Hollywood has sometime ago abandonded any pretense at trying to create anything new. Movies have rehashed even the least interesting of television shows, and even some of the more obscure comic books. So it is no surprise that television would follow in this trend. At least it's not yet another "reality" program.
V is basically a story of aliens that come to Earth. They appear as good guys, they help us with issues ranging from disease to feeding the world. They do all this just out of the goodness of their hearts. And billions of people, plus their Governments, fall in line to almost worship there aliens. Plus they look just like us!
Then we learn that all is not as shiny and gold as it appears. The aliens have sinister plans. They have the book, How To Serve Man. Thus a small group try to fight to remove the aliens.
How all of this will be played out on ABC today is another question. Likely there will be massive changes. The original had huge references to the growth of the Nazi Party. They hit upon issues like natural resources, freedom, and quality of life. I doubt any of that will be in the revisioned remake.
The first clue to what may happen is the fact that this seems to be planned as a television series. So it will not hold the same punch as the original episodes did. Add to that the fact that many of the main characters have been changed (like the lead becoming a single woman with a child instead of a man and a child). Plus the nature of the media to spin political rhetoric is far more abundant today than then, so be prepared to see a flood of pro-liberal imagery.
Early reviews state
"E! Online rated the pilot episode "on a scale of 1 to 10, we give it an 11. V is the best pilot we've seen in, well, forever." The website Seat42F rated the pilot episode A+, applauding its cast and effects and naming it one of the best pilots in years. USA Today's Robert Bianco named V on his list of the top ten new shows, stating that the remake is well-made and "quickly establishes its own identity."
Pretty good reviews for a remake. Which means either the reviewers are like many watching tv now, and never saw the original or television has gotten so bad that anything above mundane is exceptional. I tend to believe both will be accurate.
The cast will include:
• Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans
• Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols
• Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry
• Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie Stevens
• Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans
• Morena Baccarin as Anna, the leader of the Visitors
• Laura Vandervoort as Lisa, a Visitor
• Scott Wolf as Chad Decker, a reporter
Chestnut and Wolf are probably the best know of the whole cast. So who knows if the acting will be good.
Overall I find revisioned television shows, and movies, to generally be inferior to the originals they copy. Writers generally change the best aspects of the original and destroy the intent. Directors focus on trivial or far less interesting aspects of the original. And it's really bad news when a director, with the writers, decide that they found a way to improve on the original (ie. Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky & Hutch, Battlestar Galactica, ect).
Will V become a sensation? Can it provide the impact and drama that caused the original to be a massive hit? Will even I be interested enough to watch broadcast television again?
Probably not. But the premiere might be worth watching. For those that never saw the original it will likely be fantastic, for those that have boredom may ensue. I'd like to be wrong, but I doubt it. Odds are 3 - 1 that it does not get renewed.
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