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‘Colony:’ A Different Alien Invasion Drama Explained [Trailer]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:00 PST, Jan 13, 2016

The new alien invasion sci-fi drama Colony recently hit the little screen on USA and after episode one, many viewers are asking questions. Who are the aliens? Will we get to meet them? What has happened to the rest of the world?

The Inquisitr recently reported about the new alien invasion show on USA, explaining that a family — headed by some familiar faces in the form of Josh Holloway (Lost) playing Will Bowman and his onscreen wife wife Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) as Kate — is in conflict after the invasion occurs and Los Angeles is walled off into a colony.

The show Colony is unusual, in that the alien invasion has already occurred and we are seeing the aftermath with Los Angeles walled into three distinct blocs — the Los Angeles bloc, the Santa Monica bloc and the San Fernando Valley bloc. The Bowman family is walled up with many others in the Los Angeles bloc with two of their children. However, a third son was separated from them when the invasion occurred and the walls went up.

While everyone attempts to live normally under the shadow of the alien invasion — having coffee in sidewalk cafes, going to work and school — there is a constant threat from what are dubbed the “Collaborators” — humans working for what is named the “Hosts” (or aliens) and against their own kind.

Bowman particularly finds it hard to accept they have lost their son and attempts to access the Santa Monica block to search for him, to dangerous effect. Now it is a matter of deciding who to side with, the collaborators or the resistance, who are attempting to fight against the alien invasion and occupation.

Those living in Los Angeles have no contact with the outside world and, in fact, do not even know if anyone exists outside of their confining walls. Is the world still there, or is it a wasteland, laid bare by the aliens?

With so many questions unanswered, Entertainment Weekly sat down with director Carlton Cuse of Lost fame to get a few answers.

It turns out Cuse was inspired to make the show by the Nazi invasion of Paris. In Colony, the aliens are known as the Hosts and they have replaced all higher levels of government and law enforcement in Los Angeles, putting human Collaborators in power.

Alien invasion show
[Image via Facebook]
The Collaborators are rewarded with various luxuries and protection in exchange for keeping human beings in line, much as happened in Nazi-occupied France. As in the case of the French Resistance, naturally a group of people forms a similar resistance to the alien invasion.

As to the question of what exists outside Los Angeles and whether other colonies exist, Cuse said the answer to this will unfold as the show progresses.

When asked what keeps the humans in line, Cuse agreed that uncertainty about what is going on helps to perpetrate the fear in the occupants of Los Angeles, keeping them in line.

He compared the fear to that of a patient visiting the doctor and the doctor says “I need to do a test, you could have a problem,” and the fear that follows as the patient awaits the results. In the case of Colony, the aliens don’t really care what the humans think about the situation, they just want to keep them under control.

Cuse also cleared up what could be a misconception from the pilot of the show, saying “These invaders, these occupiers, are not omnipotent.”

He went on to point out that having a huge technological advantage doesn’t necessarily mean the invaders will win. He compared the situation to the war in Vietnam, where the U.S.A. obviously had a technological advantage, “but it didn’t work out too well for us there, because the Vietnamese were incredibly clever and adept about figuring out how to fight against us.”

This is most likely why the humans are kept in the dark as far as their occupiers are concerned. What you can’t see, you can’t really fight against and this builds the fear.

Cuse said in Colony, Will Bowman is eventually coerced into working for the occupation, as he sees the opportunity to eventually gather information that will be useful to him in the search for his lost son.

As viewers haven’t actually been told that the Hosts are of alien origin, Cuse was asked whether we will learn more about them and the actual alien invasion. He said all the mysteries will eventually be answered, but he said those mysteries aren’t the central core of the show, as it is more about how the family can survive and “What’s at stake is can this family survive in a world that’s been completely upended?”

Even though the concept of the show is not about “us versus the aliens,” Cuse did say we will, eventually get to meet the Hosts, but first the story will concentrate on how humans react in a situation where humans (the Collaborators) are empowered to subjugate other humans.

Entertainment Weekly asked Cuse the ultimate goal of the resistance, is it to purge the world of the Host?. He said they are not trying to make the situation black and white. The “resistance is not a completely homogeneous movement where everybody has the exact same goals, thoughts and methodology, and that leads to interesting conflict downstream in the series.”

No doubt Colony will be an interesting watch as the story (and tensions) build. Watch the trailer for Colony and the world following the alien invasion below. For more information on what it would be like to collaborate or resist, visit Colony’s interactive website.

[Photo screen capture via YouTube]

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