by Catherine Scott (Source)

Remakes of old television shows are all the rage, but only once in a while do the suits behind these productions get it right. The latest remake to hit television is ABC’s “V,” based on the 1983 science fiction miniseries of the same name about seemingly friendly aliens who invade the major cities of the United States. The aliens, otherwise known as the Visitors (or Vs), spread a message of hope to the jaded earthlings in an attempt to become the saviors of mankind. Bringing science fiction to primetime, this show, with its exciting drama and subtle political messages, maintains the perfect balance between intelligence and entertainment. <Read full article>

by Jace Lacob

“Don’t trust anybody.”

Like “Battlestar Galactica,” “V” imagines a world where no one is quite what they seem, where everyone you encounter — whether stranger, lover, co-worker — could be an enemy. After all, when the enemy you’re fighting looks just like you, how can you tell your friends from your foes? <Read the full article>

V Review: There is No Normal Anymore

by Brian Salisbury

Let me start by commending our rejects who regularly review television shows; not easy work.  Personally I find reviewing television shows week to week like trying to review a film after watching only twenty minutes of it.  Sure, ideally it’s compartmentalized enough that the task is not terribly different.  Too bad nobody told V not to make this process seem so alien.  Puns!  If you hearken back into the annals of FSR history, a week ago, you’ll remember that I was none too fond of the pilot episode.  It was a forty-eight minute train wreck with a strangely encouraging finale.  Will episode two mark the beginning of a tremendous comeback?  Or is this miniseries headed into new frontiers of ineptitude? <Read the article>

‘V’ Episode 1.02: ‘There Is No Normal Anymore’

by Josh Wigler

Don’t Trust Anyone: Tonight’s episode reinforced the theme that everybody is suspect — after all, if you can’t trust Alan Tudyk’s face, then who can you trust? <Read full article>

‘V’ – There Is No Normal Anymore

by Jenn Falls

The number of people that can be trusted may be dropping, but the resistance is growin.

After all of the action at the warehouse, Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) are left to consider what to do next. Even though Erica calls 9-1-1, the Visitors (V’s) ominously intercept it leading us to the same conclusion that Erica gives to Father Jack when she leaves him – trust no one. <Read full article>

TV Review: V,”There is No Normal Anymore”

by Rabid Nick Refer

The new ABC Sci-fi drama V returned for it’s second installment and picked up directly where the first left off. Although it didn’t suffer from similar pacing issues as the pilot, the second episode didn’t exactly expand much into anything worth raving about either. What is very interesting, however, is the drama the prime-time event is causing in our own world, outside of the fictional television setting. <Read full article>

V S1E2: “There Is No Normal Anymore”

by Troy Brownfield

I’m happy to say that after last week’s strong start, the momentum didn’t diminish.  In fact, I think that it was enormously helpful to start the episode mere seconds after the conclusion of the first one.  We even had FBI Counterterrorist Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) still engaged in the same conversation. <Read full article>

V: V is for Meh

by Paul Secrest

PPM, or Post-Pilot Malaise, is a condition affecting infant stage television programs. Its symptoms are marked by the presence of a series premiere so ambitious that either the writers feel the need to give the characters a week to process their thoughts or sometimes the producers realize that after said pilot, there’s only enough cash left in the budget for low grade exposition. In most cases symptoms only last a week, but V has definitely caught itself the PPM bug and the patient requires further observation. <Read full article>

TV Recap: V: There Really Isn’t Normal Anymore!

by Sheldon A. Wiebe

The second episode of V opens literally seconds after the conclusion of the premiere with Father Jack and Erica sitting on that roof. A V shuttle flies by and the follow it to the scene of the underground’s meeting. The aliens are cleaning up – removing all the bodies, including Erica’s late partner, Dale’s. Erica calls 911 from a nearby payphone [we still have those?] but the call is intercepted by the V’s who sent a flying metal globe after them. As it closes in, it sprouts nasty-looking spikes, but Erica destroys it with a major league swing of an improvised club. She and Father Jack go home. They can’t take the V’s on directly. <Read full article>

Review: There Is No Normal Anymore

by Aidan Brack

Having opened last week with a fast paced pilot episode, “There Is No Normal Anymore” has the difficult task of managing expectations and beginning the transition from opening to series. Fortunately although the episode is less gripping than the pilot it does enough to sustain interest, shifts pace comfortably and proves that the show should work as a running series. This is no small feat. <Read full article>

V episode 2 review

by Ron Hogan

One of the elements of V that I find myself really enjoying as we go into the second episode is the paranoia. Really, one of the things the show has done incredibly well with the sleeper alien cell angle is establish that pretty much anyone can, and just might be, a Visitor. I mean, in the first episode we had two surprising reveals of various Visitors, so it’s obvious that V is living by the old Joe Bob Briggs Drive-In Rules, except replace “Anybody can die at any moment” with “Anybody can be a secret lizard”. <Read full article>

By Canwest News Service

It’s obvious, isn’t it?

