V: "Fruition" 5/11/10 - Grading & Discussion
- Thread starter Aragorn
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My hard drive is gone, I've made no backups, naturally.
Why haven't I dropped this show yet? It's been a while since I've abandoned a SF/F show but I'm getting close.
Father Jack, Evil Beard Dude, Erica ...
WILL ONE OF YOU PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ASK RYAN WHY THE V's are here?!?!!
Ryan: "Anna will do anything to get what she wants."
I was screaming at the TV ..... "AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE??!?!!"
They should bring in Mike Donovan, Juliette Parish, Ham Tyler, and his buddy Chris from the old series to show them how a real resistance-to-lizard-aliens runs.
... I did love the irony at the end though where Erica decided to use her own son to get to Anna. At least she has a pair.
One major thing though -- the humans must be desperate for the Visitors to stay to just casually turn over humans to the aliens without any sort of due process whatsoever. Why isn't there any outcry over this?
WILL ONE OF YOU PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ASK RYAN WHY THE V's are here?!?!!
Ryan: "Anna will do anything to get what she wants."
I was screaming at the TV ..... "AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE??!?!!"
They should bring in Mike Donovan, Juliette Parish, Ham Tyler, and his buddy Chris from the old series to show them how a real resistance-to-lizard-aliens runs.
... I did love the irony at the end though where Erica decided to use her own son to get to Anna. At least she has a pair.
One major thing though -- the humans must be desperate for the Visitors to stay to just casually turn over humans to the aliens without any sort of due process whatsoever. Why isn't there any outcry over this?
Not to mention the casual comment regarding Anna's willingness to hurt her daughter:
(paraphrasing):
"She's not human. She's a V."
Thanks, Ryan. We appreciate your in-depth analysis about your own race. Seriously, that comment could have been made by any human. A little more incite beyond "She's a V" would be helpful (to say the least).
I think someone else said it on a previous thread that the showrunners really don't have any care or passion for V -- ABC just wanted to make a show that could ride the coattails of a familiar title and concept and these people were happy to oblige.
I'm guessing the characters don't ask obvious questions because the writers have no idea what the answers are.
Hell, come up with some dialog as to why Ryan doesn't know anything.
"Humans are the fourth species we've come across in the solar system. The first species we conquered to strip their planet of resources. The second species we used for food. I thought that's what the plan was for earth when we first scouted this planet, but Anna's doing something completely different and I don't know what."
Also, Lexa Doig was in the credits but wasn't in the episode. Do they still credit people if they get cut from the episode?
I'm guessing the characters don't ask obvious questions because the writers have no idea what the answers are.
Hell, come up with some dialog as to why Ryan doesn't know anything.
"Humans are the fourth species we've come across in the solar system. The first species we conquered to strip their planet of resources. The second species we used for food. I thought that's what the plan was for earth when we first scouted this planet, but Anna's doing something completely different and I don't know what."
Also, Lexa Doig was in the credits but wasn't in the episode. Do they still credit people if they get cut from the episode?
I would also accept something along the lines of "Only Anna knows what's really going on...we're essentially all just slaves working toward her ends, and she tells us only what she wants to tell us. There are rumors about other ships under the control of other queens, but nobody has ever had any evidence."
or
"Only Anna knows what's really going on...we're essentially all just slaves working toward her ends, and she tells us only what she wants to tell us. There are rumors that Anna has superiors, but nobody has ever had any evidence."
I'm still enjoying the show personally, but then again I like not having everything spelled out right away. All we have so far are little tidbits of information. She's breeding an army, there's a fleet of ships approaching the solar system, so obviously they are going to try and conquer Earth. But there's something more, or seems to be, with her pushing this relationship between tyler and lisa. She seems to want to make the humans love the V, but why? Breeding? no, if that was the case I wouldn't see Ryan's little iguana as much of a problem.
So yeah, there's lots and lots of questions. Is it because the writers are making it up as they go along? maybe. Thats not entirely a bad thing though, atleast not in my opinion.
So yeah, there's lots and lots of questions. Is it because the writers are making it up as they go along? maybe. Thats not entirely a bad thing though, atleast not in my opinion.
I saw all of the original V in it's first run.
I have no problem with the new series.
I have the same questions as others in this thread, but I feel no pressing need to have them answered.
Also, I find it curious that so many people slammed the pilot for too much exposition, but now, people are saying we aren't being told enough.
I have no problem with the new series.
I have the same questions as others in this thread, but I feel no pressing need to have them answered.
Also, I find it curious that so many people slammed the pilot for too much exposition, but now, people are saying we aren't being told enough.
