ABC's 'Invasion' a nice companion piece for 'Lost' on Wednesday nights.

Date published: 10/9/2005

ABC'S eerie new super- natural thriller, "Inva- sion," has several things going for it that many of the season's other alien/ghost stories don't:

1) It's got a lean, engrossing script that wisely hasn't yet shown much of the aliens who use a hurricane in the community of Homestead, Fla., to disguise their invasion.

Any special effects critter is surely not as scary as the vision we give them in our own heads.

2) It's blessed with a well-cast crew of actors who fit their characters to a T.

The actors are all perfectly believable in their roles, from the nice-guy, park ranger/hero Russell (Eddie Cibrian from "Third Watch") to the sneaky sheriff (William Fichtner from "The M.D.s) to the sweet 7-year-old, Rose, the only one who actually sees the alien "lights" fall from the sky and swim away.

3) And, most of all, it occupies the coveted, Wednesday 10 p.m. time slot on ABC, the one that just happens to follow "Lost," which along with "Desperate Housewives" has turned around the standing of the alphabet network.

But what's important for "Invasion" isn't just the fact that it follows "Lost."

Indeed, "Invasion" seems to be hanging on to at least a large share of the "Lost" audience because it manages to re-create some of that scary tension that its lead-in has ridden to Top 10 performances in the ratings.

The story is both simple and unfortunate in a way.

A year or two ago, when "Invasion" was probably being developed, who could have foreseen that the country would have just witnessed two hurricanes with results more devastating than most in memory.

If anyone had, maybe some other way could have been devised for the aliens who are at the center of this new show to disguise their landing in the Homestead/Everglades area of Florida.

Indeed, in that first episode, some of the special storm effects were eerily familiar, distracting a bit from the story unfolding on screen.

But soon enough, that passed, and we were left with the core story that will be played out in delightfully unsettling drama for weeks and months to come.

Date published: 10/9/2005