By Clint Morris
“V” is an interesting more so than entertaining reboot of the cult ’80s mini-series and series.
Is it anyone near as good? Not so far, no.
Spaceships, inhabiting aliens, have arrived on Earth. They’ve essentially ‘parked’ themselves above every major city. The day comes when the ‘Visitors’ (that’s where the ‘V’ comes in) decide to introduce themselves to the people, and almost instaneously, the two races form a bond. But despite this new race’s taskless ability to cure disease, offer up their technology for our use, and graciously welcome humans to come live on the ships, a small unit remain distrustful and are determined to rid of the sickeningly-friendly guests.
Morena Baccarin is lead visitor Anna, both a master manipulator and dead-set charmer; Elizabeth Mitchell is an FBI Agent and single mother who discovers some disturbing things about the visitors (she’s even more disturbed to learn her son is cosy with one); Scott Wolf is a celebrity TV journalist who is recruited by the Visitor’s to be their official go-to guy for live-crosses and what have you; and David Richmond-Peck is Georgie, a man who believes his family was murdered by the aliens and as such is recruiting others for the resistance.
Unlike the recent “Battlestar Galactica” reboot, “V” doesn’t offer any more than its predecessor – in fact, without some of it’s fine performers; Michael Ironside, Robert Englund, Marc Singer and so on, it may even offer less – and that, right away gives audiences the distinct feeling of having ‘seen it all before’.
It’s hard to tell whether “V” has been made by folks with a passion and fevor for the original – as Ronald Moore did, “Galactica” – or simply by can-get-the-job-done types that see nothing but dollar signs (Considering the show’s fair to mediocre ratings, they’d be disappointed if that is their motivation for relaunching the series). The effects borderline on corner-cutting SyFy original, the writing is – and this worked in the ’80s, but not now – flat get-from-A-to-B ‘plot of the week’ style stuff (much like the recent reboots of “Knight Rider” and “Bionic Woman” were), and the characters, quite simply, aren’t that engaging. But mostly, the show is laughable… almost camp… and it shouldn’t be. Five minutes into the pilot, when the aliens open their doors and introduce themselves to Earth’s people below, ‘we’ (the Earthlings) give them a round of applause…. um, WTF!? Would we not be cowering in fear?! Would we not be scared shitless?! Would we clap like we’re at a Barry Manilow concert?! Wouldn’t think so. And that’s only the start of the cheese spray – we’re doused in the stuff as the show goes on.
What saves the show is, well, besides that warm sense of nostalgia, the performances. Everyone is great here. “Firefly” alum Morena Baccarin, “Smallville” Supergirl Laura Vandervoort, “Everwood” doc Scott Wolf, “Lost” babe Elizabeth Mitchell, rising Canadian star David Richmond-Peck (“Smokin’ Aces 2”) and Whedon-fave Alan Tudyk, among others, really bring their A game. Mitchell, especially, is a big drawcard.
I don’t dislike “V”, I just expected it to be… I dunno… more? A second season will ideally hatch a more interesting season arc… and drop the cheese.
Extras
A few featurettes, a producer’s commentary on one of the episodes and within that, lots of potential spoilers regarding the prospective second season.
