Colony Season 1 Review

What would our modern civilization look like if we were forced into obedience by invading forces surrounded by walled in settlements? According to the first season of the Colony, it would be a dangerous affair with humans warring against each other for control. In the Colony, Josh Holloway stars as Will Bowman who works as a car mechanic in the walled in settlement of Los Angeles ever since the “occupation” by the invading forces. He has a lovely wife named Katie played by Sarah Wayne Callies and has two kids Bram and Gracie. However, he has another kid named Charlie who went missing during the “occupation” who he and his family want back so desperately. Anyways the story in the first season is that Will is recruited by the occupation to work as a spy against the forces of the resistance who reign chaos and threaten the peaceful existence in the settlement. The occupation wants Will because of his past experience as an army ranger and agent on an FBI fugitive task force. Will resists at first but the occupation being represented by Alan Snyder played by Peter Jacobson promises a better life for his family and the chance to get his son Charlie back. Will agrees as he is driven to get back his son at any cost. However there is one complication, Will’s wife, Kate works for the Resistance that Will is working against as a Homeland Security Agent.

     The plot is dense and though it does take a few episodes for the story to become engaging, once it does it really takes off. The characters are well cast with Josh Holloway in the lead bringing in a sense of humanization to his role. Sarah Wayne Callies is terrific as Bill’s deceitful wife who still looks after him and Peter Jacobson as the slimy political Alan Snyder. Kate’s main connection to the Resistance lies with Broussard played by Tony Kittles who does a great job of portraying a man deeply devoted to his cause. It is interesting to watch the character dynamics between Kate and him as their relationship is built on trust and Broussard isn’t a man who trusts easily. This makes for great conflict between Kate and Will which drives the story forward. At Will’s place of work at Homeland Security Will works alongside Beau played by Carl Weathers. Beau is a former Chicago cop who works unenthusiastically for the occupation. He helps to ground the show but does feel a bit like a plot device as he goes along with Will’s ideas about how to do the job without much pullback. One other weak link in the cast would be Will’s son Bram played by Alex Neustaedter who seems to follow the cliche model of teen sons on a lot of TV shows these days in that he has issues with his dad and he is working to fight the forces of evil without his father’s knowing which comes off slightly annoying and underdeveloped. However, the cast does really strongly support the theme of moral gray areas really well despite any weak links in the cast.

     Typically on TV shows, you have the good guy and the bad guy or as it is more elegantly termed the protagonist and the antagonist. In this season the good guys are not necessarily the good guys and the bad guys aren’t necessarily the bad guys. Moral gray areas play a strong role here as both sides the occupation and the Resistance have goals and both are willing to go to any lengths to achieve those goals. The occupation paints the Resistance as a reckless force that endangers innocents and threatens peace and the Resistance finds the occupation to be in the wrong for forcing them into submission within the settlement. The writers keep you on your toes since as soon as you have one side painted as the good guys, the side to root for that side does something evil and drives conflict in your brain. If anything the only true antagonist is the leaders of the occupation that we never meet onscreen. The writers also do a phenomenal job of shrouding the origin of the invasion in mystery and referring to the event of the end of their freedom with a powerful single line.


    The Colony is an exciting often times engaging show that in its first season explores powerful themes such as moral gray areas, deceit, and trust. There is a great world building aspect here as the writers elegantly construct a world unknown to the audience and don’t explain all of it too quickly to allow the element of mystery to really play out. Overall the first season of the Colony is a great show that benefits from its lead star Josh Holloway greatly and the mystery and conflict-filled plots from the writers. I am assigning season 1 of The Colony a score of a B+.

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