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.
Alien Nation was a great show. I remember one episode where there was a group of alien "leaders" who kept emphasizing their alien cultural heritage and encouraging them to hold on to it and resist assimilating with the human lifestyle. They reminded me a lot of some of the Jeremiah Wright crowd that try to encourage the black community to hold on to its african roots and even encourage eschewing "American" styles and wearing more "African" garb. As it turned out, these "leaders" were actually overseers who were trying to return the aliens to their slave status. An accurate parallel to the race-baiter crowd that wants to keep the black community securely and dependently on the democrat plantation.
My question is this. Originally, it was a two part miniseries.
Is this considered a miniseries or is it going to be part of the weekly lineup?
NBC actually did pretty good last year when it started a series called “Fear Itself”.
Kinda Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type stuff. A little Hitchcock-like.
All the episodes were quite good.
So NBC decided to dump the series and put on some other kind of Law and Order or some such rubbish.
Too bad, because it really was well written and acted.
The "New Years Day" episode was one of the best Zombie stories EVER made. The twist at the end was CLASSIC.
Watching Syfy now, the 1st show. LoL...haven’t seen this in 25 yrs...man, oh, man.
I didn't say that the movie Starship Troopers was better than the book. Or, anything like the book. I just liked the flick because it had big explosions and naked women, both in large quantities. :-)
That's how I rate my video entertainment. Mrs. WBill, OTOH, likes movies where people sit around and talk about their feelings, and cry a lot. And Subtitles are a big plus, to her.
We don't go out to the movies much together. lol!
Yeah, but she will ALWAYS be Inara to me.
I’ll be in my bunk.
Hulu has the trailer - http://www.hulu.com/watch/104096/v-a-first-look-at-v
I wonder if this particular theme will be repeated in the new version?
The Nazi's blamed the Jewish people for German society's problems. They were a convenient target, because they were already marginalized in many areas. If another group of people were more suitable for that purpose, I have no doubt that the Nazi's would have blamed them instead.
It was a propaganda device to focus hostility on someone else and take credit for eliminating them. Clinton did the same thing in the 80's after Oklahoma City: blaming the "right wing militias".
The original "V" substituted "scientists", in an effort to discredit those that were questioning whether the alien's intent was benign. When resistance arose, the aliens (and the Nazi's) needed someone to blame, because you wouldn't want the populace to think it might be a "regular person" like them.
I'm looking forward to the series premiere tonight. I'm really curious if vilify a different group of people (and who it might be).
I'll suggest a few more, if you can find the original images:
We have the DVR all set up for it, tonight. The old series has been running on the SyFy channel the last few days. I caught part of one of the episodes.
LOL! That's one of my favorite lines in the entire series.
Heh, maybe the writers thought they were being clever, and making a comment about Republicans. That makes the parallels all the more interesting, since they SO perfectly reflect Obama and his gang.
Election results come first.
sw
Nope, they knew exactly what they were doing.
They just tied the "Visitors" to Universal Health Care.
It was a "holy crap!" moment for me.
I now understand why ABC is "upset about the direction".
No spoilers!! We’re DVRing it so we don’t have sit through commercials. I’m enjoying watching the election returns from Virginia!!
For me it was like I remember all the characters, I forgot most of the deeper plotlines beyond the Visitors controlling the earth.
After watching the pilot episode I would expect that if the writers truly said they didn't intend to target Obama then it was said with a "wink and a nod"...
Cuz a blind man could see the intended target of the writers and the target's name is Barry Hussein!
It is those of us who've actually read Heinlein, who decry what Hollyweird did to "Starship Troopers". Any of his works is definitely worth a read, and are largely available still, so go ahead and do so. My personal recommendation, which I strongly opine should be required reading by everyone, is "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"...
the infowarrior
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