Baraka_Guru

Anyone watching the new V?

I vaguely remember the original as a kid: mostly the general feel of the series and the true nature of the "Visitors," rather than what was actually happening plotwise. I did get a bit nostalgic seeing the pilot last week.

Promo Trailer:



Sneak Peek (Some slight spoilers, it's close to being a summary to the pilot):


**Some slight spoilers in video**

I must say I'm enjoying it. It's not blowing my mind, but it's good enough for me.

The issues I have are with some sloppy acting and some slightly lame characterization, plus a little bit of identity crisis in terms of genre. But it's not that bad.

What I do like is its use of suspense. It isn't in your face like other sci-fi. I'm going to continue watching it as I'm already looking forward to the third episode.

Plus, here is the requisite "worth the price of admission":


Anyone else watching this?

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dippin

I am, though I must say that I haven't enjoyed it as much as I did the original.

The original V (not to be confused with the "sequels" which are "V the Final Battle" and "V the series") was loosely based on the "It can't happen here" book. It was less science fiction and more political drama with some soap opera thrown in. It was a kind of "Under fire" meets "dallas."

This one has been a lot more about scifi and action, more of a "star trek" meets "24."
It has potential to be good, but something has been lost, i think. The only political references come from the nutwing camp, with the "savior" visitors offering "universal health care" and such.

levite

I'm enjoying it, although the feel is very different than the original. I concur that the original was very much an "It Can't Happen Here" sociopolitical story, and this one appears to be much more of a Massive Conspiracy Theory countercultural story.

I do like it, though, and I was quite pleased to see Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk in it!

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fresnelly

I haven't been watching it, partly because I have a night-course on Tuesday nights and partly due to laziness but also because I'm prejudiced that the plot is one-note:

Will their true evil agenda be discovered???

If that's it then they'll be trapped in a Gilligan's Island paradox where every episode is a tease until the finale (or premature cancellation) when it all comes to head.

For the record, I loved the old one as a kid and was terrified when the V pulled their faces off or ate small animals whole.

I don't want to be strung along if it's too stretched out with forced tension.

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dippin

A good point.

The original V didnt have this problem because it was a mini-series with a definite number of episodes. This one is a regular series. Nothing is worse for a series than having to stretch the plot out because they used so much of it to get a foot in door and get renewed that they don't know what to do next (breaking bad has been like that.)

So far, so good in terms of pacing the plot. Let's see if it stays like that if they decide to renew it (which is likely given it's number 2 spot for the time slot).

Xerxys

^^ You mean like smallville?

I kinda like this show. That and I have never watched or read any of the series. I dislike the performance though.

Willravel

I' just getting more and more frustrated. I can't identify with any of the characters. The story is okay, but the execution is abysmal. I wasn't wild about the original V, but this is nearly unwatchable.

I'm afraid they've lost me.

aberkok

I hate to sound like an old man, but after watching The Wire I can't invest in a show that's not amazing from the get go. I think the final nail in the coffin was last TV season. Dollhouse, True Blood and Weeds all sucked balls and all were shows with great potential and all three had me thinking "okay, if I just watch one more episode I know it'll get better..." None of them did.

I'm too old to buy green bananas.

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robot_parade

Eh. I've only watched the pilot so far, but my response is a definite 'meh'. It seems to me they blew too much in the pilot - we now know the V are decidedly evil (mostly) and what they 'really' look like. Seems like a little more build-up would've been nice. The acting seems 'ok'. The 'V' almost transparently one-sided. Maybe it'll get better, but I'm not in a rush to watch any more to find out.

guy44

I only saw the pilot so far and was extremely not blown away. Let's see, Morena Baccarrin was pretty good as Anna, and everything else...blah. The dialogue on this show might be the worst in TV history (What do we do now? We have to fight. Oh, we're going to fight.)

It kinda feels like ABC executives were like, "OK, so take FlashForward, make the characters even less three dimensional, hire the worst fan fic authors you can find to write dialogue, and make it completely derivative."

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Reese

I like it because they took a few of actors I liked from other sci-fi series and stuck em in this. Other than that, I'm not too impressed with the show.

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Baraka_Guru

Maybe I don't get it because I don't watch very much television, but it seems some of you are expecting way too much from it. It's prime-time network television. How much do you expect from it? I'm expecting cheap thrills, really.

You want something good good, turn off the picture box and pick up a fucking book.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

wooÐs

Yeah I'm not watching.

There's no lizard people.

mrklixx

Despite being a veritable who's who of sci-fi TV actors, I am completely underwhelmed by this. Does anyone really think that they are going to be able to do the "aliens hidden in plain sight" any bettor or different than Battlestar Galactica did? Spoiler: Especially since it already looks like they are doing "resurrections" . And I disagree with the above statement that this one is more "scifi" than the original. Because even though we are eons ahead in SFX than when the original aired, there has been very little actually shown.

I won't even think twice when this gets canceled.

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I hate animated avatars.

PulpMind

The franchise should of been handed off to another company. ABC just doesn't make good television anymore (but did it ever?)

I got pretty irritated with the first episode when it was obvious that the aliens were up to no good (to us, the viewers), and them giving the world "socialized medicine" was accompanied by doomsday music. Because... socialized medicine is evil, and this is a good way to make that point? wtf.

ratbastid

I so want to like this thing. I really really do. I'll probably keep watching the whole season, the same way I'll probably keep watching FlashForward (which I also really want to like). The whole time I'll be waiting for the new season of LOST (2010!! Bastards!!) and looking forward to the re-do of The Prisoner.

The political parable that V is wrapped around is ham-fisted at its best moments, and downright embarrassing at its worst. I love some of the actors in this show, and I'm saddened by what the writers have put in their mouths.

