Secret Invasion, or: How Not To Do a Spy Or Any Other Miniseries

So this year, instead of giving just one month to the Mouse, I decided to give more, because there were several ongoing shows I wanted to watch (up to and including Ashoka next month). This means I also got to see Secret Invasion, which just finished and works as a text book of how not to do a tv miniseries along with how to get the wrong creative lessons from the success of Winter Soldier and Andor, respectively.

Here's the irony: I didn't expect much of anything from the Hawkeye miniseries back when it got dropped pre Christmas and only watched it because Peter Jackson's Beatles three parter was released at the same time and that was why I went to the Mouse back then. But as it turns out, Hawkeye was great, and along with Ms Marvel probably my favourite of the Disney Marvel shows even several years later. Whereas I'm practically the target audience for what Secret Invasion (I assume) aimed to be - a spy story/underbelly take on the MCU. Plus going in to the respective shows, I was certainly more invested in Nick Fury than I was in Clint Barton.

Now, rather than going on a rant of how Secret Invasion is bad, I'd rather go for a bit of why it failed (and why Hawkeye did succeed) (for me, as always this is subjective). Because it's not that there are new characters with a narrative focus (both shows have those) and new relationships in addition to the movie established ones. Or the inherent clichés or sillness of the premise (part of the parcel).

( Here we go, spoilers alert )