William Shatner spoofs/punks a whole midwestern town, (Riverside, Iowa, aka: the birth place of his Star Trek character, Captain Kirk) who think he is in town to shoot a big-budget, action-adventure film.

Let me state for the record that I am not a fan of Reality-TV, in fact I find it to be hurting Television more than helping it for the most part. I was eager to see this 10 episode Reality show about a Hollywood crew that goes to a small town and pretends to be filming a movie, getting the town not only excited but involved but mainly because of William Shatner and not that I am a huge fan or anything but for the fact that he is so over the top most of the time I figured this at least had to be mildly entertaining. What I got was something I was not prepared for, this is a show that as it moves along and the crew becomes more involved with the residents and the more they care about them the more they begin to worry about how these good people will take the fact that there really isn't a film at all and that they have been tricked into believing it for a reality show. William Shatner and his crew must get some of the locals to play small roles in the "film" as well as other spots on their staff and the most important thing was to not once give them a reason to believe that the movie isn't real. I got to be honest the film they are are pretending to make is so bad I cannot see how they kept it a secret for the entire time. What made this different than other shows like it was that fact that they were not just going to punk one person here, this is a town full of good people that really believe in and respect the entire crew and the crew had to give them the same treatment or this could of really been a disaster. Instead of the feared disaster what I did find was a Two-Disc DVD set that I just could not take my eyes off of, as the episodes move along and the plot thickens you being to feel for these people more and more as they let us into their lives. I am not going to go any deeper into what happens because I do not want to spoil it for anyone but I can say that this is a remarkable, original show that set the benchmark for Reality TV, you just are not going to find any better than Invasion Iowa. A unique series and a one time deal since something like this could never be done again because the cat is out of the bag but I think that it is best not attempted again and this is classic Television as its best. I am not going to even recommend renting this but instead I highly recommend owning this, the final episodes are so personal and full of raw emotion that I was brought to tears a few times. Do yourself a favor and don't miss out on this fantastic series and bravo to Mr. Shatner and everyone else involved. Released by Echo Bridge Entertainment. ***** Out Of *****