Wednesday, November 04, 2009

V: Pilot: Review

When the original V mini-series came out, I was 8 years old. It had everything I loved. I would fight with my parents about having to go to Cub Scouts and miss the show. I was uncertain about a remake. My main reservation is that we now know the secret that these "visitors" are human eating reptiles (assuming that is kept by the new series). However, I am always up for a good sci fi drama on TV.

I just recently learned that V was originally not supposed to be about reptile aliens. It was written by Kenny Johnson about fascists taking over the USA. Unfortunately, NBC didn't think Americans would understand that. Looking back on the original series, the fascist undertones make perfect sense.



I really enjoyed the new V pilot episode. Maybe my vision of the original show is clouded by 15 years but the new series seemed smarter. So far, the show has already written in key points to embed the sudden appearance by the visitors into our world and our socio-political environment. I paid close attention to any fascist undertones. They are still there but this time the visitors seem more in tune with making themselves outwardly acceptable (less militaristic, more sexy). I was/am a little skeptical of the visitor/terrorism connection but I suppose it is playing to the audience's fears. It has the makings of a strong political sci fi drama.

Ironically, in a Muse/Glenn Back misunderstanding of politics moment, some people are reading V out to be a hostile allegory against Obama. Oh, what will those paranoid White people think of next?

I think one of the strongest choices the new series has made is to forgo any "huzzah!" reveal of the visitors' reptilian-ness. After all, we already knew that was coming this time around. I was annoyed at what felt like overhanded branding with humans immediately referring to the visitors as "The V." The term 'alien' appears nowhere in the entire new series. Why? ABC determined that Americans do not react well to the term 'aliens' and don't like sci fi.

Hopefully, the series will last long enough to grow into what it could be. It is somewhat doubtful given the production problems and ABC's stupid decision to only show four episodes and pull it off the air for about four months!

4 Comments:

Blogger shane said...

more on the Obama thing

12:40 PM  
Anonymous dp said...

im really into Stargate Universe right now and so I have been watching a lot of Syfy lately. I noticed that V regularly consumes a lot of the time blocks during the week. I mean the old V series, after reading this Imma have to check it out.

Are you into any of the Stargate series?

1:51 PM  
Blogger shane said...

I noticed SyFy was playing some of the original series. I didn't want to watch it unless I could start with the first mini-series. Plus, I didn't want to re-watch it right before the new V.

I have been watching Stargate Universe. (Aside from the original series, I never watched any Stargate.) I like the concept and possibility a lot. I am just not sure how long it can keep my interest at the pace it is going.
I think my annoyances can be summed up with the ending of the crash-into-the-sun episode (was it "Light"?). A lot of character development occurred in that episode (primarily between the Captain (or whatever rank he is) and the scientist). Then in one or two sentences, it was all undone at the conclusion. wtf?!

SGU needs some external adversaries- aliens!

2:22 PM  
Anonymous dp said...

So much to our disappointment we did not find there was a new alien villain for this past fridays SGU. I totally agree there should be another outside force, ummm yeah, a malevolent sandlike (because really they are microflies or something) entity just does not quite cut it! haha.

As far as V goes, I guess I am just gonna dive right into it.

Oh yeah, that was me that posted a response to the movie you will not be seeing (the alba one cos I am thinkin you'll prolly see doghouse because you like that danny bloak from football factory huh!) i knew it. haha ;)

3:25 PM  

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