Distributor: Just Entertainment
Episodes: 8
Duration: 45 min (per episode)
Intruders (DVD) – Series Review
What if death wasn’t the end and you could come back, in another body, in another person really? Would you want to ruin someone else’s life to be able to live forever? Intruders is a series about the Qui Reverti, people who can come back from death. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled for a second season so if you don’t like open endings, Intruders is probably not a good show to watch although the quality is decent enough.
Meet Jack Whelan (John Simm). Whelan is a former police agent who has known a difficult past. He’s married to a lovely wife, Amy (Mira Sorvino), and life seems to be back on track for him. However, Amy slowly starts to behave pretty weird and abnormal. Staring blankly into the nothingness, moving and touching her own arms in a particular way or even dancing on old jazz music are a couple of the funny things she suddenly starts to do. Jack obviously knows something is up but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Who would actually? Meanwhile, Gary, one of Jack’s old friends, contacts the latter and asks him to help solve a murder case, which is also not one you’d see every day. As Jack and Gary dig deeper in the murder case, a lot of disturbing and unbelievable information starts to surface. The question lingers: is it true?
Not only Amy is acting strange, the same can be said for Madison O’Donnell (Millie Bobby Brown). At first, Madison looks like your everyday neighbor kid but I’m sure the children next-door don’t drown their cat in the tub in a flash of aggression now do they? Madison doesn’t seem quite herself and once a guy called Richard Shepherd (James Frain) makes his appearance, Madison quickly flees the scene. Someone’s after her, but who and why? These are questions that will linger in your mind throughout the whole season. What exactly is happening to those people? Story wise, Intruders likes to keep the audience in the dark most of the time. It’s not until the season finale nears that you’ll have a coherent idea of what exactly is going on and this is something you’ll either love or hate.
The series mixes a lot of elements together to make things even more confusion at times. Flashbacks, flashes to previous lives of people who now possess other people and the switching between characters might get you scratching your head at certain times but the more you watch the series, the more of it becomes clear. Intruders is one of those series you best watch another time again, to get all the references and completely understand the situation at hand. Still, the story is just about coherent enough to get you through the 8 episodes. The buildup to the season finale is well paced but don’t be afraid that the only action you’ll see finds itself in the last 2 episodes or so. Intruders is filled with some decent action scenes and other gruesome details I won’t spoil. Although not everything looks as convincing, it’s still a nice change of pace with the sometimes a bit long-winded shots.
Acting wise, the cast of Intruders is pretty alright, although one of the head roles is preserved for a very young actress, Millie Bobby Brown (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland). It’s normal for a child that young to offer a not so perfect performance but while her acting is far from impeccable, it’s actually quite surprising she pulled a role like that off so easily. As you will see when watching Intruders, the role Millie portrays is not very convenient as she’s forced to play someone completely different than she is herself. Like mentioned before, some of her acting choices might’ve been better but overall, a big thumbs-up for her.
John Simm (Mad Dogs, Doctor Who) is of course a bit more experienced in the acting department and brings a very good performance with a convincing personage. The fact that his character Jack Whelan doesn’t believe everything thrown at him right of the bat (which happens quite a lot in other series) was a fine choice of the directors as it makes the character a more realistic one. The other actors and actresses are all pretty good as well. There’s nothing really to remark about how they’ve done their jobs. So besides Millie who might be a bit too inexperienced for such a big role, the acting is quite alright.
As said in the introduction, the series was cancelled directly after season 1 so don’t expect an ending that will tell you all you need to know. Actually, the season finishes with an open ending so if you don’t like those, Intruders might be worth skipping. It’s really a shame the show was cancelled as it definitely had enough potential to become something great.
The DVD box doesn’t come with extras so there’s nothing so say about that. Moving on to the conclusion!
Conclusion
Intruders definitely had some great potential but stays behind with an intriguing story and a giant open ended season finale. The acting is alright, although one of the main actresses proved a bit inexperienced for the part. In the beginning, you might become a bit confused about the whole story but bit by bit, you’ll start to understand what exactly is going on. Overall, Intruders is worth a go if you like a mysterious and sinister plot with a decent amount of action scenes and without a real conclusion in the end.
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