After kicking off the series in fifth gear, V kicked it back down to first or second in tonight’s episode. I know it’s only the second installment, and I’m keeping an open mind, but right now only half of the main storylines are really capturing my attention. As I see it, the show is going to be focusing on four areas as it moves forward: Erica and Father Landry and the resistance, Tyler and his fascination with Lisa the Visitors, Ryan and the traitorous Visitors, and finally, the political and media issues with Chad and Anna.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like all of these stories are hitting their stride yet.
So, can you guess which ones I’m enjoying and which I’m not? Let’s start with the positive, shall we? The resistance storyline, which appears to be the major focus of the show (or at least the first two episodes), seems to be promising. Elizabeth Mitchell is awesome and she is continuing to prove that she can carry this show. There is a nice amount of tension and enough intrigue to keep me interested. Granted, the “anyone can be a Visitor,” is going to get old fast. Didn’t a lot of us just get done playing this game with Battlestar Galactica?
The other positive, for me, is the give and take between Chad and Anna. I’m not quite sold on Scott Wolf’s character yet. Wolf is many things, but I’ve never thought of him as being able to play a slimy reporter. So far he still comes off as wholesome and all-American. The relationship that he has with Anna through his job as a reporter is interesting though. I like that they are most likely going to be playing mind games with each other for the rest of the series. Morena Baccarin continues to play the creepy, not-quite-human Anna really, really well.
Now, unfortunately, I have to turn to the negative. I have hope that the story with the human-sympathizing Visitors is going to be good, but right now, I’m pretty bored. I think part of my problem is that I just don’t see the motivation for these Visitors turning against their homeland. Is it just because Ryan fell in love with a human woman? I’d like a little more explanation, and maybe a little more action for this plot line. There’s no real sense of danger because we haven’t seen what sort of consequences there are for traitors. Do the Visitors know that some of their agents have gone rogue? Have they caught and punished some of these before? Some of those answers would help, I think. I am enjoying Morris Chestnut’s performance so far, I just wish his story was a little more compelling.
Finally, there is Tyler. First, I’m having trouble believing Logan Huffman as a seventeen year old. Granted, he’s only twenty, but he really doesn’t look like a teenager. Aside from that, the character is certainly acting like a stupid teenager, thinking with his libido instead of his head. Seriously, does he have a good reason to be so fascinated with the Visitors, aside from Lisa’s plunging neck line? I suppose I’m just too old to relate to these silly teenage plot lines anymore, but everything about it seems cliche.
How are you feeling about V so far? Are you with me, or are all the stories working for you?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 10, 2009 @ 21:56 EST5EDT
Speaking of BSG. It’s Tory, don’t trust her she killed Cally!!! The V lair on earth with all the balconies sort of looked like Boomer’s apartment complex. Anyone get a good look?
I’m still enjoying it. Good for Mitchell that she can pull this off so nicely.
I do hope the numbers stay strong.
I thought that was Rekha Sharma! Her voice sounded so different than I remembered though, I convinced myself it wasn’t her.
Yeah, her voice was WEIRD.
And, yeah, Tory sucks!!!! Yeah, Cally!
The BSG Caprica apartments cropped up in Defying Gravity.
What you’re thinking of here is the doctor’s office that Roslin went to at the start of the BSG miniseries. (Also the scene with Serenity in the sky! :))
Thanks Jason. I did see that in DG too. People lack imagination don’t they?
The bad thing about re-makes is they are compared to the original. I am liking this show but not as much as I did when the original was on. I remember when we first found out that the visitors ate vermin and was shocked and had to talk about it at school the next day with my other sci-fi geek friends. This show not so much.
I am not quite sure what it is about it, it seems that they are trying to fit all the “shocking” parts in without building any back story. You know “shock… the visitors are still here from last time?” What? Have they always been here? Did they come in single ships that no one ever saw land? “shock… half the world is already against them and half the world is for them?” What did they do that was so bad already? Was it something off camera that we have yet to be shown???
BTW…. did ya’ all catch the 4400 reference in the beginning? That was the show Joel Gretsch was on for a few years.
Sorry, rambling
At least one of the main writer/producers (Scott Peters) worked on the 4400 too, so it’s not just Joel Gretsch.