A benevolent overlord descends from the heavens and promises peace, goodwill, eternal happiness, a cure for H1N1 flu and a health-care plan for everyone.

Trouble is, the benevolent face of peace masks darker, malevolent forces at work.

The lizard people in the sudden-hit miniseries V — more than two million viewers in Canada for last week’s premiere; another 14 million in the U.S. — want to take over the world, any way they can.

Some on the alien-conspiracy wing of the political lunatic fringe are already reading real-world messages into V’s tale of spaceships and sexy space aliens, as personified — embodied, if you will — by Anna, played with a wry nudge-and-a-wink by Brazilian-born actress Morena Baccarin.

Anna and her kind, the theory goes, are a metaphor for President Barack Obama and his inner circle of toadies, Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod, who, as we all know, are actually lizard people in disguise, bent on forcing their neo-socialist agenda on the world. We know this, because a certain U.S. cable-news network, known for its fairness and balance, says so.

Never mind that V is supposed to be fiction. It’s about a heroic TV journalist; how could it not be fiction?

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and that may be reptilian blood you draw.

V is a thinly disguised warning about the Obama administration, right?

“Look, there are always going to be people who will look for agendas in everything,” V producer Jeffrey Bell said this past summer, when broached with the subject.

“This show was conceived during the Bush administration. It was made during an Obama administration. There are people on either side who will find things. You can say, ‘Look how stupid these people are for following blindly and believing everything the government is saying.’ Then there are others who will say, ‘Look at these people who are promising everything with no price; they are leading them to their own doom.’ We want to get people to show up and watch V and talk about it. But to tie it to the Birthers or anything is kind of, you know, ridiculous.”

Deniability is plausibility, right?

“You’re not listening to me!”

Seriously, though, V packs a powerful punch, message-wise. Is that not true?

“Look, how this works politically is fun for people to talk about, but all we’re trying to do is tell really exciting, entertaining, emotional stories.

“Seriously, there is a wish-fulfillment element to it. If (all their promises) came true, you would be really excited, wouldn’t you? And then, if it turned out that you were one of the two or three people who knew more than anybody else, you might seem crazy.”

If V is about anything other than spaceships and outer-space aliens making outlandish promises, V creator Scott Peters added, it’s blind faith.

“When we originally conceived the show, I opened up and broadened the theme to be about blind devotion,” Peters explained. “What happens when you don’t ask questions about the things you believe in? I think that can be applied across the board, whether you’re talking about a political issue or a religious issue or a relationship issue.”

No one in V has yet to say, ‘Take me to your leader.’ That may come later.

by Matthew Gilbert

Like some of the best sci-fi, ABC’s “V’’ is bursting with allegorical possibility. The alien “Visitors’’ who come to Earth appear as attractive GQ models, and they try to seduce us into cult-like devotion to them. They promote peace and prosperity, glowing with the tranquillity of the “after’’ photos on antidepressant ads. They’re particularly interested in appealing to teenagers, as their ships hover over the cities of the world like ultimate video games. Among the Visitors’ promises: “Complete medical services to all’’ – yup, universal health care… <Read the full article>

V Series Premiere: Instant Edification

by nymag.com

Is there anything more exciting than a sci-fi reimagining? You get all the tingly nostalgia of a beloved show from your youth (Battlestar Galactica), but souped-up with slick effects, superior acting, and all-grown-up allegorical resonances (Battlestar Galactica). You can have your nerdcake and eat it, too! <Read the full article>

V Premiere: V is for Awesome

by Paul Secrest

2009 continues to be a banner year for ABC as they attract fans of intelligent sci-fi in droves; first with FlashForward, and now the premiere of V, a twisty, menacing, and multi-layered thriller that takes key ingredients from the classic 1983 miniseries of the same name and gives them the Battlestar Galactica treatment– that is to say removes the cheese factor, throws in a dash of political allegory, and haunts the entire series with a sense of “any character could actually be an evil alien” paranoia. But while BSG’s Cylons came after humanity with a chip on their shoulder and a whole crap ton of nukes, V’s “Visitors” are taking a more subtly sinister approach. <Read the full article>

