Colony (TV series)

Lore & Background

The series is set in a dystopian near-future Los Angeles under military occupation by the Transitional Authority, which serves an extraterrestrial group called the Hosts. The Hosts are an alien robotic race that came to Earth to use humans as allies and labor in their own battle. The Authority enforces policy via militarized police called Homeland Security, nicknamed Redhats for their red helmet covers. The Hosts took control on the Arrival, which began with a permanent global blackout and mass technological failure, followed by massive rectangular blocks descending from the sky to build walls dividing cities and nations. One such wall, 20 to 30 stories tall, surrounds central Los Angeles, with other walls around neighboring blocs forming a colony. The invasion scale is worldwide, as later scenes show Authority members from around the world.

Reader's Guide

Colony was conceived by executive producer Carlton Cuse as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation, and co-creator Ryan Condal stated they were inspired by Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII, where people continued daily life while officers marched along the roads. The series explores themes of collaboration, resistance, and survival under an alien regime. It features a resistance movement called both the Resistance and the Insurgency, alongside an informal barter-based black market. The show's cancellation after three seasons on July 21, 2018, ended its exploration of these themes. The series is notable for its detailed depiction of occupation, including shoot-on-sight curfews, forced disappearances, electronic surveillance, and Host-provided drone aircraft capable of lethal attacks. The Hosts deem chronic medical problems unworthy for treatment to cull the population and eradicate weakness, as strong humans are needed for off-world labor.

Did You Know?

• The series was promoted with a game-like website before its online preview release.
• The symbol of collaborating forces features stylized birds of prey, giving rise to the nickname 'Raps'.
• The Factory, a slave labor location, is later revealed to be on Earth's moon to mine radioactive materials.

The Architecture of Occupation

In the world of Colony, a near-future Los Angeles has been carved into sealed districts by colossal rectangular blocks that descended from the sky during an event the survivors simply call the Arrival. These walls, standing twenty to thirty stories high and stretching for miles, encircle the city's core and partition it into what residents call blocs, collectively forming a colony. The occupying force, the Transitional Authority, operates on behalf of an extraterrestrial species known as the Hosts. Their militarized police, the Redhats, patrol in black tactical gear with red helmet covers, enforcing shoot-on-sight curfews, random identity checks, and strict rationing of food and fuel through heavily guarded gateways. Surveillance is omnipresent, from hidden cameras to lethal drone aircraft launching from hangar bays embedded in the walls. Chronic illnesses have been declared unworthy of treatment, a deliberate culling strategy. A barter-based black market thrives in the cracks, and a resistance movement—called both the Resistance and the Insurgency—fights back against a regime that also enslaves laborers in a facility called the Factory, later revealed to be located on the Moon.

Echoes of Occupation: The Show's Historical DNA

The creative team behind Colony drew explicit inspiration from one of history's darkest chapters. Executive producer Carlton Cuse described the series as a metaphor for France under Nazi occupation, while co-creator Ryan Condal pointed to the specific image of Paris during World War II, where ordinary citizens continued sipping coffee at street-side cafés while armed officers paraded down the boulevards. That juxtaposition of daily life persisting alongside an oppressive foreign power runs through every layer of the show's world. The Transitional Authority mirrors the collaborationist Vichy regime, complete with a privileged class of local elites who serve the occupiers and are despised by their neighbors. The red-helmeted Redhats echo the uniformed enforcers of occupied Europe, while the Resistance and Insurgency parallel the underground networks that risked everything to fight back. Even the Factory, where humans are conscripted into brutal labor, recalls the forced-labor camps of that era. By transposing these dynamics into a science-fiction framework with alien overlords, the writers gave audiences a fresh lens through which to examine the moral compromises, family fractures, and quiet acts of defiance that define any occupied society.

The Bowman Family at the Center of the Storm

The narrative engine of Colony is the fractured Bowman family of Los Angeles. Will Bowman, played by Josh Holloway, is a former Army Ranger and FBI special agent who has 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 coerced into joining the Redhats, threatened that his household will be sent to the Factory if he refuses. His wife Katie, portrayed by Sarah Wayne Callies, harbors a secret of her own: she is a Resistance operative who runs a New Orleans-themed bar called The Yonk as cover. When the truth surfaces, the couple finds themselves on opposite sides of the occupation, cautiously trading intelligence. Their teenage son Bram discovers a passage beneath the wall and aligns himself with a rival resistance faction, while their young daughter Gracie remains a symbol of what the family is fighting to protect. Katie's sister Maddie and Resistance operative Eric Broussard, a former Marine Force Recon and CIA paramilitary operator who infiltrates the Redhats, round out the ensemble navigating this high-stakes family drama.

From Game-Like Premiere to Cancellation

Colony's path to broadcast was anything but conventional. The ten-episode first season debuted with an online preview of the pilot on USA Network's website on December 15, 2015, preceded by the launch of an interactive, game-like promotional website designed to immerse potential viewers in the show's world before the broadcast premiere on January 14, 2016. Created by Carlton Cuse and Ryan J. Condal, the series found a steady audience on the cable network, and in April 2017, USA Network greenlit a third season. That final installment premiered on May 2, 2018, bringing back the core cast including Peter Jacobson as the self-serving Proxy Governor Alan Snyder and Amanda Righetti as Maddie Kenner. However, the run was short-lived. On July 21, 2018, just two months after the third season began airing, USA Network announced the cancellation of Colony, ending the series after three seasons and leaving the Bowman family's story unresolved. The show's relatively brief lifespan on the air, despite its ambitious world-building and star power, marked a notable case of a well-received sci-fi drama not finding a long-term home on cable television.