Posted on 11/03/2009 7:47:46 AM PST by Sir Gawain
'Don't be frightened,' beautiful alien leader Anna (Morena Baccarin) tells the adoring press corps on V. 'We mean no harm.'
V, 8-9 p.m. Tuesday, WPLG-ABC 10
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: ``Why don't you show some respect?!!'' The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: ``Embracing change is never easy.''
So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?
Welcome to ABC's V, the final, the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors.
``We're all so quick to jump on the bandwagon,'' observes one character. ``A ride on the bandwagon, it sounds like fun. But before we get on, let us at least make sure it is sturdy.''
The bandwagon in this case is conspicuously saucer-shaped. V starts with the arrival of a couple of dozen ships from outer space, piloted by creatures who look like humans except a lot prettier. ``Don't be frightened,'' says their luminously beautiful leader Anna (Morena Baccarin, Serenity). ``We mean no harm.''
The aliens -- who quickly become known as Vs, for visitors -- quickly enthrall their wide-eyed human hosts with their futuristic technology (they set up a chain of medical clinics and promise ``to provide medical services to all'') and their mushy we're-all-brothers political rhetoric, the latter tinged with faint reproach.
``Unlike you, we don't divide ourselves into countries,'' Anna explains. ``We're all one united people.''
A handful of dissidents holds out against the rapturous reception given the Vs. Some are simply uneasy, such as the youthful priest Father Jack (Joel Gretsch, The 4400), who sharply criticizes the Vatican's embrace of the Vs as divine creations: ``Rattlesnakes are God's creatures, too.''
Others range from Internet rabble-rousers to incipient terrorists. FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost), in pursuit of the latter, infiltrates the anti-V underground -- only to discover that the skeptics are right: The aliens' munificent friendship is literally only skin deep. And the skull beneath this skin is very, very hungry.
V, an ambitious remake of a 1980s NBC show, in many respects stays close to the original's story line. What has changed -- radically -- is the political subtext. Kenneth Johnson, who wrote and directed the 1983 miniseries (it spawned a sequel and then a regular network series over the next two years), took his inspiration from a 1935 Sinclair Lewis novel called It Can't Happen Here that depicted an imaginary fascist takeover of the United States. The aliens in the original V were patterned after Nazis, and, just in case anyone missed the point, an elderly Jewish character who was a Holocaust survivor periodically hammered on the similarities.
But ABC's series takes aim not at a German dictator from the misty past but a sitting -- and popular -- U.S. president. From the fawning reaction of the news media (sample press-conference question to V leader Anna: ``Is there such a thing as an ugly visitor?'') to the recruiting of human supporters into an alien front group that could easily be mistaken for ``community organizing,'' the parallels to Obama are unmistakable.
The anti-V underground, in its frustrated insistence that the aliens have a covert agenda, resemble nothing so much as the anti-Obama teabaggers. And even the president's repeated attempts to suborn Republicans into making his program bipartisan get a scorching reference.
``Compromising one's principles for the greater good is not a shameful act,'' a V leader reassures an erstwhile opponent who's just been bought off. ``It's a noble one.''
But enjoying V does not require an official membership card in the birther movement, any more than you had to accept H.G. Wells' belief that the British class system would devolve into chaos and cannibalism to be entertained by the war between the delicate Eloi and the voracious Morelocks in The Time Machine.
With or without the political sheen, V is sweeping television storytelling at its best. Whether you choose to view it as a blood-and-guts war story, a spy thriller (unlike the original show, these Vs are perfect replicas of humans, so you never really know who might be sitting beside you at the bar), a high-stakes family drama (as households divide over the intentions of the Vs), a religious allegory (the Vs make a crippled man walk, filling up churches again) or just a sci-fi throwback to the days of Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and The Thing, V is irresistible. This bandwagon is definitely worth jumping on.
I think they started filming it before the election, so its kind of hard to say its anti-Obama.
Will give it a try. Sounds good.
"Popular"????
On what planet?
Planet Media Echo Chamber...
Must remember to set Tivo when I get home tonight. Forgot to set it :(. Not sure yet if hulu is going to carry this or not.
“V” inherently has fascistic themes,
and the comparisons are obvious. They just can’t be helped.
I would suggest if the left/Obama doesn’t like what they see in the mirror, stop being fascists.
Here we go again with the “teabagger” term.
We really need to send the media a message about that.
Alien chick: Don't ask any questions that would portray us negatively.Ask tough questions and get eliminated from the press pool.Reporter: I'm afraid I don't have a choice.
Alien chick: This interview is now canceled.
I liked the original, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the remake.
Esp with Morena Baccarin. So purty....
I agree.
Geez... give away the whole plot. I understand us Generation Xers know who the Visitors really are but I bet there are of lot of younger people who don’t.
Arguing it only does one thing and that is solidifying it.............keep up the fight for the country, let the homo term die on its own vine.
“Embracing change is never easy”
Just wait. The Visitors will be the good guys — or at least morally equivalent.
Tolkein once said to those who claimed that “The Lord of the Rings” had a messianic message that there is a difference between allegory and applicability. While Tolkein never intended any Messianic parallels in his book, “Lord of the Rings” certainly has a story line that is applicable to or parallels the story of Christ. (C.S. Lewis talked him into admitting that the two stories were quite similar later on in Tolkein’s life.) So, the writers of “V” may not have intended to target Mr. Obama, the story is most certainly applicable to our current political situation. It should be interesting to see the Obama Administration’s reaction to this series.
Well I sent him an email:
I think the script and filming of V might have started before the election last year?
I am not sure about it being a commentary on President Obama. Maybe the fact that there are similarities with such a facist group as the V’s is what tells us something about this government. I doubt its intentional on the part of the makers, maybe it is intentional on the part of this administration?
By the way writers who use the term “teabaggers” discredit themselves for any pretense of impartiality.
Just fold the newspaper already.
Floyd
In the original the “V” was the resistance symbol for Victory.
How about we start calling our opposition “Teabagees”, maybe they’ll stop the teabagger nonsense then?
You can't possibly do a show about a covert takeover of humanity without having parallels to the Bama. The Obamanation just can't stand looking in the mirror.
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