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Back in 1984, it was fashionable with my goofy eighth-grade friends to refer to each other as the “V” baby, as in the half-human, half-alien, all gross and reptilian off-spring born in NBC’s space invaders mini-series. It was this disgusting, scaly thing which made it both repellent and irresistable to middle schoolers, along with everyone else.
I don’t know if an updated version of the “V” baby will be featured in ABC’s new take on the story, but if it did, it could only stand to ratchet up the excellent creepy tension that laces Tuesday’s premiere. It’s got all the essentials – the hot but mildly menacing leader Anna (Morena Baccarin, the space hooker from Joss Whedon’s cult-tastic “Firefly”), the burgeoning resistance led by skeptical FBI agent Erica (“Lost”‘s Elizabeth Mitchell), a human flunky (“Party of Five”‘s Scott Wolf as a guilible reporter) and a Visitor double agent who’s changed his mind about the invastion (Morris Chestnut, of “Boyz N The Hood,” “The Best Man”). “Firefly” alum Alan Tudyk also makes an impression as Erica’s FBI partner – I do love a good Tudyk sighting.
As Wolf’s clueless reporter Chad points out, all of the Visitors are attractive, because who’s going to be lulled into eager submission by ugly aliens? Ugly aliens gotta just go straight to murderous and start blowing stuff up. You attract a lot more stupid human flies with honeys than with murder. You heard it hear first, folks. I love the scene where Anna taps into Chad’s ego, career obsession and interest in hot women by insisting that he don’t ask any questions that might paint the V in a negative light. Oh, fictional TV shows. Making journalism look so good.
So far, I’m liking this show – already, there’s a mood of uneasy tension, even as the Visitors recruit humans to hang out and spread their gospel of peace and brotherhood. Yeah, right. Anyone who believes that, raise your hand. Until an alien wearing lizard skin under his human flesh bites it off, that is. Oh, y’all are gonna be sorry!
Like “Lost” and “Fast Forward,” ABC is banking on the fact that viewers are going to be invested enough in “V” to watch it every week and get involved in its serial-like labryinth of plot and character development. I think it’s a good bet, particularly for those of us who’ve given up on “Lost” (yeah, I know, true believers. I need to give it a chance again. I’ve heard that before.)
I’m not gonna recap this episode yet, because I imagine there will be some TiVoing going on, and because I don’t wanna ruin it for anyone. So, look for that recap tomorrow, so I don’t get yelled at as the Spoiler Monster.
I will ask what you guys think. So…what do you think?
I struggled with the pilot because I’m still replaying the original in my mind. I kept trying to match the storyline/characters with the original. Overall it felt a little rushed or forced. Without giving away spoilers, I liked the big “reveal” re: two characters at the end.
Morena as Anna is going to be intense and I’m looking forward to her character – gives me the shivers.
I’ll be watching, because I loved the original series and I want this retelling to be just as good.
I liked this first episode. It was entertaining, and the hour went by fast. I’ll be watching.
hahaha!!! I remember calling other kids the V-Baby too! Hilarious! Something from my childhood that I totally forgot. As for the V reboot… are they not promoting this thing at all?! I didn’t even know that it already started. I saw a little mention of it while watching the Scream awards but, that was it. Dammit, I missed the first episode.
I missed it too………does anyone know if the first episode will be re aired before next Tuesday (South Carolina asking?)
Please, you go way too easy on them. Here’s five reasons the reimagined V sucked:
First, it left no suspense, revealing so much, so quickly it looked anxiously rushed the whole time, like the actors just wanted to hurry up and get the plot out of the way as soon as possible.
Second, one of the most moving scenes of the original V was a Holocaust survivor showing teenagers to spray paint V …for Victory… over fascistic propaganda posters. The new V has the FBI mom of the alien-sympathizing teenager find a ten second clip of him spray painting V on a wall…for Visitor, in support of the aliens. Totally misses the point.
Third, the transparent “universal health care” = evil alien plot allegory for Obama’s “hope” and “change” agenda, made in an attempt to seem relevant and controversial, is weak, low, ignorant and unnecessary. We’ve got alien reptiloids who want to eat us and steal our water, who are disguised to look like humans. I know, let’s make them Democrats too.
Fourth, the two main heroes of the original V were a journalist-cameraman and a doctor. The heroes of the new V are an FBI agent and suspiciously 9/11 Truther-like militia leader (“Wake up, sheeple! Aliens have taken over our government…it’s an inside job!”). Also, the “FBI agent exposing government cover-ups about aliens by siding with fringe types” was done to death with the X-Files. Knock it off.
Last, they made the main black hero the secret alien? And revealed it in the first episode? Weak…
The new V has no comparable “moral to the story” that the original V had. Better effects, better wardrobe, hotter actors, but the new storyline feels like a predictable setup with no suspense and no reason to watch it — except that it is cool to look at it. No thanks.
Any show with Inara and Wash from Firefly is alright with me. Now we just have to find roles for Kaylee (Jewel Staite) and River (Summer Glau)…
…All fond Firefly reminisces aside, I enjoyed the pilot. It had the right mixture of tension,action and humor. If it continues along these lines, it has a chance to improve upon the original, which, though great for its time, has not aged well (no shame; neither have “The A-Team”, “The Fall Guy” or “TJ Hooker”, though Heather’s aged QUITE nicely…). Keep it up, “V”, and you will have a regular Tuesday night visitor!!
ABC isn’t really going out of its way to convince me that the show will be fresh enough to keep me interesed. Judging from the clips and promos as well as last night’s premiere episode, this new V looks like a pretty faithful remake. Updated yes, but still, all last night I was thinking, “I’ve seen this already and I know what’s going to happen.” Also, V’s cast and crew are on record saying they will “take the most iconic moments [from the original V] and make sure they do service to them.” Where is the line these days between homage and straight up copycatting? And where’s the originality in this show? Haven’t seen a lot yet.
I was hoping that this would just be a straight-up remake of the original mini-series….. much more updated for 2009, of course. Instead, there’s no Diana, no Mike Donovan, no Juliette.
It’s completely new characters, and a “sleeper cell” story line. I know now (from reading it somewhere?) that it’s a “re-imagining” of the original. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I prefer the original story line. Yes, the special effects in this new one are MUCH better. Especially what little I’ve seen of how the V’s look under their human skin. And the space ships hovering over the cities look a little more realistic than the cheesy spaceship/back-drop back in 1983. Other than that, I’m not too impressed yet. I saw the first episode, missed the second one, but managed to remember to Tivo the 3rd and 4th one. I’m catching up now. There’s no time like an extended Thanksgiving Holiday to catch up on evil repitilian sleeper cell aliens. There’s only so much football I can watch!
I’m just worried that when and if I do become more interested, the show may somehow end up cancelled. Kind of like the t.v. show Invasion. Just as THAT alien story line started to get interesting…. it was done. Bummer.