When I watch a sci-fi show, I generally keep an eye out for the 8 critical factors all good sci-fi must have. They are:
When all of these elements exist and are done well you get Star Wars (episode 4), Star Trek (the original), Blade Runner, and Battlestar Galactica (the original) to name a few frfom movies and television. When they are not, you get Quark - exactly, no one even remembers the show.
The heavily revisioned V loses on originality. But it does ok on sound, visuals, acting and special effects. Just ok, not great or awesome. There is nothing impressive there. (though Morena Baccarin does look good as Anna)
As for obeying the rules, let me clarify. In every sci-fi film or movie, the beginning is critical. In the first 5 - 10 minutes almost every rule of the world or universe being displayed are provided. If there are lasers, if there are superheroes, if a person can control magnetisim or bounce bullets off their chest. The keys to all of what follows are set up immediately, and can only be added on in that context. The Alien vs. Predator movies come to mind as examples of what happens when the rules get broken. You get a crap product.
In this revisioned V series, the rules are still not clear. The aliens have interstellar travel capabilities, look human, are reptillian. They have superior technology and a massive amount of information about Earth. And that's about all we know.
The writing, as well as the plot, is stiff. It all sounds pretty close to right, but not quite. It's almost what you might expect people to say, but not really. Of course that could just be because this is the pilot episode so the creative juices and character development has yet to take place.
The biggest problem I have is with the plot. It jumps all over the place. It skips past vital information. It is obvious in its path and observation. It's slow paced to the point of boredom. It is unengaging, unless you compare it to American Idol - but watching paint dry could be compared in the same way.
Plus there are problems. Lots of them. Some becuase I am old enough to have seen the original, some just intrinsic to this version.
We see that the entire program has been feminized. Which clues us in right from the start that this will be a PC program. Get ready for the political messages as entertainment.
As I guessed all the male characters have major issues. All the women characters assuming all the roles of position and power, which is not a bad thing persay except in the original both sexes had power and position for the good and ill of humanity. It's a subtle message, but a political one all the same.
The men are flawed even when we don't see them. The father and ex-husband of FBI agent Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) has abandoned his kid. He is so insensitive that he doesn't even speak with his child when the world changes.
Agent Evans is the overworked, dedicated, mother/father, of a teen that just wants to rebel. You just have to feel for her troubles, don't you? I didn't.
But they are 2 examples of what the show sets up as the dominant theme. Men are weak, women will save them and the world. Aren't we lucky, because being equals just won't cut it.
But we skip from that to a terrorist cell. A group that increases chatter as everyone else is caught off guard as the aliens arrive. Not that anyone panics with 29 (down from 50 - some places in the world just don't count as much as they did 20 years ago) alien ships in the sky. Not that any of the religious fanatics might go bezerk with this new question directly facing them.
But before we get far we already know that Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) has a secret. And we are pretty sure that he is a terrorist, likely an alien as well. They telegraphed that punch, like all of them in the show, from about 3 miles out.
Just as fast we get to see that the media is exactly the sleazy ratings whores that many presume them to be. And we get to see that in yet another sex change from the original.
It just does downhill from there. The jewish family from the original - gone as expected. The connection to Nazi's gone. The V itself is now a positive propoganda symbol instead of a resistance sign. The sympathizer boy remains the same though, even as his future love interest is sex changed, and his charcter is combined with the role of the girl that was too dumb to appreciate what she was doing.
I was wrong on one critical thing though. There is diversity in this television show. It doesn't rise to the level of the 1980's but it is better than average for 2009. We have A Black man and A Hispanic woman. We even get to see AN Asian woman. Ocassionally we get to see a few people of color in the background, because this is NYC after all. So I did get that much wrong and I am glad they did get it right (in as weak a version as they did).
Still this show pales in comparision to the original. It has gaps in logic, like if the conspiracy group is so smart, why didn't they check out Nichols? How in the hell did they find this out, and why didn't they spread the word sooner? How do they know ALL the plans of the aliens from day one? Why didn't they have a plan in place for when this happened?
2 things that I did find interesting were:
Overall this television series looks to be worse than I had imagined in my preview. It waters down the sci-fi, and the political grandness of the original, to a meaningless and bland waste of time. It supplants PC themes for plot and motives. It berates and lectures at the audience in a quiet and Hollywood-esque manner.
This show won't make it one season I think. It would have to make dramatic and sweeping changes just to make me watch one more episode. This isn't groundbreaking, sci-fi, or even entertaining. It's the result of of a bunch of Hollywood execs trying to save cash and reusing a great idea in a horrible way.
The only way I can see anyone recommending this program is if the only other option is watching any reality television program, or because your television is stuch on ABC and can't be turned off. Or they were paid a big salary.
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