Nothing curious about it. They could have stretched all the reveals made in the pilot over most of this first season and it would have been interesting, and we would have felt like we were getting more information. That's called pacing. Instead, they infodumped and then completely shut off the flow of information. It makes the show feel stale, like it's on a very slow treadmill.
I haven't seen last night's episode yet, but I'm sure I'll be back to comment when I do. I'll say one thing, their social media marketing people are clever. They've been letting tiny, semi-spoilery things out for two days on Facebook, and now I can't wait to see it. Maybe those people should write the show. They seem to have a knack for pacing and building suspense, at least more than the writers do.
Below Average
Blah. That effectively sums up my feelings on this episode. We already knew that Anna was the one that broke Lisa's legs, we already knew that Lisa is feeling real emotions. There were no surprises in this episode. You know what would have been interesting, is if Lisa went against her mother's wishes and didn't pick Paul McGillion out of the lineup. Also more interesting is if Juliet staged a prison break of McGillion. Instead we're left with the same old stuff at the end of the episode.
Flash Forward and V have completely flipped around in my personal preferences. It's strange because I'm a big fan of The Shield, and the new showrunner of V (since the first 4 episodes), Scott Rosenbaum, was an Executive Producer on that show. However, overall since he took over, the show has for some reason felt stale.
Flash Forward on the other hand has gotten much better since they changed showrunners at around the mid-season break.
Unfortunately it looks like V will be the only one that gets renewed.
Blah. That effectively sums up my feelings on this episode. We already knew that Anna was the one that broke Lisa's legs, we already knew that Lisa is feeling real emotions. There were no surprises in this episode. You know what would have been interesting, is if Lisa went against her mother's wishes and didn't pick Paul McGillion out of the lineup. Also more interesting is if Juliet staged a prison break of McGillion. Instead we're left with the same old stuff at the end of the episode.
Flash Forward and V have completely flipped around in my personal preferences. It's strange because I'm a big fan of The Shield, and the new showrunner of V (since the first 4 episodes), Scott Rosenbaum, was an Executive Producer on that show. However, overall since he took over, the show has for some reason felt stale.
Flash Forward on the other hand has gotten much better since they changed showrunners at around the mid-season break.
Unfortunately it looks like V will be the only one that gets renewed.
Well there was a text message from Dr. Pearlman that Val's water had broke.
Also they did mention the fleet had entered the solar system?
A lot of "meh" reactions here, but this was the first episode I found even partially enjoyable. The scenes with Erica and Anna, with all the revelations about Lisa and the battle of wills over her, were surprisingly effective, perhaps because it's finally crystallizing the conflict between the two mothers. The performances in those parts were unusually good for this show. Even Tyler was almost bearable here, and there was a fairly effective irony to him finally reconciling with his mother just when she has to lie to him the most and even start using him to get to Anna.
Although it's still absurdly convenient that the leader of the Resistance is also increasingly the most trusted member of the FBI division directly responsible for dealing with the Resistance and the Visitors. That kinda makes things too easy for her. (Despite the fact that she has the world's tiniest resistance army. Heck, even in the budget-slashed final episodes of the original V weekly series, the Resistance had five members. This one has only four, and one of them's just a recurring guest star.)
The bit about Hobbes betraying the resistance and cutting his own deal with the Visitors to save his own neck is kind of an interesting twist too.
Other parts didn't work as well. Anna's ploy to win sympathy worked far too easily and quickly; compressing the whole story into a single day didn't help with credibility. Not to mention that more people in the viewing public should've been able to see that Anna was deliberately leaving her daughter unhealed to score PR points, and thought poorly of her as a result. And Chad Decker's "heartfelt, persuasive speech" was a joke. Both in terms of writing and delivery, it fell greatly short of anything resembling a poignant, meaningful appeal. It was strident, whiny, and superficial instead, little more than "Aww, c'mon already!" A lot of actors on this show are poorly cast, but Scott Wolf is by far the most irritatingly miscast performer here. But this time his material was even worse than he was.
The revelation about Paul McGillion & co. developing a virus that's potentially lethal to the Visitors gave me a heart-sinking feeling -- it reminds me too much of the second '80s miniseries, V: The Final Battle, and its use of the "Red Dust" bioweapon as a magic bullet for ending the invasion. I'd rather not see them go such a facile route again.
Yes. Credits are about money. If an actor gets paid for the episode, they get credited in the episode, even if their scenes are cut out. The same thing happened with Armin Shimerman in one of The West Wing's season finales. I saw his name in the credits and kept watching for him, but he never showed up, except maybe very faintly in the background of a scene.
