V: 1x01 "Pilot" 11/3/2009 - Grading & Discussion

[Star Wolf]

^Yeah, but you figured that out minutes after Praetor posted. Why didn't anyone on the show figure that out?

That's the problem with the rush job. they did figure it out. That is how the resistance leader already knew they were lizards and had counter strategies to find infiltrators. He also had contact with 5th column Visitors, aliens who presumably have been in place for decades, enough time to become FBI agents and high level bankers..

Somebody mention UFO, the series, on a guitar message board I frequent. The resistance professionals, the modern version of the Michael Ironside character must come from something like the Ed Styker commanded SHADO. Some force that has for years been battling the Visitors. So far we haven't seen any official government reaction, just a FBI agent from the FBI/NYPD counter terrorist force. Maybe the government has known for years.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Premiere got pretty good ratings: 8:00 p.m. ABC – V (series premiere) Viewers: 13.76 million (#2), A18-49: 4.9 rating/13 share (#1) 8:30 p.m. ABC – V (series premiere) Viewers: 14.13 million (#2), A18-49: 5.1/13 (#1)

I feel that will decline sharply

I predict it will hold up well. It's got the subject matter that appeals to an audience - it's very "obvious" - say they're lizards, then show the lizard skin! And as others have noted, the skipped over all the "boring" stuff showing humanity getting used to the V's, and got right to the fun part where the small rag-tag band battles the eeevil lizards. It's a crowd-pleaser.

A lot of the complaints in this thread are about stuff the producers had to do, if they expected to survive on broadcast TV. If this were cable, we might see a less mainstream, more subtle, more challenging approach. But as it is, this is just more evidence that the shows on broadcast TV are going towards the CSI end of the spectrum while basic and premium cable navigate towards the crazy-ass Dexter and Breaking Bad model.

The suits will love the cheapness and all those unfortunate people without cable will probably watch out of sheer boredom.

Even us fortunate people with cable will watch! I'd love cable to do more sci fi, but sad to say, my sci fi viewing is now 100% broadcast and will remain that way till Caprica debuts. And there's a show that's unlikely to survive even on cable, because the approach and premise is the anti-crowd-pleaser philosophy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Dexter vs. the Visitors.

What a lovely thought.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

So, Glenn Beck is an alien. Knew it!

Oh, c'mon... just pretend that you can't tell that Keith Olberman is reptilian!

 

[Starbreaker]

So, they decided not to go the Lost and FlashForward route and gave us all the answers in the pilot. There... now you impatient people got what you wanted and have nothing to look forward to anymore.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They gave us all the answers we already knew from the last series, the book and the wikipage.

Maybe they've invented a huge bucket of new secrets and mysteries they're intending on doling out over time?

 

[Maestro]

They gave us all the answers we already knew from the last series, the book and the wikipage.

Maybe they've invented a huge bucket of new secrets and mysteries they're intending on doling out over time?

Like I've said all along, now it remains to see what they do next.

 

[davejames]

They gave us all the answers we already knew from the last series, the book and the wikipage.

Maybe they've invented a huge bucket of new secrets and mysteries they're intending on doling out over time?

Even if they DO have more ideas up their sleeve, it's still important I think to maintain a little thing called "credibility."

Right now, after the half-assed job they did establishing the Visitors as a threat, establishing the resistance, and establishing the sleeper cell plot, I don't know how ANYBODY could take this show seriously (hell, even Independence Day felt more believable).

If all you're looking for is just some cheesy, trivial action show, then fine. But I was hoping for something a bit more serious and interesting here.

 

[blockaderunner]

^^^Serious has been done to death by BSG and its corpse is being raped by SG:U.


I agree with those who say that it should have been a two hour premiere. So much could have been fleshed out. If this is ABC's way of establishing a post-Lost series, they aren't doing a great job of it. What little I saw makes me interested to tune in and hope that it get's picked up after its initial four episodes. I do like the idea of the spraypainted "V" symbol being used by supporters of the V's. I wonder when the Resistance will begin using it?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Does anyone think that those 65 illness that the V can cure are just diseases they created in a lab and let lose on man?

I wonder who in history will turn out to be a V?

Our real world's Osama might come out of his cave to insist that he is and never was an alien like that stupid TV show is suggesting, but then he let South Park rip him a new one without a murmur... Or no one told him.

I really don't like calling them the "V".

It's th name of a local high Caffeine softdrink.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm just hoping that was Visitor intelligence troops being /way/ over confident. Occupation troops need to be somewhat a frightening presence once things open up somewhat. Like I said time will tell, it just surprised me all they had were melee weapons for that first strike.

Gonna keep watching though.

Vons

Well in their diffence I think this was just members of the Visitor sleeper cell and not their regular stormtrooper-type guys, so it would make sense not to give ray guys and heavy armor to guys who are supposed to blend in on Earth and save the their big guns for when they can find a way to move their troops around in public without people being suspicious about it.

There are these new-fangled things called semi-automatic pistols. Hugo Borchardt invented them in 1893. You may have heard of them.


This is America, everybody has guns. Especially in New York City. It isn't like the Visitors would have had much trouble obtaining firearms if they had been manipulating things for years.

