An extraterrestrial race arrives on Earth with seemingly good intentions, only to slowly reveal their true machinations the more ingrained into society they become.
The Truth
‘V’ is a continuation of the 1983 TV series, that was midly successful. I watched the pilot episode on ABC last night with a pretty open mind, I thought the previous series was ok, nothing special.
However, it didn’t take long for me to lose interest in the pilot episode. Was it the apparent over-acting and weak cast? Was it the hype for a series that should never have been remade in the first place? I’m not sure, but V did very little to hold my interest this time around.
I found the character Elizabeth Mitchell plays to be a little too over the top in her role as over-protective FBI mom Erica Evans. I also found the characters generally uninteresting and blah.
Morris Chestnut plays the role of ‘angry black guy who can kick some ass when he has to’ , although we already know he’s a reptilian from day one.
Will the hype be enough to push the series into a successful time slot? I don’t know for sure, but I know one thing.. the pilot episode didn’t leave me craving fore more.
The Action
Corny fighting scenes and little else.
The Effects
I’ll give props when they are due. V had excellent special effects for a TV show, well done. The mother ship looked great.
What’s good about it?
A sexy alien race invading our planet gives us hope for the future.
What’s bad about it?
They want our resources and to exterminate us in the process. The Obama metaphor was also horrible.
“Embrace hope and change, humans! We are just like you! We will bring universal health care, also.”
No pacing. Shoved like 4 episodes into one and just told us everything instead of showing. It was more like crime drama.
You’ll Like ‘V’ It If
Fans of the original series ‘V’ may like it.
What I learned form ‘V’
We are all suckers for a pretty face. Scott Wolf isn’t dead.
The Verdict
I’ll give the series one more chance to gain my interest, until then it wasn’t a memorable pilot episode for ABC, or Tuesday nights.
Related Resources for 'V'
Tags: ABC, Elizabeth Mitchell, Laura Vandervoort, Morena Baccarin, Scott Wolf, TV Science Fiction, TV Show Review
I wasn’t really impressed either..
Sorry, I mean, I was very very un-impressed.
Everyone was saying it was rushed and they tried to fit 4 episodes into 1.. I agree, but even to a further extent, it’s one thing to want to get a whole plot line and a bunch of it’s points into a 1 hour episode, but when it forsakes the atmosphere of the entire hour, then they should not have bothered..
Aside from some of the poor tv series we have right now, I actually believe we are spoilt for great tv series, great writing, great direction, and great production..
So a lot of people will feel very let down with how un-impactful this pilot was..
Honestly I think it could have gone down better if the ENTIRE episode did nothing but introduce you to the characters, made you actually care about the city and the few main characters in it, have some empathy for their lives and situation,,, THEN in the final minute of the show bring in the aliens, and make you have some tension about how they will be received and how it will affect the characters/the entire world!!…. End episode 1…
Perfect..
Instead they pile in about 30 plot points, building this entire gigantic scenario, and at the same time do an absolute extraordinary job of making you not care about any of it…
It was almost as if they just assumed everyone had seen the original so there was no surprising anyone, so lets just get the whole story out the way like it’s a formality, then build tension in a few plot points that we choose..
Hello, visitors coming to the planet is probably the biggest plot point the series could have, and it was made out like just a quirky neighbor coming over and asking for carrot flavored coffee…
If you can’t get any drama or tension out of a gigantic space ship hovering over a major US city, then that alone shows the writers are on the completely wrong track…
Really really really poor.. I understand the story they are trying to get out from the original series, but clearly spared absolutely no thought for how it is received by someone watching… And have no understanding about how to build tension or suspense.. Telling a story is one thing, entertaining and drawing someone into the story is another… They missed the mark entirely on the latter..
I really wanted to like this show, but it was a large fail for me.. I’ll watch episode 2 to see if it was just the pilot they got completely wrong, but regardless, they already spoilt a really great first impression that they COULD have made..
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admin Reply:
November 13th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Great analysis of the series John, thanks for contributing your thoughts on the V series. It seems they threw this out there with not enough thought about time constraints.
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