The first handful of episodes were tense character drama, focusing on a few characters spread across the globe, each of whom was dealing with some personal issues in addition to the titular attack on the planet.
There’s a mother learning about an unfaithful spouse, a US soldier on his own in Afghanistan, and a bus full of English teens that crashes in the middle of nowhere, among others.
In episode five, we got a tease of just how strange these invaders might be when a doctor named Aneesha notices a spiky little blob while stitching up a patient.
In episode six, after a brief detour that started out as a hunt for food and ended up as a short-term residency at a field hospital, Aneesha returns to the house her family has been staying in, only to find it empty and boarded-up like something from a zombie movie.
And the reveal here is wonderful, as you watch a tortuous sequence where the creature terrorizes the family as they attempt to make an escape.
That’s especially true with Mitsuki Yamato , an obsessed Japanese space technician who appears to be the only one close to figuring out what’s going on with the invaders.
The first five episodes were a slow build-up that ultimately paid off, but we’re just over halfway through the story at this point, so there’s plenty to go.