How political thrillers lost the plot

THE LATEST MARVEL TV SERIES, SECRET INVASION, opens with an uncharacteristically timely monologue. "Imagine a world where information can't be trusted," rasps a CIA agent in present-day Moscow.

- JUDY BERMAN

"Not very hard, is it? News service says one thing. Website says another. Society starts to fray. All we can turn to are the people we care about. But what if those people weren't who we thought they were?" So far, so chillingly authentic to this era of information bubbles and conspiracy thinking. But then Agent Prescod (Richard Dormer) continues: "What if they weren't even human?"

It turns out he's talking about Skrulls: reptilian space aliens who hide behind human faces on earth. According to his theory, a series of international terrorist attacks, each claimed by a different group of militants, are really all part of the Skrulls' plot to overthrow humanity. It's a shrewd setup, familiar enough to resonate in the real, chaotic world of 2023 but vague enough to be universally palatable. Depending on your perspective, the Skrulls could be the lizard people of proto-QAnon conspiracy theories or Russian intelligence operatives undermining democracy.

This slippery approach to political subtext is nothing new for Disney-owned Marvel, which is constantly recalibrating its family-friendly superheroes for a time when extreme partisanism can render even the most anodyne entertainment controversial-and when Hollywood products must satisfy the conflicting mores of the many nations that import them. What's notable about Secret Invasion, styled as a Cold War spy thriller but abstracted from the ideological conflicts of the real Cold War, is how common its particular form of evasiveness has become among TV's most popular thrillers. Shows set within the crucible of politics suddenly seem allergic to political ideas of all kinds.