I've 100% utterly and completely adored Morena Baccarin since my first time through Firefly. It's great to see her in something that flexes non-Inara muscles. She's creepy as fuck in this thing. She and Tudyk are really the only ones pulling it off, and in Tudyk's case, you can literally SEE him making the character work in spite of the writing. I dislike whats-her-name just as much as I dislike Juliet on LOST, and for the same reasons. Her unrelatability WORKS on Juliet, though; you're SUPPOSED to be unsure about Juliet. It doesn't work when she's the main female lead on a massive network drama. The priest dude (I know he's from another show too... anyone?) is being written in a way that substitutes waffling for three-dimensionality.

I generally wait until a show has got its stride before passing judgment, but a big expensive prestige show like this really has no excuse not to come out of the gate strong.

mrklixx

He was the main character on The 4400 which V gave a (unintentional or intentional) nod to by having the anti-V meeting at building 4400.

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I hate animated avatars.

guy44

I agree totally. It's like ABC has some giant machine that churns out cool high-concept scifi shows, then ensures that they suck with bland story lines, horrible dialogue, awful music, and terrible plotting.

Also, re: Baccarin and Tudyk, I think it should be a rule that all scifi shows have someone from Firefly in them. Has any show since Firefly been worse off for having one of the cast members in it? Castle runs entirely off of Nathan Fillion's charm, Summer Glau rocked it as a Terminator, Tudyk had the greatest cameo this decade on Dollhouse, Jewel Staite gave SG Atlantis a shot in the arm, Mark Shepherd's become a go-to character actor on damn near everything...

And as for the 4400 address, it's a reference to the show The 4400, which was created by the same guy in charge of V.

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ratbastid

Definitely. FlashForward has Gina Torres, though they haven't used her much. I'd love to see more Ron Glass, in just about anything. Did you see Mark Shepherd on CSI:LV the other night? As a russian lit professor and pimp. He was awesome as always.

I've seen literally three minutes of Castle, and it's the halloween episode where he's dressed as "a space cowboy", and his daughter is pointing out he got that costume five years ago and should just move on. Funny stuff.

hunnychile

[QUOTE=ratbastid]I so want to like this thing. I really really do.

The political parable that V is wrapped around is ham-fisted at its best moments, and downright embarrassing at its worst. I love some of the actors in this show, and I'm saddened by what the writers have put in their mouths.

I've 100% utterly and completely adored Morena Baccarin since my first time through Firefly. It's great to see her in something that flexes non-Inara muscles. She's creepy as fuck in this thing. She and Tudyk are really the only ones pulling it off, and in Tudyk's case, you can literally SEE him making the character work in spite of the writing. I dislike whats-her-name just as much as I dislike Juliet on LOST, and for the same reasons.,etc... END ratbastid's QUOTE
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I'm already "not caring" that I missed an episode, so for me it's not as good as I had hoped and I doubt if it will improve. Gotta say Morena is creepy and almost way too pretty to be believable as an alien, but that's still not making the writing & acting seem intriguing and worth my time.

I'm moving on....

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guy44

Oh yeah, and let's not forget Christina Hendricks has been so good and so, um, attractive, in Mad Men.

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ratbastid

EXTREMELY true. Spoiler: And now she's back to being a regular, looks like!

PulpMind

The second episode was, imho, way better than the first. All the set-up is out of the way, and now it's time for it to get into its groove...
almost good. hope it gets better!

ratbastid

The third episode struck me about the same as I said above. Tudyk and Baccarin are carrying this thing. Nothing substantial progressed in this episode. We see (again) that Anna is an extraordinary manipulator of public sentiment. The inevitable progression of Baby James Dean and Blonde V Girl's relationship. The only thing that was really interesting was Tudyk's resurrection (they look like us! and they have a plan!) and memory-strolling. But even that didn't really give us any new motivation or decision that wasn't already there by the end of the first episode.

dippin

yeah, there seems to be a lot of action, but very little plot advancement. And there seems to be a lot of "idiot plot" issues going on.

yournamehere

Can't seem to really get into it after two episodes. There are some pretty stupid subplots, IMO. I missed Episode 3 - trying to decide whether or not to record it On Demand.

On the other hand, it's difficult to not watch a show with Elizabeth Mitchell in it.

EDIT LATER:
Just found out that Episode 4 is the last episode of 2009.
Sorry - I won't even bother recording it.

I know that "seasons" are getting shorter every year, but - c'mon - 4 episodes?!
I'll be watching something else in January.

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ratbastid

Know what? It's doubtful I'll be back, when it comes back on in March.

I'm not even going to bother spoiler-tagging this, I'm so disappointed.

The flu shots? Really? This feel-good "bliss" thing? Really?

I'm glad Sigur Rós is getting some residuals, though. That same song that was used for Anna's Zen Transmission ("Svefn-G-Englar" off the album Ágætis Byrjun) was also used for the Beta-object reveal scene on Defying Gravity. In fact, Beta's singing followed the chord progression of that song.

hunnychile

Same here...since nothing better was on I watched it this week and found it so assinine that it was almost "campy" - but not clever enough to really be camp! Flu shots that are going to turn people into reptiles... And the "Healing Centers" smack of northern Californians from Grass Valley vs. the entire Rebublican Party.

WTF, the bliss thing was creepy in an anti-religious sorta way. Not that that's such a bad thing. Except when they showed a Dali Lama look-a-like in Tibet. Ouch. (Yes, I do like the Dali Lama alot & respect his views & read his books).

I dunno.

AFTERTHOUGHT: The bliss thing could have been great if it was XX rated and really blissful! Anna is pretty and probably has a delightful tush.

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ratbastid

She looks pretty darn good in her underwear. I do hope this dog of a show isn't the only thing on her docket.