V, 1.1 - "Pilot"

A valorous, vivifying visitation... or a vicarious, voracious violation?

[SPOILERS] The alien invasion subgenre is always getting reinvented for a new generation, but it's disappointing that so many are pure remakes with snazzier effects and new characters (see: Spielberg's War Of The Worlds.) Based on Kenneth Johnson's 1983 mini-series that spawned a television series, V once again finds enormous spaceships hovering above 29 of the planet's major cities (quite the snub if yours isn't one, eh?), and alien beauty Anna's (Firefly's Morena Baccarin) face is beamed down to the people below with a message of unequivocal peace and salvation. She even has a marketable catchphrase ("we come in peace, always"), but there are those who don't trust these so-called "Visitors"...

Amongst the cynics is tough single mom and FBI agent Eric Evans (Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell), whose teenage son Tyler (Logan Huffman) is contrarily charmed by the ET's -- who immediately setup health clinics to cure a plethora of diseases and invite people to go inside their ships, where he takes a shine to flaxen hottie Lisa (Smallville's Laura Vandervoort). There's also Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch), who finds church attendance quadrupling in the wake of alien first contact, but t a sign of unspoken unease and creeping fear. A career-obsessed TV journalist called Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) is chosen to be the "V's" human mouthpiece, pressured into not asking Anna tough questions on live TV in return for the global fame his interviews will bring him.

Meanwhile, Erica and her FBI partner Dale Maddox (Alan Tudyk) investigate a conspicuous terrorist cell whose activity has escalated while all others fell silent, believing they're mobilizing for an attack on the V's themselves. Eric comes to realize there's an active rebellion against the alien visitors, led by a man who claims the V's (actually green reptilian beings behind their human flesh) have been on Earth for decades, infiltrating governments and businesses, and their "arrival" is actually the last step in a plan for world domination.

Everything that makes ABC's new V memorable either has its origin in the '80s series (i.e. the unique elements of its mythology) or elicits a soupcon of excitement as modern-day effects essentially reenact Independence Day on the small-screen. Both aren't strong enough to make this a particularly compelling start to a series, unless you're a rabid fan of the '80s original or just a sucker for anything where glistening spaceships are seen hovering above skyscrapers.

The notable problem with this pilot was pace. It moved too quickly. While I applaud the way the first ten minutes swiftly introduced all the characters before the spaceships promptly arrived (almost killing one churchgoer with a falling crucifix, symbolically?), the rest of the episode rushed through events to a detrimental effect. After just fifteen minutes, we'd already leaped forward in time by three weeks, which was disconcerting and surely wasted dramatic opportunities in slowly revealing the story to us. Perhaps writer Scott Peters was worried people would be bored if he'd taken that path, as he believes everyone's familiar with the V mythos, but I personally don't agree. V's over two decades old and rarely gets repeated on television, so most teenagers watching this pilot would be unfamiliar with the concept and may have enjoyed a tease.

As a result of V's eagerness to press on, there's very little tension in the pilot. Things happened at a rapid pace and none of its developments felt plausible or fully-realized as a result. I mean, where and how did this anti-V underground cell spring from? How do people know the V's are lizards underneath their skin already? Isn't that a surprise it would be worth holding back on for a few more episodes, at least? By the time this episode ended, so much information had been imparted that it felt like I'd seen edited highlights of half the season.

The characters are fairly generic right now, not helped by the fact immediate suspicions or devotion to the V's is never explained. In particular, Father Landy and Erica assume the worst from the start, but it would have been nice to see them slowly come to this conclusion. Again, it felt like a symptom of the producers just wanting to encapsulate everything about V's concept in the opening episode. On those terms, it's a job well done, but where do we go from here? I suspect it'll become Earth: Final Conflict meets The Invaders, but does it have enough in reserve to keep the insurgency interesting, as we're clearly not going to see any real breakthrough in exposing the V's real motivations for years, if V lasts that long.

Overall, I didn't hate V's pilot, but I didn't love it. There are core problems it'll have to overcome to have a long-term future, and I hope it takes its foot off the accelerator in the weeks to come. Still, I love the casting of Mitchell (who balances sensitivity and strength perfectly) and Baccarin (memorable as the disquiteingly perfect alien emissary), while the inadvertent allegory to President Obama (another charming, photogenic diplomat who wants to give people free healthcare) lends it certain amusement if you're of a Republican persuasion. I doubt V '09 will revitalize its cheesy forbearer with the same élan Battlestar Galactica managed with its own '80s template, but I guess we'll see how long the Visitors stick around...


3 November 2009
ABC, 9/8c

written by: Scott Peters (story by Kenneth Johnson & Scott Peters) directed by: Yves Simoneau starring: Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica Evans), Morris Chestnut (Ryan Nichols), Joel Gretsch (Father Jack Landry), Logan Huffman (Tyler Evans), Lourdes Benedicto (Valerie Holt), Laura Vandervoort (Lisa), Morena Baccarin (Anna), Scott Wolf (Chad Decker), Stefan Arngrim (Roy), Crystal Balint (Floor Manager), Marci T. House (FBI Agent), Scott Hylands (Father Travis), Brit Irvin (Haley Stark), Jeremy Jones (National Guardsman), Dejan Loyola (College Kid #1), Craig March (FBI Agent), Phillip Mitchell (Resistance Thug), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie Sutton), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Alan Tudyk (Dale Maddox), Barbara Tyson (Allison Hall), Jesse Wheeler (Brandon) & Ben Wilkinson (Reporter)