5 Main Reasons Why Secret Invasion's Ratings Are So Low (For Now)

Let's face it: Marvel fans had high hopes for Secret Invasion. Unfortunately, the show didn't live up to expectations, and as of now, Secret Invasion has an underwhelming 63% score on Rotten Tomatoes...

But how did the first episode manage to mess up the series' ratings so badly?

Here are five main reasons for Secret Invasion's poor start.

5. Painfully slow pacing

The MCU is known for its fast-paced action, and while Secret Invasion was aiming to be more grounded and less flashy, it was still expected to, well, move at an adequate pace. The first episode is all too slow and it fails to capture the fans’ attention; and the critics who’ve seen the second episode claim that it doesn’t really change there.

4. Bland visuals

Amid the all-too-familiar flashy setting with picturesque space sceneries and flying heroes in bright suits, a dark and grim political thriller seemed like a breath of fresh air… But it doesn’t have to be this bland! So far, the sets have been incredibly boring and lacked any details; we get that Russia is typically gray-toned but come on.

3. Poor character choices

Secret Invasion features a whole bunch of new characters — and it doesn’t really bother to properly introduce them. The audience can’t care for the random rebel Skrull girl if they have no context… And just to make matters worse, the show offs a well-known character, Hill, in the very first episode. Now we only know Fury there.

2. Non-existent threat

The first episode’s main threat is the potential global war starting as the Skrulls are aiming to blow up a bomb in Russia and set up the US. This sounds like a major and dangerous business, but the series fails to show its urgency and importance: the entire bombing sequence feels lazy and anticlimactic, and virtually no one cares.

1. Not even comic-al

The original Secret Invasion comic went under the tagline “Who do you trust?” and revealed that at that point, even the biggest superheroes could turn out to be Skrulls as the aliens have already infiltrated our world too deeply. Secret Invasion doesn’t even imply that level of threat: it just throws a Skrull Ross at you. Take it or leave it.

We sincerely hope that Secret Invasion fixes all of these issues in the upcoming episodes — otherwise, it will turn out to be one of the biggest disappointments in the MCU… And its ratings will plummet even lower.

Such a waste of an A-list cast and a great political subterfuge setting would be incredibly frustrating for everyone.