V (reboot) (spoilers)

[david g]

Hi all,
I have finally been going through my DVR of the last few episodes. The show has definitely gotten stronger and sharper...and sometimes it's downright creepy, like the lizard-claws of John May Jr's V girlfriend...

I am curious to know what folks make of the V reboot as a whole? I have heard such negative things around here, but then again ABC renewed it because it did well.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's been very hit-or-miss. There's a good premise in here, but sometimes it seems like they don't know what kind of story they're trying to tell.

 

[flux_29]

I think the show just took some time to find it's feet. But now with the ending and and the arrival of those ships, the "war" is just about to start.

Wished they'd done more to show/talk about other fifth column activity, that wasn't in new york, to only one i can remeber is a scene on an attack on the australia ship.

That said, the ending was a good start for season 2; Lisa is now fifth column, Ryan is converted back to Anna's bliss and Anna has Human emotions.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

I think the show is a bit lame. The characters are 2 dimensional and in a lot of scenes they are just standing around doing nothing. The female cop's son is just a whiny little bitch and it'd be nice to see him get caught in a death ray or something.
I don't how this show can keep going without simply plodding along with the same plotline and dragging it out. I mean, once they defeat the aliens the show is over so they'll just string us along episode after episode.
To be honest, I usually end up nodding off about halfway through each episode.

 

[Starbreaker]

I think the last five or six episodes were really top notch; however, I think the alien ships look absolutely terrible. They're way too fake looking, I can't tell if they're CGI or sets though.

 

[startrekwatcher]

It isn't very good. I thought the first four episodes were meh. Then it seemed after its spring return to be getting better then it soon became obvious that any noticeable improvement in quality was only fleeting since the show fell right back into very stale storytelling with bland main characters, uninteresting alien adversaries in the V owing in no small part to using every old worn out alien MO from a Queen, to suppressing emotion to ruthless soldiers to being curious about emotion. There was no urgency to the narrative, the pacing was sluggish, the reveals underwhelming.

It should have been canned.

 

[auntiehill]

^This. I wanted to like it. I really, really did. But the pacing is completely off. Things that are trivial and unimportant get played out in excruciatingly detail while things that are rather interesting get rushed through along with five other things, as if they were just checking off a list from the scriptwriter.

The lead character is so dull (I don't blame the actress; she was awesome in LOST), it's beyond belief and her son is just downright annoying. There's something rather creepy about it, frankly. He's supposed to be a young adult---17/18 years old---(and looks about 21) but he's written like a 12 year old. He sobs in his mother's arm when his girlfriend dumps him; he sulks and pouts and acts like a complete nitwit with no mind or will (or personality) of his own. It's bizarre.

It really baffles me how a show about lizard aliens invading Earth can be BORING. Sure, it can be good, horribly bad or just plain silly, but BORING??? I didn't think it was possible, but they somehow pulled it off.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's awful. The first four episodes were lame, then they retooled it and it became even stupider. The premise is unfocused and makes no sense. It has none of the thematic weight of the original, but just ineptly copies random elements from it with no rhyme or reason. The cast and characters are drab and unengaging. The virtual sets and compositing are poorly done. The story has no direction and no logic. The main characters are fighting a guerrilla war when they should be fighting a propaganda war, getting out the truth about the Visitors and creating doubt. As such, they're just stupidly making themselves look like the bad guys. Although it's not as if the show has bothered to give any clear idea of just what the Visitors' evil plan is.

The one bright spot in this show is Morena Baccarin. She is captivating here, and has really elevated her acting to a new level. She's the only reason I bothered to watch the whole season.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I was strongly inclined to like it when it debuted - some of the cast is pretty good, and I'm desperate for the kind of sci fi that involves aliens and spaceships rather than cop shows with some sci fi window dressing - but the first few episodes were disappointingly flat.

Then I did notice a distinct improvement. The what's-at-stake got a lot clearer - there was even a scene where Father Jack delineates for the audience what everyone's motive is (I guess the writers felt the sledgehammer approach was warranted) - and the plotting was tighter.

Joel Gresch and Morena Baccarin are good, Morris Chestnut and Logan Huffman are miscast, and I'm not so sure that this is the right role for Elizabeth Mitchell, who is playing Erica too calm, ethereal and Juliet-like when she should be a lot more on edge. I like Scott Wolf but the writers need to sharpen focus on exactly who the character is, and what his deal is. Mark Hildreth as self-sacrificing Joshua is very watchable but underdeveloped so far. Laura Vandervoort is utterly uninteresting unless you care a whole lot about her underwear.

