are coming and that is what happens. When she warns again, her brother decides to kneel down and counsel her on how everything will be alright instead of running with her to safety. It's reminiscent of 1980's TV sci-fi where nobody ran until the monster was three feet from devouring them, but that was mainly due to a need to capture everything in one frame in those days. This episode of Invasion is similarly last minute and it's insultingly dumb and silly.
The acting of this group of kids is pretty curtailed by bad writing and I'm sure they could have done better with better lines and more intelligent exploration of the way kids resolve issues of bullying. But no, instead the writers decide that the bully be conveyed as a victim because a kid is wary of him and that kid then gets accused of being a bully to the bully because he hasn't instantly forgiven the evil little tyke for years of verbal, physical and mental psychopathy. And it's at moments like those that the writing really stinks as it's just trying to alter what went before and recast the bully as a different character. It doesn't work and is awful writing and imagination.
What's worse is the fact that most of this series of Invasion so far is practically the same as series 1: road trips, sleuthing, the odd encounter with aliens where nobody important really gets hurt ... the menace just isn't there. So, it's padded beyond reason again but even worse, it's imbecilic and churlish in plot and character development.
Why the aliens have now developed permanent legs instead of sprouting an appendage as needed is unclear, but hey, I guess that they didn't think they needed permanent legs on the first series. Such imaginative creations would leave your jaw hanging low if you fit into the target audience for this rubbish, which I suspect is the clueless. Luckily, that's not most of us and there is some quite justifiable annoyance at this episode and the repetitive nature of the writing when compared to series one.
They also seem to have given up on the science and taken it into a paranormal angle which I guess removes the need for logic, lucid thought and explanation.
Dismally bad.