Well how do we know they didn't store all their guns at one of the hide outs the Feds raided, (remeber they were playing terrorist) I mean they left their fake IDs and C-4 when they cleared out and I would think those would rank higher on the take it with us chart then guns. Plus for all we know the Visitors get off on hacking up their enemies just to scare the shit out of them.

 

[Vonstadt]

Well in their diffence I think this was just members of the Visitor sleeper cell and not their regular stormtrooper-type guys, so it would make sense not to give ray guys and heavy armor to guys who are supposed to blend in on Earth and save the their big guns for when they can find a way to move their troops around in public without people being suspicious about it.

There are these new-fangled things called semi-automatic pistols. Hugo Borchardt invented them in 1893. You may have heard of them.


This is America, everybody has guns. Especially in New York City. It isn't like the Visitors would have had much trouble obtaining firearms if they had been manipulating things for years.

Well how do we know they didn't store all their guns at one of the hide outs the Feds raided, (remeber they were playing terrorist) I mean they left their fake IDs and C-4 when they cleared out and I would think those would rank higher on the take it with us chart then guns. Plus for all we know the Visitors get off on hacking up their enemies just to scare the shit out of them.

I would buy all of that, if they hadn't brought that nifty little alien crystal flechette explodey ball.

Even a really poor FBI CSI tech is gonna notice all of the little crystal pointy darts that shredded the resistence guys. I find it a little hard to believe that the darts disolve and if they do the CSI guys are gonna wonder what the hell shredded the dead guys?

And if they just clean up the whole site ...why not use something a little more sure to kill your target than a knife? Personal hacking people to death is a good deterrent but shouldn't the point of such a strike against an enemy resistance cell be well...to kill everyone there? Not just to scare?

Just a nitpick that is sticking with me is all. I still enjoyed the episode but the logic of that strike seems a tad odd to me.

Vons

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

find it a little hard to believe that the darts disolve and if they do the CSI guys are gonna wonder what the hell shredded the dead guys?

"Looks like the murder scene is..."

(puts on sunglasses)

"...crystal clear."

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

 

[Vonstadt]

find it a little hard to believe that the darts disolve and if they do the CSI guys are gonna wonder what the hell shredded the dead guys?

"Looks like the murder scene is..."

(puts on sunglasses)

"...crystal clear."

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

 

[Guy Gardener]

hacking?

Or partitioning these monkeys into meal sized portions.

You can't refreeze meat and even the V don't want to be fatties.

Hmmm?

Shippping water and meat back to their homeworld never made sence. Though the ida from bad taste that human flesh should be an intergalactic niche fast food sensation does make sense that human meat is an expensive luxury item for the rich rather than rations for for a starving prol.

Then of course? What if earth isn't alone? What if they seeded thousands, if not millions of planets with humans to have them grow free range and develop distinct flavours.

What if they've always been sending human meat back home for decades if not hundreds of years? And they only had to act now because we were on the brink of destroying their food reservoir.

 

[davejames]

^^^Serious has been done to death by BSG and its corpse is being raped by SG:U.

There's plenty of room for a show to be serious without being dark and grim.

If they wanted to turn V into a dumb scifi action show, they should have just put it on Syfy. Being a network show, I was expecting a little more quality than that.

 

[Star Wolf]

They gave us all the answers we already knew from the last series, the book and the wikipage.

Maybe they've invented a huge bucket of new secrets and mysteries they're intending on doling out over time?

So its like The War of The Worlds TV series, everybody just forgot about the 1983 invasion and resistance cells except for a few who retained knowledge of the world's most tramatic event. The resistance recruiter was one of those few who remembers fighting and going up in a ballon to spread the red dust as a young man.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I agree that a 90-minute-pilot would have been preferable. Then again, I'm a bit surprised by the primarily negative feedback the first episode is receiving here. Let's see how it develops.

 

[Dar70]

I agree that a 90-minute-pilot would have been preferable. Then again, I'm a bit surprised by the primarily negative feedback the first episode is receiving here. Let's see how it develops.

Im not. Rather than treating this as a pilot episode, everyone is comparing it to the original miniseries. This show has only been granted 6, 1 hour episodeds. They keep the pilot short and sweet. The pilot episode took place over a time span of SEVERAL weeks so people have to look at it in that context rather than saying everyone got used to the aliens so quickly. I actually found it refreshing and not at all rushed. I didnt want every basic detail spoon feed over the 6 episodes.
This was no different than a couple of Half hour Twilight Zone episodes that invovled Alien invasions.

 

[davejames]

I agree that a 90-minute-pilot would have been preferable. Then again, I'm a bit surprised by the primarily negative feedback the first episode is receiving here. Let's see how it develops.

Im not. Rather than treating this as a pilot episode, everyone is comparing it to the original miniseries. This show has only been granted 6, 1 hour episodeds. They keep the pilot short and sweet. The pilot episode took place over a time span of SEVERAL weeks so people have to look at it in that context rather than saying everyone got used to the aliens so quickly. I actually found it refreshing and not at all rushed. I didnt want every basic detail spoon feed over the 6 episodes.
This was no different than a couple of Half hour Twilight Zone episodes that invovled Alien invasions.

That would be fine if the story transitioned smoothly from one period of time to the next (something LOTS of shows seem to do effortlessly).

But this one didn't. One scene it's the day of the invasion, and the next it's suddenly three or four days later. Sorry, but that to me is either the result of sloppy ass writing, or some very heavy editing after the fact.