They said it was approaching and would soon be in Earth's radar range. I don't think they specified beyond that.
Although it's still absurdly convenient that the leader of the Resistance is also increasingly the most trusted member of the FBI division directly responsible for dealing with the Resistance and the Visitors. That kinda makes things too easy for her. (Despite the fact that she has the world's tiniest resistance army. Heck, even in the budget-slashed final episodes of the original V weekly series, the Resistance had five members. This one has only four, and one of them's just a recurring guest star.)
The bit about Hobbes betraying the resistance and cutting his own deal with the Visitors to save his own neck is kind of an interesting twist too.
Other parts didn't work as well. Anna's ploy to win sympathy worked far too easily and quickly; compressing the whole story into a single day didn't help with credibility. Not to mention that more people in the viewing public should've been able to see that Anna was deliberately leaving her daughter unhealed to score PR points, and thought poorly of her as a result. And Chad Decker's "heartfelt, persuasive speech" was a joke. Both in terms of writing and delivery, it fell greatly short of anything resembling a poignant, meaningful appeal. It was strident, whiny, and superficial instead, little more than "Aww, c'mon already!" A lot of actors on this show are poorly cast, but Scott Wolf is by far the most irritatingly miscast performer here. But this time his material was even worse than he was.
The revelation about Paul McGillion & co. developing a virus that's potentially lethal to the Visitors gave me a heart-sinking feeling -- it reminds me too much of the second '80s miniseries, V: The Final Battle, and its use of the "Red Dust" bioweapon as a magic bullet for ending the invasion. I'd rather not see them go such a facile route again.
Yes. Credits are about money. If an actor gets paid for the episode, they get credited in the episode, even if their scenes are cut out. The same thing happened with Armin Shimerman in one of The West Wing's season finales. I saw his name in the credits and kept watching for him, but he never showed up, except maybe very faintly in the background of a scene.
They said it was approaching and would soon be in Earth's radar range. I don't think they specified beyond that.
I saw this comment elsewhere on the web and laughed.
I did like this episode for the character interaction. Erica with Lisa, Anna with Erica, Anna with Lisa, Tyler with Erica, etc. And Ryan is scaring me with his brooding, 'I don't think I can do this' crap. Oh, and Marcus -- I might be wrong, but I've suspected for a WHILE now that he's 5th Column, or at least not on Anna's side. I'm interested to see where his interaction with Hobbes goes, and what exactly Hobbes's game is.
That said, I still feel like the show is talking down to me, and I also still want to reach inside the screen and smack people for not even ASKING what Anna wants! I mean really, Erica? You care about why the Vs want Hobbes the Friendly Terrorist, but not WHY THEY WANT PLANET EARTH?
I'll give "Fruition" an Above Average because for this show, it was. And I really did enjoy the character interactions in this episode. The CGI was better than usual, too. But really ... this show hasn't earned renewal. I hope it gets renewed anyway, just because it sucks a little less than most TV, but so far it's been doing its level best to get itself canceled.
Me too. ME TOO.
I did like this episode for the character interaction. Erica with Lisa, Anna with Erica, Anna with Lisa, Tyler with Erica, etc. And Ryan is scaring me with his brooding, 'I don't think I can do this' crap. Oh, and Marcus -- I might be wrong, but I've suspected for a WHILE now that he's 5th Column, or at least not on Anna's side. I'm interested to see where his interaction with Hobbes goes, and what exactly Hobbes's game is.
That said, I still feel like the show is talking down to me, and I also still want to reach inside the screen and smack people for not even ASKING what Anna wants! I mean really, Erica? You care about why the Vs want Hobbes the Friendly Terrorist, but not WHY THEY WANT PLANET EARTH?
I'll give "Fruition" an Above Average because for this show, it was. And I really did enjoy the character interactions in this episode. The CGI was better than usual, too. But really ... this show hasn't earned renewal. I hope it gets renewed anyway, just because it sucks a little less than most TV, but so far it's been doing its level best to get itself canceled.
Marcus, a Fifth Columnist? Someone so important, so close to the top, just happens to be working against the institution he nominally supports? Doesn't that make things far too easy and convenient? Would this show's writers really do anything so --
Oh, right. Erica. Never minnnnd...
Oh, right. Erica. Never minnnnd...
Marcus, a Fifth Columnist? Someone so important, so close to the top, just happens to be working against the institution he nominally supports? Doesn't that make things far too easy and convenient? Would this show's writers really do anything so --
Oh, right. Erica. Never minnnnd...
^^^ Exactly.
But seriously, I don't think Marcus is Fifth Column. If that were so, then Hobbes selling out to Marcus wouldn't have any real impact.
