This show was at best, mediocre. The premise was interesting. A reformed thief is framed for murder and discovers that a race of aliens were using him in an experiment to test humans in preparation for an invasion. One of the executive producers was Francis Ford Coppola. The Sci-Fi Channel picked it up for three seasons right from the start. This show had a lot of promise, but it was all for not.
Most of the episodes focused on rooting out individual experiments, but rarely tackled the big picture, the impending invasion, head on. The series was decent, but it appeared to be stuck in neutral most of the time. At the beginning of the third season, they attempted to bring swift changes with the introduction of Jordan, played by Traci Lords, the leader of an underground resistance movement, but they were unable to get the jump start they were hoping for.
There are some series that, despite short runs, make an impact on the audience. The original Star Trek is the best example of that. However, now that the third and final season of First Wave is over, the series will quickly fade into the background. It was an OK series, but it just couldn't get over the hump.