Thoughts on new V pilot

by nerdblog

It could be the power of nostalgia, but I didn’t find the new pilot for “V” to be as intense or as creepy as the original. ”V” is a new ABC series detailing aliens who come to earth, professing peace, but with a dark secret. Spoilers ahead as in this review of last night’s episode. <Read the full article>

V pilot episode review

by Ron Hogan

Ron checks out the first episode of the new take on V – and it’s one impressive opening…

Published on Nov 4, 2009

Wow. Just… wow. You know how some programs start off kind of slow and kind of ease you into the plot? Well, V doesn’t do that. In fact, I can honestly say I haven’t been this excited about a TV show, or this willing to sing its praises, since the premier of Deadwood (which I spent weeks annoying friends and family about). So, what’s the set-up? <Read the full article>

ABC’s ‘V’ review: Definitely worth visiting with the Visitors

by Jennifer Thomas

The effect of the giant talking head of the lead Visitor, Anna, still isn’t working for me, but the “V” pilot definitely did. The cast is impressive, the effects fairly special (and loads better than the hideously funny effects in the original miniseries and TV show) and they’ve got an intriguing premise. My one worry is, did they give away too much? I don’t usually advocate for a two-hour season premiere, but “V” could have used one. <Read the full article>

Other Articles

EXCLUSIVE: ‘V’ Star Elizabeth Mitchell Dispels Rumors of Show Being Retooled

by Bryan Reesman

Many sci-fi fans were ecstatic at the arrival of ‘V‘ last week — it became the biggest scripted debut pilot of the fall season — even as some hardcore fans from back in the day were cringing at what the reboot will bring. <Read the full article>

ABC’s ‘V’ brings political message from space

by Curt Wagner

Those viewers who think sci-fi can’t offer any kind of commentary on real-life events should tune in to this remake of the cheesy 1983 sci-fi mini-series.

In it, a charismatic leader offers a message of hope for a better future to a world that’s been dealing with wars, economic troubles and other woes. Most citizens of the world adore the newcomer, and the news media fails to ask tough questions about how this leader will solve all of our problems.

Sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? <Read full article>

by A. Jarrell Hayes

V is for vision.

Well, ABC’s new series V is a remake of the 1983 – 1985 TV series of the same title about aliens and the populace’s surrendering of civil liberties due to eloquent rhetoric from governing bodies and the aliens. There’s not much original “vision” involved in a remake. But what’s interesting is that the issues that the original series brought up over 20 years ago are still prevalent today. One of the question the series asks viewers is what are you willing to give up in order to experience the sensation of peace and safety? The previous presidential administration (the George W. Bush years) answered that question for us (too much). The other question the series asks is what are you willing to do to right the wrong? The founding fathers had in mind when they drafted and ratified our Constitution that there might be a time when the citizens of the nation would have to raise arms against an oppressive government. I’m referring to our right to bare arms. Early in the series we find out that the aliens aren’t all they claim to be, and that has a group of humans pretty pissed off. And they’re going to do something about it… (Read the full article)

V: The Pilot—The Review

Michael Wolff STARLOG® REVIEWS

Back in 2003, Ronald Moore and David Eick beat the odds when they took Glenn Larson’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA television series and breathed new life into it. To the surprise of a great many people, their efforts trapped lightning in a bottle.

Now, Scott Peters, Jace Hall, Steve Pearlman and Jeffrey Bell are attempting to perform the very same miracle with Kenneth Johnson’s 1983 V franchise. As with GALACTICA, V had its followers and detractors. And, as with that former series, the question arises as to what the people responsible for this revival on ABC will do to tweak and update the concept…. (Read full article)

‘V’ mainly victorious: ABC’s modern take on a classic mini-series

by Sean Fabery

In recent years, television has known no shortage of serialized sci-fi dramas—from “Battlestar Galactica” to “Lost,” networks have tried time and time again to capitalize on the trend, not always succeeding (remember “Surface” or “Invasion?”). ABC has added yet another entrant to the genre with Tuesday’s debut of “V,” a remake (“reimagining” in television parlance) of the classic 1983 miniseries… (Read full article)

V is for ?

by Lexington TV Examiner/Jerome Wetzel

The pilot for ABC’s new V was vexing.  I say that, because it was impossible to tell if the series is going to be any good or not.  Pilots can often be decieving, and this one puzzled me.  I am not a fan of the original version, so I can’t compare, only write about impressions from the one hour that ABC aired Tuesday… (Read full article)