It was in the pilot too (Or, at the least, was in the screener that was previewed). I normally don’t catch stuff like that but it jumped right out at me.
I keep thinking there was more humor in the original too, with the Freddie Krueger guy. I’m not going to give it a lot more time, because the boring is winning over for me. I’m not intrigued enough… and I’m so disappointed that I’m not!
I re-watched the episode from last night. I am probably over thinking things but the chronology just doesn’t work for me. If there was already a resistance then there should have already been some sort of “invasion” type thing that happened. Why, then, was everyone all freaked when the V’s came again? Sadly, it seems like too many networks are trying to follow in the steps of BSG and catch lighting in a bottle with the re-makes of the old TV shows. I did watch the original V mini-series and the series… if I remember correctly, the series didn’t make it very far. The world society can’t be in danger every week… gets lame and not at all scary. :)
i think the show is progressing at a fairly good pace where some story goes faster than others to make sure it’s fill with enough action and enough reveals, so it is true that Elizabeth Mitchell’s plot is the most intriguing while the rest seems a bit underdeveloped and slow. but so far so good in my book, i think compare to flashforward, which had me utterly bored for so many weeks, V still have me hooked.
I like the show, and it hasn’t insulted my intelligence in the first two hours, so I’ll stick with it. Erica and Landry are obviously the heart of the show, and I like their dynamic.
As for the traitors, there’s always the danger of long-term, deep-cover agents going native. I don’t think we need a more specific motivation than they’ve grown to like the planet, its people, and living there. Their storyline interests me, especially if they’re tied into the new Resistance. I like Morris Chestnut, but with his voice, nice suits, shaved head and goatee, I keep thinking I’m watching a slightly thinner Richard T. Jones as Agent Ellison. That’s a good thing, by the way.
Tyler’s story is annoying, but I knew that from the show description. He’s as bad as the kids on The 4400 were, but at least his scenes let us see Supergirl on screen. Also a good thing, décolletage notwithstanding.
I really hate comparing the originals to the remakes because a lot of times the remakes are supposed to be a “re-imagining,” if you will. Sort of like the re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz through Tinman, or the re-imagining of Hulk through The Incredible Hulk (okay, that was a bad example). I know remakes aren’t supposed to be like the originals. But for some reason, with V, I find myself looking for the rebel girl named Beth who falls in love with a Visitor and has alien twins, one of which is a full-blown reptilian with a forked tongue. Do you think they’ll have that on the
tourshow?I’m still intrigued with “V” mainly because it has such potential. I think this go-around they revealed their reptilian nature sooner because those of who are watching already knew they were. I do miss the power-mullets and shoulder pads, but the new batch of visitors are still creepy.
So, now that the priest is cursing, how long will it take til he and Erica hook up? Could her ex-husband be a V? And that is why Tyler is so intrigued because he is half-V? I hope they are going to provide some back-story – as the commenter above asked – do the V’s know there are traitors?
Bob: I’m with you on the storyline with the kid. He’s not believable as a teenager, nor have we been given a reason to care. And if I dislike this storyline now, its only going to get worse as he slips further down the rabbit hole.
I’m actually liking the Nichols storyline. It was more than his girlfriend that made him turn, because it seems like he was part of a resistance type group before he met her, and then “got out of that life” to protect her.
My favorite part, other than how Baccarin is playing Anna so creepy (as opposed to menacing, which really is working), and how good Mitchell is, is Joel Gretsch. He’s been very good so far.
i’m just kinda bored overall… damnit.
I’m a little bored with the show, but intrigued enough to stick it out. What’s really keeping me interested are Gretsch, Mitchell and especially Baccarin. Baccarin’s Anna reminds me of her character of Adria on Stargate SG1, which is good. The long break will kill the ratings, I fear.
Oh, this show isn’t coming back after the Olympics.
I was only intrigued by Alan Tudyk and now that he’s a lizard, I don’t seem to care.
Bored now.
Alan Tudyk’s lizardness was the only thing I didn’t see coming in the pilot (though I should have).
I agree … this show has gotten boring and directionless really fast, which (as much as it pains me to say it, since I watched every episode of it) to me means Peters hasn’t really progressed much since his 4400 days, he’s just managed to get a better budget for casting and effects. Sigh.