hen an eccentric William Shatner descends on the town of Riverside, Iowa, population 978, purportedly to make an independent science-fiction film that he wrote, the down-to-earth people of the town find themselves the true stars of this improvisational comedic reality series. Shatner and his entourage pretend to film a terrible flick about an Earth woman aliens plot to impregnate with—
Oh, who cares?
The real story is that the Invasion Iowa group have a plot of their own. They plan to make a reality series instead of a movie using Riverside as a backdrop, a town whose folks proclaim it the future birthplace of Star Trek's Capt. James T. Kirk. Shatner and gang try to pull one over the townsfolk, all the while taking wacky Hollywood behavior to the extreme.
In Tuesday's episode, Shatner rolls into town, Emmy in hand, with his oddball little group. Along for the ride are his spiritual advisor, Steve (Grunwald); his leading lady, Gryffyn (Lydic); his harried assistant, Herb (O'Hara); and his nephew/body double, Tiny (Ward). The larger-than-life Shatner stops by at the diner to visit with the locals and gets a tour of Riverside from the town's mayor. His big entry into town leads up to auditions, where Shatner and his group choose several locals to be a part of the cast and crew.
Excited by an opportunity to meet Shatner and be in his movie, the townsfolk gamely take part and accept Shatner and his group's increasingly bizarre behavior. Shatner asks the priest of the 100-year-old Catholic church if he can break just one of the church's beautiful stained glass windows for a scene in the movie.
As Wednesday's episode unfolds, Shatner makes arrangements for Gryffyn to shoplift at a local store, Herb can't seem to do anything right, and Steve shows a group of locals how to give someone a "love bomb." And then Max (Chan), the bitchy Hollywood studio executive, shows up to cause some trouble.
All the while the residents of Riverside watch on, knowing that nothing quite like this is likely to happen again in their town. However, when one of the locals gets a little too suspicious, Shatner and his troupe of actors may just find their little reality show ending sooner than they planned.
Encountering Hollywood aliens
It's a troubling premise that could have really backfired. Luckily, at least the first two episodes of Invasion Iowa that were available for review are funny, as Shatner and his group do whatever they have to for a laugh at the expense of themselves and not the unsuspecting townsfolk. Sure, Shatner has some of them audition in ways that would have gotten them a gong on The Gong Show, but as soon as he helps himself to one local's lunch at the diner without asking, the good nature of Riverside's residents comes through. He's soon selling Shats (beret-style hats he supposedly invented, with different colors for the wearer's moods) and overacting to the hilt in his fake movie scenes.
The four-part miniseries, which will air over four evenings in one-hour episodes, concludes, appropriately enough, on April 1. However, the fools aren't the locals, but rather Shatner and his bunch. This unscripted reality show is more of a send-up of Hollywood types than anything else, and Shatner's happy to play the biggest fool of them all. In the first two episodes the MVPs are Kirk Ward as his boisterous and irresponsible nephew/body double and Desi Lydic's ditsy starlet. The other players show promise, but didn't get enough screen time to come to life.
However, several of the locals distinguish themselves almost immediately. Scott Riggan, who ends up being Shatner's assistant's assistant, handles the insanity as well as any well-adjusted human could, while Bill Blank, who has a small acting role, becomes a little too suspicious of the goings-on. Along with them, after this is all said and done, the faces we'll remember are cue-card lady Diana Schultz; Brooke Lemke, the much-too-young woman who plays Shatner's love interest in the fake movie; and overall-wearing farmer-turned-actor Wayne Simon. These people have nothing to be ashamed of, and it's their good humor that makes Invasion Iowa entertaining to watch.