The premise is part of the reason it seems so flat - the V's are obviously evil, the humans are obviously noble, so the only tension is in how the noble humans will overthrow the evil aliens. If there were some way to inject some uncertainty in that formula so that we're uncertain just who exactly is evil or good, the show would seem more alive and less flat and by-the-numbers.

I'll keep watching it for as long as it's on TV, which will be another season at most if we're lucky.

ABC renewed it because it did well.

ABC renewed it to avoid the embarrassment of having to cancel its entire 2009-10 fall lineup. V just sucked less than the rest of their new shows. It was a desperation move and won't help V when it comes time for next season's renewal (if it makes it that far). ABC has a few shows in the class of 2010-11 that might do pretty well and make it a lot less charitable towards the marginal ratings shows.

The main characters are fighting a guerrilla war when they should be fighting a propaganda war, getting out the truth about the Visitors and creating doubt.

Now there's a kernel of a good idea. Let's say Erica & the gang do switch to a propaganda war. Can they count on their fellow humans believing them, when they have such strong motives to discount everything they say as a lie? The aliens are curing people's diseases and offering free energy. Erica & the gang aren't offering any of that. No doubt the V's are making very powerful friends in government and business who might not even care whether their motives were pure, as long as the V's remember to take care of their loyal human buddies. A propaganda war could backfire badly, but at least it would inject some uncertainty and newness into the procedings.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Laura Vandervoort is utterly uninteresting unless you care a whole lot about her underwear.

Actually those underwear along with Baccarin's performance are just about the only things worth something in this show.

 

[nx1701g]

Laura Vandervoort is utterly uninteresting unless you care a whole lot about her underwear.

Actually those underwear along with Baccarin's performance are just about the only things worth something in this show.

So say we all.

I unDVRed it about midway through.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The fact that half the discussion in the show threads centers on Ms. Vandervoort's underwear tells you all you need to know about this show.

 

[nx1701g]

The fact that half the discussion in the show threads centers on Ms. Vandervoort's underwear tells you all you need to know about this show.

I predict that her upcoming brief return to Smallville will be similar.

 

[Jetfire]

^
We can only hope.

 

[Aragorn]

The show V reminded me a lot of is Heroes. Supposedly there's this big huge arc but you don't really feel it because the characters seem too busy with little things that don't ever add up to big things and there's a lot of disconnect between episodes because instead of going from A to B they simply repeat A again. Plus the characters are only as smart as the speed of plot.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

V never has been and never will be as good as S1 of Heroes. Hopefully it will never be as bad as S2-4 of Heroes. It's just stuck in a middling gray range of blandness.

 

[Gepard]

I think it's awful. The first four episodes were lame, then they retooled it and it became even stupider. The premise is unfocused and makes no sense.

A million times this. I don't understand how it got good enough ratings to be brought back – people like this stuff? I know some people who work on the show and even they hate it.

 

[Jack Bauer]

The Vs just don't seem all that much of a threat other than their superior technology. We know they're up to no good but exactly what are they up to. I'm not even sure. I don't feel much of a sense of menace coming from them. Most of the cast is good but the characters are flat and one dimensional. The plots are boring and not well thought out. The special effects aren't that great.

I really loved the original miniseries and even the second one but the remake is dull and lifeless. I missed the first four episodes but saw the recap special that aired after Lost the week before the show came back and it looked like it might be pretty good but after seeing the first two episodes after it's return I realized it wasn't good at all. I watched mainly for3 reasons: I was hoping it would improve , it was on after Lost and I enjoy looking at Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin and Laura Vandervoort. I'll give season 2 a couple of episodes and if it doesn't get any better it's bye-bye V.

 

[bigdaddy]

I just hope the writers know there is no chance it will be getting a third season and that they make the next 13 amazing.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think it's awful. The first four episodes were lame, then they retooled it and it became even stupider. The premise is unfocused and makes no sense.

A million times this. I don't understand how it got good enough ratings to be brought back – people like this stuff? I know some people who work on the show and even they hate it.

It got bad ratings, but ABC's other new shows got worse ratings. It's all relative. I think ABC renewed it as a face-saving move so they wouldn't have to cancel their entire 2009-10 lineup.

I'll keep watching V for as long as it's on (and ABC's 2010-11 lineup, which doesn't look terrible, will most likely ensure its demise). As bad as it is, at least it isn't yet another cop show.

The Vs just don't seem all that much of a threat other than their superior technology.

Expose them to human emotions and their society falls apart at the seams, making them look pathetic and disunified. And how attractive are human emotions, really? Those of us who have them know they're a very mixed bag. They should have had more of that Borg quality, a scary degree of unity and common purpose.