Current mood:

contemplative

The new "V," what do you think?
On a whim last night, I decided to tune in to the premiere of the new "V" remake on ABC. Now, the original "V" in the 1980s was a big deal when I was in high school...I still remember how we talked about some of the creepy plot twists in the series and I liked its political commentary.

I think whether one saw and liked the original 80s version will make a big difference whether one likes the new "V." Unlike "Battlestar Galactica," which tried hard to take off in several significantly different, grittier directions than the original, the new "V" seems a bit like an economy version of the original--same basic ideas, but compressed so they can get to the sinister aliens vs. human resistance stuff more quickly.

I think that's where the new one suffers in comparison. The special effects and revamped production design is quite good (I like the running joke about how all the Visitors are fashion-model hot). The cast are mostly unmemorable, though I like Scott Wolf and the two actors from Serenity/Firefly.

An area where the new "V" suffers is story development and political allegory. The original was a neat sci-fi parable about fascism, collaboration and totalitarianism, and how it could happen in the modern U.S. The original took time to establish several characters, make them sympathetic, and then show how some became unlikely heroes and some truly vile collaborators, sometimes with good intentions. That was effective. The new "V" doesn't do this nearly as well, because in order to move the plot faster, they give away too soon that the Visitors are evil. The attempt to set up a human resistance ALREADY IN PLACE BEFORE THE ALIENS ARRIVE, plus the story's lame not-very-subtle attempts to connect the Visitors to economic problems, Al-Quaeda, 9/11 and the Iraq War (apparently all bad events of the past decade are secretly the Visitor's fault) struck me as, well, dumb. And plagiarizing the far more clever and witty John Carpenter film, "They Live".)

My biggest problem is that the original "V" had a great character who lent powerful drama and allegory to the series...the grandfather who is a holocaust survivor who did not trust the Visitors. I still remember the scene where he teaches the kids defacing Visitor propaganda to spray the WWII "V" for Victory instead. (Hence the title of the series and the tie-in with the whole fascist allegory.) In the new one, "V" is a symbol the aliens encourage kids to tag walls with "To spread the message of peace." (Facepalm). Arrgh. It doesn't work nearly as well. It seems to me that the current writers really botch their allegory due to lack of historical knowledge. Those who forget the past are doomed to make weak remakes, I guess.

Plus, when you give away the Visitor's big secret halfway through the pilot (I won't reveal it here, I suspect most of you know it already) and THEN try to set up sexual tension between humans and Visitors in a couple of subplots...well, let's just say it kills the romance, oh new "V" writers.

Still, I'm willing to check out a few more episodes to see if they can get over the rocky pilot. There's definitely some interesting potential. But unless they come up with some fresh approaches that aren't as dumb as some of the plot elements in the pilot, I'm iffy about "V"'s potential for success.

Anyone else see it? Opinions?