New V series debuts with a C+ [V]

V promo poster courtesy of ABC

Last night, the new science fiction series V debuted on ABC.

I’m proud to be of a certain age, so I remember the original V miniseries quite well. To say that it had an effect on me is an understatement. I was already a self-proclaimed science fiction nerd by the time the show aired in 1983. V, however, did something very different. It brought outer space to Earth in an apocalyptic-type event.

So, it has been with great anticipation that I have waited for this series to come to television. I’ll admit, I had some trepidation, but I always give a new TV series a chance – especially when it’s science fiction.

So, how did last night’s debut of V do on the FilmGuru-a-meter? I’d give it a solid 6 out of 10. It was about what I expected. Not great, but not horrible either.

SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now!

My high school forensics teacher, Mrs. Shipley, always told us to start with something positive. So let me begin by saying that the new series has a good cast. I’m happy to see Elizabeth Mitchell, Joel Gretsch, Morris Chestnut, Morena Baccarin, and Alan Tudyk in this show, especially in roles that I wouldn’t have picked for them. I’m not convinced that the full range of their abilities is being utilized, but it was only one episode. I hope they can rise above their thin characters.

As for the problems V has, let’s begin with pacing. An informal poll of my co-workers this morning confirmed what I had already suspected; the show seemed rushed. Everyone thought the show did nothing to set up the characters before the action began. It was as if the writers thought “You all know this story, so let’s get right to it.”

The story begins with the day the Visitors arrive. We get a quick glimpse around New York so that we can identify a few people. There’s Erica the FBI agent (Mitchell) and her son Tyler (Logan Huffman), Father Jack (Gretch), anchorman Chad (Scott Wolf), and the soon-to-be engaged Ryan (Chestnut).

All hell breaks loose as alien ships arrive all over the globe. Next thing we know, Anna’s (Baccarin) face is beaming down at us from the mothership telling us, “We are of peace. Always.”

And that’s how things went for the entire episode. It’s as if they wanted to hit several things in the first episode, but only had one hour to do it. (Really, ABC? Would it have killed you to give it a 2-hour premiere?) So, in one episode we need to introduce:

• the Visitors are here for our water and other minerals
• the Visitors offer to provide universal health care in exchange for our resources
• the Visitors are co-opting the media by making Chad their public relations guy
• the Visitors’ “Peace Ambassador Program” is a way of indocrinating our youth
• there is a resistance to the aliens (although why is unclear)

Instead of carefully setting up the characters and the storyline, the show rushes through the set up to get to that punchline we all knew was coming: the Visitors are really reptilian! This discovery was actually downplayed in favor of the bigger reveal: the Visitors have been on Earth for years, secretly leading us on a destructive path.

This brings up a couple of good questions that I would like to see explored in future episodes. First, does it matter that the Visitors don’t look like us? It seems a bit bigoted in the new millennium to assume that the Visitors are good because they look like us or that they’re evil because they don’t.

The truth is far more complex. There are good Visitors and bad Visitors. And what they look like shouldn’t be an issue. Sure, they’re carnivorous. But so are we (vegans and vegetarians aside). But as long as they don’t go munching on my friends and family, I don’t have a problem with lizard aliens.

And, more importantly, let’s discuss the implication of the second big revelation. Are the show’s writers suggesting that all terrorism is an alien threat? I certainly hope not. I can see the Visitors utilizing our own human failings (greed, hatred, lust, etc.) to destroy us, but let’s be clear — humanity is more than capable of exterminating itself without any help.

In the end, I liked V enough to keep watching. I’ll give the series a few more shows to get the pacing and storytelling problems worked out. In the end, it only has to beat out a multitude of marginal shows to make it onto my watch list.

After all, I stuck with Smallville for 6 seasons.