Despite being featured in the first Iron Man movie way back in 2008, Nick Fury has never had his time to shine in the spotlight, as he’s always appeared in supporting roles in the MCU over the years. That finally changes with the release of Secret Invasion, a six-part mini-series on Disney+, which features Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the lead role. It has some issues and I wonder how casual fans will react to the show, but it’s a decent start to this spy show.

Fury is brought back to Earth after spending many years in space on the Saber Space Station, vowing never to return home after Thanos’ blip. But the Skrulls are mobilizing, playing nations against each other in a play to wipe humans from the face of the earth in order to claim it for themselves. Skrulls are shapeshifters, capable of taking on the guise and memories of anyone they encounter. This makes the premise of the show quite interesting, as we don’t really know who we can trust. This is evident from the start, as we see that Agent Ross (Martin Freeman) is revealed to be such a Skrull and is killed off after a botched assignment. We don’t yet know if the version of Ross we’ve known since Civil War has been a Skrull or if he was replaced, but it definitely sets a tone for the series: trust no one.

Tonally, Secret Invasion doesn’t come off as another MCU project, which is a bit of a relief at a time when superhero fatigue seems to be setting in. The tone feels more serious, without a quip in sight and the stacked cast, including Ben Mendohlson, Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke in supporting roles, are all bringing their A-game. The show has a much slower pace than other Marvel properties, but I did think that it could use a jolt here and there.

When there is an action sequence, the show does suffer. Not only is there quick cuts galore, but the obviousness of the stunt doubles took me out of the experience. Not that you can see their faces, but it’s framed in such a way that you can only really see their backs. Maybe it’s a byproduct of watching Extraction 2 so recently, but the hand-to-hand fight scenes really felt like a letdown and it hits harder since this is a spy thriller show. Couple that with the darker cinematography and it can be hard to keep track sometimes of what’s going on. Also, and this isn’t really a knock, more of an observation, but the episode takes place in Moscow but is so clearly filmed in the UK that it made me wonder why not just have the narrative take place in England. I never bought into the illusion of Russia in this episode.

The best part of the episode was the end though, which featured a cat-and-mouse chase sequence. Fury and his team are following agents of Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a Skrull extremist. He plans on detonating bombs in a crowded square and Fury thinks he has the upper hand because Mendelson’s Talos got last-minute intel from his once missing daughter turned fanatic daughter, Gaia (Clarke). But it seems either Gaia betrayed her father or she wasn’t who she seemed to be, as the bags were decoys, the bombs went off and Maria Hill (Cobie Smolder) was killed by Gravik in the guise of Fury. It was great stuff, both in terms of stakes, consequences and tension. Hopefully, the show can tap into that in the remaining five episodes. But I’m intrigued and curious as to where this show goes.