Colony (TV series)

Lore & Background

The series is set in a dystopian near-future Los Angeles, where residents live under a regime of military occupation by the Transitional Authority, which serves an extraterrestrial group called the 'Hosts.' The Hosts arrived on a day known as the 'Arrival,' which began with a permanent global blackout and mass technological failure. Massive rectangular blocks descended from the sky to build walls dividing cities and nations, including a 20-to-30-story wall surrounding central Los Angeles. The Authority enforces Host policy via militarized police called 'Redhats,' and controls movement through heavily secured checkpoints called 'gateways.' A privileged class of collaborators is denigrated by some residents, while a resistance movement—referred to as both the 'Resistance' and the 'Insurgency'—operates in secret.

The plot follows the Bowman family less than a year after the Arrival. Will Bowman, a former FBI agent and retired Army Ranger, reluctantly joins the Redhats to protect his family and find his missing son Charlie. His wife, Katie, is secretly a Resistance operative. Their son Bram discovers a way under the wall and later joins a rival resistance group. The series explores themes of collaboration, resistance, and survival under an oppressive occupation regime.

Reader's Guide

Colony is significant as a television series that uses science fiction to explore historical themes of occupation and collaboration. Co-creator Carlton Cuse stated in a May 21, 2015 interview that the show was 'conceived as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation,' and co-creator Ryan Condal detailed that the original concept was inspired by Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII. The series presents a detailed dystopian society with elements such as rationing, curfews, forced disappearances, electronic surveillance, and slave labor on the moon. Its legacy lies in its allegorical treatment of resistance and complicity under authoritarian rule, though it was cancelled after three seasons. The show's world-building—including the 'Redhats,' 'Hosts,' and the walled 'blocs'—offers a cautionary vision of technological control and societal division.

Did You Know?

• The series was conceived as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation, according to executive producer Carlton Cuse.
• The 'Redhats' are named for the red helmet cover of their otherwise black tactical attire.
• The Hosts are an alien robotic race that came to Earth to use humans as allies and labor in their own battle.
• The series was cancelled on July 21, 2018, after three seasons.

The Occupied World

The series constructs a near-future Los Angeles where an extraterrestrial robotic race—the Hosts—imposed a global occupation in a single catastrophic event called the Arrival. That day opened with a worldwide blackout and the total collapse of existing technology, after which all electronics were replaced with Host-supplied alternatives. The most visible hallmark of the occupation is the wall: a structure twenty to thirty stories high, many meters thick, and stretching for miles, encircling the city's core. Similar walls ring neighboring urban zones called blocs, and together these form what the show terms a colony. Movement between zones is funneled through fortified gateways where the Transitional Authority—the Hosts' human administrative arm—controls the flow of people and rations of food and fuel. The Authority's militarized police, known colloquially as Redhats for their red helmet covers over black tactical gear, enforce curfews, conduct identity checks, and operate under shoot-on-sight orders. Host-launched drones armed with high-energy weaponry patrol from hangar bays embedded in the wall, while hidden cameras provide constant surveillance. The regime also deems chronic illnesses like diabetes unworthy of treatment, a culling strategy to preserve only the physically strong for off-world labor in the Hosts' war.

Roots in Historical Trauma

In a 2015 interview with Collider, executive producer Carlton Cuse described the show as deliberately conceived as a metaphor for France under Nazi occupation. Co-creator Ryan Condal expanded on this in a separate conversation with Entertainment Weekly, explaining that the original spark came from the image of Paris during World War II—ordinary citizens going about their daily routines, sipping coffee at sidewalk cafés, while uniformed officers marched past on the streets. That juxtaposition of mundane normalcy against an oppressive military presence became the emotional and structural backbone of Colony. The series translates that historical tension into a science-fiction framework: the Transitional Authority and its Redhat enforcers occupy the role of the occupying regime, while the local population's quiet survival, barter-based black markets, and the underground Resistance mirror the lived experience of occupied civilians. The collaborators drawn from the local population into a privileged elite class echo the complex moral compromises people made under occupation. This grounding in a specific historical trauma gives the alien invasion narrative a weight and emotional specificity that pure speculative fiction often lacks.

The Bowman Family at the Center

The narrative anchors itself in the Bowman family, a unit torn apart by the Arrival. Will Bowman, played by Josh Holloway, is a retired Army Ranger and former FBI special agent who had been living under the alias Billy Sully Sullivan, working as a truck driver and mechanic. When the alien walls rise and his son Charlie is separated from the family during a school sports trip, Will is forced into an agonizing choice: the Authority threatens to send his household to the Factory—a labor camp later revealed to be on the Moon, mining radioactive materials—unless he joins the Redhats and hunts down Resistance members. His wife Katie, portrayed by Sarah Wayne Callies, operates in secret as a Resistance operative while running The Yonk, a New Orleans-themed bar that serves as a cover. When she finally reveals her true allegiance, the couple enters a tense information-trading arrangement, each feeding intelligence to the other while protecting their shared family. Their teenage son Bram discovers a passage beneath the wall and aligns himself with a rival resistance faction, further fracturing the family's unity.

Production Run and Broadcast History

Colony's launch was marked by an unusual promotional strategy. Before the broadcast premiere on USA Network's January 14, 2016 air date, the network released an online preview of the first episode on its website on December 15, 2015, and rolled out a game-like interactive website designed to immerse potential viewers in the show's world. The series was created by Carlton Cuse and Ryan J. Condal, with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies anchoring the cast. The first season ran for ten episodes. The show earned a renewal for a third season in April 2017, which premiered on May 2, 2018. However, USA Network announced the series' cancellation on July 21, 2018, ending Colony after three seasons. The relatively brief run—spanning roughly two and a half years from premiere to cancellation—meant the story concluded without the extended arc that a longer-lived series might have afforded. The show's distinctive blend of intimate family drama with large-scale dystopian world-building, set against the backdrop of a recognizable Los Angeles, gave it a particular flavor within the crowded science-fiction television landscape of the mid-2010s.